BI Council Meeting 19/06/2021
MINUTES OF BLACKBALL INTERNATIONAL
COUNCIL MEETING
19th June 2021
VIA ZOOM
Attendees :
Mark Cottingham – BI President
Saths Reddy – AAPA Council member
Sean Rumbado – EBA Council member
Samantha Cottingham – Australia Council member
NEW BOARD
Mark Cottingham requested guidance from the council regarding evaluating and accepting the new board members.
Saths Reddy stated that the power of BI is the Council not the Constitution.
The decisions of the new board can be made at a Council meeting.
As agreed at the GA the positions would be advertised and then the decision would be made to appoint outside of a GA due to the risk of having an un-operational BI board and no quorum if positions are not filled.
Samantha Cottingham also stated that Australia does not currently have a board member on the BI board.
This has to be addressed so that equal representation is present on the BI board from member Continents whether they hold a position or not.
Saths Reddy stated that the BI Council have the responsibility to work through the applicants not the board.
Sean Rumbado stated that it was very clear at the GA what was proposed to happen.
It was also agreed that the BI Constitution needed to be re-written at the GA following the board appointments.
Samantha Cottingham stated that due to her applying for the Treasurer role she would step away from the discussion following the discussion of the Vice President role.
It was agreed that she could remain however could not be party to the conversation or decision.
Applicants
Vice President –
Ross McInnes
Kevin Byrne
Mycherif El Abidine
Treasurer –
Samantha Cottingham
Mark Cottingham had proposed Kevin Byrne for Vice President and Samantha Cottingham as Treasurer.
Kevin Byrne would be a good support and comes with a wealth of experience that BI can utilise.
Saths Reddy agreed with all of Mark Cottingham’s proposals and said that Kevin Byrne would be a great person to work alongside Mark. BI should be all inclusive and everyone working together.
Sean Rumbado wondered why, as Ross McInnes has worked with BI for so long, he had not been selected above Kevin.
Mark stated that this comes from a number of conversation with Ross, his driving of the World Championships with regard to prize funds.
His involvement with Perth 2014 and 2018 where both events did not run well and also the debt that Ross incurred and then brought to BI.
The Hawley Cup was Ross’s idea, which is a really good idea.
Recently after 2022 Worlds he wants to take the singles event away from the World Championships and make it a standalone event.
Therefore he has great ideas he comes up with however they are not through.
Also it has been requested following the GA that he sorted the access to the bank out so we had it either changed or we can access it.
To date there has been no resolutions to this or any actions or conversations. Therefore the ideas are good however the doing never happens.
The issues with Ross on social media also does not represent BI well as most of the times there is a big argument publicly with BI board members.
This is not the actions of a Vice President and would not be good for BI.
Therefore I don’t think that Ross would be capable of completing the role or achieving anything for BI.
Ross, Paul and Mark had a board meeting and Ross asked about the applicants for the positions, which at that point there were none.
I did say that there were some interested however they had not applied at present.
Ross when finding out wasn’t happy with them and then has constantly caused issues.
His approach to Samantha Cottingham applying is discriminatory and BI should not allow this.
She is a qualified accountant with over 25 years experience and brings a wealth of experience with her to benefit BI just like it has in Australia.
There are no restrictions or legislation that says she can not hold the post and just because she is my wife should not even be in the equation. She is a professional.
Therefore BI needs people who can complete jobs well and deliver is what we need.
The same situation for Vice President applies with Kevin Byrne.
Sean Rumbado stated that Ross McInnes has caused issues for him also.
Saths Reddy stated that he has worked with both Ross and Kevin and that if anything happened to Mark who would we prefer to have as the President and the answer is Kevin.
Ross is not an administrator and has not ran events without issues for BI.
Samantha Cottingham said Australia’s position is that we need people in positions that will deliver and be able to head up BI and therefore Kevin would receive their support.
Vote – Vice President
Saths for Kevin Byrne
Sean seconded
Secretary
No applicants and too be readvertised. Hopefully the new board will give people confidence that things are changing within BI and someone will come forward.
Saths said that there may be an interested party in Africa and he will come back to BI following further discussions.
Advertising will be held off for one week to allow Saths to follow up
Treasurer -
Sean understands that there is benefits to having the signatories close. Having the wife and husband as President and Treasurer will be something that people may question.
It was therefore discussed and agreed that Mark Cottingham would not have access to the BI bank account and so therefore if the account is accessible globally a further signatory would have to be someone apart from the President.
This was agreeable by Saths and Sean and this would have to be the scenario.
Saths Reddy stated that in many organisations the President and Secretary or Treasurer can come from the same family.
BI can work around this in order to get other board members to be signatories.
Sean said if we have expertise then we should harness it as long as we have the correct processes in place to ensure BI is protected.
Sean suggested that there should be at least 3 signatories on the bank where only 2 need to sign at any point.
Therefore it will be that Mark Cottingham has no access to the bank and that there will be 3 signatories on the bank account of which 2 will have to sign.
Vote - Treasurer
Saths for Samantha Cottingham
Sean seconded
EBA Board Representatives
Mark stated that the EBA needed to confirm who the one representative would be for the EBA.
Sean will follow up and confirm in a weeks time following discussions with the EBA.
Until this is received the BI board can not continue to make any decisions.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
France are the only people who came forward.
Mark has given them the authority to prepare a formal bid and get this to BI to consider with issues relating to funding and a choice of hotels, etc.
It was stated that no formal announcement would take place prior to this bid being considered by BI.
Due to funding France wanted to know if they would hold the event or not. BI confirmed in writing that this is the intention.
Saths cautioned BI about a few things.
11 years ago they held Championships and BI needs to ensure that the World Championships is BI event and that France do not take over.
France tends to treat the Championships as their own and to forget about the other cultures attending, ie commentators in French, tv interested in French teams only.
Samantha stated that she thought that France would be a great place to hold the event however she has concerns about the administration of the event and that BI does not consider the event properly, BI agrees to France holding the World Championships and then this could come back to bite BI.
It was agreed that Mark would regularly communicate to the Council with the information and progress of the World Championships in France so that they can provide guidance via Mark however the BI board will need to make the decisions.
The finances and logistics of the World Championships are the main concerns for BI.
Meeting closed at - 10.16 am (UK time)
Regards,
Mark Cottingham
PRESIDENT BI
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