Dear friends,
Six weeks have passed since we last met in Sofia for the EUROSAF AGM. During this time we, at the Executive Board, have taken the helm of EUROSAF and started to sail. Let me highlight the first lap.
On the administrative front, the Secretary General has sent all EUROSAF MNAs the minutes of all the meetings held in Sofia. We are now finalising the 2017 budget, which we will circulate for approval in the following days. It will be a conservative budget, designed with continuity in mind, as we do not expect to bring in relevant changes in EUROSAF’s finances until next year’s budget.
Concerning EUROSAF Committees, we will shortly circulate their Terms of Reference and ask all EUROSAF MNAs to submit relevant candidates. We expect the Committees to be a driving force behind EUROSAF’s projects. Therefore we want to populate them with expert, willing, and team-spirited members.
We have designed the Terms of Reference of each Committee and Working Party with a long-term view, represented by their goals, and a mid term-view, with clearly defined objectives. By way of their responsibilities, we have provided the Committees with a wide-ranging array of means to achieve both their objectives and their goals. We have also created a direct link between them and the Executive Board to support their activity: two dedicated Executive Board Members will liaise with each Committee’s Chair and Vice-Chair. I count on the Committees to provide EUROSAF with relevant, inspiring projects that make the most of EUROSAF MNAs capacity to cooperate and exchange.
Our responsibility, at the Executive Board, shall be to foster these projects and make them thrive.
Please be ready to push your MNA to contribute expert, willing, and team-spirited members to EUROSAF Committees!
The Legal Committee deserves a special mention. We have entrusted it with what I consider a task of the highest significance. Its almost exclusive duty for this year shall be to fulfil the General Assembly’s instruction to launch a review of the new Constitution, taking into consideration the different views that EUROSAF MNAs may have on the answers it provides to institutional questions.
Of course many things are still to be put in motion. I am confident that, with its dedicated Executive Board, EUROSAF shall sail steady.
I take the opportunity to invite those of you who will be in Singapore for World Sailing’s Mid Year Meeting to attend an informal meeting with present Executive Board members and me. You will thus have the opportunity to receive further updates and to exchange directly with us.
Please make time to attend the informal meeting that will take place by late morning on Saturday, May 6th (exact time and place TBA).
I look forward to your questions and comments and, for those of you present in Singapore, to meeting you there.
Best regards,
Josep M. PLA
President
EUROSAF