AFTER the FIBA World Congress in Sevilla, Spain, FIBA’s Central Board convened its first meeting of the 2014-2019 term of office under the leadership of newly-elected president Horacio Muratore on Saturday, September. 13. Key appointments were made to complete the composition of the Central Board and its Commissions.

Guyanese Patrick Haynes who is presently the vice-president of Finance and Marketing for the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC), a Board Member of the Confederation of Central America and Caribbean Basketball (CONCENCABA) and an Honorary General Secretary for the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF), was appointed to the FIBA (Membership) Governance Commission.
As the Hon. General Secretary of the GABF, Haynes oversees the international operations, including international recruiting, fundraising and seeks to ensure GABF compliance with FIBA statutes.
Haynes also works closely with the GABF and the CBC on the day-to-day operations of all digital assets, including Guyana Basketball.com, CaribbeanBasketball.com, CBC Rebound Digital Magazine, CBC Mobile and the CBC social media.
In addition, he manages digital development, operations and content management for all CBC Championships and is a former player of the Pacesetter Basketball Club and was selected to represent Guyana as a player in the 1993 U19 Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) and was also a member of the New York University – Polytechnic Institute (NYU-Poly) NCAA Men’s Basketball team from 1994-1997.

The Membership Commission has the responsibilities for monitoring the relationship between FIBA and its national member federations and provide advice to the Secretary General for appropriate action when requested and required, monitoring the evolution of the Statutes and Internal Regulations of the national member federations and to draw up proposals for their improvement and alignment with FIBA’s General Statutes and Internal Regulations, and to review applications for membership.

While Commission members bring the knowledge, skill, and expertise from the national member federation and from the Zone from which they are drawn, they must act in a responsible and independent manner, in the interests of FIBA.

The FIBA (Membership) Governance Commission comprises of the following members:
Chairman: George Vassilakopoulos – Greece; Deputy-Chairman: Usie Richards – US Virgin Islands, Members: Abdullah Al Ansari – United Arab Emirates; Maimouna Bah Diallo- Guinea; Mabel Ching – Hong Kong, China; Terry Donovan – England; Patrick Haynes – Guyana; Jean-Michel Ramoroson- Madagascar; José Luis Saez Regalado – Spain; Giancarlo Sergi, Giancarlo – Switzerland and Burton Shipley – New Zealand.

In a release issued yesterday, the GABF extended its congratulations to Haynes; a Guyanese whom they said “has worked relentlessly for the development of basketball in Guyana from the youth to the senior level. Mr. Haynes has also played in key role by contributing in cash and kind to basketball stakeholders in Guyana”.