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GLOBAL SNOOKER NEWS |
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| CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT |
20 AUGUST 2004 |
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Dear Member,
I consider it a great privilege to have been elected as Chairman of our Association and would like thank everyone for the support they have given me through the election process and encouragement during these early days of my Chairmanship of the Association.
In being elected chairman of the European Billiards & Snooker Referees Association, I met with the board immediately following the Annual General Meeting and held discussions with the Executive Officers to agree the proposed way forward for the Association. I now wish to share my vision for the European Billiards & Snooker Referees Association for the next two years with you.
The Association has been through a difficult period and one thing which has been highlighted is that effective communication must be developed in order for the Association to remain vibrant and healthy. With such a large membership in 21 different countries, this task is not always easy to ensure that communications get to the right people. This is the first priority that I wish to address with the Board. By achieving this aim, we will move away from being exclusive and the Association will become inclusive with everyone being involved and informed.
Effective communication and organisation has to start at the top of the Association. I expect the elected board members to play a very active part in the work of the Association. They are elected to represent you, the members. I am keen to raise the standards of board and its accountability to members. I will do this in two ways. Firstly, I hope that to provide professional leadership to the board, being honest and transparent throughout my time as Chairman. Secondly, I hope to empower and support the officers to do their work effectively as your elected representatives.
I anticipate an effective communication strategy will be developed over the course of the two years. A two-way process of communication is extremely important and I will ensure that this takes place as much as possible. In order to improve communication, I intend to open-up the workings of the board. This will mean that a report from every board meeting will be circulated to all member countries. Comments on this report will be invited and discussed at subsequent meetings of the board.
We can only develop the Association by bringing it up to date and making it relevant to the snooker market today. To do this, we will need to review the organisation and this should start with the constitution. The constitution controls the Association and needs to reflect members’ interests. I do not believe it adequately addresses the need of our Association today. I hope to start a consultation process with all members over the coming months, to look at the constitution.
This will be a review as any proposed changes to the constitution will need to be approved at the Annual General Meeting. By undertaking exercises such as this, we will be able to determine proper guidelines on consultation. In the longer term it will help us to develop and work more closely and effectively with European Billiards & Snooker Association. My Vice-Chairman, Maxime Cassis will prove a pivotal link between both organisations in this respect.
I am extremely conscious of the amount of time and effort tutors and examiners give through the work they undertake on behalf of the Association, and strongly believe that we need to offer more effective support to our tutors and examiners. I intend to address this through reviewing and improving the tutor/examiner seminar. This will result in the seminars being updated to cover additional and new items, additional speakers, and a greater chance for participants to share their experiences and concerns.
The board will meet early next month and this will be a major item for discussion. I shall then write to all members shortly after that meeting with further details of the seminar which will take place in January 2005.
The standard of refereeing has greatly improved at all levels of the sport and I intend to continue to raise the standards of refereeing. One way of achieving this will be support referees attending European and international events. I will work with host countries to ensure refereeing issues are addressed well in advance, and will try to ensure that at least one of the executive officers of the Association attends every European event to attend (and chair) the referees briefing meeting. These meetings will be developed to include areas such as deportment and presentation as well as areas such as electronic scoring systems.
It is hoped that by doing this we will improve the “complete refereeing experience” and assist in removing some of the “apprehension and concerns” referees encounter when they attend European and international events for the first time. Another way of raising the standards will be to develop an assessment programme for referees attending these events. This assessment system will be used to support and offer advice to referees and I hope to report further on this in coming months.
Finally, it is important that the Association develops communications and build relationships with external organisations such as World Snooker/IBSF and other refereeing organisations. Again, this is an ongoing priority of our Association and one which will be addressed at every possible opportunity.
I, along with all the members of my board, are prepared listen not only to the concerns of ALL members but also to ideas and suggestions that will help to develop and move our Association forward.
I look forward to an enjoyable and productive two years with the Association and look forward to meeting as many referees and governing body representatives as possible during the course of my chairmanship.
With sincerest best wishes in sport
Simon Smith Chairman |
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RESOURCES |
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For
those of you who have not had the opportunity to meet me, or do not know
me, my involvement in snooker has always revolved around refereeing. I am
an active referee, having officiated at all levels of the game, from local
regional league competitions through to the latter stages UK Championships
for Wor