Constitutional Reform is on the Agenda of the Amateur Swimming Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ASATT). At ASATT's Annual General Meeting in November 2021, the re-elected ASATT President Lindsay Gillette acknowledged the discontent and consternation by a segment of the fraternity to aspects of our governance and committed in this term of office to address constitutional reform.
This has manifested in action by its inclusion on the agenda of the first council meeting of the Gillette-led administration. This is a welcome action as the aquatic fraternity needs to have a framework of governance for its stakeholders. Congratulations to ASATT for initiating this process and hopes more success comes from this than the three efforts prior from 2013 to 2021. The clarion call for constitutional reform should not only arise when administrations take more than their one-year constitutional limit, but its review should be an agenda item on a biennial to quadrennial basis.
The following identifies three suggested matters that must be addressed in the constitution.
1. Term of Office
Article 10 of the ASATT Constitution provides “The Annual General Meeting shall be held in September in every year at such time and place as may be designated by the Council.”
An election of an executive every year has resulted in undue conflict as soon as the anniversary of the election arrives and is counterproductive to continuity and long-term planning in ASATT. While it is unconstitutional that every administration since 2010 has exceeded the term limit, it is impractical for the term to be anything less than two years. At the next election due this year, it is suggested that the next term takes us to 2024 following the Olympics, and four-year terms thereafter.
2. Implementation of Board of Directors
“Article 6 of the ASATT Constitution states “The affairs of the Association shall be managed by Council. The Council shall consist of all elected Officers of the Association and one (1) Delegate nominated in writing by each Ordinary Member.”
The Association has 25 ordinary members and eight officers. The eight officers are casually called “the executive.” Yet, in reality, “the executive” has no collective power to make decisions on its own without the ordinary members. This has not stopped each “executive” from making decisions without the knowledge and blessing of the Ordinary Members.
It is unreasonable for an executive member to have assigned duties with no power to make decisions within a framework. It is also cumbersome for thirty-three persons in an Association of a few hundred athletes to have a say on every decision within the Association. There needs to be a Board of Directors who have defined powers to make decisions individually and collectively. The Council should make constitutional decisions or other material decisions. For example, the council could make decisions on financial matters over a certain threshold, or the Council may have to decide if Trinidad and Tobago is to host international games.
The Board of Directors should contain an array of talent that can develop all aspects of aquatics. While the usual responsibilities of Finance, Technical and Marketing should have representation, athlete representation and development of other aquatic sports should have a voice on the Board. We cannot continue to ignore the development of diving and artistic swimming which fall under the purview of ASATT.
The Board is driven by Committees of qualified individuals who come from groups such as parents, technical officials, current and retired athletes and coaches, club administrators and sports management professionals.
3. Fixing the Membership Dilemma
The Road March at ASATT Election Season is “Ghost Clubs.” These are clubs that do not actively participate in any ASATT meets and events with their hibernation period being from AGM to AGM. They have no registered athletes for years on end and have not paid athlete registration fees for years.
No reasonable human could agree that a club that has zero swimmers and has paid zero athlete registration fees should have two votes, while a club with twenty paid athletes should have two votes. This is unfair and illogical. ASATT's constitution states club must maintain 10 Active Competitive Swimmers. ASATT's perennial failure to enforce not only perverts the electoral process but also results in council meetings frequently lacking a quorum which is 50% of the ordinary members and officers. For example, if five officers attend a meeting it means only eleven of the twenty-five clubs need to attend for it to be quorate. These ghost clubs have no demonstrated interest in aquatic sports.
The institution of the Board structure as previously illustrated will assist with minimising the wastage of time, gas and loss income created by aborted meetings. However, the failure to address the ghost clubs also affects the electoral process. A suggestion for implementation is:
*Any club that has not participated in ASATT competitions for the last five years is removed from the ASATT club register
*ASATT competitions are developed for all aquatic sports and Masters athletes, so clubs would have a fair opportunity to be constitutional
*Membership should be based on Competitive Athletes, not Swimmers. This will ensure a space for our other aquatic sports
*ASATT should consider voting rights on a tiered basis relative to the number of active competitive athletes. For example:
*1 - 5 athletes*one vote
*6 - 20 athletes*two votes
*21 - 49 athletes*three votes
*Fifty plus*four votes
As an organisation that enforces rules on athletes, we should also have a robust governance framework that we enforce on ourselves. We cannot continue to be comfortable with our compliance with unconstitutionality. With FINA Olympic programme now hinged on our governance, it is hoped that the current constitutional reform process bears fruit to the benefit of all athletes and stakeholders.
