CAST YOUR VOTE

Thanks for taking the time to vote for this important matter, here you have the possibility to see why some of our members offered themselves to take charge of the vacant positions.

The voting procedure is really simple: after reading their propositions, just select your candidate for each position in the bottom form and submit your vote. You will receive a confirmation mail where you can check if your vote was correctly cast. If you wish to change your vote, simply come back to this page and submit the correct one, only the latest vote will count.

If you need help, please contact: worldpoetryslamorganization@gmail.com we’ll try to fix the problem as soon as possible. Thank you

Secretary position

If I am elected as General Secretary I want to work towards strengthening the social and human values of WPSO in the name of slam poetry. To this end *_We (Board) will strengthen human and organizational relations through partnerships. _Create a dialogue plate with our states that will make it easier to obtain or process visas during the World Cup. Enable Slam promoters to be taken into account for mobility so that they can be at the end of the World Cup adventure, as some make sacrifices not only to organize but also to supervise the candidates. Set up an annual face-to-face meeting that would bring together the executive board as a family, the founding members, and the cultural promoters or organizers of national championships to work on shortcomings and new perspectives.

I am committed to profesionalize WPSO in order to assure cultural rights for poetic voices that have been silenced historically.
With the purpose of reaching our common goals as Secretary I can coordinate and follow up tasks, organize and program communications, and represent our organisation when needed.

President position

I would like to continue my work as president of ivzw WPSO aisbl, so why did I vacated the post you ask?

I thought it was important to ask for your confidence after so much internet banter was thrown at me, which you may have believed or because of which you could have questions my motives or integrity.

Essentially that negative internet campaign made us forgot to celebrate the fact that at that moment the world of slam, 36 countries from 5 continents, was united in one place, being able to meet, to talk to each other, to see each other and to spend time together.

Since 2017 with Dareka we have worked on this to make this happen. We made a promise and we delivered.

Did I make mistakes, of course. But I have learned valuable lessons.

I would like to work more closely with the different working groups than before as well as with a the past and future organisers of the championships so they can share knowledge, experience, questions….

For the rest I have been trying to work further on what I think is essential: getting our organisation known with different potential funding and sponsoring bodies and(re)building liaisons with external partners, organisations, talking to governments, the EU commission, the UN agencies, EUNIC global,…

Concretely:

I have written an application file submitted to Flanders Literature for 30.000 euro, I expect by July 15thto receive a reply on that.

I have also taken the liberty to contact VUB university for a group of interns to set up a full campaign for mecenaat / sponsoring.

I have been in touch with different international agencies with their offices in Brussels and presented ivzw WPSO aisbl.

I have a meeting with some UN representatives in Brussels on June 19th about a possible support from a department working on empowerment, emancipation,….

I contacted the cabinet of the European

commissioner for Culture, to set up a presentation meeting, but about a month ago the commissioner resigned, so at this moment, the European Commission doesn’t have a commissioner for Culture.

When next year the new commission will be installed, I will take the opportunity to present ourselves with a small representation of WPSO.

I’m also in touch with EBU, the European Broadcasting Union, to see how a possible collaboration would look like and to see who we could connect to globally. Idem with Euronews.

Furthermore, I set up the 2023 European Championships within the yearly cultural program of one of the most iconic belgian cultural houses, De Singel.

I have also been in touch with several ministers, funding agencies, cultural institutions and potential partners in Europe and Africa, more specific, Togo and South-Africa to discuss about sponsorship and organisational topics for the next editions.

If this gives you confidence, I would like to have your vote. If you think I haven’t done a good job and think ivzw WPSO aisbl should do things differently, you can vote me out and than I will leave the reigns to someone else.

I never believed in hierarchical structures, and when I entered the whatsapp group that eventually became this organization, I was happy to see and be part of a great horizontal movement, where everyone is equal and give what they can. In a horizontal organization no one is above others, and the president position is just an external interface for bureaucratic duties.
That’s why I’m here, not to be president (I’d prefer not to), but to give everyone the freedom and support to do what they can. I believe we should continue with the working groups structure, which I think is great, so, as I proposed longtime ago, I would like to have more than one person taking care of the bureaucratic stuff, so that more people know what’s to be done and more people can contribute to better decisions. I offer to take this facade position if we organize elections so that at least two other people are willing to create with me the bureaucratic group, so that communication and procedures will be smoother, easier, more open and clear; so that this organization of peers can work together towards the common goal we had when we happily joined, and so that in the future anyone can take this position knowing there will be other knowledgeable people to support and help them, and so that work will continue seamlessly.