WESPA Extraordinary General Meeting

This was reported on their latest news page On Feb 27 2021, WESPA held an Extraordinary General Meeting of its members. The motion presented at the EGM was a suite of constitutional changes, including changing references to SCRABBLE(tm) to an unbranded crossword game, and redefining the relationship between WESPA and the Scrabble(tm) trademark holders. These changes would be required to allow WESPA constitutionally to reject the lexicon changes proposed by Mattel, to remove words designated as "offensive" or "disparaging" that they do not want associated with Scrabble(tm) branded products, including the officially branded Scrabble(tm) dictionary. As with any constitutional change, the motion required 75% of votes cast in favor to pass. Votes are allocated to members according to their class of membership as indicated below. 75% of the 328 votes cast, or 246 votes, was required to approve the motion. The final tally was 156 votes for the motion, 172 votes against the motion, 35 abstentions, and 109 not present. A member-by-member breakdown of the vote is below.

Member Class Votes
Allocated		 FOR AGAINST Notes
United States and Canada (NASPA) 1 30 30
United Kingdom (ABSP) 1 30 30
Thailand (TCA) 1 30 Abstained
Pakistan (PSA) 1 30 30
Nigeria (NSF) 1 30 30
Australia (CASPA) 1 30 30
Zambia 2 15 Not Present
Uganda (SAU) 2 15 Not Present
Trinidad and Tobago (TTSA) 2 15 Not Present
Sri Lanka 2 15 15
South Africa (SSA) 2 15 Not Present
Singapore (SSA) 2 15 15
Sierra Leone 2 15 15
Romania 2 15 15
Philippines (USAPI) 2 15 15 Voted by Proxy
New Zealand (NZASP) 2 15 15 Voted by Proxy
Malaysia 2 15 15
Kenya 2 15 Not Present
Ireland (AISA) 2 15 11 4
Indonesia 2 15 Not Present
India (SAI) 2 15 15
Hong Kong (HKSPA) 2 15 15
Ghana 2 15 15
Botswana 2 15 Not Present
Malta 3 5 3 2
Israel 3 5 5
Germany 3 5 Abstained
Spain (Sayaka Kamikariya) 4 1 1 Voted by Proxy
Qatar (Prashanti Weerawardane) 4 1 Not Present
Nepal (Keshab Prasad Parajuli) 4 1 Not Present
Sweden (Greger Nässén) 4 1 Not Present
United Arab Emirates (Eric Kinderman) 4 1 1
Netherlands (Anand Buddhev) 4 1 1
Ejike Osondu 4 1 Not Present
TOTAL 472 156 172 Threshold: 246/328