The morning after the big vote in Qingdao, Athletes’ Commission representative Laura Baldwin reflects on what happened, and what she would like to see happen in the future.
“It was frustrating not being able to speak out directly in the Council Meeting as I left feeling there was more to say in the debate but a lot of the sailors’ views were voiced through certain Council Members. Some Council Members gave very good reasoning behind supporting a reopening of the vote. Others explained how policies tied their hands or expressed fears of greater upset being caused by re-voting. There where some real heroes in the room who stood up against their committees’ wishes (of self interest) to do the best for the sport as a director of ISAF.
All is not lost for Olympic Multihull sailing as there is support to get the Event back in to the Olympic program for 2016. I advise all Multihull sailors to focus their energy and efforts towards lobbying to get the Multihull Event secured for the 2016 Olympic Games.
Encourage your MNA (Member National Authority) and Class Associations to put in submissions for the November 2008 ISAF Annual Meeting, requesting this be decided already in 2009. Efforts should also go towards continuing the Multihull’s participation in the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships. The same is true for the Women’s High-Performance Dinghy Event.
The sailor’s voice is being heard within ISAF. We have a direct channel of communication to the Executive Board in the form of quarterly reports and the Chairmen of each of the Committees are working with us in all the different fields of the sport. We have had input and in fact we were the ones who got the World Cup back on the table at last November’s ISAF Meeting, and we will continue to have a role within the working group for this project. We have also expressed our views regarding the ISAF World Rankings, Race Management, Officials, Equipment and Events so we are definitely moving forward positively. All that remains is to be able to sit at least one representative at the tables in the Committee Meetings and ultimately gain seats on Council.
The Athletes Commission is still relatively new, now eight months and we have had to learn how ISAF operates and how we should best work as a group. It has been important to learn from the sidelines how the Committees and especially how Council works before being thrown straight in at the deep end. The structure and procedures are complicated and it is important to understand how things work first. I think we have a good understanding now and I hope that we will be invited to join the Council soon.
If you would like to voice your opinion you may write to the ISAF Athletes Commission by emailing: isaf.sailors@gmail.com
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