Just when it seemed that World Sailing had reached calmer waters, the whole show takes to the Internet again with reports of technical mayhem and inaccurate voting.
The release of the provisional Minutes and Voting Schedule for the controversial Council meeting in November to the members of World Sailing’s Council, has apparently re-opened the debate over who voted for what!
The minutes and voting schedule were immediately leaked to the sailing media – to US journalist Tom Ehman, who published the document on his website SailingIllustrated.com
To read or download the draft minutes click here.
The controversy centres on the vote taken to allow the last minute “urgent submission” by the WS Board, that substituted a Mixed Two Person Keelboat event for the Mixed One Person Dinghy event in the 2024 Olympics.
This substitution would have the effect of removing the Finn dinghy from the 2024 Games
Apparently at least three members of the Council have claimed that their votes were either recorded as “Approve” or as “Abstain” for the controversial issue.
The three members spoke against the Submission and said they voted to “Reject” submission 037-18, the “urgent submission” request.
If that is the case than it would have failed to get the required 75% to allow it to be considered, and the Board’s submission to substitute a Mixed Two Person Keelboat event for the Mixed One Person Dinghy event would have failed.
There were technical problems with the voting pads used by the members to record their votes, and during the various vote attempts members were instructed to re-press their devices when they failed to record their vote.
As no actual record of the vote choice was indicated on the screens at the meeting, just a graphic of the overall results, individuals could not check that their vote had been correctly recorded.
It is only since the distribution of the provisional minutes and the voting matrix that doubts have been raised as to the accuracy of the voting procedure
Following a request by Sailweb to World Sailing for comment or clarification of the voting procedure/result – Communications and Digital Manager Daniel Smith replied:
Just to note – the minutes were distributed to Council for their approval. They have not been published yet.
Please see our comment below:
World Sailing’s Board of Directors will discuss the notifications made by Council members related to voting at the 2018 Annual Conference in Sarasota, Florida during a pre-scheduled conference call on 3 December 2018. World Sailing will comment further following the conference call.
Regards,
Daniel
We await their comment . . . and if there have been technical problems with the voting method, what action is to be taken.
Related Posts:
World Sailing pulls it off!
Offshore Race gets the nod for 2022 Olympics
World Sailing – Strange moves ahead of Olympic decisions
Header with acknowledgement to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865)
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