Appointment of Vice President, Regions (x3) + CoR amendments

[VATSIM]

Major Revision to VATSIM’s Code of Regulations

As previously announced, VATSIM is completing a major change to its governance structure with a primary goal of simplifying the organization’s hierarchy, thus bringing the membership even closer to the Board of Governors and ensuring better collaboration and alignment throughout the organizational structure.  Effective 01 October 2020,  a new revision of VATSIM’s Code of Regulations (CoR) will go into effect. This revision incorporates twenty-one amendments to the Code of Regulations, the largest single change to this document in VATSIM’s history. 

The Code of Regulations is VATSIM’s governing document which outlines how VATSIM’s leadership structure is organized and conducts business, as well as the roles and responsibilities of every member on the senior leadership team and outlines the conflict resolution process for members who violate VATSIM’s rules. 

This revision has major positive impacts on the general VATSIM member. The largest change is the consolidation of our six regions to three. This gives all VATSIM members much closer access to the Board of Governors by making each leader of these regions a Vice President with a seat on the Board of Governors. Each Division Director will now be directly supported and represented by a Vice President, meaning that the desires of our entire membership will be heard directly and more expeditiously by VATSIM’s highest governing body. 

This revision to the Code of Regulations will not remove the broad latitude that Division Directors have when running their division, but it does empower the VP of each Region to set broad goals that are in line with VATSIM’s overall goals as set by the Board of Governors, and hold Division Directors accountable to meet these goals. This means leadership by committee with input from the individual member will be the future for VATSIM.

There are a number of other smaller changes incorporated to improve and streamline our processes: for example Division Conflict Resolution Managers will now be appointed directly by the VP Conflict Resolution, with input from the Division Director. 

Change can be challenging, and we do expect some minor growing pains as we implement the new structure. However, after working on this project for over a year, we are confident that this new, slimmer leadership style will allow VATSIM to respond more quickly to the ever-changing needs of our membership and give you, our fellow VATSIM members, a larger voice as we go into the future. We are already working on ensuring that our systems are adapted for this change, and will be making various changes to our web services over the coming days to optimise them for our new way of working.

Changes to the VATSIM Board of Governors

VATSIM is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members of the Board of Governors, as the final part of the organizational leadership change.
After a thorough selection process, three candidates have been chosen to fill these critical leadership positions on the Board. Please welcome them!

 

Vice President, Europe, Middle East and Africa Region – Simon Irvine

Current VATSIM Europe Region Director, Simon Irvine, has been appointed to the VATSIM Board of Governors as the Vice President, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Simon will be responsible for all the divisions within the new Europe, Middle East and Africa Region, with Division Directors now reporting directly to him. Formerly, Simon was appointed to the position of Europe Region Director in 2019, and has also served as the Division Director of VATSIM UK. Outside of VATSIM, Simon works for British Telecom and spends his spare time on gadgets, reading and following his football team, Dundee United (albeit remotely at the moment).

 

Vice President, Asia Pacific Region – Anastasios Stefopoulos

Current VATSIM Asia Region Director, Anastasios Stefopoulos, has been appointed to the VATSIM Board of Governors as the Vice President, Asia Pacific.

Anastasios will be responsible for all the divisions within the new Asia Pacific Region, with Division Directors now reporting directly to him. Formerly, Anastasios has served as Asia Region Director for the past seven years, and has also held several staff positions across VATSIM on various divisional and regional levels.

 

Vice President, Americas Region – Federico Navarro

Current VATSIM South America Region Director, Federico Navarro, has been appointed to the VATSIM Board of Governors as the Vice President, Americas.

Federico will be responsible for all the divisions within the new Americas Region, with Division Directors now reporting directly to him. Formerly, Federico has served as South America Region Director for the past six years, and has also served as the Division Director of VATCA. Outside of VATSIM, Federico spends his spare time in the real skies, after getting his private pilot’s license in Costa Rica at the age of 18.

 

Please join us in congratulating Simon, Anastasios and Federico on their appointments to these new roles, and to the VATSIM Board of Governors.

As per the new VATSIM Code of Regulations, the remit and responsibility of each Regional VP is “to act as the Board of Governors’ representative to the various Divisions within the Region. The Vice President is responsible for activity growth, provision of ATC and ATC training."

With these arrivals come, of course, some other changes to our senior personnel. First of all, from midnight tonight and after many years of being a significant part of VATSIM’s governance structure, the VATSIM Executive Committee is dissolved and its remit and responsibilities are absorbed by the VATSIM Board of Governors. I would like to thank each and every present, and former, serving leader on the Executive Committee for their commitment and contribution to the network.

I would also like to offer a heartfelt thanks to Jackson Harding who is moving on from the Board of Governors following the dissolution of the VP Regions position as part of these changes. Jackson has been a fierce and loyal leader within VATSIM for many years, having undertaken a number of roles and supporting the network through thick and thin. On behalf of the Board of Governors and the whole community, I’d like to thank Jackson for his service and personally look forward to many more years of his guidance.

Now - there is much work to do - let’s get to it!

Gunnar Lindahl
VATSIM President

 

Edited September 30, 2020 at 11:06 PM by Nestor Perez
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