The first Athletes’ Commission meeting was held on May 19th 2019 via Skype with the World ParaVolley President, Barry Couzner briefly in attendance to welcome all members. As we recall, the Board decided to revitalise the structure and management of the Athletes’ Commission, and in consultation with athletes devised the pathway to elect the members of the Athletes’ Commission and to appoint two athletes to the World ParaVolley Board of Directors as voting members.
Photo: World ParaVolley Athletes’ Commission chair Jose Rebelo in action
The aims of the World ParaVolley Athletes’ Commission are to:
- To regularly communicate with current and past World ParaVolley athletes
- To represent the views of World ParaVolley athletes and to provide such advice to the President and Board of Directors
- To provide two people, one from each gender, to serve as voting members of the World ParaVolley Board of Directors
The agenda for this first meeting was to establish the mission for the Commission, what the Commission wants to do to achieve that mission and how the Commission intends to do that.
Discussions between the members of the Commission were very interesting. The discussions touched a wide range of subjects, from classification and communication with the athletes, to rules and promotion of the sport.
Following this meeting, two main actions will lead up to the next meeting: a proposed mission statement and a first draft of the action plan. The main objective of the Commission is to be able to put their actions in motion as soon as possible.
The members of the World ParaVolley Athletes’ Commission are:
Jose Rebelo (CAN) – Chair and member of the Board
Tatiana Ivanova (RUS) – Vice-Chair and member of the Board
Nicole Nieves (USA) – Member Pan America
Ivan Cosic (CRO) – Member Europe
Dave Newkirk (USA) – Beach ParaVolley Member
Emile Vunigabo (RWA) – Member Africa
Masoumeh Barouti (IRI) – Member Asia/Oceania