Ask the Kids!

In the previous post I argued for greater leadership from the President of ISAF, encouraging Goran Petersson to take a firmer grip of the unruly form of 'democracy' represented by ISAF Council. More dictatorship, less democracy please.

At the same, it would be nice to see more democracy too. But surely that would be having my cake and eating it, wouldn't it? Well, yes, and no. Because democracy means representing the people, and I'm not convinced that ISAF Council is doing that to any great degree. It wouldn't be too hard to revert to a bit of true democracy, by actually asking the sailors what they want.

Every time an actual sailor - someone actively engaged in Olympic campaigning - gets up to speak at ISAF Conference, their wisdom is widely applauded and well received. The fact that they know what they're talking about shouldn't really come as too much of a surprise though, should it! These are the people spending almost all the time and money at their disposal on doing this stuff, not just talking about it. So of course they know what they're talking about.

At least ISAF has formed an Athletes Commission. That's a step in the right direction. The next is to give the AC a seat on the Council.

There's another very obvious way to ask the sailors what they want. Get them to fill out an online survey.

Maybe you remember the SailJuice Survey which we conducted a year ago? We got 1488 respondents, and a good chunk of them were active Olympic sailors, but the most were weekend enthusiasts who were keen and willing enough to spend some time sharing their views. I didn't expect ISAF to pay much attention to it, although the Survey certainly send a few ripples through the Conference last year.

If you want to see the top-line figures from that Survey, they're still available by clicking through to my old and currently dormant SailJuiceBlog.

Click here for the 2007 Survey results...

Even better, the Athletes Commission went on to conduct its survey of Olympic sailors by polling all those who competed in Olympic class world championships this year. Unfortunately the data was not entirely consistent, according to AC chairwoman Marcelien de Koning, so some of the answers are not as accurate as they could be, but there are still some strong trends worth taking note of. I'll be publishing the details of the AC Survey in the next SailJuice post.

No one has yet conducted the most important survey of all yet, however, and that is to ask the kids who are competing at the Volvo ISAF Youth Worlds what they want to sail if and when they move into Olympic classes. Rather than all us grown-ups (most of us middle-aged men) surmising and claiming that we know what type of boat teenage girls might like to sail, why don't we ask them!

No survey should be treated as gospel, but it's the best mechanism I can think of for finding out what the youth sailors are thinking. It's better than not asking them at all.

I really hope ISAF takes note of this. If a blogger like me can organise a survey (cost: $20 and a few hours work) and if the Athletes Commission (full of full-time sailors with busy lives already) can organise a survey, then surely ISAF can do one too. So go on ISAF, ask the kids what they want!

QUESTION: Or am I just being naive? Should ISAF ask youth sailors what they want, or are they not old enough to know what's best for them?