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I have listed below my goals first in order of my areas of primary responsibility (APR) as Vice President during the last 4 years followed by more general goals in other areas:
1) Finance (APR)
During the 4 years of this Executive Committee (now Board of Directors) we have reduced the relative financial dependence of our federation on Olympic funding from approximately 68 % of the total to 56 %. This was done almost entirely by increasing sponsorship income. In the next 4 years one of my goals is to reduce that dependence much further through increased sponsorship income and merchandising.
2) Governance (APR)
A great deal has been done in the area of governance over the last 4 years and a great deal remains to be done. A list of what has been done in the last 4 years was published. One of my goals is to make World Sailing a leader in good governance amongst the Olympic sports.
3) Para Sailing (APR)
One of our greatest disappointments has been the removal of sailing from the 2020 Paralympics in 2015 a mere 2 months after World Sailing merged with the IFDS. Returning sailing to the Paralympics is of paramount importance and no effort should be spared in achieving that goal. Every aspect of para sailing should continue to be analysed: equipment, regional qualification for the Paralympics, format and increasing parcticpating nations.
4) Administration (APR)
In the past World Sailing has always been run on the basis of a one year budget. I believe this is a very misleading way to view our federation. As long as the Olympics are our major paymaster we should have 4 year budgets to coincide with the Olympic cycle to better plan for the future of our sport and our federation.
5) Olympic Games
As an original member of the ISAF Olympic Commission I was determined that all young sailors should have a clear pathway to the Olympics and at least 8 year certainty as far as Olympic equipment and events are concerned. Although I still believe that should be our primary goal we must be prepared to be flexible if circumstances and the IOC require it.
6) A federation for all disciplines and areas of our sport
When I first joined ISAF as a volunteer almost 20 years ago the federation was about Olympic sailing and little else. Since then I was instrumental in getting more sailing in regional games (convinced the Commonwealth Games to add sailing as an optional sport) and negotiated the merger with the IFDS to bring para-sailing into the federation. We still have very little involvement with other areas of our sport such as offshore sailing. We should make every effort to include those areas through WS sponsored pinnacle events.
7) Sailing World Cup (SWC)
Perfecting the SWC has been the greatest challenge of the last 4 years. During the next 4 years we should make every effort to make the SWC an attractive property for competitors, potential sponsors and organizers.
8) Conclusion
Finally my goal is to be much less involved with the day to day running of WS as circumstances required me to be in the recent past. In my personal experience Directors of entities such as WS should be more concerned with the strategic medium and long term objectives than with the day to day running of the entity to achieve those objectives; that is the Chief Executive's job.
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