World Sailing has sent an email to its “members and stakeholders”, which basically means MNA’s and classes, with a survey about their proposed new governance structure. Within the survey they ask all sorts of questions about whether the respondents agree or disagree with the proposed changes. Of course, sailors are not included as part of the respondent group. They want responses within two weeks.
So in other words, WS is asking for input into the proposed governance structure in a form and timeline that can only be answered by MNA staff without any meaningful input from the sailors represented by MNAs. Pretty typical of the way the sport is being run, and ruined, by World Sailing.
How ironic is it that the WS Governance Commission, which purports to be using best practices of good governance, is proposing radical changes to the governance structure with only a two week window to gather feedback from their constituents and calling it good governance. Seems more like OCD level control freak issues and is yet another example of abjectly bad governance.
Most of what World Sailing does has little effect on most sailors, at least directly. Most of Olympic sailing is not important at all to most sailors. The World Cup that WS created is an abject failure, to the point the vast majority of prospective Olympians voted with their feet and did not attend the last event.
But in the greater scheme of the sport, when World Sailing screws up, especially as badly and as ofter as they do, it does reflect poorly on the sport. Racing sailors around the world deserve better than what we are getting from the current Board and staff of World Sailing. And make no mistake, WS Board member the likes of Jobson and Grael are completely complicit in this power grab. You’d think as sailing icons, especially Grael, they’d be screaming bloody murder about the way racing sailors are treated, or better said, mistreated, by WS.
This attempt to tighten control even further by WS over the sport will not end well for anyone if it is allowed to pass. Why else would WS allow only two weeks for comments on a proposal to radically change the governance structure unless they wanted to hide their attempts to gain more control at the expense of racing sailors everywhere?
There is a link to the survey within the email that was sent to me by a member of the WS Council. I thought it be beneficial to review the survey before opining about it, and that I would also include the link so you too could see the questions they ask.
In all probability, this new governance structure will pass. Most MNA’s just do not have the resources to begin to understand everything within it, and most don’t care enough to fight. World Sailing knows this. US Sailing delegates will have deal with Jobson if they vote against it.
World Sailing, under its prior names of ISAF and IYRU, used to be about enabling and providing infrastructure support for the sport. Now, it’s just a regulatory and taxing entity. They get a Gold Medal in pissing off racing sailors around the world.
The solution here in the short term is to try to make sure these changes do not pass. It is on the members of the Council to gather the votes to insure defeat.
The next step is elect a new President. Kim Andersen, like Carlo Croce before him, is an abject failure. Croce started the fire, Andersen has poured gasoline on it. Gerardo Seeliger is running for President. He must be a glutton for punishment, but then again, he’s a Finn sailor, so he knows how to endure pain. He is running on a platform of 1) Governing from the boatpark, 2) transparency/ ethics/values/compliance/ accountability are key principles for the future WS we want to achieve, and 3) Stopping late and urgent submissions, so as to give MNAs time to consult with their constituency, stakeholders and active sailors.
That sounds like Good Governance. – Peter Huston.
