GBA 2010 AGM report back

On a chilly Sunday morning, 30 May 2010, the Gauteng Basketball Association (“GBA”) held its Annual General Meeting for 2010 at Holy Family College in Johannesburg.

Opening address

As Chairman of the meeting and part of the GBA’s Interim Executive, Ntatho Selebi set out the mandate that the Interim Executive had been tasked with, covering the ongoing activities of Gauteng basketball, dealing with pending senior national events at the time and defining possible structures for the office going forward.

The objective then set out for this meeting was to report back on how the Interim Executive’s had fared in pursuing their mandate, and to decide on a suitable structure for the GBA going forward in order to appoint a new leadership team.

End of GBA Interim Executive’s tenure

Since late 2009, the GBA has been under the leadership of an Interim Executive, which was appointed with a six-month timeframe in which to achieve certain objectives. Their mandate was previously discussed at the well-attended GBA General Meeting in February, and 30 May 2010 marked the end of their six month tenure.

Status of Gauteng Basketball

The Interim Executive was tasked with understanding what Gauteng Basketball had to its name. As previously reported, the GBA currently has only a bank account with several hundred rand and a desk located at Basketball South Africa’s (“BSA”) offices. Not only had no other assets come to light, but membership and financial records were effectively non-existent.

To properly fulfill its function and to report adequately to BSA, the Chairman noted that GBA must be able to account for itself from a financial perspective, as well as for its membership and for its administrative running. All of these areas are currently a work-in-progress due to the poor information historically available.

Government support for basketball

In attendance at the AGM was a representative of the Department of Sports and Recreation, who raised some pertinent issues from a government involvement and funding perspective:

• accountability – must be in place before any support or funding can be considered; this is the key reason that  little support has been given to the sport in the past.
• membership – a good understanding of the basketball community is necessary.
• structural arrangements and transport – considerations around logistics and regional strength.
• power and politics – ensuring power is exercised in the correct places but that delivery takes place throughout.
• sustainability – unlikely that government could fully support basketball as a sport financially, but would be able to lend support in other ways if sustainability can be proven.

Some key opportunities for support within a government context were also discussed and suggested.

Suggested structures

After a brief description of the existing structure, the Interim Executive provided two possible structures for moving forward:

1. GBA Council – which would operate similarly to the current structure with the Council electing an Executive to control operations.
2. Section 21 (not-for-profit) company – which would operate with more of a business-like approach and Directors appointed to steer the operations.

Both structures were discussed in a fair amount of detail, and it was noted that each has both positive and negative aspects.

Before the Chairman moved to a vote on pursuing either of the structures, the members in attendance at the meeting proposed and voted in favour of extending the Interim Executive’s tenure for an additional two weeks in which time:

• further details regarding both models should be sent to members present in writing for consideration; and
• another meeting should be scheduled for Sunday 13 June 2010, at the end of the two week period, for the vote to be made by members and the future path determined.

Importantly, this provides an opportunity, for anyone who is not yet a member of the GBA and who would like to become a member and vote on the future of the GBA, to attend and participate when the next meeting is held.

Conclusion

The meeting’s attendance, while not huge, was full of passionate people who were clearly there for one reason only – to see the sport of basketball revived in Gauteng (and South Africa too, I would believe).

My impression was that the Interim Executive conducted the meeting openly and transparently, considering all input and points of view from the audience and giving fair time for comments and questions. There were naturally several remarks made by the members about the shortcomings of the process and administration, but there were lots of positive remarks as well.

On the whole, the Interim Executive should be commended for the efforts that they have put in (for no remuneration, considering that the GBA has no funds with which to remunerate them at this time) in stepping into a difficult situation and trying to restore structure and accountability where it was seemingly completely absent.

It would be naive to believe that basketball in Gauteng is well and fine. There are still too many unknowns at this point – a long road still lies ahead. But it would also be foolish to think that there is no hope. Huge strides have been made and more information is available now than has been in a long time. Most importantly, there are passionate people involved at many levels and it appears that the success of the game is, at long last, the most important point on everyone’s agenda. As it should always have been.

I think this has been a very positive step forward for the GBA and wish them the best in taking this forward. We look forward to the day, soon,  when basketball is restored to its rightful place within Gauteng sporting circles.

Please note that this is only a summary of what took place at the meeting for general information. The meeting lasted almost three hours and covered some detailed aspects of these matters, as well as others not mentioned here specifically. Please contact the GBA for minutes should you require further detail.

All parties interested in attending the upcoming meeting to vote on a suitable structure and way forward for the GBA can contact their offices for details – basketballgp@gmail.com.

Tags: Basketball, Gauteng, Gauteng Basketball Association, GBA, South Africa