INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

or related committees, the decision could have been taken much
earlier).
During the forthcoming months, I started the process of mapping
the forces within the board and the related interest-holders. I felt that it
would be useful to know which members were in favour of it, against
it or simply undecided, as it was important to uncover the power
relations and unseen realities within the board.
Of equal importance was the identification of the intentions of the
stakeholders within the governmental organizations, especially in the
Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. A meeting had been
arranged between the General Secretary of the Volleyball Association,
myself, the Director of the Department for Advancement of Women in
Sport within the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport and the
Volleyball Representative of the Ministry Education, Culture and
Sport.
The meeting took place in November 2002. The result of the
meeting was recommendation that all organizations involved were to
support the project, and each of the members gave a full report of
these recommendations to their superiors. Although it was just a
recommendation, it was the “green light” for me to start working on
this project (I was, by then, familiar with the underlying reality within
the organisations I was aware to the power of the people who were
presence in the meeting and there influence on the decision-making
processes).
Most members of the Volleyball Association had mainly one topic
that they were interested in discussing which related to the costs of the
project with assurance that it would not adversely affect the men
teams. There were questions raised about the ability to recruit enough
candidates, about the ability to raise this necessary finance from the
governmental body and from external resources (mainly the parents)
and so on. I did not receive many offers to help me with the project
from other board members. It was imperative that I find other
members to work with, but even those who were the biggest
supporters for the establishment of the boys VAYTP were quite
hesitant to become directly involved and preferred to support from a
distance (These members did not wanted to be strongly identified with
the same project for girl).
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