Women overrun TASVG’s executive

An unprecedented number of women now make up part of Team Athletics SVG’s executive.{{more}}

The five women were the preferred choices when the local track and field, road races and cross country athletics body held its overdue elections last Saturday at the Xpert Computer Center conference room.

On October 30, 2004, when elections were last staged, four women – Jacintha Ballantyne, Desmarie Greenaway, Aldith Waldron and Vernette Mc Dowald – were on the list of officers, but last Saturday, this was surpassed.

And, three of the women are holding positions on the national association for the first time.

First timers are Andrea David-Latchman, Samantha Goodluck and Debbie Jordan.

David Latchman was elected unopposed as assistant secretary-treasurer, while Goodluck and Jordan are committee members. Goodluck and Jordan were part of a five-way race for the three committee member spots, which also included Alrick Wright, Samantha Lynch and Michael “Lord Have Mercy” Ollivierre.

In the only positions which required the use of ballots, Wright accumulated nine votes, while Goodluck and Jordan had seven apiece. The two unsuccessful persons in the process, Lynch and Ollivierre, gained five and two votes respectively.

The other two females elected were long standing treasurer Jacintha Ballantyne and Rosmund Griffith, who is now the vice president. The duo were elected unopposed. While Ballantyne continues in her post, Griffith is entering a new frontier as she previously served as Team Athletics SVG’s technical director and once held the position of the coaches’ representative on the executive.

Griffith replaces Leroy Llewellyn, who was at the meeting, but was not nominated for any of the positions.

Griffith, in addition to being second in command at TASVG, holds the substantive post of education officer for Physical Education in the Ministry of Education.

Tyrone James, who served briefly, when he was co-opted on the executive as assistant general secretary during 2006 and 2007, is the new general secretary, taking over from Keisha Sutherland.

And as expected, Keith Joseph and Rawlson Morgan were re-elected unopposed. Joseph returns at the helm as president, while the indefatigable Morgan retained his position as games secretary. Prior to last Saturday’s meeting, Theon Gordon was elected as the coaches’ representative and Josh Hamilton, the athletes’ mouthpiece on the executive.

The long-awaited AGM was constitutionally due since 2008, and prior to last Saturday’s convening, there were two other postponements, in October and November. The first meeting was set for October 26, but was postponed because of lack of a quorum, while the second, set for November 23, had to be called off two days prior, because auditor Dougal James would not have been in the state when the AGM was due.

Apart from the election of officers to serve for the next four years, the meeting also heard the executive and treasurer’s reports.

However, the meeting had to waive the voting eligibility, as none of the affiliate clubs were financial, having failed over the years to pay the nominal subscription fee of $100.

The executive will be completed by the technical official representative who will be nominated from the local pool of technical personnel attached to the sport here.

The executive of TASVG has a four-year life. (RT)