President’s 13th Letter - 12/07/2019

Dear friends,

You the Members gave the EUROSAF Executive Board a poke in Istanbul during the last General Assembly, asking us to work towards defining and promoting a better integration of EUROSAF into World Sailing (WS). The current Governance Reform Proposal, open for consultation, directly mentions a possible role for Continental Associations (CAs) in the proposed new WS structure.
 
Without going into the merits or otherwise of the Proposal, the EUROSAF Executive Board feels these mentions in pages 28 and 29 of the Proposal are an opportunity to establish a useful role for CAs in the new structure, if adopted. Clearly, CAs are well equipped to select Continental representatives in the Olympic Council, taking into consideration all requirements in terms of non-repeatability of MNAs, gender equity, non Olympic participation yet, and even the view, clearly mentioned in the survey and open to discussion, that the representative is an MNA in its own right from the CA, not a representative of its CA.
 
Thus, the EUROSAF Executive Board pokes you back with your own stick. In your comments to the Proposal in the survey or by sending an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Independent Chair of the WS Governance Commission, defend such a motion in the relevant comments of point 4.5.3.

Furthermore, there is a matter in the Proposal the EUROSAF Executive Board fails to grasp. Why are there six Continents represented in the Olympic Council when IOC recognizes five? The EUROSAF Executive Board urges you to give it a thought and to express your opinion if you feel this represents an Olympic inconsistency and an imbalance in Continental representation.
 
Looking forward to your fruitful contribution towards defining meaningful roles for CAs in WS, I wish you a wonderful sailing summer. 

Best regards,

 

Josep M. PLA
President
EUROSAF