After the announcement was made at the Sport North Annual meetings in Yellowknife May 24-25, the federation still had work to do in preparation for the advent of two separate sports groups heading into the next century.

"Division was the main issue of the Hay River meeting," said Abe Theil, Sport North President. "We have to re-establish priorities, and re-evaluate each committee."

The federation is made up of four committees: programs, internal operations, games and planning. All four have now split into separate eastern and western groups, a move that Theil said had to be done.

"There was a common complaint that some volunteers were very busy and some were just not busy enough. The new framework will balance out the responsibilities equally."

In addition, the new structure of the division committee has been broken down into six-member groups for both the Eastern and Western Arctic.

"There will be three people from the Sport North board alongside three people from the territorial sports organization for both entities," stressed Theil.

The past Sport North president, in this case Jean Hinton, will have additional duties to perform, said Theil.

"We need someone with a wealth of knowledge and experience attending national meetings on behalf of the NWT," he said.

There is still much work to be done, but clearly the Sport North Federation is fine-tuning committees and providing a framework for both the East and West prior to the separation of the two entities.

The next major meeting for delegates will take place in Yellowknife in September, but Theil says each of Sport North's four groups will be extremely busy leading up to the conference.

"Each committee will be responsible for their work plan. Prior to the talks, we hope to have them completed in July and ready for our next regular meeting."