Representatives of the bulk of those countries and territories - the final number is not yet fixed, but it is sure to be higher than 200 - are arriving here for Saturday’s (December 3) Special Congress to vote upon constitutional changes that will make the lately beleaguered IAAF fit for purpose in the 21st century.

And one word sums up the key challenge for the new President Sebastian Coe as he guides the organisation towards the future: transition. Tricky word that…

Shortly before the start of the athletics programme at the Rio Olympics, the IAAF Council approved a set of reforms in four key areas.

To quote from the Time For Change document in which the constitutional changes are being presented, these involve "re-defining roles and responsibilities including empowering Member Federations and ensuring stronger Area representation", "a greater voice for athletes", "a better gender balance" and "independent anti-doping, integrity and disciplinary functions".

On the subject of the governance reforms, sports lawyer Maria Clarke, chair of the IAAF Governance Structure Reform Working Group, told a press conference in Rio: "We are a multi-million dollar business, we need governance structures and practices that are clear and robust and meet international stands."

Coe added: "Today, effectively, we ratified a set of proposals that will make wide-ranging changes to the way our sport is governed. No change was not an option here. Across the four key areas I think it will make a massive difference to our sport."

Given the debacle in which the sport found itself last year, which has seen the previous IAAF President Lamine Diack placed under house arrest in Paris and subject to a French Police investigation, the first proposed change regarding the top job at the IAAF rings loudly:

"The President will continue to act as the leader and ‘face’ of the IAAF and the sport of athletics worldwide. 

"However there will be greater checks and balances in place to eliminate the ability for the President to take major decisions alone as is currently the case."

The bulk of the President’s power, used so autocratically, and then disastrously, down the years, will be devolved to the IAAF’s chief executive, a role to which Olivier Gers was appointed in August, a re-shaped IAAF Council of 26 elected members, dealing primarily with sporting issues, and a newly formed Executive Board that will have more to do with business, sponsorship contracts and planning.

Patently, the IAAF needs to reform itself; and to be seen to be doing so.

So the decision was made to gather Congress members who would ordinarily meet every other year at the IAAF World Championships to converge upon Monaco for the first time since 1994 to re-cast their sport.

The delegates will be faced with two Constitutions - the 2017 Constitution, which will enable the integrity-related reforms to be implemented, and the 2019, which will bring in the remainder of the reforms.

Crucially, according to the Time for Change document, these will be voted upon "as part of one vote". So it would appear to be all or nothing for the IAAF.

Are these changes desirable? Certainly. Are they inevitable? No.

In order to go ahead with these reforms, the IAAF requires a two-thirds majority of Congress votes. In other words, Coe and Co are looking for, at least, around 140 to 143 votes, depending on how many delegates finally show on time.

Since Rio, the IAAF President has been engaged on another global quest similar to the one he undertook in preparing his candidacy for the top job against the now senior vice president Sergey Bubka - but this time he has been touching base with as many federations as possible to seek their support for the reforms which he believes are essential for the sport.

It is a roadshow which has travelled bumpily at times. The innovations, as Coe told insidethegames, have been "received with debate".

The indications are that the reforms will gain around 160 to 165 votes. That would be enough, although Coe would no doubt prefer to see a greater number, one approaching 80 per cent, embracing his proposed new age of transparency and accountability. But if 2016 has told us anything, it is that voting predictions can sometimes be less than accurate.

It seems clear that one of the sticking points in these reforms is the element dealing with gender reform.

Of the current IAAF Council membership of 27 listed on the website, just six are women. 

In Rio, the IAAF were proposing a major step forwards in terms of gender equality with two of the four vice-presidents being female and a Council membership of 50 per cent women by 2023.

A look at the small print of the Time for Change document shows that the timescale has been eased a little further.

Full male-female parity within the 26-strong IAAF Council is not now scheduled until 2027. Until then there will be a sliding scale, starting, at the 2019 elections ahead of the IAAF World Championships in Doha, where "a minimum of seven of each gender" must be elected, and there must be at least one of the four vice presidents who is female.

It is not hard to imagine many in the predominantly male Congress membership, which reflects a wide range of cultural attitudes, wondering whether they might be limiting their own future prospects of a place in the Council by voting yes to this process.

Nor is it hard to imagine others balking at the possible limitations involved with voting for the maximum number of three four-year terms being proposed for Council membership. "This will ensure a regular rotation of Council members to bring new ideas and energy to the Council," the document says.

But then it adds, perhaps crucially: "However to enable a smooth transition, for existing Council Members, if re-elected, they may serve up to another two terms in office (i.e until 2027), regardless of the number of existing terms they have had on Council".

One of the other key modernisations envisaged will give athletes a greater voice in their sport, increasing their access to Council business and offering the biennial vehicle - tied into Congress meetings - of an IAAF Convention to voice and implement new ideas.

The voice of the athletes in all this is clear, and was clearly expressed by the IAAF Athletes' Commission earlier this week when it announced its "absolute support" for the reforms.

"In our minds, the future of our sport depends upon athletics restructuring and moving forward as one of the leading global sports, with a governing body that is accountable, transparent, robust, flexible and representative of our sport," the Commission chairman Rozle Prezelj commented in a statement.

That is a message to resonate within each and every Congress member as they consider how best to preserve their sport.

In his introduction to the Time for Change document, Coe writes: "The proposals address head on the uncomfortable challenges we have confronted over the last year as well as the promises I outlined in my campaign manifesto a little over a year ago."

As he emerged from the first day of the main IAAF Council meeting, Svein Arne Hansen, Norway’s President of the European Athletics Federation, told BBC World TV that the issue of men voting for more women "might be some obstacle, them thinking 'this is hindering me'".

He added: "Not everywhere is like Norway or Great Britain, it's not the same everywhere...but we have to get this new constitution through and I'm sure we will."

Asked at the Rio press conference to review his first year in office, Coe responded: "It’s a few days shy of my first year. It has on occasion felt slightly longer than that."

The next few days will surely feel slightly longer than that for the IAAF President as he waits for his sport to take the onward and upward path.