Kim Andersen, President of World Sailing, has released his June Newsletter on the status and actions of sailing’s world governing body.
Mr Andersen highlights the hard work of the organisation and the Board appointed Taskforce, with support of the Board, who have succeeded in creating stability for World Sailing going forward.
With actions in place and financial support from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) he says we can continue to develop our sport and deliver our plans and strategies as we get back to our “new normal” coming out of the global lockdown.
In particular he mentions support from the Member National Authorities to use electronic voting for the Annual Conference as a plan B option.
In addition, a Council meeting was held on 24 June (available on YouTube here) to update members on general issues and the financial position of World Sailing going forward.
This was followed by a Townhall meeting for MNAs with other stakeholders as observers on 30 June.
To ensure that all members and the sailing community are up to date with the latest happenings at World Sailing, this month’s newsletter includes the content from the Presidential report from the Council meeting.
Highlights from the Presidential report:
We were working in crisis management mode, but we have now established some certainty around the financial and operational situation going forward.
The lockdown has been tough on all sailors worldwide in all disciplines and levels from youth to professional sailors. Ahead of us we have another unprecedented challenge – organising and managing the “reopening”.
We will need to be flexible and make compromises, but extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures.
Event Activities –
It’s important to get started and rebuild the momentum of our great sport. We need to get our events restarted as well as all the activities at a national and club level. I would urge all our stakeholders to connect and share ideas and best practices for getting back to a “new normal” activity level.
Sailing is considered a low risk sport by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and with World Sailing’s recommendations on how to manage events in this COVID-19 situation available, we are equipped to start up our sport as soon as it is allowed by the local governments.
Financial Situation –
First of all, I think it is important not to mix up the challenges that World Sailing is facing with the misinformation and politics being played by a group who are now using the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic situation to create uncertainties and doubts within our sport worldwide.
The Board together with the SMT had made the possible budget cuts and the last financial challenge we had to overcome was a missing cashflow for the first nine months of 2020 being covered against a loan in the World Sailing Trust.
With the Tokyo Olympic Games being postponed, we asked for and recieved financial support from the IOC.
We are still working on cost optimisations, but we are in a good financial shape going forward.
The target is to reinstate our reserve funds, having executed savings, postponement of investments and received an IOC loan. On this platform we should be able to get the funds intact in the near future.
New Chief Executive Officer –
I am happy to welcome David Graham as World Sailing’s new CEO, a 20-year veteran in the sports industry with exceptional experience within sailing. David will take the helm of our organisation starting on 13 July.
2020 General Assembly –
The written Resolution for the 2020 General Assembly that allows electronic voting at the meeting has been approved.
European Commission closes enquiry in respect of World Sailing –
The European Commission has confirmed to World Sailing that it has closed the enquiry it had opened on the organization following a complaint in 2018 regarding the supply of boats and equipment for the Olympic Games.
ASOIF Governance review feedback: Scoring indicator 2016 – 2020 –
In summary the report received by World Sailing has the following highlights:
- World Sailing’s score has increased from 113 (in 2016) to 158 (in early 2020)
- Transparency, integrity and control have been identified as the biggest area of improvement
- WS is the 7th ranked international federation, placing us securely in the top 10 Olympic IFs
- WS has kept its position as the top IF of Group A2 (Group A2 consists of Sailing, Basketball, Fencing, Table Tennis, Triathlon, Wrestling, Athletics and Taekwondo)
- A number of World Sailing procedures and practices have again been published by ASOIF as best practice examples
Activities aimed at increasing participation during lockdown –
- Sustainability Education Programme launched in partnership with the World Sailing Trust and 11th Hour Racing
- Throughout the COIVD-19 pandemic, sailors worldwide have been able to get their fix by participating in the eSailing World Championship on Virtual Regatta Inshore.
- A series of Webinars have been held by the Training and Development team during the COVID-19 pandemic to help our MNAs grow the sport.
- Our digital media campaign #SailingAllTogether has performed tremendously well with hundreds of sailors submitting their own sailing videos from their archives for World Sailing to share.
Communication –
During the COVID-19 pandemic I have conducted 12 Townhall meeting sessions with MNA Presidents, Council Members, Committee & Commission Chairs and the Olympic Class Associations, plus one Council meeting and a series of conference calls with Committees to keep World Sailing’s members informed.
I can confirm that the “operation” of getting information out to all of our members was a huge success – and we managed keep you all informed with the facts during this unprecedent crisis.
Read the June Presidential Newsletter here . . .
If you have any questions, I urge you to reach out at any time.
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: www.facebook.com/KimAndersenSailing/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/KimAndersen_
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