South Africa's request to join the EGF

[Charles Matthews]

Charles Matthews taught the game to a lot of people in Uganda - I wonder if anyone ever followed up on his work...

I have a contact still in Kampala, and heard not long ago with a request for practical help. It would be a matter of applying some resources. (Entirely in parenthesis - I turned up to a go meeting in Cambridge, also not long ago, and heard some chat about the 50th anniversary of the Cambridge club. It had not escaped me that this falls in 2015, but I would be more in a mood to bring up go in Africa than do a lot of self-congratulation back home.)

[Javaness2]

That is nice to hear Charles. This sort of thing ought to be mentioned at the upcoming IGF's AGM as an action point, or at least an item of information.

[Matti]

I just checked a flight price for a ramdom dates between Helsinki and Johannesburg and it was about 600 euro. I guess if you want to visit the 2015 Euorpean Go Congress and book the flights early, you can get an affordable price. I think it is difficult convince the EGF that a country needs to be a member if no players from the country can afford to visit Europe.

[quantumf]

I just checked a flight price for a ramdom dates between Helsinki and Johannesburg and it was about 600 euro. I guess if you want to visit the 2015 Euorpean Go Congress and book the flights early, you can get an affordable price. I think it is difficult convince the EGF that a country needs to be a member if no players from the country can afford to visit Europe.

Flights from Joburg to Helsinki in July are about $1,200. The direction is probably important - flying from Winter to Summer is usually more expensive than the other way around (even if it's effectively the same thing as far as the airlines are concerned). The websites may also be charging me more for some mysterious reason (I've heard the sites use information about you to alter the price of flights).

Players to visit Europe from time to time, just not necessarily on short notice. (In fact it turns out there is a South African player playing in the EGC this year, but his flights are for the second week, so can't attend the AGM). We don't wish to join the EGF because we intend sending large groups of players over to Europe. We just hope to improve our communication and collaboration, leveraging the possibilities that the Internet offers. If the only effective outcome is that we can participate in the Pandanet team tournament, that will be fantastic, and enough for the time being.

[DrStraw]

I just checked a flight price for a ramdom dates between Helsinki and Johannesburg and it was about 600 euro. I guess if you want to visit the 2015 Euorpean Go Congress and book the flights early, you can get an affordable price. I think it is difficult convince the EGF that a country needs to be a member if no players from the country can afford to visit Europe.

Perhaps more important that being able to afford it is the question of whether players from South Africa are frequent attendees at European events. I don't really think that they would be welcomed as members if they don't even attend currently.

[quantumf]

An update on this:

The EGF voted to decline our request to join as full members (although Russia and Israel voted in favour), but voted unanimously in favour of South Africa joining as an "observer member".

I gather observer membership this is a recently conceived concept, so I don't know too much about it. The constitution describes the requirements to be a observer, but not what an observer is entitles to or required to do on an ongoing basis. I'm putting a positive spin on this - that European Go is keen to get to know us a little better, and will evolve the nature of observer membership as our relationship evolves. I didn't think the EGF was ready to vote in favour of full membership at this point anyway, as there were still too many unanswered questions.

In the short term, it seems South African will be joining the Pandanet Team Championship event, which I'm very pleased about.

[Uberdude]

In the short term, it seems South African will be joining the Pandanet Team Championship event, which I'm very pleased about.

Glad to hear that. In League C I presume. Maybe we will play, or perhaps Victor Chow will crush me?

[quantumf]

Glad to hear that. In League C I presume. Maybe we will play, or perhaps Victor Chow will crush me?

Yes, league C. I'm probably a bit weak to make the team on a regular basis, but I'll be in the squad, and might play in the odd match. You'll be delighted to know the Victor has indicated that he will participate.

[Javaness2]

I think an observer member has no real rights at all. You cannot become a full member until you have been an observer member.

[1/7,000,000,000]

Well, it is much better than the case of Greece. We barely managed to obtain an observer status (it was like 3 votes difference). In fact, if there was only one player present in the EGF meeting instead of 2 i don't think we would have succeeded :p

[quantumf]

Well, it is much better than the case of Greece. We barely managed to obtain an observer status (it was like 3 votes difference). In fact, if there was only one player present in the EGF meeting instead of 2 i don't think we would have succeeded :p

I was actually present (via skype) and listened to the Greece discussion. I was quite surprised that the vote was in favour of granting observer status to Greece despite the fact none of the requirements as described in the EGF constitution were by the Greece request. I think that's OK, to lean in favour of inclusiveness rather than focusing on technical reasons to exclude, but it does highlight to me the fuzziness of the meaning of "observer member"

[Javaness2]

Ask on the EGF forum as to what the rights of an EGF observer member are

[Uberdude]

In the short term, it seems South African will be joining the Pandanet Team Championship event, which I'm very pleased about.

Glad to hear that. In League C I presume. Maybe we will play, or perhaps Victor Chow will crush me?

Me vs Victor Chow on IGS at 7pm GMT today! Watch me get killed

[Uberdude]

In quite a surprise I actually won! Though I played an awful yose and threw dozens of points away but fortunately managed to hold on for a half point win. PHEW! Hopefully not too many heart attacks among the observers...

[Simba]

There were quite a few heart attacks when he was filling in dame at the end then you took around two minutes to decide to fill a point in after passing the first couple of dame ...