Showing posts with label democratic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label democratic. Show all posts

Wednesday, 23 October 2024

Nominations are needed for 2024 AGM.

Colin Webster is the current MSSA president, and past IESF president. Only when there is an active committee are the rights of all athletes protected.

Mind Sports South Africa's elections are fast approaching. MSSA is the only South African national federation that allows an athlete to be elected onto its Board as well as allowing a fast, and direct, path for administrators while cutting out 'dead-men's shoes'.

All elections are done on a staggered basis. The system of doing the elections on a staggered basis allows MSSA to have a greater degree of stability as the entire Management Board is not able to be elected at any one time which preserves MSSA's continuity and knowledge base.

An interesting aspect of the 2024 Annual General Meeting is that there are 5 positions that are available for election on the Executive and Management Board. Where positions are vacant, the newly elected Board will co-opt Registered Players to the position. A co-opted Registered Player only serves out one year in the position in which he/she is co-opted and resigns prior to the General Meeting.

As everyone already knows, the MSSA is a democratic organisation, where only decisions of the committee that are enforced, and never the will of any one individual.

All athletes are reminded that only affiliated clubs may nominate players who are registered and fully-paid-up for positions on any of the committee.
  • A member club nominates the Registered Player on the prescribed form, and
  • The Nomination Form has been submitted to MSSA on or before 1 November 2024, and
  • The Registered Player is fully-paid-up for the 2024/2025 year as at the date of nomination, and
  • The club nominating the Registered Player has paid its affiliation fees for the 2024/2025 season on or before 1 November 2025.
However it should be noted that only persons who meet the following criteria may be elected on to the Management Board:
  1. Have served a full term on the Management Board, or
  2. Have served a full term as Provincial Director, or
  3. Have served two full terms as Regional Director, or
  4. Have served two full terms on a Board of Control, or
  5. Have earned at least ten (10) Protea caps, or
  6. Have served three years on the club committee of which they are currently a member.
  7. Be resident in South Africa for at least 186 days of the Calendar Year. Should such terms of residency not be met, such Elected Member shall be automatically removed and such position be declared vacant, and
  8. Only persons who have completed a full term on the Management Board may stand for the position of President.
The positions up for election are (3 year terms):
  1. President
  2. One Executive Officers
  3. Women's Desk
  4. Card-Gaming Representative
  5. National School's Director (This position must be held by an Educator)
The following Provincial Directorships are also available (2 year terms):
  1. Eastern Cape
  2. Free State
  3. Gauteng
  4. KwaZulu Natal
  5. Limpopo
  6. Mpumalanga
  7. Northern Cape
  8. North West
  9. Western Cape
All the following 56 Regional Directorships are also available for election (1 year term).

Thus the 2024 elections will be more than interesting.

There is no doubt that the committee has worked well over the past number of years, and it will indeed be interesting to again see democracy at work.

A breakdown of the positions on the Executive Committee and Management Board are as follows:

ELECTION OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
PRESIDENT:To be elected in 2024 - Incumbent Colin Webster (Old Edwardian Mind Sports Club)
VICE PRESIDENTTo be elected in 2026- Incumbent Johan Van Breda (ZAG Academy)
EXECUTIVE OFFICERS (4 out of 5 available positions)1 x to be elected in 2024
2 x to be elected in 2025
2 x to be elected in 2026 - 1 incumbent Letladi Lekolwane (Tuks Esports)
GENERAL SECRETARYTo be elected in 2025
ELECTION OF THE MANAGEMENT BOARD
WOMENS’ DESK:To be elected in 2024
BOARD-GAMING REPRESENTATIVE:To be elected in 2025
CARD-GAMING REPRESENTATIVE:To be elected in 2024
COMPUTER:-GAMING REPRESSENTATIVE:To be elected in 2026 - Incumbent Simon Zandstra (ZAG Academy)
FIGURE-GAMING REPRESENTATIVE:To be elected in 2026 - Incumbent Terence Allwright (Old Edwardian Mind Sports Club)
NATIONAL SCHOOLS DIRECTOR:To be elected in 2024
LEGAL ADVISORTo be elected in 2025
PLAYERS’ REPRESENTATIVETo be elected in 2026 - Incumbent Armand van der Colf (TuksEsports)
STUDENTS REPRESENTATIVETo be elected in 2026 - Incumbent Saudah Baimia (Knights Mind Sports Club)
DISABLED GAMER'S REPRESENTATIVETo be elected in 2026- Incumbent Sjoert Zandstra (ZAG Academy)

Additional reading:

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Tuesday, 10 September 2019

Preventing dominance by any one club.

MSSA's President, Amanda Kwaza, experiencing VR at GEES. Amanda is vigilent in defending MSSA's Constitution.
A number of Registered players and member clubs from time-to-time express the fear that due to the democratic nature of Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA), that a cabal of only one or two clubs will be able to dominate the Management Board.

It is highly unlikely that any one club will dominate MSSA’s Management Board because every member club that is fully-paid-up is not only able to propose candidates for election, but are also able to vote to decide which candidate is elected.

Voting at a General Meeting is done by representation. A non school club receives one (1) vote for every five (5) paid up registered players, and school clubs receive one (1) vote for every ten (10) paid up registered players.

However, should any member club manage to get a greater amount of representation on the Management Board, it could be attributed to either the candidates being more popular, more competent, and/or more willing to take on the duties of office.

It should be noted though, that the Constitution also has a mechanism built into it to prevent any one club from gaining control over MSSA.

The mechanism is:

“Rule 9.7 No member shall be allowed to have more than 40% representation on the Management Board if other members have delegates who are standing for the available positions.”

MSSA’s Management Board has 18 positions. The 40% limit means that no club may have more than 8 members on the Management Board if other clubs have candidates standing for the Management Board.

It is in every member club’s best interests to ensure that no one club has too much representation on the Management Board. Too much representation by any one member club may lead to a clique on the Management Board which in turn may push the member club’s interests more than the interests of MSSA.

Also read:
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Saturday, 7 September 2019

MSSA elections allow change and growth.

Amanda Pakade (in red) has, as MSSA President, ensured the democratic functioning of MSSA.
Mind Sports South Africa's elections are fast approaching. MSSA is the only South African national federation that allows an athlete to be elected onto its Board as well as allowing a fast, and direct, path for administrators while cutting out 'dead-men's shoes'.

 All elections are done on a staggered basis. The system of doing the elections on a staggered basis allows MSSA to have a greater degree of stability as the entire Management Board is not able to be elected at any one time which preserves MSSA's continuity and knowledge base.


It is an ongoing policy for Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) to make this type of early announcement in order to help member clubs and Registered Players prepare themselves.

An interesting aspect of the 2019 Annual General Meeting is that there are 12 positions that are available for election on the Management Board. This means that the majority of the positions are available which could mean that the MSSA may present a very different committee to what it has done in the past.

As everyone already knows, the MSSA is a democratic organisation, where only decisions of the committee that are enforced, and never the will of any one individual.

The 2019 elections may thus prove to be a watershed for all of the disciplines within the MSSA as well as for MSSA itself.

All athletes are reminded that only affiliated clubs may nominate players who are registered and fully-paid-up for positions on any of the committee.
  • A member club nominates the Registered Player on the prescribed
    form, and
  • The Nomination Form has been submitted to MSSA on or before 1 November 2019, and
  • The Registered Player is fully-paid-up for the 2019/2020 year as at the date of nomination, and
  • The club nominating the Registered Player has paid its affiliation fees for the 2019/2020 season on or before 1 November 2019.
However it should be noted that only persons who meet the following criteria may be elected on to the Management Board:

  1. Have served a full term on the Management Board, or
  2. Have served a full term as Provincial Director, or
  3. Have served two full terms as Regional Director, or
  4. Have served two full terms on a Board of Control, or
  5. Have earned at least ten (10) Protea caps, or
  6. Have served three years on the club committee of which they are currently a member.

The positions up for election are (3 year terms):

  1. Vice- President
  2. Two Executive Officers 
  3. General Secretary
  4. Disabled Gamers' Representative
  5. Legal Advisor (only a qualified lawyer may hold this position)
  6. National Schools' Director (only an Educator may hold this position)
  7. Disabled Gamers’ Representative
  8. Womens’ Representative (only a female may hold this position)
  9. Wargames Representative
  10. Card Gaming Representative
  11. Board Gaming Representative
Positions not eligible for election in 2019 are:
  1. President
  2. Three Executive Officers
  3. Esports Representative
  4. Figure Gaming representative
The following Provincial Directorships are also available (2 year terms):
  1. Eastern Cape
  2. Free State
  3. Gauteng
  4. KwaZulu Natal
  5. Limpopo
  6. Mpumalanga
  7. Northern Cape
  8. North West
  9. Western Cape
All the following 56 Regional Directorships are also available for election (1 year term).

Thus the 2019 elections will be more than interesting.

Never before have so many positions become available at the same time.

There is no doubt that the committee has worked well over the past number of years, and it will indeed be interesting to again see democracy at work.
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Friday, 26 May 2017

Why do sports need governing bodies?

Maryke 'Ykie' Kennard takinng the Athletes' Oath at
IeSF's 2015 World Championships - Seoul.
Often outsiders question the roles and overall purposes of why sports need governing bodies. To the competitive athlete, the answer is clear, but to those who have not been directly involved in sport, the answer may be unclear.

The reasons why the answers may be unclear is that the roles and responsibilities of national and international federations are complex. Both national and international federations, at times, may face conflicting interests which must be handled within a democratic system unlike the more autocratic system employed by private (and public) companies.

It is through the democratic system that allows any registered athlete to assume positions on the various committees. Officers are not hand-picked, but instead rely on the support from the voting members to attain office.

As such, all national and international federations have a constitutional base which is policed by its own membership.

The national and international federations of sport also create the interest, development, and expansion of sport on a grassroots level. It is through the national and international federations efforts that the recognition of sport is promoted.

Without Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) having been accredited in 1991, it is doubtful that boardgaming, esports, and wargames would have the accreditation that it now enjoys. In fact perhaps every private competition in South Africa would also not exist. TELKOM emulated MSSA’s league which ran from 2005 to 2008 when they started their own league in 2008. Players like Barry ‘Anthrax’ Louzada represented South Africa in MSSA National teams in both 2007 and 2013 before starting his own privately owned event.

In short, only national and international federations would take on the responsibilities of development, creating interest, and promotion of the sport without the prospect of immediate financial gain.

The national and international federations also balance the interests of those that want to gain from the commercial interests of sport as such national and international federations safeguard the sport from outside interests, whether such interests are political or commercial. It is only national and international federations that truly look after the interests of the athlete, as without having a driving commercial interest in the sport, such federations are more centred on the promotion ad well-being of the athlete as opposed to crass financial gain. Thus often the national and international federations have to take very tough decisions and walk-away from what, at first, may appear to be lucrative deals.

Thus, only the national and international federations are playing the long-game and take the long-term view in the promotion of sport.
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Thursday, 2 February 2017

So who are really the community leaders?

Decisions being made.
Over the past number of months and years, the general population has witnessed a number of polls and elections. Some have caused outrage by those whose views/candidates did not win. Others have been accepted with quietness and calmness that befits a true democracy.

That is in fact the hallmark of a democracy. You do not always get what you want, but you have to accept the outcome and ensure that there is a peaceful transition of power. Any contestation of results must be done legally and in the proper manner.

Those that take to the streets in violent protest have no real interest in democracy or the rule of law.

Such people often chant that they are the community leaders, but no-one has voted them in, nor do they feel that they are accountable to anyone.

So it is with gaming in South Africa as many individuals protest long and loud that they are community leaders.

However, no-one has voted them in, nor do they feel the need to be accountable.

Instead such 'community leaders' behave as if they were demagogues who demand that others comply with their demands and criticize those that refuse to do so.

Woe betide those who dare to do things differently as such will 'troll' any other opinion, and in my opinion, in a malicious manner, much reminiscent of the 'playground bully'. Yet when confronted for their actions, such individuals are quick to play the victim.

That is the undeniable strength of MSSA, every person on every committee can only be there if due process is followed. Such office -bearers are either there because they have been voted in, or in the case of a vacancy - co-opted.

At elections, it is the majority vote that holds sway.

Thus, those who continually complain are either those who are the disaffected minority who want to enforce their views on the majority, or those who refuse to take part in a democratic process for whatever reason.

MSSA, remains committed with its open-door policy.

MSSA does not bear any grudges against anyone and any club, as long as it meets the constitutional requirements, may affiliate.

Democracy rules in MSSA!
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