Former International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and Confederation of Caribbean Basketball (CBC) executive Patrick Haynes is seeking to contest the post of Secretary General of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) whenever that body decides to hold its long overdue election of office bearers.
“Yes, it is my intention to make myself available for the GOA elections,” Haynes told Stabroek News in an invited comment recently.
The current Secretary General is former cycling champion and University of Guyana Lecturer Hector Edwards but it is unclear whether he will be seeking reelection.
“I’m interested in the GOA Secretary General position as I possess expert working knowledge in sports governance and international event management,” Haynes told this newspaper.
Haynes, a distinguished academic is currently an executive member of the Guyana Basketball Federation (GABF) where he oversees the general operations, including recruiting, training, and development of all members within the GABF and its affiliates.
Haynes has a wealth of basketball administrative skills under his belt.
Prior to assuming his current position, Haynes spent four years (2010-2014) as the Director of Marketing and Technical Assistant for the CBC.
He was elected the new CBC Vice President of Finance and Marketing in January 2014 at the CBC Annual Congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico where his primary responsibilities were to plan and implement programmes designed to build the CBC brand and promote the sport of basketball globally.
In his Director of Marketing role, he oversaw and administered all of the CBC’s digital marketing programmes that promoted, educated, and enhanced the brand throughout the Caribbean and Central America.
Questioned what were his impressions of the state of Olympic sports in the country, Haynes was non-committal.
“I’ll hold my comment on this question for later,” he declared.
Haynes said that he was unsure of the status of the GOA elections or when it will be held.
“According to a recent GOA dialogue, the GOA election can be as early as the end of October 2022. This is dependent on audited financials for the current cycle,” he said.
In June the GOA General Council voted 29-13 in favour of an International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommendation of a new age limit of 70 for serving members of its Executive Committee.
The ratification of the GOA’s constitution means that when the elections are held current President K A Juman Yassin will not be able to run again.
He has been GOA president since 1996.
However, elections are dependent on the association’s Audited Financial statement being completed following which a 21-day notice will be given to prospective candidates and slates.
Haynes, asked to and gave some background information on his administrative skills said: “In June 2014 at the FIBA Americas Congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico, I was elected to serve as a Special Member of the Confederation of Central America and Caribbean Basketball (CONCENCABA).
“Then in September 2014, I was appointed to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Governance Commission where I made recommendations on possible improvements to FIBA’s governance and organization; reviewed and monitored the relationship between FIBA, the Regional Offices, and its Zones; monitored the relationship between FIBA and its National Member Federations and provided advice to the Secretary General for appropriate action when requested and required.
“I was also required to monitor the evolution of the Statutes and Internal Regulations of the National Member Federations and draw up proposals for their improvement and alignment with FIBA’s General Statutes and Internal Regulations and to review applications for membership,” he added.
In his tenure on the FIBA Governance Commission, Haynes said that he worked with the commission to reform the Internal Regulations (Statutes) of the CONCENCABA, CBC and Central America Basketball Confederation (COCABA).
He also worked closely with the CBC Digital teams on the day-to-day operations of all digital assets, including the CBC logo, GuyanaBasketball.com, CaribbeanBasketball.com, Antilles3x3.com, CBC Rebound Digital Magazine and CBC Mobile. In addition, he oversees digital development, operations and content management for all CBC Championships (2011 – 2018) and Antilles 3×3 Championships (2017-2020).
In March 2019, at the CONCENCABA Assembly, Haynes was elected the Secretary General of the CONCENCABA where he oversaw the day-to-day operations of the of all governance, implementation of the Women in Basketball (WiB) and Youth Development Program (YDP) along with World Cup, Continental Cup and Olympic qualifying competitions for basketball and 3×3 basketball in both genders within the Central America and Caribbean regions. In September 2019, He was appointed to the FIBA 3×3 Commission where he was tasked with developing recommendations for improvement to 3×3 governance and organization and for the introduction of new official 3×3 competitions; provides advice on the allocation of official 3×3 competitions. He was also responsible for training, examining and implementing the requested qualification of all 3×3 officials; drawing up the text of the FIBA 3×3 Basketball Rules, draft amendments to the rules for adoption by the Central Board, and to give the official interpretation of the rules and solve doubtful cases or cases not clearly covered by the rules themselves; studying the regulations governing all 3×3 competitions and recommend changes to such regulations, monitor the state of 3×3 around the world and to make recommendations for the development of 3×3.
In his current role with the GABF, Haynes says that he has introduced 3×3 basketball and its governance programme with a strategy for players to compete at the highest international level, along with developing the GABF 2019-2027 Strategy.
As an appointed FIBA Technical Delegate and a CBC Project Manager, he is the official FIBA representative and ambassador to each assigned FIBA Basketball World Cup Americas Qualifier game, Caribbean Pre-Qualifier, and FIBA Foundation’s Social Outreach event with responsibilities of supervising the implementation of the FIBA rules, regulations and guidelines related to the event. Additional responsibilities include site visits, the preparation of the games and the venue set-up, TV production, commercial and marketing concept, media services, safety, and medical services, game officials (referees, table officials, and statisticians), anti-doping control, and event and crisis management.
Haynes was also a member of the New York University NCAA basketball team (1993-1996).
A graduate of the Vaughn College of Aeronautics, New York, USA, Haynes holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering (Honors) and a Master of Science degree in Information Systems Engineering (Honors) from the New York University – Tandor School of Engineering New York, USA.
He also holds postgraduate certificates in Business and Sports Law, Project Management, IT Enterprise Architecture, Digital Marketing and Marketing Strategies.
One of his favourite quotes is “Sport has the power to change the world.”
If elected one would hope that Haynes will do all in his power to change not the world, but the modus operandi at the GOA.
