WOF Annual meeting 2024

Dates for WOF Annual Meetings

As in 2020 and 2022 years annual meeting the WOF Annual Meeting will be an online vote Annual Meeting. 
The main reason for this is that we have members from all over the world, and some members will get meeting time in he middle of the night. Therefor the WOF annual meetings all are online vote meetings.

Directly after the annual meetings, the main board will arrange open member meetings in each confederation with the confederation board and WOF committees. This is to be closer to all members and the board.
Note that each Confederation chairman is a member of the WOF board.
 

WOF Confederations Annual meetings

February 15th - 16th
Online votes + open member meeting in a month after the annual meeting. 
See your confederation annual meeting ---->

WOF Annual Meeting

February 22th
Online votes 22/2 00:00-23:59 GMT
Until February 20th the nominated persons can add and change information about them self. 
Voting forms will be sent out on February 20th. It is important that you check your association email or the contact person's email! Just to be safe, check your spam folder in case it accidentally ends up there!

Members meetings
Latest March 30th the WOF council, together with each confederation and committees organizes open members meetings.

Vote WOF President

It is two nominated as WOF President 2025-2026.
Guy Plowman and Ivan Chan.
Please read their personal information and statements below. 

Guy Plowman

Election for WOF President 

I have been the WOF president since the end of 2020 and before that spent several years as the Chair of the British Othello Federation including the organisation of the 2015 World Othello Championships. In my time as the President of the WOF, we have navigated major disruptions to normal activity due to Covid and International unrest. The Othello community remained strong through all of this and it is a central tenet of mine that the Othello world, as much as possible, remains focussed the face of external disruptions.

Ultimately, the more people that play Othello, the stronger the game becomes. The question is how best to create a welcoming environment for new players. My belief is that the best way to achieve this is to grow the game at the grass roots level. In particular, the Mongolian and Turkish federations, supported by the WOF, have shown great initiative in encouraging youth play with great success. Building on this model, my intention is to support the creation of tools (such as Flip The Disc), content (such as teaching material, educators' support packs and certification etc.) and services (a network of personal game analysis for young players for example) that further facilitate such initiatives. All of these projects are well underway working with individuals and WOF subcommittees.

Obviously, the more players we have at the grass roots level, the more players will filter through to the tournament level. This will make tournaments bigger, stronger and more attractive to sponsors.

Another, related, objective is to strengthen our relationships with licensees across the world. MegaHouse, the global licence holder and currently our kind main sponsor and the local licensees across the globe share our desire for lots of sets to be sold and we will work hard with them to do this in a way that is as mutually beneficial as possible. Success in this areas will increase our appeal to external sponsors and press interest.

Finally, I want to support the growth of tournament Othello working both with individual federations and the geographical Confederations. These organisations are autonomous and take responsibility for their own activities but the WOF is always happy to share thoughts, listen to ideas and to support in any way possible where a proposed project is in line with the aims of the WOF.

It has been a privilege serving as the President for the last four years and I hope that you will support me in building an even more successful Othello community over the coming years.

Guy Plowman

Tom Schotte
Financial manager, treasurer

Ivan Chan

Election for WOF President 

To whom it may concern,

I believe I am an ideal candidate for the position of President
of the World Othello Federation due to my extensive experience and dedication to promoting the game. As the current Chairperson of the Asia Pacific Othello Confederation and the Australian Othello Federation, I have consistently championed Othello at various levels.

During my tenure, I have collaborated closely with the World Othello Federation to successfully host numerous tournaments in Australia, including the Australian Nationals, Melbourne Open, Sydney Open, and the 2nd Asia Pacific Othello Championship. In the APOC 2024, we attracted 39 participants, including three former world champions, showcasing the competitive spirit and interest in the game.

I am also committed to connecting Othello players worldwide by establishing WhatsApp platforms and organizing online tournaments for those unable to attend over-the-board (OTB) events.

My vision for the World Othello Federation over the next four years includes strengthening our financial position through partnerships with sponsors and licensees, retaining existing players, promoting the game to new audiences, and rebranding Othello as a game for young, vibrant, and intelligent individuals. I also endeavour to support each Othello federation to promote the positive image of Othello to the wider public, especially school-aged students at schools.

With my background in governance and business management, alongside my passion for Othello and genuine care for its players, I am confident that I am well-suited for the role of President of the World Othello Federation.

Thank you for considering my candidacy.

Yours sincerely,

Ivan Chan


 

 

 

Benkt Steentoft
Secretary

The most important thing for the future is to learn from the past. WOF started in 2005 with 20 member nations. Now, we have over 70 members! To move forward, we need to work more together. WOF’s board, the Confederations’ boards, all our committees, our sponsors, the companies that sell Othello, and most importantly, all the national associations and their members. We are the Othello community. Our job is to create opportunities together so that our beloved game becomes more popular and more people find Othello fun and start playing.

As secretary, my role is to manage communication between the boards, committees, and all our members. It’s an amazing job to have! I get the chance to talk about Othello and events with all of you! In the coming years, the goal is to improve communication. There will be more news and updates for members, and more work together with the six Confederations, who are your ears and voices in WOF.

In the years ahead, we will focus on promoting our Othello community. To attract sponsors and media, we all need to work together. My role as secretary is to support and help you!

Othello is our great hobby! We all do this in our free time because we think playing Othello is so much fun. Together, we can help even more people discover how enjoyable it is!

Looking forward to fantastic years ahead for Othello!

Benkt Steentoft