Veteran Sports Administrator, Joe Chapman resigns from LABA

Oct 11, 2020 Sports

By Calvin Chapman

Experienced Sports Journalist Joe Champan has revealed that he is no longer the General Secretary of the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) which is led by President, Lawrence Simon.

Joe Chapman – Former LABA Secretary

In an invited comment, Chapman, who had held various positions on the LABA executive and the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) since the 1980s, cited his inability to perform his duties effectively as the main reason for his resignation. In addition, he divulged that persons within the executive committee of the LABA are not pulling their weight.
Chapman’s resignation only became known after he was contacted to comment on the state of basketball in Linden by Kaieteur Sport this past week and it was discovered that the decision by the former Secretary to resign was done since January 2020 but only LABA, its affiliated clubs and the GABF were informed of this decision.
He cited that, “In any organisation, it is important that there is proper delegation and that everyone does their duties to ensure that when it is all added together, we can achieve our goals.”
The experienced journalist highlighted that throughout the years he has been working assiduously to ensure that the burden of the organisation is not shouldered by one person or a fraction of the executive committee. However, in the recent past, “I’ve realised that only a small group of people pull their weight in organising basketball in Linden.”
Chapman, who still remains as Assistant Secretary of the GABF, shared that it is his view that LABA President Simon, “Is a good youngster and has the qualities and potential of a very good leader but I think he is involved with too many organisations”, which has prevented him from serving basketball in the Bauxite Mining Town to the best of his ability.
Chapman suggested that the clubs believed that Simon was not serving LABA to the best of his abilities as well which resulted in a mutiny that led to his resignation.
“There was a mutiny in the body and I realised that very late. I was calling general meetings and no one was showing up… it doesn’t make sense (that) I continue in that capacity and can’t get to function properly,” Chapman posited.
He continued that if the clubs are not satisfied with the work of the executive that the best place to voice those concerns would have been at General Meetings and they could’ve gone a further step to have a no-confidence motion and have new representatives that would’ve been able to better serve them, which is in keeping with the constitution of LABA.
Chapman concluded that, “I am still open to serving the game in Linden once there is seriousness by all concerned.”

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