In my next few blogs I will discuss some major issues related to WMF Delegates Conference, which will be held in Odense, Denmark somewhere around 16 August 2009 (I think).
Today I thought that I should publicly introduce some ideas for motions to WMF Delegates Conference, which in my opinion would improve minigolf as a global sport. Then I looked at the calendar, and noticed that today is the last day for sending any motions (if the date of conference is 16 August), and motions can only be sent by national federations. Never mind. Life is now, so why worry about tomorrow or yesterday?
JJM’s very unofficial motion 1: Licensing of golf balls
WMF gets nearly half of its annual budget, some 40,000 EUR, from the licenses of minigolf balls. But some countries (or individual tournament organizers) are playing minigolf with a golf ball only, refusing to allow special balls in their national competitions.
This situation has caused increasing political tensions in minigolf world, most notably against USA. When minigolfers play with a golf ball, WMF loses money. Even if all adventure golfers in the world buy a WMF-licensed golf ball, their minigolf hobby generates 10 times less money to WMF than Europeans who buy hundreds of special balls to their bottomless minigolf ball bags.
But I don’t see the golf ball as a threat for the financial future of WMF. Quite the opposite, cheap and simple equipment is important for spreading the game to new countries, which are typically much poorer than the rich central European nations.
WMF member countries have some 18,000 active minigolf players, which generate some 36,000 EUR per year to WMF, by buying licensed minigolf balls. That is 2 EUR per player.
My proposed solution is: If a tournament organizer in any country wants to forbid the use of some or all WMF-approved special minigolf balls in their competition, they shall have the freedom to do so, if the tournament organizer pays to WMF 1 EUR per participant of the tournament. A national federation can also buy a license for all their tournaments of the year, by paying a lump sum of 2 EUR per active player member of the national federation.
JJM’s very unofficial motion 2: Removing WMF regulation 3.9:1.3
"Solely minigolf courses which constitute an official system of WMF (currently: minigolf, miniaturegolf, feltgolf) can be approved."
My proposal is that this regulation (about approval of minigolf courses in non-member countries) should be removed.
JJM’s very unofficial motion 3: Changing rule 4.2.1
"World / Continental Championships are held on two different of the following courses: minigolf, miniaturegolf, feltgolf, minigolf open standard. If there are no applications for such combinations, the responsible bodies can decide for other applications."
My proposal is to change the text into this format:
"World / Continental Championships are held on two minigolf courses. If there are more applications than one for a tournament, preference shall be given to such applications which offer to use other official major playing system(s) of WMF than the most recently used playing system(s) at World / Continental Championships."
JJM’s very unofficial motion 4: Players Committee
In the recent years, international minigolf politics has become less democratic and more dirty than many of us would hope.
Only 10% of our voters supported the current WMF and EMF policy of playing all major championships as a matchplay cup, without having a strokeplay champion at all (total points). 52% of our voters wished that matchplay would be never used in major championships, and 31% of voters wished that matchplay and strokeplay would be arranged side by side (either both of them in the same year, or alternating bi-annually).
Sounds like the minigolf leaders should do something about this situation. But guess what: one day I received a phone call from the top of international minigolf leadership, telling me to quit making public surveys about people’s opinions concerning the cup system.
Minigolf politics is not functioning in a healthy way right now. We have loaded too much power to the hands of too few persons. This would be a good moment to move towards more democratic leadership principles, by appointing a
Players Committee
whose membership would be reserved to 10 highest ranked minigolf players of each country. With an online voting system, the Players Committee should be consulted in all matters of minigolf rules, playing system of major tournaments, and other major policies of WMF.
Ancient Greek people invented this system: it is called "democracy". But the world is full of endless excuses why leadership should not be fully democratic, and why highest power should be given to a few persons, who then start re-electing each other to power. And somehow the will and opinion of normal people disappears totally in the process.