TTOC marketing strategy, athlete fund revamped

A complete overhaul of its marketing strategy and the conversion of its 10 Gold by 2024 Athlete Welfare and Preparation Fund were some of the major decisions made at the TT Olympic Committee (TTOC) Annual General Meeting on Saturday.

But first, 32 delegates voted unanimously passed two amendments to the TTOC's constitution.

A new clause (Clause 22A) was inserted into Article 29 of the constitution to allow the staging and/or conducting of all meetings via teleconference.

The clause states that “any meeting, hearing or related activity which is being conducted in accordance with the committee’s constitution can be facilitated by any electronic or other method (which is facilitated by prevailing technology), which permits each attendee to view the other during the meeting without having to appear physically and in the same geographic location.”

Additionally, another amendment was inserted under Clause 16 "Executive" which removed personal liability for executive members and members of any committee or the arbitration tribunal for any decisions they make for the TTOC.

It states, “Members of the executive committee or any committee, body or group (such as the results management committee, arbitral tribunal/tribunal and any other association sponsored or organised by the committee) established by the committee is not personally liable for the debts, liabilities, claims or obligation of the committee.”

Each recommended amendment was passed unanimously.

Also, the TTOC’s 10 Gold by 2024 Athlete Welfare and Preparation Fund will now be converted into the Team TTO Foundation. This fund is fuelled by the TTOC’s annual marathon walk and merchandising to raise funds for Olympic-bound athletes.

Lewis said, “The lawyers are currently working on the necessary documentation for the conversion to a foundation. That is anticipated to be done by the end of 2020. This was presented inside the annual report which was approved.”

In addition, TTOC’s marketing committee was disbanded and another group formed to reassess its marketing strategy during the pandemic. The TTOC executive decided that in order to facilitate the many radical changes and marketing transformations, with the sole objective of driving sustainable revenue, this has become necessary.

Lewis continued, “The new marketing working group was formed with a view to establish a couple companies within the TTOC. One of which will be Team TTO Marketing Ltd and the other, Team TTO Media.

“We’re currently in the process of doing the necessary business plan and legal steps. The AGM was informed that we will be coming to them with more details in the coming months. We felt that was an important strategic imperative.”

According to Lewis, the 2019 annual report would have informed the strategies for 2020, an Olympic year, but that was affected by covid19 and its economic negative impact.

TTOC’s first-ever good governance report was also presented at the AGM. At its last AGM in 2015, an amendment was made where the membership and affiliates unanimously agreed to abide by a good governance commitment.

The governance report was presented inside the annual report. As part of the annual report, the governance report was also part of the governance audit.

“The surveys done in this report, 26 of the 42 affiliates completed the report. This looked at things like reviews of the constitution and certain recommendations. Overall, there was still a lot of work to do in terms of governance,” said the TTOC head.

TTOC’s AGM was supposed to be held in April but was postponed because of the pandemic.

Lewis added, “The overall theme, in context of the annual report, was very transparent about sharing the challenges and risks that the TTOC would be facing. The annual report has been appraised so all the initiatives have been approved. It was successful...but we had to be very real with the member affiliates due to global health crisis.”