New Country Joining IOMICA

[Ian Stead]

I have just read on the MYA forum that the allocation of places for the World Championships cannot be calculated at the moment as IOMICA is considering an application of membership from a new country.

This is great news, does anybody know what country is hoping to join IOMICA?

It will be great if they are accepted and can make it to the World Championships.

New faces with maybe some new ideas for the class.

What is the criteria for joining IOMICA? Could somebody point me in the right direction please.

[Bruce Andersen]

The process of applying for IOMICA membership is spelled out in our governing documents (check the HOMEPAGE for them)

It does not happen overnight - when Malta joined a few years back, the process took several months at least.

There is no need for secrecy in the application process and I am disappointed that the EXEC has chosen not to share this with the general membership but pleased that the class continues to grow!

Edited to include:

I hope the EXEC does not take the above comments in a pejorative manner, but it does seem to me that whether or not an organization thrives depends upon the engagement of its membership, and a good way to keep the general membership engaged is to keep them informed.

Is there harm in putting forth a simple news flash, or a line in the Chairman's monthly update letting us know that the class is growing?

[Lester]

I believe IOMICA Regulation 3.4 may apply (applications shall be publicly announced).

There are usually good reasons for initial discussions to be relatively confidential, but now that the MYA has leaked this information, there seems a good case for the Exec to let us know more details.

[Olivier Cohen]

Applications will be announced as soon as they are completed. Barry is working on that.

[Barry Fox CAN262]

THere are two countries who have asked. I have absolutely no paperwork at all from one of them and the other is not yet complete, missing at least one critical component.

Bruce is correct in that they are not considered automatic just because someone applies. It is actually a 4 week waiting period once the Exec has the complete set of documents in hand and the notice of application is published on the Forum.

Once I have a full application in hand you will know about it.

[Ian Stead]

If these applications could possibly hold up the World Championship entry until the end of January would it not be more sensible to give them guest places if they wish to enter the Championships.

This would allow the awaiting 100 or so skippers more time to book accomodation,flights,time off work etc. If you wait until the end of January this will only give 15 or so weeks to the race.

I do not see the sense in holding things up anymore and am sure the two countries would agree with me, has IOMICA asked them if they intend to send skippers to the race and this is why they wish to join IOMICA, or indeed, knowing that the race is likely to be oversubscribed, are skippers from existing IOMICA countries that are eligable to sail for other countries but that country is not a member of IOMICA trying to get the country registered with IOMICA.

[Barry Fox CAN262]

I had a longer version of this just about ready to send and then my browser decided to close and all those good words are gone.

So this will be a shorter version. The two countries were given a short window of opportunity to apply and if they had the paperwork done in time we said we would include them in the allocation process. This was said because if you meet all the requirements there is very little reason to be denied membership. One country sent in most of the documentation but are missing one crucial piece so it is really an incomplete thing at this time. The other country hasn't sent anything back yet. The short window of opportunity closes this weekend.

The allocation instructions are ready to go and will be sent went the clock strikes midnight on the 20th. Then the allocation process will flow as will be outlined in that document.

My opinion at this point is that we will move ahead with what we have in hand and that these countries, and any others that are not members, will line up to be considered for the 5 available guest spots.

[Ian Stead]

Thanks Barry.

As Lester mentioned in an earlier post, as we all now know there have been two applications, could the IOMICA exec now tell us where the applications have come from, don't quite see the point of being secretive now, this just adds to suspicion about the applications when we should all feel happy that the IOMICA family is growing.

[RoyL]

Barry: If I understand what you are saying, the Executive decided to accelerate the time in which a new country could gain admittance to IOMICA to allow participation in the upcoming World Championships. I applaud this pro-active stance in ignoring the literal class rules in favor of moving things forward in a positive direction.

I have to admit, though, that I also don't understand why this plan and possible new entrants to IOMICA were not made public. It is something to be proud of and that the whole class should know about. I would also hope that the next time anyone insists on strict compliance with all IOM class rules, we remember how our Exec chose to abandon a literal interpretation of class rules in favor of a practical solution to a problem.

[Barry Fox CAN262]

We decided this was a much better approach than the one used for our two newest member countries that we discovered, after taking office, had been essentially ignored for as much as full year, maybe longer.

[Bruce Andersen]

the last application we (the last EXEC) had came from Malta, just prior to the last WC's

[Barry Fox CAN262]

Not true.

[Alfonso]

IOMICA Regulation says:

3.4. Every application to the IOM ICA Secretary for membership of the World Council shall be publicly announced. A period of at least four weeks shall elapse between the announcement of the application and the announcement of the ICA’s decision on the application.

IOMICA CCR says:

8.6. Stage One
8.6.1. In which no Member NCA shall have an allocation of more than 8 places. The initial allocation of places shall be:
…
(ii) For World Championships, two places to each Member NCA, or for Continental Championships, two places to each Continental Member NCA and one place to each other Member NCA.

NOR says:

27 February Initial closing date for entries

Finally just to clarify a couple of things:

First, there has been no official application yet. It is true that, at least two countries has shown interest in becoming members, but we consider that they are still in a preliminary situation so it is too early to make the announcement mentioned in our Regulations.

Second, the Exec has thought that the best way to suit everybody’s wishes (new NCAs and competitors) is to increase the minimum period of 4 weeks to 8 weeks. For this reason we fixed a deadline of December 20th for the new NCA’s to supply all the documents needed to consider the application formally done.

If they do not arrive on time for the first stage they will get ESC guest places or they will enter in following stages in the allocation of places process.

All above mentioned is to clarify everyone that the Exec is in strict compliance with all IOMICA rules.