President of the Jamaica Baseball Association (JBA), Uel Gordon, says the body is currently working to meet administrative requirements set by the Sports Development Foundation (SDF), in order to solicit the monthly subvention provided by the Government organisation to local sporting bodies.
Gordon said they are currently working with their mother organisation, the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA), to rectify the situation and promised the JBA will get its house in order by the end of the month
“The SDF provides funding for sporting organisations but only if you have all the requirements in place. I have not met all the requirements but I am in the process,” Gordon told The Gleaner.
“We are working with the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) accountants to set up my finances the way the SDF wants. My administration is in place but I am modifying the constitution in discussions with the JOA president (Christopher Samuda), so that it reflects the standard of the International (Olympic) Federation.
“But at the moment we get no finances from the SDF because we don’t have that in place. It is taking a little time putting things in place but I have made a commitment to Mr (Christopher) Samuda that we will have everything up and running by the end of January,” he added.
Gordon noted that the association does not get much external support and only survives off the little the JOA gives and from personal contributions from its few members.
“We have to rely on what we have and we don’t have everything in place to get the SDF funds, but we are working on it. Their (SDF) requirements are specific and we haven’t met the requirements. So I haven’t asked them for anything.
“But the JOA has assisted me, on the trip to Cuba (baseball 5 tournament) and on our coaching and development courses in Dominican Republic,” he pointed out.
DEVELOPING PARISH ASSOCIATIONS
However, Gordon not only want changes internally, he wants the association to start growing and develop parish associations to supervise activities regionally.
“What I want is for St Thomas to set up their own association. They will have their own executive and the head of the association will be on my executive. So he will be responsible for having meetings with them and reporting to us and vice versa,” he explained. “So the parishes need to get together, meet on their own until they can get more teams in their parish competitions so the membership can grow.
Currently, only six parishes participate in the sport, including Portland, St Thomas, St Catherine, Westmoreland and Kingston and St Andrew.
