The IWGA Board meets on Friday for its first Executive Committee (ExCo) meeting in 2018. On the agenda: bidding for TWG 2025, the progress on the sports programme for TWG 2021, and preparation for the AGM in April this year.
The IWGA Board with its seven members will meet at the IWGA headquarters in Lausanne. Although we are in the year after the successful event in Wroclaw, Poland there is no time to relax and to rest. “Actually, the year after is always a packed one. We have to pave the way for the future in several areas. We have to face three important milestones this year,” states IWGA President José Perurena in his preview of the ExCo meeting.
The first one: On the agenda of this year’s AGM, to be held on 16 April during the GAIFS Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, there will be not only a review of TWG 2017 but also the election of the Board for the next four-year term. “This has to be prepared carefully, for we want to have a transparent and open discussion on how the new team can follow up on the track we have set.”
During the meeting this week, IWGA CEO Joachim Gossow will take the Board members through the next steps of the bidding process for TWG 2025, launched on Monday 15 January. “We have already noted that several cities from all over the world are showing an interest in hosting The World Games. But we all know that showing interest and actually bidding are two different steps on the way. We will support those cities which have a serious interest in applying for our event in the best way possible,” says Joachim Gossow, describing one of the duties of the IWGA office up until 31 July 2017, when the deadline for cities to bid for 2025 comes up.
At the same time, the IWGA officials are working on the sports programme for TWG 2021. The deadline for the 37 member federations of the IWGA to apply to take part in the Birmingham event was 19 January. “We are now starting to evaluate the applications, to create a programme which delivers the best outcome for the athletes, the spectators and the media,” Joachim Gossow added. 30+sports are usually included in the schedule of the event, to be staged from 15 to 25 July 2021 in the USA. The planned sports programme will be presented at the AGM in April.
IWGA President José Perurena: “Handling all these processes is a process by itself. This means we will not conclude the exchange of ideas at our first meeting. But I am convinced that we will set up the framework to follow the process through step by step. What is important to us is that we are working as a team, which brings in its expertise and has already proved capable of mastering the upcoming challenges.”
