Welcome to WESPA

Home: World English-Language Scrabble Players Association (WESPA)

WESPA held its 3rd Biennial General Meeting in Malaysia at the end of November and the minutes can be seen on our website - click on 'About'. Note some new names on our Main Committee whom we welcome -Tony Leah, Howard Warner and Stewart Holden.

We also welcome our recent new members - Kenya and France.

Our Ratings Committee are working hard, looking at our Rating System with a view to recommending changes and improvements.
Our Tournament Committee are considering whether to make any changes to the criteria for tournaments to be rated or whether to wait till the Ratings Committee has finished its deliberations. They have also finalised discussion with Philip Nelkon of Mattel on WSC Allocations, and Philip should be announcing the 2011 allocations very soon.
Howard Warner has been busy making suggestions for a promotional strategy.
Karen Richards continues to be very active in promoting Youth Scrabble.
The Dictionary Committee has been busy trawling through dictionaries and preparing and checking lists, and is confident of being well within the November 2010 target of providing Collins with the required material.

Please take a look at WESPA 2nd European Open in sunny Malta, taking place 8-11 May (32 games). Why not combine it with the Malta Open 14-16 May (20 games)? Email me and I'll put you in touch with the organisers.

Best regards,

Elie Dangoor
WESPA Chair

We welcome the following new members:

NASPA (North American Scrabble Players Association)
RISPA (Republic of Ireland Scrabble Players Association)
SCAPA (Scrabble Association of the Philippines)
Bahrain Scrabble League

I have had extensive discussions with both the French and Spanish Scrabble Associations, with a view to forming a World Scrabble Federation. We jointly wrote to the President of the Internation Mind Sports Association (IMSA) about wanting to join their group which includes Chess, Bridge, Draughts and Go. We received a reply informing us that there were various hurdles to our joining - mainly non-universality of language, the existence of luck and copyright issues. Therefore this doesn't seem hopeful, but one day we could have a festival of Scrabble in many different languages, if Mattel support it.

The Dictionary Committee has had a further consultation on 'Words in Phrases'. It has noted concerns about getting into subjective areas, but ultimately has to go by the votes of member nations, which are to give the DC discretion on the matter.

The Ratings Committee will shortly be conducting a questionnaire on WESPA rating matters.

The new WESPA Rules have started to be used and have been generally well-received. They have also been the subject of some interesting discussions on world-scrabble.

We have been receiving nominations from member nations for Executive Committee positions, to be voted on at the forthcoming Biennial General Meeting to be held during the WSC, and are always happy if people put themselves forward for this or our sub-committees, as ultimately WESPA and World English-language Scrabble will only thrive if we all support it.

Best wishes,

Elie Dangoor
WESPA Chair

02/09/2009

WESPA Chairman’s Report (August 2009)

This is my first pre-BGM Report since becoming Chairman in March 2009.

I would like to pay tribute to my predecessor Roy Kietzman who sadly passed away in early March. He was a stalwart supporter of WESPA and we are commissioning a trophy in his memory for the Bahrain National Championships.

Roy had been Chairman for a few months. Prior to that, Allan Simmons had been Chairman since inception and was one of the leading lights in forming WESPA. He felt the need to step down in order to concentrate on other avenues, but continues to serve on the Executive Committee. I would like to thank him for his time as Chairman and his continued support.

It has been a very exciting time for me, building on the good work already done in setting up WESPA to represent and enhance the interests of English language Scrabble players around the world. I would like to thank the Executive Committee for the support they have given me, especially Cheah Siu Hean, who has been something of a right-hand man, especially in constitutional matters, and Andrew Fisher, our Honorary Treasurer. In fact all of the Executive Committee have been very helpful and supportive.

My first task was to increase the membership of WESPA, and I am very glad to welcome the new associations that have joined our existing ones.

I have tried to ensure that all our sub-committees are active and effective, and this has involved re-constituting them where necessary:

Rules: Thanks to the great efforts of Chris May and Amy Byrne and all those on their committee, the new Rules have been finalised and I urge members to familiarise themselves with them. They can be found on the front page of our website, under the link ‘WESPA Rules’. They will be in force during the WSC and hopefully other international tournaments.

Dictionary: The Dictionary consultation has been completed and I thank Darryl Francis and his committee for dealing with this and continuing to bring matters forward.

Ratings: A new ratings committee has been formed, which I am chairing, while Stewart Holden is dealing with the day-to-day management. The aim is to study our existing rating system, managed for so long by Bob Jackman, to whom we are very grateful. We hope to enhance the system and perhaps one day to have an international norm that could be used by national associations.

Tournaments: Under the stewardship of Chief Toke Aka, this committee has set the criteria for international rating and we have started to charge for this service, with tournaments in member countries charged at half-price.

Youth: Karen Richards has continued her valiant efforts to promote Youth Scrabble and is busy preparing for the annual WYSC to be held this December in Johor Bahru.

I am very grateful for the efforts of our webmasters Llewellin Jegels and Evan Simpson for their continuing work on our website.

Our Constitution is up on the website and any comments about it are most welcome.

We are investigating the legal status of WESPA - as an umbrella organisation for national associations and other members, it is unclear at present as to exactly what status it has in individual countries.

Our funds are increasing with our growing membership and we are holding the equivalent of over USD 5,000, some of it in Australian dollars, and we welcome all suggestions as to how best to apply these funds to further our aims.

I thank all members, on behalf of our Executive Committee, for their continued support and we look forward to welcoming even more new members in the very near future.

Elie Dangoor
WESPA Chairman

NOTICE OF 2009 BIENNIAL GENERAL MEETING

Notice is hereby given that the 2009 BGM of WESPA will be held at 8 p.m. on Friday 27th November 2009, at the Zon Regency Hotel, Johor Baru, Malaysia.

AGENDA (to be read in conjunction with the Notes to the Agenda below)

1. Matters arising

2. To consider and if thought fit, adopt the minutes of the 2007 Biennial General Meeting.

3. To receive the Chairman’s report of the activities of the Association during the preceding two years pursuant to Article 7.2.1 of the Constitution.

4. To receive and adopt the Audited Accounts for the Financial Years 2007 and 2008 and the Treasurer’s report pursuant to Article 7.2.2 of the Constitution.

5. To amend Schedule 1 to the Constitution to give immediate effect to the following nomination rights:

Class 1 members may each nominate up to TWO candidates for election to the Committee at Biennial General Meetings;
Class 2 members may each nominate ONE candidate for election to the Committee at Biennial General Meetings;
Class 3 and 4 members may each nominate ONE candidate for election to the Committee at Biennial General Meetings who will be eligible for election IN THE EVENT that Class 1 and 2 members in aggregate nominate fewer than 11 candidates.

6. To amend section 6.1.1 of the Constitution to read as follows:

6.1.1 Each of the Officers shall be a Member of a different national association at the conclusion of a Committee election held during a General Meeting; however this limit may be exceeded for the purpose of filling casual vacancies in the period between General Meetings. In case of      doubt as to Membership of national associations, the Chairman shall decide following consultation and having given cognisance to the country which the Officers would represent at a World Scrabble Championship. For the avoidance of doubt, there is no such restriction in relation to ordinary members of the committee.

7. To elect Officers and Committee Members pursuant to Art. 7.2.3 of the Constitution.

8. To confirm the incumbent Auditor pursuant to Art. 7.2.4 of the Constitution. The Auditor himself has recommended that the position should be rotated from time to time to ensure independence. The Committee endorses the recommendation, and would therefore welcome expressions of interest from volunteers qualified to serve as Auditor, with a view to an orderly transition leading up to the 2011 Biennial General Meeting.

9. To conduct any other business which may be conducted at a Biennial General Meeting and of which due notice has been given.

Notes to the Agenda

(a) At the previous BGM, a question was asked on the availability of the Collins word list. The then chair, Allan Simmons, solicited input from national associations shortly after the BGM and the feedback was relayed to HarperCollins.

(b) As a result of irregularities at the 2007 BGM, it was decided to hold a make-up election subsequently. Briefly, the irregularities arose because the deadline set for nominations was not strictly enforced, and because members and nom-members were not segregated at the BGM, resulting in non-members mistakenly being allowed to nominate committee members. The committee of the day accepts the responsibility for such failures as should have been within its control. As a result, the deadlines for nominations to the 2009 BGM elections will be strictly observed and it will also be made clear that only WESPA members may vote at the BGM.

(c) With the substantial increase in WESPA’s membership, it is the recommendation of the Committee that the changes proposed in Agenda Item 5 become effective immediately and apply for the 2009 BGM elections.

As currently set out in Schedule 1 to the Constitution, only Class 1 members have nominations rights. In hindsight this is not practicable and too restrictive since it would limit committee members to representatives of Class 1 WSC countries, which are few, and has been ignored in practice.

The amendment will allow in the first instance both Class 1 and 2 members (national associations) to nominate members to the main committee, which given WESPA’s current membership composition, should provide a sufficiently large pool of people. Nominees of Class 3 and 4 members can be considered if there are insufficient Class 1 and 2 nominees to fill the committee.

Members are now invited to submit their nominations for the main committee to the Secretary with a strict deadline of 13th November 2009 midnight at local time of the nominator. Nominations to be sent to Secretary at shcheah@pacific.net.sg and copied to the Chair at EDangoor@aol.com

This amendment will pass on a simple majority as it is an amendment to Schedule 1, and does not affect voting rights as specified in Art. 9.3.

(d) The section as it currently stands requires that no more than two committee members be representatives of the same national association. This has proven to be unnecessarily restrictive and unworkable. The revision will not lead to imbalance or other hegemony as the restriction will still apply to the Officers.

The wording, each of the Officers shall be a Member of a different national association at the conclusion of a Committee election held during a General Meeting is to replace “no more than two Members of the Committee, including Officers, should be from any single Country at the conclusion of a Committee election held during a General Meeting.

As this is an amendment to the Constitution, it requires a three-quarters majority of “total votes of those members who are present in person or who have submitted a proxy” to pass.

(e) As different Classes of member have different numbers of votes at a BGM, in the event that there are more eligible candidates than places on the committee, voting members or their previously designated representatives will allocate their votes by advising an appointed vote counting officer in the meeting room.

The incumbent officers viz. Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer, having already secured the nominations of their respective associations, have signified their willingness to remain in office for another term if no other candidates come forward. In the event elections for the offices are contested, elections for these posts will be held first with the unsuccessful candidates then considered to be standing for election as ordinary committee members.

14/06/2009

We welcome the following new associations who have recently joined:

New Zealand, Ghana and Tanzania. See here for full list of members.

On the committee front, we have a newly reconstituted Ratings Subcommittee, consisting of:

Elie Dangoor (Chair)
Stewart Holden (UK)
Bob Jackman (AUS)
Brian Galebach (USA)
Charlie Reams (UK)

Stewart Holden will be doing the day-to-day running in much the same way as Chris May has been doing successfully for the Rules Subcommittee.

We did try to recruit people of different nationalities without success, but remain open to offers.

Please email me any questions, concerns or comments (favourable or otherwise).

All the best.

Elie Dangoor
WESPA Chair

29/05/2009

We welcome the following new members:

Thailand
South Africa
India
Sri Lanka (rejoined)
Qatar
Tel Aviv

to join existing members:

United Kingdom
Australia
Nigeria
Malaysia
Malta
Singapore
Minneapolis

Pending: Ghana

HAS YOUR NATIONAL ASSOCIATION JOINED? IF YOU WANT A VOTE AT THE WSC,YOU NEED TO JOIN! IF YOU WANT A SAY ON DEBATES eg DICTIONARY, RULES, RATINGS, YOU NEED TO JOIN!

Website being updated gradually.

Committee news to come soon, but progress on all fronts.

Comments and offers of help welcome eg updating website content including
player profiles. We have two webmasters, so this is just for someone to
write up the content. This is an exciting project with the WSC coming up.
Please let's hear from some of you to support our growing team.

Elie Dangoor
WESPA Chair