The World Sailing Annual Conference is being held in Bermuda from 26 October to 3 November 2019. This conference will bring together the World Sailing Board, Council and all committees in meetings to discuss Olympic strategies, development and technical issues in sailing.

Stakeholders in Australia should watch the World Sailing website at https://www.sailing.org/meetings/2019-conference.php for agenda and submission papers as they are published.

The subject matter considered at these meetings is often complex with many points of view having to be considered as discussion and debate happens. To help with this process Australian Sailing welcomes input from Australian Clubs and Class Associations on any submission and this feedback can be given to Glen Stanaway at glen.stanaway@sailing.org.au by 15 October 2019. This input will provide more information to the delegates present so that during the debates they have the best possible understanding of the Australian paradigm during those discussions and debate.

Governance is handled by National Authorities including Australia nominating a number of delegates to serve on the committees. These delegates are appointed by World Sailing to make recommendations and decisions in the best interests of the sport internationally. There are Groups of nations around the world which appoint Council members who then act and make decisions in the interests of their Group. Australia is part of Group L along with New Zealand, Fiji and other Oceania nations. This means that our representatives on Council must act in the interests of both developed Group L sailing nations like Australia and New Zealand, as well as emerging sailing nations such as Guam and Samoa.

Australia is represented directly only at the AGM which will be held at the end of the conference. The key issue that nations will be asked to vote on in the AGM will be the recommendations of the Governance Commission’s proposed reforms found at https://www.sailing.org/about/governance/index.php.

All outcomes and minutes of the meetings are published by World Sailing on their website shortly after the meetings.