Executive gets term extension
May 24, 2016 By Sahr Morris Jr.
Delegates/members of Sports Writers Association of Sierra Leone (SWASAL) last Saturday voted overwhelmingly for a three year span limit of the Association’s executive, on the final day of their two days Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Makeni City Council hall.
A total of 34 out of 39 members voted in favour of an extension of the term limit of the executive from two years to three years.
The decision was taken during the constitution amendment session, and implies that the current Frank Cole administration which took up office in May 2015 will now run sports journalists administration until 2018 when elections would be conducted.
Also, there were other amendments, including the enrolment of members into the Association, gender inclusion, qualification of president and other executive members.
In his statement to mark the opening ceremony the AGM, SWASAL president Frank Cole, said the past 12 months have indeed been an era of mixed blessings of achievements and challenges for his executive and the Association.
“This executive is paying serious attention on raising the standards of not only our membership but also sports journalism. You may want to agree with me that some of the stuffs sports journalists nowadays report as news items or stories are sometimes awful but that is not to say we don’t have quite a good number in our midst that are doing extremely well.
“We are vigorously pursuing promises made to capacitate our members. Immediately we return to Freetown, final arrangements would be made to commence a national training programme for our members. We are also in negotiations with the National Olympic Committee of Sierra Leone, the Volleyball Association, the Cricket Association and others to help in similar or different directions in order to diversify our reporting of sports,” said Cole.
President Cole further appealed to especially the Association’s major sponsor, Mercury International, the NOC-SL, Ministry of Sports and others to support his executive with finance and other materials to ensure they collectively build the capacity of SWASAL members.
He said: “We are appealing also for scholarships or grants for those members desirous of pursuing higher education in journalism.”
The SWASAL president also thanked the AGM sole sponsor Mercury International, especially the company’s chairman, Samir Hassanyeh, managing director Martin Edmond Michael, Pa Syl Rooney Decker and Ekundayo Rowe, Chief Financial Officer of the company, for their support.