Changes proposed to CISNOC constitution

With the Cook Islands Sports and National Olympic Committee (CISNOC) annual general meeting looming on May 4 – there is a push to table and pass proposed changes to its constitution.

David Lobb, who has been involved with sports administration in the Cook Islands for the last 30 years including serving 16 years as CISNOC secretary and general secretary, has circulated his proposed changes for the CISNOC constitution.

He says the changes he had proposed need to be made now so that CISNOC can concentrate on the important issues.

“I feel strongly that these changes need to be made now so that CISNOC can concentrate on the important issues of supporting our elite athletes and being more accountable to the member National Federations,” says Lobb.

However, the amendments made by Lobb, as an avid sportsman, were met with objections by CISNOC executives who challenged his right to even make recommendations.

Lobb himself is a member of the CISNOC constitution review committee tasked with taking recommendations from national federations and improving the current CISNOC constitution which was adopted at the 2002 annual general meeting.

The committee chaired by CISNOC treasurer Dan O’Brien includes Lobb, Tingika Elikana, Lee Harmon, Tevita Vakalalabure and George Paniani. The committee was not supportive of Lobb circulating his proposed amendments to national federations and the media.

O’Brien says that making changes to the constitution is a long process and one they are working on carefully so that it is in line with the International Olympic Council (IOC) Charter.

However, Lobb says that the committee has procrastinated for too long and changes needs to happen now – changes he says he has modelled on the Fiji National Olympic Committee constitution which was revised in 2008 and accepted by the IOC.

Discussions between Lobb, CISNOC executive members and O’Brien yesterday resulted in an urgent meeting of the board last night to review the proposed amendments by Lobb.

Lobb says he has urged CISNOC senior vice president and review committee member George Paniani to get the board to accept his proposed recommendations for tabling at the annual general meeting on Friday.

In particular – Lobb is recommending removing the executive board’s voting rights at general meetings, reducing the size of the executive board, clarifying procedures for filling vacancies on the executive board and returning the important requirement for annual general meetings to the constitution.

Lobb proposes that under bylaw 4 (membership), clause 4.4, which allows each member one vote at any general meeting of CISNOC excepting that the president shall have a casting vote in addition to his or her deliberate vote, be changed to the president casting a vote in the event of a tie.

Other changes to the constitution proposed by Lobb include reducing the executive board members from 11 to eight, removing the roles of senior vice president, assistant secretary general, which has not been filled at CISNOC for some time, plus the removal of a treasurer.

Instead Lobb proposes that the CISNOC executive board be made up of a president, secretary general, and six vice presidents of which one will be responsible for finances.

He also recommends the term of each member be reduced from four years to two and that the election of the executive board pursuant to clause 9.1 shall be staggered so that term of office of one half of the elected members of the executive board shall expire every annual general meeting instead of every second annual general meeting as the current constitution states.

Lobb recommends that this should be done as follows – the president and vice president in the odd numbered years and the secretary general ant the three remaining vice presidents in the even numbered years.

Lobb believes he has lodged his proposed constitution changes correctly 14 days before the annual general meeting in accordance with the current constitution to be tabled at the forthcoming annual general meeting on May 4.