Feedback on ILCA Constitution Requested

International Laser Class Association - Message from Tracy Usher:

At the ILCA World Council (WC) meeting in November 2019 it was agreed that a formal process would be commenced for review and possible amendment of the ILCA Constitution.

Since then a small working group of WC members has been preparing a suggested process for the review. The resulting process document ( click here to access the Constitution Review Process document) has now been approved by the World Council. As well as setting out the process that will be used for the review the document contains some initial ideas which have been suggested on areas where change might be considered.

We are now commencing the second step of the process, where we would like to obtain suggestions on possible changes from all interested groups involved in the class including WC members, Districts, individual sailors and commercial parties. The process is aimed at allowing consultation and input from all interested parties, and ultimately allow adoption of changes to the constitution supported by all the necessary parties, including the required two thirds vote of our membership.

In order for this process to proceed in an orderly and rational manner we request that all member feedback is channeled through your appropriate WC regional representative.

Comments can be submitted either via the website form (link to website form), directly to your regional representative, or through your local district chairman who can forward to the regional representative, whichever you prefer. The regional representatives will then coordinate and collate all their regional feedback before forwarding it to the working group, who will combine it into a set of possible changes for formal WC consideration.

So we invite you to start thinking and documenting specific changes that you would like to see to the class Constitution, start talking amongst yourselves about what changes you would like to see and importantly record the logic and rational, both positive and negative, that you see for each of your ideas for change. In some cases you may wish to initially identify what you see as a problem with the existing document and propose a range of options for change or indeed just raise an issue for consideration without in fact having a specific solution in mind at this point.

We see this process being interactive, you are very welcome and we encourage you to progressively correspond with your regional representatives and you certainly do not have to just present something on the last day.

Our hope here is that through this process we generate a full range of ideas for possible revisions and critically get an understanding of the rationale behind each idea and also the general level of support each may have. Once we receive the range of ideas for changes from the regional representatives we will then move to stage 3, where the working group will seek to analyze the worldwide feedback and come up with a discussion document for the World Council on the range of specific changes that may deserve consideration and the arguments for and against each.

It has been widely recognized that some change to the ILCA Constitution is desirable. It is important for us all to remember though that we are looking to get to a point where there is sufficient consensus on any change to ensure that it can be successfully adopted. As such it will be important that we recognize the success the class has enjoyed over the last 50 years with the existing constitution and structure and look to changes that can be demonstrated to all parties to truly offer the potential to build on the existing strength of the class in the future.

We are aiming to complete stage 2, receipt by the working group of submissions on ideas for change, by 1 July 2020 so we ask everyone to have their submissions to their regional representatives by 1 June 2020 to allow each region time to consolidate their feedback and submit it to the working group by 1 July.

CLICK HERE to access the on-line feedback submission page.

Tracy Usher

International Laser Class Association