As previously announced on the afternoon of April 30th, the QGBOTA representatives met with Racing Queensland for the first time since the announcement of the new look board. This included the new RQ board Chair, Mr Matt McGrath, board member Mr Gary Heath and Acting CEO Mr Lachlan Murray. This meeting was planned for one hour, however this was generously extended for a second hour of talks.
The QGBOTA set the agenda with three key items that are of high importance to the Queensland Greyhound Industry.
1. Prize Money for lower grades and classes
2. The Q2 305m Track
3. Grading
This was the first time that any Board Chairman has met with industry representatives. He was welcoming, engaging while patiently listening to our issues.
We discussed a lot of information and provided examples on the three topics and will follow up with more information in future meetings. We agreed on the need to triage issues for investigations and work collaboratively to schedule future meetings based on robust long term strategies focused on the future of the Queensland Greyhound code as a whole not just regionally.
The rehoming of greyhounds was not a main focus of today’s talks, however, it was reassuring to learn that Racing Queensland had purchased the Churchable property some time ago, enabling the QLD Greyhound Adoption Program the stability of long term tenancy.
QGBOTA members are frustrated with the complexities of Grading and it was interesting to note that RQ have also been making assessments and planning changes. The RQ board has encouraged the QGBOTA to schedule meetings with the RQ department to work through these issues and discuss their proposals and plans. We ask members with questions, concerns and examples relating to grading be forwarded to the QGBOTA on email qgbota@gmail.com. We will collate this into a package for the future meeting.
We encourage all participants to contact us with any topic or issue for inclusion in our next meeting.
The QGBOTA committee
