The Judo Association is an unconstitutional body - Blackman

The Judo Association is an unconstitutional body – Blackman

Apr 14, 2013 Sports

The Judo Association of Guyana formerly the Guyana Judo Association is an unconstitutional body, this is according to former Secretary William Blackman.
Blackman pointed out the association held its Bi Annual General meeting recently at the Olympic House with only two executive members present; the Vice President and the Treasurer, but the constitution states that the entire executive must be present for the meeting to be held. He stated that other members of the executive had resigned and as such the remaining two executive members should have vacated the positions to pave the way for new elections.

William Blackman

Blackman said that the Judo Association is made up of two clubs namely Kitty Jamaat and Rising Sun House of Water. He indicated that the previous executive had changed the name. “When you have a name change only the assets can be registered under the new name not the liabilities this was done,” added Blackman.
Blackman told Kaieteur Sport that the financial statements were flawed. “It was pointed out to the previous executive, by myself and Andy Moore, at a meeting held recently but they still went ahead with the elections without even bothering to correct it or offered an explanation. There were no 2012 financial statement only the 2010 and 2011 statements were audited and the constitution states that there must be an audited financial statement for elections to be held,” stated Blackman.
The former Secretary said he cannot understand the present constitution stating that both Annual and Bi Annual general meetings must be held. “It’s either of the two, you can’t have both. Further, notices sent out for the elections were not signed by the secretary since the secretary had resigned. The previous body was keeping meetings without a quorum, this was brought to the attention of the facilitator Charles Corbin but nothing was done, the technical director had also resigned but suddenly showed up for the elections,” Blackman informed.
He also said that none of the minutes were signed by the president or the secretary and as such will not be considered authentic. “I was offered a post but declined since the system was flawed,” said Blackman.
Andy Moore who owns a Judo school said the present executive only cares about power and are not interested in the development of the sport. “They received G$5M from the world Judo Association but the money was not spent on the development of Judo. Anidan Judo students are not being given a fair chance, the outlying areas should be looked at, after 10 years only 35 students are practicing Judo locally which is not good enough, and there is no progress,” he argued.
He said that there was a typographical error in the constitution in article 4.4.3 under the caption ‘Biennial General Meeting’ which was changed at an ‘executive meeting’ and that is unconstitutional, since such errors can only be changed at a Special General Meeting.
Moore stated that Black Belts are being given away to people who do not practice Judo.
Moore further informed that his school was rejected by the executive. “They wrote a letter to the Olympic House stating that my school do not have adequate space for Judo and at the same time myself and Blackman were conducting classes with the prison service. My school is the biggest in Guyana, a number of media visited but nothing was done, because of my love for the sport I will always stand up for it,” he concluded.
Blackman has a second Dan Black Belt, while Moore has a fourth Dan Black belt.