The World Sailing mid-year meetings are being held in London from 17 to 19 May 2019. These meetings will bring together the Events and Equipment Committees, and Council to mainly discuss Olympic strategies and decisions.

The agendas and papers at https://www.sailing.org/meetings/mid-year-2019.php will present the 2021 – 2028 World Sailing Events Strategy, and future Olympic equipment such as the windsurfer and kiteboard, and the two handed and one handed dinghy equipment. Also being decided are regulations related to the two handed keelboat offshore event decision making process. The committees will also discuss what form that event may take. Other matters being decided on will included changes to race officials accreditation regulations, and how the Ethics Commission acts.

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 have to 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. Australian Sailing is represented directly only at the AGM which will next be held in November.

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. 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.

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