Dr Cliff Bertrand

The ac­qui­si­tion of doc­u­ments for ath­let­ic trav­el is the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the ath­lete. For ath­letes se­lect­ed to rep­re­sent T&T in in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion, it is the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee/Na­tion­al Am­a­teur Ath­let­ic As­so­ci­a­tion's bag. If an ath­lete is trav­el­ling pri­vate­ly, he must se­cure the nec­es­sary doc­u­ments for him­self. How­ev­er, trav­el for na­tion­al du­ty is the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the na­tion­al body. In ad­di­tion, they must spon­sor: room, board, trav­el, where­abouts, and be­hav­iour, for the des­ig­nat­ed pe­ri­od. Our ath­letes' most re­cent en­counter with visa prob­lems was the Ju­nior Pan Amer­i­can Cham­pi­onships in Flori­da. It is al­leged that an ad­min­is­tra­tive as­sis­tant from the NAAA of­fice ac­com­pa­nied some ath­letes to try and se­cure en­try doc­u­ments Cham­pi­onships but the pre­sen­ta­tion was de­fi­cient. The NAAA how­ev­er, se­cured help for one but not the oth­ers. Two ath­letes were not al­lowed to trav­el. The Bei­jing Olympic Games saw some of our ath­letes left in Lon­don. They had to fend for them­selves. The con­sulate in Lon­don in­ter­vened while of­fi­cials went to Chi­na. The same thing hap­pened on the re­turn trip from Chi­na.

The Pan Am Games saw all the of­fi­cials de­part­ing T&T on the Caribbean Air­line first flight out of Pi­ar­co to Flori­da. The sec­ond flight left with un­ac­com­pa­nied ath­letes. They were un­su­per­vised. No of­fi­cials. They had to trav­el by them­selves. What hap­pened?"

Of­fi­cials are not do­ing their jobs. Who is re­spon­si­ble? Is it the pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer? Is it the sec­re­tary? Is it the pres­i­dent? Is it the man­ag­er? Who or what is cre­at­ing this em­bar­rass­ment? The NAAA must im­ple­ment and re­fine its sys­tems of rep­re­sen­ta­tion with­in its sys­tem. Ques­tions and con­cerns are com­ing for­ward. What has be­come quite ev­i­dent is that there is need for or­gan­i­sa­tion­al struc­ture. Of­fi­cials are not talk­ing to each oth­er. They are op­er­at­ing in­de­pen­dent­ly with­in the sys­tem. Mir­ror im­age must be giv­en to chang­ing the ap­proach to han­dling na­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion. The NAAA has not lived up to its promise of what must be changed. The pres­i­dent, in his elec­tion bid stat­ed that he would run the or­gan­i­sa­tion as a "busi­ness." We have had trav­el doc­u­ment prob­lems over the years. This sit­u­a­tion must be ad­dressed. Our ath­letes have al­ways been both­ered by the in­ef­fi­cien­cy of the NAAA of­fi­cials to act in their best in­ter­est. Of­fi­cials must pay at­ten­tion to de­tails. They should not take things for grant­ed or busi­ness as usu­al. They did not check the visa sta­tus re-sin­gle en­try ver­sus mul­ti­ple en­tries of an ath­lete for CAC Cham­pi­onships ver­sus Pan Amer­i­can Cham­pi­onships.

T&T track & field teams have sur­vived many trav­el prob­lems over the years:

1. CAC Cham­pi­onships - Puer­to Ri­co - 2011;

2. Ju­nior Pan Amer­i­can Cham­pi­onships – Flori­da - 2011;

3. World Ju­nior Cham­pi­onships – Poland – 2008;

4. Olympic Games Bei­jing, Chi­na -2008;

5. Carif­ta Cham­pi­onships,T&T - 2003.

Here are some guide­lines re­lat­ed to pass­port:

1. The new pass­port rules for mi­nors make pro­cess­ing more dif­fi­cult than be­fore. (Check your pass­port of­fice for more in­for­ma­tion.)

The TTOC-NAAA will not as­sist an ath­lete by:

• Pay­ing pass­port fees;

• Pay­ing pass­port ex­pe­di­tion fees;

• Trav­el­ling to a pass­port of­fice to as­sist ath­letes;

• Pay­ing for pass­port pho­tographs;

• Pay­ing for an ath­lete's trans­porta­tion to a pass­port of­fice.

Some trav­el poli­cies rec­om­mend­ed, if not al­ready in place:

1. Ath­letes are re­spon­si­ble for their do­mes­tic trav­el lo­gis­tics and costs from home to /from venue

2. The TTOC-NAAA will be re­spon­si­ble for lo­gis­tics and costs for in­ter­na­tion­al trav­el to/from for­eign des­ti­na­tion

3. Check all trav­el doc­u­ments thor­ough­ly be­fore date of in­tend­ed trav­el

4. Af­ter of­fi­cial team meet­ing, ath­letes will be un­der the su­per­vi­sion of the TTOC/NAAA, overnight in­to ho­tel, pro­vid­ed with lunch, din­ner, break­fast.

5. The team will de­part Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port for des­ti­na­tion.

6. Team re­turn to Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port af­ter com­pe­ti­tion

7. AM ar­rival all go home?

8. PM ar­rival: To­ba­go, To­co, Ma­yaro, Ce­dros, Deep South, overnight in ho­tel. Trav­el home next day af­ter break­fast

9. Con­sid­er trans­porta­tion and safe­ty is­sues.

It is al­leged that one of our ath­letes af­ter re­turn­ing from the Pan Amer­i­can Cham­pi­onship had to sleep in the Air­port be­fore leav­ing for To­ba­go the next day. Of­fi­cials took off and left him there! Un­be­liev­able! The NAAA is sup­posed to em­pow­er and de­vel­op the next gen­er­a­tion of ath­letes. Help them to be­come the in­flu­en­tial lead­ers in the com­mu­ni­ty ar­eas of sport de­vel­op­ment. There should be a de­sire to es­tab­lish gen­uine re­la­tion­ships among ath­letes, coach­es, ad­min­is­tra­tors, and busi­ness lead­ers to im­pact their com­mu­ni­ties. To the ca­su­al ob­serv­er this does not seem pos­si­ble.