By: Benjamin Kent
Can’t believe it is February already!! What a whirlwind of fun times and learning this has been. This past week the SOCGA staff was busy preparing for the Annual General Meeting I discussed briefly in my last post. To expand on that premise a little more, the Annual General Meeting takes place every January, at the OlympiAfrica Development Centre in Lobamba, to discuss the happenings of the year that past, and how to best meet future goals and adjust strategic plans based on new findings/happenings. This event gathered representatives from over 20 different sport governing bodies in Swaziland all to discuss and deliberate on the future plans of sport in Swaziland and, more specifically, the operations of SOCGA. Here are a few pics from the meeting:
This is a picture of the setup at OlympAfrica Development Centre’s main hall where the meeting took place. You can see the names of some organization’s where they are seated.
This is SOCGA’s Secretary General, and President, Muriel Hofer addressing the representatives from these sporting organization’s. This served as a way to commence the meeting and inform the crowd of SOCGA’s achievements during the prior year.
This is a folder that was distributed to all organizations in attendance giving specific details of the prior year’s happenings and the future plans of SOCGA. Also contained in this older was the Annual Activities Report that I compiled in my second week with SOCGA.
The Annual General Meeting was an astounding success and will serve as a great guide map for the upcoming year for SOCGA and the next 2 and a half months for me! This meeting drew quite the crowd, including some press…
To quote Ron Burgundy “I’m kind of a big deal.”
But more seriously, I was quite interested in the events unfolding in front of me and it was awesome to see myself get recognized in the local newspaper!
As for now, my duties following the Annual General Meeting are directly influenced by the future of SOCGA. During the last portion of the meeting there were countless proposals and recommendations made that regard changing certain portions of SOCGA’s Constitution. After all of the amendments were passed, the duty has fallen on me to update and carefully alter The Constitution based on those amendments. Another big task, but one that I am loving as it will help the future of SOCGA, and also aide me in my “attention to (extremely specific) detail” skills!
Before I close out this post I should probably explain the title of my blog. In my short time here, the SOCGA staff have embraced me into their little family! One of the highlights of this experience, so far, is easily how amazing, kind, and funny these people are! Here is a photoshoot we had the other day:
The people here are making this experience fun, educational, and amazing!! That’s all for now from Swaziland, Salakahle!!