Triathlon – Duathlon – Winter Triathlon MINUTES OF ETU CONGRESS held on Friday, July 7th, 2000 in Stein-Urmond Motel, 9.00 o'clock In attendance: ETU Executive Board: - Didier Lehénaff President - Henning Müller Vice President - Erika König-Zenz Secretary General - Robert Maasdijk Treasurer - Krzysztof Piatkowski Board Member National Federations: AUT Austria Walter Zettinig, Hubert Koenig BEL Belgium Jacques Waldeyer, Jul Cloonen BUL Bulgaria Emil Stoinev, Irena Tchoukanova CRO Croatia Goran Vrbanac CZE Czech Rep. Vaclav Marek, Marek Kavan DEN Denmark Kent Magelund, Ole Hansen ESP Spain Marisol Casado, José Hidalgo, Enrique Quesada EST Estonia Urmo Raiend, Mart Haruoja FIN Finland Pirjo Visuri FRA France Philippe Lescure, Philippe Chateau GBR* Great Britain Mick English, Graeme Kempson GER Germany Martin Engelhardt, Klaus Müller-Ott, Susanne Baur HUN Hungary Peter Czencz, Andrea Sipos, Bela Varga IRE Ireland Ron McKnight, Carol O’Reilly, Tom O’Donnell ISR Israel Joe Pickel ITA Italy Marco Sbernadori, Angelo Bonizi LUX Luxembourg Eugène Kraus MDA Moldavia Alexandr Barciuc NED Netherlands Ton de Kok, Eric Severins, Kitty van Bloois POL Poland Wojciech Szyller POR Portugal Jose Luis Ferreira, Jose Joao Teifeira RUS Russia Anatoly Korobov, Alexander Guila SLO Slovenia Klemen Zevnik SVK Slovakia Anton Ihring, Jozef Jurasek SUI Switzerland Anne-Marie Gschwend, Doris Rechsteiner, René Kissling SWE Sweden Ola Svidahl UKR Ukraine Dmitiry Kalachov, Sergiy Yatsenko Committees: - Bernd Loth ETU TC - Veronica Vleck ETU M&RC - Philippe Martin ETU DevCom - Gergely Markus ETU Event Manager Guests: - Georges Kiehl Arena - Katherine Williams Media - Raymond Dulieu and team Kjerag.com - bid committees Carlsbad/CZE/Triathlon ECs 2001, Zeitz/GER/Duathlon ECs 2002 - LOC Enniskillen/IRE/U23 ECs Triathlon * GBR: invited with voice, but no vote, as the affiliation fee had not been paid. 1 Triathlon – Duathlon – Winter Triathlon 1- Call to order and welcome: ETU President Didier Lehénaff called the meeting to order at 9:15 am. Welcome by Marianne Cals and Ton de Kok Marianne Cals welcomed the delegates on behalf of the Local Organising Committee for the European Triathlon Championships in Stein, Netherlands, and wished all the best for a good meeting and excellent races. NTB President Ton de Kok welcomed the delegates on behalf of the Dutch Triathlon Federation. 2- Apologies for Absence: Apologies had been received from Dragana Pavlovic, ETU EB member, who informed congress that her National Federation has sent her to Lausanne, to visit the first module of the MEMOS program, and she wished the congress the best. Apologies have further been received from Emile Wirtz and Phil Yarde. 3- Opening address by the President: Welcome by the ETU President. Didier Lehénaff underlined that this is a special year, given the Olympic Games and triathlons appearance there, and that the European Triathlon Championships have a special meaning for the NFs, as many will determine their slots for the Olympics. It is also an important year as the sport can grow further in the future with the tail-wind of successful Olympic debut. 4- Resignation and/or Admission of NFs ETU has received all necessary documents and the official application from the Triathlon Federation of Moldavia to join ETU. Congress welcomed the new member Moldavia. Alexandr Barciuc addressed congress with a few words about the country and the sport. 5- Register of voters and appointment of scrutineers: During Congress delegations of 26 NFs were present with voice and vote. Carol O’Reilly/IRE and Doris Rechsteiner/SUI were appointed as scrutineers. 6- Minutes of ETU Congress Funchal/POR, July 1999: The minutes were accepted by congress as presented without further discussion. 7- ETU President's report: ETU President Didier Lehénaff gave a summary of his activities over the last 12 months and summarized them under 11 points: C he was trying to conduct daily business with the SG and fellow EB members C he attended various races of ETU (Madeira, Geneva, Alanya, Stuttgart for example) C he followed the preparation of ETU Triathlon Cup series C he followed preparation of the European Triathlon Championships in Stein C he tried to follow the dossiers with regard to the staging of ECs in the future together with EB members C he followed the dossier with regard to the staging of European Indoor Championships, which is a new initiative from GER C he worked to consolidate the relation with ARENA, met with them at LEN Congress recently, and in Stuttgart at the Top 4 Tour C he investigated potential marketing agencies C he analysed the market of triathlon, as it is a moving sport and changing. It is necessary to listen to media, sponsors etc. C he met with a number of European and Non-European NFs in the last 12 months to hear other perspectives C he attended the annual congress of European Swimming League LEN, and met with FINA Pdt. Larfaoui. Didier Lehénaff finished with thanks to Arena for their long-term involvement, and to the fellow EB members. 2 Triathlon – Duathlon – Winter Triathlon 8- ETU Secretary General's report: A written report had reached all NFs with the congress documents, following points were additionally underlined (presentation attached). The question “what is ETU” occurred from the discussions with Anne-Marie Gschwend, the ITU Regional Representative Europe. The presentation covered following points: C the document prepared for marketing agencies served as back-bone for the SG presentation. Negotiations are presently on-going with 2 Marketing Agencies. Both agencies work with international federations. C The presentation was a general explanation about “what is ETU”, what is the history of triathlon and where do we stand. C Hierarchies and structures: IOC – ASOIF/AWIF/GAISF – IFs – Regions – NFs. 2 cases exist in the world of sport – federations like FIS, where regions are not existing or needed, and federations like IAAF, FINA, FIFA etc. which recognise regions. nI all cases, the NFs are members in the IF through their region. ITU: “nous ne sommes pas comme les autres” – in our case the NFs do not have to be members in the region to be members in ITU. ITU has 7 more European NFs than ETU – Andorra, Armenia, Bosnia, Gibraltar, Romania, San Marino and Scotland. The Regional Representative Europe represents something different than ETU. ETU defines its place in the hierarchy of sport, following all international structures, as Regional Organisation to help the growth of the sport in Europe. Main points to take care for : C Athletes: *raise the number of athletes; *educate the athletes that structures are existing (local, regional, national, European, International levels) *education programs: Youth competitions, U23 competitions, school competitions, international contests *ISF C Races: good-looking aspects, high quality of the races and the corporate identity are discussed C Communication: has to improve dramatically, with regard to the communication with the responsible persons in the NFs, but also with regard to the presentation on the web, internet activities and as open platform. 9- ETU Treasurer's Report: C Budget 1999: had been distributed in written to all delegates 30 days before congress. The accounting system changed since the take over from Ruud Dulmus. There is a surplus of 15.000€ in 1999. ETU HQ was equipped with new computers. Discipline with regard to payments has to be asked from all parties. C Budget 2001: it goes on the same lines as the budget 2000, is a realistic budget and quite the same as 2000. The report is unanimously accepted. 10- Auditor's Report: The Audit Report was presented to congress by the Secretary General as both Auditors have extended apologies. The report has been presented in written. The report was accepted as presented. 11- Executive Board Member’s report Krzysztof Piatkowski gave a specific information about new initiatives: an Event Commission will be called into being as well as an Eastern Europe Commission. Eastern Europe: a lot of problems do exist in these countries, the intention is to work more closely with representatives of these countries to help boost the development. Event Commission: will be responsible for calendar, good-looking aspects of the races, event organisation in general. 12- Reports from ETU Committees: Technical Committee: the report has been attached to the congress papers. Additional Information was given by the Secretary General with regard to the technical personnel and the education courses for technicians. A new education system including outside experts will be put in place, in order to guarantee that the best people are officiating at race site. 3 Triathlon – Duathlon – Winter Triathlon An integration into the international hierarchies as module system would be good, but time seems not the right in the moment. Raymond Dulieu, kjerag.com: At the end of session one, Raymond Dulieu presented the new web-site project of ETU together with his company. In this system, the National Federations will benefit from the possibility of having own web-sites, with the same features as ETU for only a symbolic price. Together with this complete reshape of ETU, a new image (logo) was presented, that symbolises the dynamic step into the new millennium and into the Olympic future of triathlon. Georges Kiehl, Arena: At the beginning of session two, Georges Kiehl from Arena International presented Arena’s policies, new developments and PowerSkin, the fastest swim suit on earth. Development Committee: the report of the Development Committee had been distributed with the congress material. Additional information was given by the Secretary General with regard to the additional slots for the European Junior Triathlon Championships via the European Juniors Ranking and the distribution of wild cards. Medical+Research Committee: Veronica Vleck spoke on the Research part. The information added included a general presentation of the work planned for the year(s) to come. Andrea Sipos spoke on behalf of the Medical part and gave an overview about the work there.