If approved by the American Samoa National Olympic Committee membership and later endorsed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the post of ASNOC secretary general will no longer be an elected post from within the organization, but will be advertised for the community to apply, and will be a paid position.

The post of secretary general as a paid job is one of the major amendments being proposed under a draft ASNOC charter which was presented last Friday to association members for review and comment.

Samoa News learned last Friday night from members of two sports federations of the major proposed amendment under draft, which they say could “change how ASNOC operates going into the future.”

“This could be good for our NOC — having the secretary general be an appointed paid position, giving the chance to all residents of the territory to apply for the job, instead of just those within the NOC,” said a member of one of the sports federation, who asked for anonymity.

“If we are serous about improving NOC and sports programs, we have to look for changes within the make up of the NOC, instead of suggesting changes for the betterment of sports but refusing to embrace such changes,” said the member in a phone interview yesterday.

Pressed for comments and details, ASNOC president J. Victor Langkilde confirmed that the post of secretary general is "one major change” in the draft presented to ASNOC members. He says this and other changes in the draft are all part of “improving the organization... and improving [ASNOC] operations."

He first pointed out that the post of secretary general is a volunteer position, which is the same for the president and other officers of the ASNOC executive board, and all these posts are elected positions.

Under the proposed draft, “instead of having the secretary general elected, [that person] will be appointed, meaning the position would be advertised to the public [and] within the organization, and then all of the applicants would be brought forward and screened,” Langkilde said Saturday during a Samoa News interview.

The process of appointing a person to the post will also be within ASNOC, and the Oceania National Olympic Committee (ONOC) assistance will be requested on the application process.

The position would be paid with ASNOC money and it would have to be included in their budget. ASNOC gets an annual allocation from the International Olympic Committee and some of that money can be reallocated — with IOC approval — to pay the secretary general. 

Asked as to who made the recommendation of having secretary general post appointed and paid for by ASNOC, Langkilde explained that this was one of the issues discussed during a visit last year to the territory by officials of IOC and ONOC.

“Having an NOC secretary general appointed and be a paid post, is not new within the IOC. This is how other NOCs operate, not only in the Pacific region but around the world,” he said. “Some have their secretary general appointed and a few have theirs elected.”

NOCs world-wide decision on appointing versus electing the secretary general depends mainly on that organization’s needs, their work and their on-going projects which must be completed in a timely manner, he said.

“So this was a recommendation from IOC and ONOC, who discussed with us that this may be something fruitful and productive, seeing that all of our officers are volunteers, putting a lot of time into the NOC, taking away from their full time jobs,” said Langkilde, who is the full-time principal at Fa’asao Marist High School as well as working on other projects — when called upon by the Catholic Education System.

“And I’m pretty sure that in their full time jobs, their bosses are concerned with time taken away from work and this is something that needs to be addressed by ASNOC as an organization, if it can be done ,and it also puts less stress on the executive officers,” he said.

Asked if having a paid secretary general ensures that all administrative issues, duties and functions of ASNOC will be addressed on a daily basis, Langkilde said “yes” and the person appointed to the post will oversee the office, the administration, the projects, and the staff that will execute the duties of the local NOC.

As a  paid position, the secretary general — who will report to the executive board — will only be an ex-officio member of the board and no longer vote in decision making matters, as it now stands under the current charter of ASNOC.

“As a paid position, the secretary general will also be responsible and accountable to the board,” he said, adding that ASNOC members are given 30-days to provide comments on this an other issues outlined in the draft. 

(Later this week Samoa News will report on other issues from the ASNOC meeting and  the draft changes, which will be subject to IOC review and approval.)