Saint Lucia Olympic Committee Salutation PRESIDENT S REPORT 2015 Executive members of the SLOC Presidents and representatives of the National Federations Before we begin I want to crave your indulgence in a moment of silence for President of PASO Vázquez Raña and Reynaldo González, Executive Secretary for the PASO who passed away earlier in the year. Both gentlemen were committed to the success and development of small NOCs. Could we all stand..thank you. Introduction I am pleased to address you on the state of affairs and outlook of the Saint Lucia Olympic Committee for 2015/2016. As a responsible organization and in keeping with the principles of good governance, the SLOC is happy to deliver this annual account to you our valued membership. Let me say that this year has been recorded as one of the most successful years for the Saint Lucia Olympic Committee. Levern Spencer s Gold medal performance at the Pan American Games and Rochelle Etienne s Bronze medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games are two clear indicators that if we invest in the right areas we will achieve tremendous success. In the last year we have been focused on enhancing the quality of the environment for sport with a particular focus on our elite athletes, the leadership of our national Associations and spreading the values of Olympism, more particularly peace and stability. When you review the Activities Report prepared by the Secretary General you will see the extent of our programming in the attempt to achieve these goals.
In the report you will note that the Olympic Committee provides a measure of support in programming for all of its membership and we attempt to do so as much as possible within the limitations set for us by our funding agencies. Let me however state that while there are limitations on Activities financing, there is no shortage of resources for performing athletes. When I say performers, I am referring to athletes and officials who have come through your development programs and achieved a significant mark in the Caribbean and sub-continental level. Once they are achieving, Olympic Solidarity support is there for them. All we ask of you our members is to program for the development of your sport. As National Federations you have a responsibility to envision and build capacity to enable your sport to take the root that is required. This responsibility of yours can only be achieved with sound partnerships which you must develop. Government, local government organizations, District Youth Councils and community organizations and private sector are critical to the development of your sport. You must develop your networks such that the institutions and those you serve will have the confidence and will to commit to your sport. Governance With respect to Governance of sport, as it stands we do have six members who have not completed the basic requirements for operating as a national Association in this country. Last year on the presentation of the President s report to you ten of our twenty members had headed the call for registration by the Ministry. To date I can report that fourteen of our members have now satisfactorily completed the process of the registration, signaling the commitment of the majority of our members to ensuring conformity to the standards. In the last year we began a process of re orienting the leadership of sports on critical issues of good governance and I trust that those of you who have benefitted from these initiatives have included the good practices leant in programming in your organizations and more so have been sharing the learnings with your membership.
We also recognized the need to harmonize the understanding of planning for sports development and sustainability (catering to all segments of the population and broadening the base of programming). In this regard we introduced our key stakeholders to the Long Term Participant Development concept as well as the concept of Physical Literacy in the hope that you the membership would broaden your perspective, the theories and issues and how to overcome the challenges involved in effectively delivering sports. This has resulted in some significant outcomes and at the moment we do have five associations who are on board with us in developing their plans in this direction (the Associations are Tennis, Football, Netball, Swimming, Golf). We trust that many more of you will come on board as it is only through such systematic planning and cohesion, collaboration that we realize any significant changes, achievements and growth in our sport. The key issues which have emerged from our discourse on the LTAD over the last year relates to integrating our efforts, sharing of knowledge and expertise across sport by critical stakeholders such as coaches and technical personnel, accreditation for coaches. Even capitalizing on the Olympic Day Program and making it a showcase of skills and test of the level of physical literacy of the sporting public. The second phase of this project will take place at the end of January in Canada and our team to the session will comprise delegates from those Associations which would have presented their plans and as well as select members of the small working team which was appointed at the end of the session. Rufina Paul from the SLOC Dr. Vernetta Lesfloris from the Ministry of Education Ces Podd from the St. Lucia Football Association Inc Buzz Erlinger-Ford Anthony Lamontagne, Physical Education Specialist Mary Wilfred, Ministry of Youth Development and Sports
Ministry of Health Two Consultants The SLOC will work with Associations once they identify the priority initiatives under the LTAD to access whatever funding that is available to assist. There are over sixteen program themes offered by Olympic Solidarity and if we are looking to develop our sport in a strategic way we are confident that we can access the resources to assist. With consistency in your planning we can work to extract support under: Sports for All, Sports for the Environment, Women in Sport, Coaches development, Governance, Management. In fact our Women in Sports Commission is active and has established a vision for a culture that creates, supports, and sustains opportunities for girls and women to participate and realize their full potential in all areas of sport for national development. We trust that those working on the LTADs can embrace this, as support to facilitate the development of this vision is readily available. Communication The SLOC attempted to increase communication with you the general membership and the community at large. We piloted our Website and the invited feedback from you the membership has not been as forthcoming as we would like. Although the old adage says no news is good news but we cannot take this for granted as we believe that there is always room for improvement in what is being offered. We also hope in the coming year that we can add additional features and a link to the associations with already established websites. Commonwealth Games It would certainly be remiss of me if I ended without mentioning the Commonwealth Games. As you know Saint Lucia gave up the rights to host the Commonwealth Youth Games citing the inability to secure funding required to prepare the stadium which is currently housing the St. Jude s Hospital. This decision should in no way deter you the members from your goals as the Games of 2017 is still very much on the schedule for an another country. The Commonwealth Games Federation
has issued a request for expressions of interest and we will announce shortly the new host of the event. The compulsory sports are Athletics and Swimming and these two Associations should remain focused on their plans. Of course we do have the legacy of the swimming pool and through UK Sports and the government the further pool of volunteers to serve sports, and we must be open and willing to embrace, support and utilize them in our efforts to develop and grow sport. Preparation for Olympics The Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees through its Broadcasting Corporation has secured a deal from LIME to serve as the service provider for transmitting the Olympic Games in Rio to the CANOC membership via their many platforms. LIME Saint Lucia is currently in discussion with the Saint Lucia Olympic Committee exploring how they can partner with us and we will update you on the developments in that area as time progresses. As we approach Rio 2016 we note that both Levern Spencer and Jeanelle Scheper have qualified and we will spare no effort to support them and others who are committed to qualifying for the Games in Brazil in 2016. We are hoping that Jordan Augier, Stephanie Devaux- Lovell, Makeba Alcide who are all recipients of Olympic Solidarity Awards will qualify for the Games and we will continue to support them in that effort. Governance In the next year we will be revisiting the constitution of the SLOC to ensure that it is consistent with the modern business plan of the SLOC. We are in the process of being incorporated to ensure that our organization can expand to meet the demands of you our membership. This is important as a simple matter of delivering a high performance coach to the Tennis Association has taken an inordinate amount of time. However we have finalized the contract and it is only a matter of time before the coach arrives.
We want to thank the Government of St. Lucia through the Ministry of Sports for making this happen and thank PASO, particularly the late Reynaldo González, for making the funding available. Athletes Commission In the next year we will establish the Athletes Commission. I am pleased to report that we have received the approval of the constitutional provisions and will by the next AGM look to formally establish the Athletes Commission. Award Scheme We have developed an Award Scheme which recognizes the contribution of athletes who deliver medals at Games under the auspices of the SLOC. The award scheme has earned Levern Spencer a gift of $10,000.00 for her achievement of the Gold medal at the Pan Am Games and Rochelle Etienne an Academic Award for her Bronze medal performance at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa. We will be unveiling the full details of this plan in the coming year. Coaches and Technical Development We recognize the limitations that you have in funding talent Identification and coaching development initiatives and as such we have submitted a proposal for consideration to a corporate entity to support talent id programs and coaches development across the country. We will be working with the CANOC on the issue of certification and accreditation for coaches and we will be attempting to progress this in the coming year. Commonwealth Sports Support We recognize that we do have members who cannot benefit much from Olympic Solidarity but through the Commonwealth Games Federation there is a source of funding currently available to assist with preparations for the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia in 2018. We urge the Commonwealth Sports of Netball, Rugby, Squash to present their plans if they are
confident that they can meet the qualifying mark for participation in the Games. We note that Netball is currently ranked 18 th in the world and a real opportunity exists under the Commonwealth Games Funds to assist Saint Lucia in its quest to qualify for the Games. Building We will be continuing our efforts at finding a home for the SLOC. We attempted to purchase but this fell through due to tragic circumstances that befell the property owner. We have a small team under the leadership of our former president - Richard Peterkin - to undertake that responsibility and we will be working in the next year to bring this dream of ours closer to reality. As a parent body we need to have the facilities to facilitate you our membership. We need Conference rooms, video rooms, training equipment, a museum to house all the memorabilia and important Olympic material that is available and will contribute to the promotion of the Olympic Values education. Our current location cannot afford that. Audit We are pleased to inform you that we have been selected for an audit by the International Olympic Committee and we very much look forward to the assessment by the IOC on our systems as we are very confident that our system will stand the test of their scrutiny. Richard Peterkin, the IOC Member resident in Saint Lucia, is now a member of the IOC Commissions for Marketing and Women in Sport. In addition, he continues to assist Olympic Solidarity as a financial and governance expert on their annual visits to selected NOCs in the Americas. Conclusion We certainly thank the membership for the support over the last year and as we move into the next year we trust that we can continue to work harmoniously with you our members and in fact all stakeholders to ensure that we achieve our goal of delivering athletes on the podium for sustainable global recognition of Saint Lucia.
We must say a special thanks to our Secretary General and our Administrative Assistant who continue to stay on top of the systems for us. As we look to expand the work of the SLOC we have recognized the need for increased and additional professional staff and in the next year we will be working with Olympic Solidarity to see how best we achieve that support to facilitate you our membership as we continue to grow and expand our organization. Let me express my appreciation to the members of the Executive Board of the SLOC who continue to contribute significantly to the development of this organization. Every scheduled meeting of the SLOC EB materialized in the last year and we meet monthly as an organization. Let me thank you all again for your attendance and support over the last year and I look forward to the deliberations. Fortuna Belrose President