INTERNATIONAL WATER SKI FEDERATION Region Europe, Africa and Middle East (EAME) FÉDÉRATION INTERNATIONALE DE SKI NAUTIQUE Région Europe, Afrique et Moyen Orient

Minutes of the Region EAME Congress 29th of January, 2005 Monte Carlo, Monaco

1. Welcome by the President of Region EAME The President, Franz Kuhn, welcomes the delegates, the Administrative Committee, the Council and Commission members and especially the Honorary Members to the 2005 Congress in Monaco. He hopes to keep seeing smiles on all faces today and gives a special welcome to Kuno Ritschard, President of the IWSF. He also welcomes Alain Amade, the IWSF Vice President and the IWSF media officers, Des Burke-Kennedy and Jean-Claude Durousseaud. He also gives a very warm welcome to our friend and long time President Aubrey Sheena. Franz Kuhn thanks the French Federation for organising this Congress. It is unfortunate that there were some difficulties with the technical arrangements in this hotel, and he thinks the hotel management has to learn what a congress is about as they seem to have no technical staff. Alain Amade apologizes about the space problem that has been solved now. He explains that Prince Albert would have joined us: he was asked two years ago about the date, but then one month ago he said he could not come because he had to go to an important meeting in Davos. He will be back on Sunday night, but unfortunately everyone will be gone then. Franz Kuhn, Kuno Ritschard and Alain Amade were invited to join him at the Monaco - Paris-Saint Germain football match, but Franz Kuhn cannot join them. Prince Albert really enjoys the water ski family and regrets being unable to visit the EAME Congress. Alain Amade welcomes everybody and wishes them a good Congress and a nice stay in Monaco. Franz Kuhn gives him an EAME pennant and thanks him for his work.

2. Verification of Attendances and Voting Powers The Secretary General, Sid Adriaensen, reads out the list of Federations’ voting delegates and their assistants (see attachment) and asks to advise if anything is wrong. No remarks.

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 1 /22

3. Appointment of Congress Chairperson Franz Kuhn announces the Admincom proposes Alan Goggin (GBR) as Congress Chairperson, which is accepted with acclamation. Alan Goggin thanks the delegates for appointing him and adds that the Honorary Members are the foundation of a good building which is the excellent organisation of EAME. He greets the Honorary Members present at this Congress: Peter Pearl, Franz Kirsch, Aubrey Sheena, Kuno Ritschard, Harry De Laat and Paul Jensch. He points out that in case of fire we should follow the “sortie” signs and that the house rules are no smoking and that all mobile phones should be turned off. He requests all Federations to check their data on the Directory that was circulated and to tell Brit from the EAME Office if there are any mistakes.

4. Appointment of Scrutineers Alan Goggin appoints: Carmen Ferrer-Bosch and Gill Hill as scrutineers, which is unanimously agreed upon.

5. Opening of the Congress by the Chairperson and confirmation properly convened in accordance with Statutes Art 16 Alan Goggin says the Official Convocation for the Congress was sent out at the 23rd of October by the Office and asks if there is anybody who has not received their paperwork. As this is not the case, he now declares the Congress properly convened and opened in accordance with Statutes art. 16.

6. Approval of the Minutes of 2004 Annual Congress in Potsdam, Germany The Minutes were sent to all Federations. There is no voting against and the Minutes are taken as a true and accurate record.

7. Note items for AOB Franz Kuhn announces that point 15.3 on the Agenda will be information and a report from the former IWSF Environment Committee Chairman, Mr Aubrey Sheena.

8. Discussion and approval of Reports Alan Goggin asks if anyone has not received the reports but all have. He announces that all reports will be voted upon “en bloc”.

8.1. Report from the President ? Franz Kuhn reminds us of the loss of more than 200.000 people that died in Asia and announces that we also lost some good friends of the sport last year: Jan-Herman Johannessen, a skier, judge and photographer from Norway Giuseppe (Pipo) Buzotta, a judge and member of Italian water ski board that died last autumn. Johnny Morris, a Tournament and Barefoot British team skier and official from Great Britain and one of the first to apply jump measurement.

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 2 /22 Bill Hawley, a senior skier from Great Britain. Ernst Otto from Germany, one of the Cable Wakeboard founders. Zoltan Macach, former president of the Hungarian Wakeboard Council. Grenadis Trekanov, the former Russian Federation President and kosmonaut. All stand up for a minute of silence. ? The President remarks that during these last weeks and months new things happened that are not in his report. ? EAME has been registered, tax-free, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands since 17 September 2004. The cost for this registration was 3.000 EURO. ? The EAME Headquarter remains at the address of the President and the EAME Head Office is in Antwerp, Belgium. ? On the 1st of January 2005 the EAME bookkeeping was transferred to Antwerp, Belgium, where Sven Van De Velde will take care of it from now on. Sven is not only a professional bookkeeper and a certified accountant, but also a slalom skier. Franz Kuhn thanks Rob Tuin and Ben Groenendijk for all the work they did these last years. Rob Tuin will remain Treasurer and take care of the council budgets, the bookkeeping, paying the bills etc. All the documents will now be centralised in Antwerp and Rob Tuin will go to Antwerp if his help is needed there. ? The EAME Finances are in good order. The Honorary Auditor says in his report that we have a surplus on the budget. You will hear more details from our Treasurer, Rob Tuin. ? It has always been a problem that the Chief Judges have to pick up the late entry fees as they already have a lot to do. So it was decided that it is now up to the Organiser to pick up the late entry fee, and that he receives 50% of that fee. ? In Tournament the name of “Dauphins and Juniors Championships” will be changed to “Youth Championships” with categories Under 14 and Under 17. ? Three titled events received doping control (Under 21 in Sweden, Tournament Seniors in France and Tournament Open in Italy); all results were negative, which is good, but the President thinks there should be more tests done. Marie-Anne Persoons remarks the Cable Juniors and Dauphins Championships were also controlled. Franz Kuhn requests notifying the Admincom of such information. ? The Chairman of the Hall of Fame Election Commission, Günther Ludwig (GER), will change the persons in the commission: Peter Pearl will retire. Franz Kuhn thanks Peter for his work in the Hall of Fame Election Commission and says he understands it’s not easy to leave all the people you know. Harry De Laat will the new member in the Hall of Fame. ? The President announces we had 1.004 medals in titled events in 2004! Only a 100 medals were returned, that is only 10%. So we are not a small federation! The medals that were returned can be re-engraved so they are not lost. ? The manufacturer of the EAME clothing did some business with us in the first year, but in the last year he didn’t receive any orders, so he stopped the internet shop. You can now only order by fax and delivery will take longer. We are looking for a new manufacturer. ? 2004 saw many changes in the Federations. There are many new Presidents, and many left. The new President for Greece is Mrs Depy Papadimitriou: she replaces Mr Ioannis Iomakis. In Switzerland Mr Peter Frei replaced Mrs Eliane Borter. In Sweden Mr Per-Otto Waern replaced Mr Gunnar Bergstrom. In The Netherlands Kerst Koeze replaced Rob Tuin. In Italy Silvio Falcioni replaced Roby Zucchi. will hold elections next Sunday to replace Mr Darko Macan who has retired. In Great Britain the executive officer, Gill Hill, was replaced with Mr Gavin Kelly. Franz Kuhn wishes the new Presidents good luck and hopes for a good co- operation and thanks all former presidents for their good co-operation.

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 3 /22 ? In his 3 years as President Franz Kuhn feels his work with the Councils was his most important job. The Councils’ problem is to have the right members, but he feels we can make it work, and thanks the Councils for their work. ? Alan Goggin points out how much Franz Kuhn travels and works to represent EAME and asks for a round of applause for him. ? There are no comments to his report.

8.2. Report from the Secretary General ? Sid Adriaensen announces from 2007 on everything will be distributed by e-mail. ? He points out that we are looking for a big organiser for the 2007 Congress because that will also be the 60th anniversary of EAME. ? He regrets that in 2004 the IWSF had no Executive Board meeting because EAME would have liked to have it’s input there. A two year interval is too long. Sid Adriaensen states EAME wants to help the IWSF as much as possible. He asks the Federations to send in their IWSF application form if they haven’t already done so in order to keep our EAME voting power in IWSF. ? As requested by Alan Goggin, Sid and his office is applauded to for all the work they do. ? There are no comments to his report.

8.3. Report from the President of the Barefoot Council ? Alain Le Gac says 2004 was marked by wonderful results for the EAME Region. The British skier David Small won three gold medals at the Worlds and set two World records in the Tricks and Jump events. The young South African skiers, André Devillers and Sam Henrich broke Junior World records in all events – Jump and Trick for Devillers and Slalom for Henrich. The French team took the bronze Overall medal at the Worlds. He thanks all these skiers. ? Thanks to the energy and dedication of our officials, coaches and volunteers we hope 2005 will be a great year for our Region. The Republic of South Africa will host the Junior and Senior World Championships in April. We are absolutely delighted that such a big country in our sport welcomes our Barefoot athletes. Then there will be the in Duisburg/Germany. ? In order to develop Barefoot water ski, we will keep supporting a project that really matters to us: the Coach Clinic, organized by Hilmar Wehner. ? Our other challenge is to find skiers from other countries. We need the support of our Federation to make Barefoot more popular, so do not hesitate to contact us. ? There are no comments to his report.

8.4. The President of the Cableski Council ? Marie-Anne Persoons announces that Jean-Marc David from Reflex Company/ France will later on give a presentation of the Twins, a new set of two ski’s that will never be a mono ski item. This development is similar to that in snowboarding and snow skiing. These skis will be very good for Cableski to start people skiing on two skis, just having fun on the water. It’s perfect for 30 km/h cable and will make a wider basis for skiers to grow into competition skiing. ? She wants to add one thing to her report. At the end of December the Cable Council received a letter from the Belarussian Federation: this letter was also sent to all Federations involved in Cableskiing. The letter states that Cable skiing is in a crisis. It gives no positive or constructive suggestions, only criticism to the way we work. Our Council was very disappointed by this but we will discuss this letter in depth tomorrow and, if necessary, in our March meeting and try to learn from it.

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 4 /22 ? Her report is approved without any comments. ? A presentation of TWINSKATES is given by Jean-Marc David from Reflex France (see attachment). ? He claims that this fusion between water ski and wakeboard could help water ski to become a mass market sport again. It costs about 390 EURO. It’s a natural sport, something you can do immediately. It can be used on cable ski and on sliders. ? Alain Amade comments some people just like to ski on the water and that the old skis don’t fit the market and that these new skis are a good improvement. ? A Barefoot Council member comments that such skis already exist in Barefoot, just a little smaller. ? Alain says people try wakeboard but that doesn’t work very well for them; then later they come back to trick ski because that’s easier when you’re older. This seems to be happening in many clubs.

8.5. Report from the President of the Council for Disabled ? Philippe Turchet was glad more people than ever before attended the Disabled Seminar in Antwerp. ? He also wants to thanks Croatia for their hospitality at the cable site of Krk. ? He announces the unfortunate news that Lill Fitzpatrick resigned from the Council because of personal problems. He asks to applaud Dany De Bakker, who will take her place in the Council. ? The European Championships in the Netherlands were incredibly sunny which was fantastic and the performances were great. ? His report is approved without any comments.

8.6. Report from the President of the Racing Council ? Luis Mussach thanks all Federations involved, mainly Austria that made a big effort last year and can now be compared to Great Britain and Belgium and other ones that are very strong. He also thanks South Africa for the efforts they make. ? The Racing Council tries to be in contact with all EAME countries and they are sorry to have almost lost two of the most important countries, France and Italy. They really want to help any Federation that wants to join them and a written invitation will be sent to all Federations this year. ? Alan Goggin points out that the World Racing Championships will be held in the EAME Region in 2005, in Hunstanton, Great Britain. ? There are no comments to his report.

8.7. Report from the President of the Tournament Council ? Stefan Rauchenwald wants to draw attention to the 10th anniversary Seminar that will be held in Munich again, where it was started. He thanks his colleagues of the Tournament Council and adds that’s it’s easy to be a chairman when you have the right people with you. He also thanks the President and the Secretary General, and all the others from the presidium that helped them very much. ? Des Burke-Kennedy asks what a “specialist” class judge is. Stefan Rauchenwald explains smaller Federations say it’s difficult to get results on the Standing List or the Ranking list and that it’s expensive to get judges from abroad. These Federations have people who are interested in judging certain events in . So there will be specialised fourth class judges for slalom and jump - not for tricks because that needs more expertise. This will be discussed in the Tournament Council meeting tomorrow and everyone will get more information from

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 5 /22 the Minutes and the changes to the Additional Rules. A similar proposition will be made by the World Tournament Council. ? There are no more comments to his report.

8.08 Report from the President of the Wakeboard Council ? Alain Nieles explains that Natalia Garcia, due to personal problems, had to be replaced as council secretary by Claes Scheffer from Sweden, whom Alain officially welcomes. ? His report is approved without any comments.

8.09 Report from the President of the Cable Wakeboard Council ? The Council’s Secretary General, Varna Laco, says it has been a great year for Cable Wakeboard. There were the EAME Championships and the European Tour with 4 stops, 12 Nationals and 5 National Tours. ? Franz Kuhn mentions Hans Otte has had a very hard year in 2004, and 2005 will be the same. He has been to a lot of Cable Wakeboard m eetings and saw all the work Hans Otte did last year, and thanks him, and asks him to stay on as Council President. ? The report is approved without any comments.

8.10 Report from the President of the Medical Commission ? Dr. Benassa’s report concentrates on the protocols to prevent doping and how to correctly apply, on a national or international level, for an exemption due to a medical condition that requires using medication that contains “prohibited” substances. ? The forms to ask for these exemptions and a complete list of these substances and further information is downloadable from the anti doping site at www.wada- ama.org. ? Alan Goggin stresses the importance of this issue so that Water Ski can keep presenting an image, to the governments and to the sponsors, that is not tarnished by the use of drugs. ? Gill Hill says this information should be sent to every Federation - all agree. ? Peter Pearl says it’s very important to have pre-notification now and that this is long overdue. ? There are no further comments to the report.

8.11 Report from the President of the Environmental Committee ? Henrik Kielland thanks Tony Green, the Committee Secretary, Ivar Fosse and Adolf Marx for their great effort and invaluable work. Each Federation has received the Environmental Baseline Data Survey; he stresses this list of questions is needed to receive information from the Federations and that it is very important for the Environmental Commission to establish meaningful planning and strategies for their activities on behalf of all EAME Water Skiing Federations. ? Sid Adriaensen wants to stress the importance of this: environmental issues will become very important for water skiing. New regulations are in the “pipeline” of the European Union that are not very good for us, so please fill out this form. ? There are no further comments to this report.

8.12 Report from the Representative of the Coaches Subcommission (CSC) ? Jean-Michel Cau reports the Seminar in Minsk was very successful and he thanks the Belarussian Federation, also for the live translation into Russian.

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 6 /22 ? Regarding the EAME Coaches Qualification he states that each country has it’s own rules and standards. The European Community rules are so difficult that the Subcommission can only help each Federation to make their own rules. ? He suggests organising a large Seminar in the future with a lot of basic knowledge and specialities for everyone that has a general interest in Cableski, Wakeboard or Barefoot or other specialities. ? The “Coaches Development Seminar” will be the new name, instead of “Coaching Seminar”, because the commission is working towards the development of knowledge, and they are not representing the Coaches. ? He says they are looking for a host country for the 2006 seminar; the seminars are in French and English, and the host country language can be represented. ? There are no comments to his report. By request of the Chairman all reports are approved of and accepted by show of cards “en bloc”. The reports are approved without further comments.

9. Financial Report 9.1. Presentation of the Accounts up to 30 November 2004 ? Alan Goggin thanks Rob Tuin for his hard work. ? Rob Tuin presents the accounts up to 30 November 2004. He remarks to the balance sheet that the Admincom decided that Racing Equipment will no longer be collected from the countries, but from the budget of the Racing Council. ? In the Debtors column there was 57.000 EURO last year, now it’s around 44.000 EURO. Hugo Engelen, the Honorary Auditor, remarks in his report that this is a lot of money, and Rob Tuin agrees. But that is because the Councils have to discuss the homologation fees at their November meeting before the invoices regarding those homologation fees can be send out by the end of November. Meanwhile this 44.000 EURO has been reduced to 22.000 EURO in the previous week and Rob Tuin thanks the Federations for this. ? For the subscription fees there is 65.000 EURO in the budget; we invoiced 69.000 in 2004 because we had more countries and more votes in every country. ? Regarding Penalties, Entry Fees and Sanction Fees: last year we had more competitions and more skiers in them, that resulted in more entry fees and that is why we now have a surplus. And when you have more competitions, you also have more Homologation Fees. ? Also in 2003 we sent some invoices quite late, so that added up in 2004. ? The Racing Council decided to make a racing licence and EAME gets a 50% profit on that. ? Administration expenses: the budget was 31.000 EURO and we only spent 24.000 EURO. ? We are finding out exactly what our insurance covers and we will come back on this next year. ? What wasn’t spent on the budget for promotion will be taken to 2005. ? We budgeted only 1.000 EURO for Bank Charges, but then we made the decision to transfer all the money from Switzerland to Amsterdam. So there was a cost involved for exchanging SWFR to EURO, but we get better interest rates in Amsterdam. ? What the Councils did not spend is kept in the balance sheet now, as was discussed last year. The councils can spend that money in the next year. ? Our budget is always around 140.000 EURO.

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 7 /22 ? For the record Peter Doorgeest asks for an explanation about the expenses for Cable Wakeboard expenses in a 2003 when they weren’t a Council yet. The Cable Wakeboard Council will discuss this in their meeting tomorrow. The accounts of 2004 are accepted without exception. Rob Tuin is applauded for his very comprehensive report.

9.2. Professional Auditor’s Report ? The report of Arenthals & Partner, Amsterdam (NED) is approved.

9.3. Honorary Auditor’s Report ? Sid Adriaensen asks to excuse Hugo Engelen (NED) because of his mother’s funeral today. ? Hugo remarked that we had less of a surplus in 2003 when we made the donation to the Hall of Fame in the USA. Besides that, over the last couple of years there is a healthy structural surplus. ? Franz Kuhn comments that Hugo Engelen wrote some debts are not recoverd. Franz Kuhn calculated this amounts to a total of 4.700 EURO that might be difficult to bring in indeed.

9.4. Moving of bookkeeping to Antwerp ? Rob Tuin explains that at the time he took over the job of the bookkeeping from Aubrey Sheena seven years ago, he was also President of the Dutch Federation. Ben Groenendijk worked at the office and did the bookkeeping. Rob Tuin is no longer President of the Dutch Federation and the new board of the Dutch Federation asked him to move the bookkeeping to another place by the end of 2004. He thanks the Dutch Federation for their support and especially Ben Groenendijk for doing the EAME bookkeeping for all those years. ? In the Admincom Meeting of November it was decided to move the bookkeeping to the Antwerp Office. That way the Secretary General, all administration and bookkeeping will be in one office and that will be more professional. ? At the beginning of January Rob Tuin went to the Antwerp Office with the Dutch accountant, where he talked to their professional accountant, Sven Van De Velde, and Rob has a good feeling he will do a good job too. Brit will also be involved in the bookkeeping. ? EAME is now registrered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The regulations in The Netherlands stipulate that you then also have to adhere to some of The Netherland’s bookkeeping rules, and this will still be done by Rob’s bookkeeper in The Netherlands. He will control the Admincom budget and our bookkeeping like he has done the last seven years. ? Rob Tuin will remain available for any help to Sid and Sven and is glad this move was made.

9.5. Appointment of Professional Auditors ? Rob Tuin recommends Mr Naninga, who used to work for Arenthals but who has now moved to another company. ? Vote carried.

9.6. Appointment of Honorary Auditors ? Hugo Engelen is prepared to continue this year as Honorary Auditor. ? Vote carried.

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10. Admission of new members and resignation of members ? Franz Kuhn stresses it’s a very important issue that Federations come and go. Qatar joined us in the summer as our 44th EAME Federation and started immediately with a World Cup. Franz Kuhn welcomes the Secretary General of the Qatar Marine Sports Federation, Mr Sami Abu Shaikha, who then addresses the Congress. ? Mr Shaikha thanks the President and the Congress and says his Federation feels honoured to be accepted as a full member. They committed themselves for this year and the year after and hope to host the World Championships in the future. His Federation is welcomed by an applaus. ? In the new political situation Yugoslavia doesn’t exist anymore and there were no more connections with the former Federation there. A first connection with some Serbian riders was made in Austria at the 2004 Cable Wakeboard Championships, a discipline that is very popular in Serbia. Hans Otte visited them in spring to look for possibilities. Franz Kuhn’s contact in former Yugoslavia, where there are eight water ski clubs, is Dr Bruno Fekete. All documents and declarations are now in order to make Serbia Montenegro the 45th Federation of the EAME Region. And Mr Fekete is here to address the Congress as President of the Water Ski & Wakeboard Federation of Serbia & Montenegro. ? Mr Bruno Fekete explains that there were many problems after the disintegration of the state of Yugoslavia. All sorts of political and cultural sanctions were imposed on Serbia Montenegro. They tried to reach EAME and the IWSF but at that time that proved to be impossible. In 1998 they could only send eight skiers to the National Championships. A new Federation, YUWSA, was formed by people devoted to water skiing. They worked very hard and had more than 45 skiers with results at the 2002 National Championships. In 2003 the new Wakeboard Federation was established. They are now working together as the Water Ski and Wakeboard Federation of Serbia and Montenegro and promoted the sport through television broadcasting, also in schools. They have eight water ski clubs, six wakeboard clubs and two cable clubs that are all well organised with good sites where competitions can be held. He reminds the Congress that in 1982 the European Championships were held in Belgrado, with great skiers like Patrice Martin and Mike Hazelwood, and that his country has lots of lakes and potential sites. They now need our support and knowledge, and the recognition of their results to motivate them, so they hope to become a full member of EAME. ? Franz Kuhn thanks Dr Fekete and asks for a vote to let the Water Ski and Wakeboard Federation of Serbia and Montenegro join EAME. The vote is accepted unanimously. ? Franz Kuhn spoke to a lot of enthusiastic people at the African Championships in Johannesburg and he thinks Louis Polome will agree there is a lot of work to do there, and a lot of possibilities. There are contacts with Morocco, Botswana, Tunesia, Swaziland (this is in central South Africa but an independent country) and Ruanda. ? During their stay in the United Arab ian Emirates Sid Adriaensen and Franz Kuhn noticed a lot of people are interested in our sport there. The President thanks Sami Abu Shaikha (QAT) and Jassem Al Derbi (UAE) for the work they do in that region. ? Other Federations seem to be no longer interested in being a part of EAME: they didn’t pay their subscription. They will be addressed and get a last chance. Their situation will be decided upon at the next Admincom meeting in May.

11. Statutes changes - as circulated ? No changes.

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12. Bye-Laws changes - as circulated ? Sid Adriaensen explains that there was a small change to item 4.5.1.7, were the wording was changed. ? In the Appendix A (Voting Powers) : in the list of the qualified events the “EAME Youth Championships” were added to the “EAME Junior & Dauphin Championships”. ? New qualified events: EAME Senior Championships for Barefoot and Cableski. ? There are no questions and the changes are accepted unanimously by vote.

13. List of Obligations - as circulated. Sid Adriaensen explains there were few changes, but the complete and updated document was circulated to everyone and some tidying up was done. For example results will no longer be sent out but put on the Internet etc. The major change was that the Organiser should now collect the late entry fees, instead of the Chief Judge. The money received will be split 50/50 between the Organiser and EAME. Approved.

14. Guidelines ? No changes.

15. Report from the IWSF (moved to after lunch) ? Alan Goggin welcomes the IWSF President, Kuno Ritschard and Vice President, Alain Amade..

15.1. The President ? Kuno Ritschard requests all Federations once more to send in their Affiliation Membership Form, as official signatures from the Federations are needed to formalize the registration of the IWSF in England. ? Two weeks ago a four-year plan was sent to all Federations. The Federations can request certain action points to be put in this plan that will be discussed at every World Congress. The deadline is around May. ? The Congress in China will be held – as usual - during the World Championships but this year the competition will be stopped that day at 14.00 hours to give everyone the chance to be present at this Congress. This is done to prevent that very few delegates from the Federations can attend the Congress, as was the case last year in Florida. ? Chosen from nominations from the disciplines, the Members of the Executive Board elected Jaret Llewellyn (CAN) and Emma Sheers (AUS) from Tournament as male and female athlete of the year. There was some remarks from the Chairmen of the disciplines that Tournament is favoured too much in these elections: maybe another system should be adapted in the future to show all disciplines they really have the same chance Tournament has. ? 2005 will be a very busy year with seven World Championships, six of which are being organised by countries of the EAME Region. The Wakeboard Championship

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 10 /22 will be held at the same time as the Moskow City festival and this will a great opportunity for Wakeboard and for IWSF to present themselves in Moskow. ? The World Championships in Tanjin, China, will be held at same site as the University World Championships. There will be many spectators and a lot of television coverage on the Chinese national television, and we will work to get coverage from other countries as well. Kuno Ritschard invites everyone to come to China because it’s an unusual experience and there are beautiful and exceptional places to visit. ? A year ago, under the leadership of Andy Mapple, the World Water Ski Pro Federation was founded. Athlete organisations never worked before but this time it’s been taken very seriously. All top world athletes are member of World Water Ski Pro. Andy Mapple, who knows our sport very well, is doing a great job for the athletes, by organising events in the USA, by working with IWSF, for the World Cup and for rules for the World Cup and for special rules concerning the athletes etc. Mapple will hopefully make a presentation at the World Congress. ? Sid Adriaensen mentioned there was no Executive Board meeting last year. Five very active members of the Bureau had a meeting at the Wakeboard World Cup Stop in France. They are in daily contact about what is going on in the IWSF and that is why they felt an Executive Board meeting was not necessary this once. Also because of the financial situation of the IWSF they decided to meet in China, rather than have another meeting which would involve costs for all 21 members. But Kuno Ritschard stresses this was an exceptional situation and one meeting should be held every year. ? 2005 is a World Games’ year. The World Games will be held in Duisburg which means that for the first time they will be in the middle of all the other events. The organiser in Duisburg will also host the Cable competition, but this is an exceptional situation because normally no organiser has a Cable site so close to the other venues. ? The disciplines have finalised their selections and the Federations will be informed. Kuno Ritschard requests the Federations to confirm the presence of their athletes or of their replacements as soon as possible. ? The IOC is supporting the World Games. The National Olympic Committees (NOC) have been advised to support the athletes who are selected for the Games with travel costs and equipment. But not all NOC accept the athletes we propose and the Federations should be aware of this problem. For the it’s the NOC exclusively who decide on this matter. This problem will be discussed at the World Games Congress in May in Berlin. ? The Mediterranean Championships in 2010 will be held in Italy again. The Italian President promised to support our participation to the CONI (Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano). Alain Amade and Kuno will try to talk to the Algerian President of the Med iterranean Committee to ask for his support. It’s very important that all countries connected to the Mediterranean Championships should speak to their NOC to ask them to support the participation of Water Ski and/or Wakeboarding. ? Thanks to all the promotional work done by Andres Botero, Graziano Tognala and Depy Papadimitriou, Greece proposed Water Ski as the only sport for the Olympic Games in Athens. But the IOC allowed no new sports in Athens. Their President, Jacques Rogge, has a very clear concept of how the future Olympics should be handled and he wants to keep the number of sports at the actual 28. There is so much money involved in being part of the Olympic Games that it will be very hard to get in now, as another sport will have to go out first. Jacques Rogge has started an evaluation of all recognised olympic sports by sending a questionnaire to the Federations and to the NOC. So the NOC have to answer questions such as: Do

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 11 /22 you have a Federation in your country and does it have a development program ? Are there National Championships ? How is the television coverage of these Championships ? How many spectators attend them ? etc. etc. The Olympic rules state that only sports that are widely practised in 75 countries of the world are allowed to join the Olympic games. We did present a list of 92 member Federations, but 30 of those only exist on paper. So the results from the NOC questionnaires probably was that only about 50 countries have water ski, and only a few of them have good tv-coverage or a serious development plan etc. We are now perhaps n° 9 or 10 on the list of sports that want to be in the Olympic Games, and the others like rugby, golf, karate are all better organised and wider spread over the world, so it will be a long wait. ? The program of the Olympics has to be published seven years before the actual Games, so the next evaluation will be for 2016. ? One of the main criteria of the Olympic Committee is television coverage, so this still gives Water Ski a chance, as one of the big aims of the World Cup is exactly this wider television coverage and broadcasting. But the people from television want to show an attractive, spectacular, dangerous sport to interest their public. ? Des has prepared a small presentation of what we did last year and what we are trying to do. It’s not easy to find organisers for our events. We are looking for downtown locations, but they often have a backwash problem, or bad water or other problems. To properly run a World Cup Stop you need 500.000 US $ for a weekend, which is a lot of money to be found for an organiser or a city. ? Des Burke-Kennedy says he has been involved in water skiing for 40 years but he thinks 2004 was the most interesting year, and that we don’t fully realise our own potential. ? We don’t have a head office with 200 people in it, we don’t the 4.000.000 dollar budget karate has; we just have one man in Switzerland! He has clocked up more miles than anyone Des has ever worked with. ? We need specialists, talented people who have experience and a good focus on what the objective is. Our focus is mainly on television and media because water skiing shouldn’t remain the world’s best kept secret! It’s all about raising the profile of water skiing so people will actually be there watching our athletes. To do this, we have to find downtown sites. Such sites have vertical walls around the edge, which results in backwash problems, but they can be solved. In Moomba, Melbourne for example, a long structure is put in every year. Des asks everyone to be an ambassador of his or her country for such sites. ? The World Tour started in Enghien (Paris) on a magnificent piece of water that could be used for water skiing as an exception. The full Master Craft’s sound system was set up and all the banners, and there were 14.500 persons there to watch the finals, standing room only. Some of the world’s best athletes were there. The organisers piped the sound of the competition down to the village; this is a very novel idea, we could do this at many events. ? On the next stop, on the Volga river, just outside Moscow in Dubna, Russia we were provided with a team of multi-linguist students to overcome the language problem. A special judges’ tower was build and there was a wonderful opening and closing ceremony. A lot of excited spectators that were cheering their lungs out. There were 6 or 7 television camera crews there. ? In London (Thorpe) we couldn’t put together a full World Cup event. We ran a slalom event on a perfect slalom lake, just not our downtown concept. It was the retiring event for Andy Mapple. Sunshine and blue skies, better than the south of France, resulted in fantastic photographs that have gone around the world since then in press releases. The prize-giving ceremony was co-sponsored by a

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 12 /22 company that does action holidays; this might give you some ideas about finding a sponsor in your own country! ? China was an awesome experience. The location of our site was a mixture between old and modern China. There was beautiful signage on the streets and 1 km of signage and backwash system along the site! In spite of strong winds we had good championships and finished the program that went live on television to 200.000.000 spectators. Des congratulates the organisers that did a fantastic job. ? Singapore gave us access to a fresh water reservoir. We had a whole week of press conferences beforehand, so the whole city knew about it. Everything was very well organised, including a complete medical centre. There were 14.500 spectators. Singapore wants to make its name through sports and that opens doors for us. A Chinese athlete won the competition – we couldn’t have “rigged” that any better ! It was great for publicity. ? In Qatar there was magnificent bay there with beautiful buildings built along the bay, where the water was flat and calm. For the first time ever we had to bring in a jump ramp. Also Patrice Martin taught 300 Qatarians how to ski over the 3 or 4 days we were there, as part of our public relations’ program. Des thanks Sami Abu Shaikha and the whole team of the Qater Marine Sports Federation for doing a fantastic job. There was very strong signage there too, listing all the stops around the world. ? So the objectives that we reached here are: downtown sites, a lot of television coverage / media exposure and large crowds. ? Part of the strategy to achieve this in 2004 consisted of press releases that were sent to 13.500 individual organisations, companies and sports’ editors in a 192 countries. ? We also sent a compilation of 2,5 minutes of foot age of an event to 1.000 television stations so that it can be broadcasted at the end of the news (Reuters: 1.000 affiliates in 96 countries and European Broadcast Union: 300 stations). Eurovision Geneva was impressed with the image quality and by the fact that the supporting text arrived almost in real time. Most channels use this material if local athletes are involved. ? Another tactic is making a 26 minutes tape of each stop that can be sent to any broadcaster that asks for it. ? Going out live is another excellent way of gaining publicity, of course. ? Advertisement can generate a lot of money and we’re not small players in that respect. There is a lot of potential because we can reach large crowds; we need to get the sponsors interested. ? Our weaknesses are that only a small number of people put a lot on the line to get all the work done. Also we still need to find a title sponsor; right now we can only just break even at the end of each stop. Furthermore there is a huge shortage of downtown sites. And many athletes are not as good as they could be in dealing with their host and the media etc, maybe we could give them media-courses. And we don’t seem to have the right contacts for fund raising - we need help with this! ? For 2005 we have plenty of Wakeboard Stops, but we are the International WATER SKI Federation, we need to keep a balance. ? We have no World Cup Stop in the USA and we need to change that. And countries like Gabon, Malaysia, Rwanda in Africa provide new possibilities because they want to improve their image. ? There is a total in prize money of 1.000.000 USD for 2005! That has never been done in water skiing before.

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 13 /22 ? We hope to make a contribution to athletes’ travel costs so that athlete’s that end on the 5th or 6th place don’t have to go home broke. ? Des Burke-Kennedy then presents the planned World Cup Stops for 2005. ? He ends his presentation by thanking Kuno Ritschard for all the work he does and asks to give him an applause. ? Kuno Ritschard stresses once more that, in spite of the impressive figures that are attainable with advertising, it is very difficult to find sponsors. Also the target for the World Cup is 10 stops and we are up to seven now for 2005. ? The IWSF President thanks Jean-Claude Durousseaud, who created the basics of the World Cup idea, and Des Burke-Kennedy for all their work. He also thanks Colin Hart for handling Wakeboard business and Bob Corson for being the athletes’ contact. ? He is confident we can achieve a place as a big sport in the world.

15.2. The IWSF Vice-Preside nt from EAME ? Alain Amade points out that not many of us can imagine all the work that is behind the organising of the World Cup and thanks Kuno Ritschard and Des Burke- Kennedy for all their work and for bringing in their reports in time. ? He then explains that the World Games are now recognised by the NOC and that they are a gate opener to the Olympics. The IOC will make a survey of all the sports in the World Games. Those that get a lot of television coverage and that have a lot of spectators have a chance to enter the Olympic Games in the future. ? He is a member of the NOC and went to many of their meetings, but we are probably the last sport who gave them the rules or the number of riders and skiers that would be sent to the competitions. This information should be made available before the NOC makes it’s selection. ? Kuno remarks that these are his first World Games and that changes might have to be made regarding the selection criteria to make it possible that the selection is made at an earlier stage. ? Colin Hart says the Wakeboard Rules were made in October 2003 and submitted in June 2004. Furthermore the Federations were asked to send in a list of riders and Colin is disappointed only five riders were submitted and that some Federations didn’t even respond. The World Wakeboard Council was forced to make their own selection. ? Peter Doorgeest thinks that we, as EAME, should decide that our pick of riders comes from the European Championships, according to our standards. Then the Federation goes to the NOC and presents this selection to compete in the World Games. Some countries are ignorant – they think they can select riders better than EAME, saying only the first four places on the European level can compete. So at the World Games only four or five riders can compete. The Dutch Federation could not change the mindset of their NOC, that did not support the EAME list. The Dutch Federation even offered to pay the travel costs of their athletes but that didn’t help either. He asks Kuno to give them support in this matter. ? Kuno Ritschard replies the other sports of the World Games have the same problem. He doesn’t mind sending a letter but he thinks the only way is going to the World Games Organisation in order to influence the NOC. He is working on this and he has already written to the President of the World Games Committee to put this matter on the Congress Agenda in Berlin as it needs to be dealt with. ? Alain Amade mentions that the problem is we have to follow the IOC rules if we want their support and recognition. And it’s also the NOC’s who decide who will compete in the Olympic Games. Letting the Federations pay for the athletes’ costs

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 14 /22 is not a good solution either, because that would result in 1.000 American competitors and no-one else. He thinks IWSF should provide clear rules. ? Alan Goggin remarks that many countries rely upon some form of state sponsorship, which is being led and directed by Olympic participation recognition. And we did not get in the 2004 Olympics. As Dr Jacques Rogge told us at the Antwerp Congress in 1997 : “There is life outside the Olympics”. We need to concentrate on other areas, like the World Cup, as Kuno Ritschard said. We are a second grade sport, that’s the fact, we’re non-olympic, but we can do something about it. We must get the attention of the Olympic Committees. ? Kuno Ritschard adds the World Games are also a window outside of the Olympic Games and that we should send our selections long in advance to the NOC’s. We have too few riders and skiers at the World Games at this moment.

15.3 Information from Aubrey Sheena ? Aubrey Sheena reads out his letter (see attachment). ? He hopes his words will be taken to the IWSF Bureau and will be productive for the future. ? Kuno Ritschard comments a lot of discussion has been done in IWSF regarding this matter and asks Aubrey Sheena to send him the document. He thinks it should be documented what each committee does, what its responsibilities are, and how the reporting procedure should work. He promises to discuss the matter at the Congress in China and hopes there will be a better understanding. ? Aubrey wonders why the Bureau stated that “Nothing has been heard from the Environment Committee”, which he says is absolutely incorrect.

16. Marketing and Promotion 16.1. EAME flags, pennants, pins ? Franz Kuhn has new flags with him and every Federation will receive one free of charge. The new flags are larger and lighter; they fly better. ? There is another flag for Federations that organise a Titled Event in 2005; it will be brought to the competition by the EAME representative in order to have a flag on the actual site. ? Flags can also be ordered at the Antwerp Office at their cost price plus transportation and packaging costs, which amounts to 25 EURO per flag, including taxes. The President explains it was a lot cheaper to have them made in Austria than in Germany or The Netherlands. ? Franz Kuhn gives free pins to the delegates, five per Federation. ? There now are new pennants for the prize giving ceremonies at the Titled Events. ? There is some bad news regarding the Cable Wakeboard sponsor / marketing company. There were some lengthy discussions last year and the company IDEMA is going insolvent. A new company – ID+MA – will follow IDEMA. Andreas Boes -Nockemann, who was working for IDEMA and is now belonging to ID+MA, worked very hard for us. Hans Otte will give you the latest information on this subject. ? Hans Otte explains that the situation is very complicated because the company became insolvent. The manager, a good friend of us, tried to prepare a European Cable Wakeboard Tour 2006. The budget involved is very large and this company doesn’t have the necessary sponsors now for a 2005 Tour. ID+MA is trying to find sponsors for the EAME Championships 2005 in Rieste/Alfsee and is in contact with

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 15 /22 the German WSF and the organizer concerning this. We will decide at that time whether it will be possible to hold a big tour in 2006 or not. ? Franz Kuhn remarks that we did have a signed contract, but in the field advertising and promotion these things happen, a lot of companies “die”. He is unhappy with the present situation regarding public relations and press information. He mentions that Franz Kirsch always says we have to do more, and he is right, but we are looking for someone to do this for EAME, someone who has the time and the connections. Right now a press officer mostly is a national thing and information is only spread locally. ? Des Burke-Kennedy remarks that this is a very difficult area. The World Cup taught us that promoting a sport cannot work until you have a property which then develops a character of its own, and you have to send out a message regularly. Knowing how to promote the sport and what to promote is very complicated in EAME because we have so many different languages, sports and cultures. He got not many response from the EAME Federations to his requests to provide him with the e-mail addresses of the right contacts. Without a good database filled with such contacts, you can’t get people to write stories and you have no-one to send pictures to.

17. Calendar of Titled Events ? Sid Adriaensen is glad to announce that most 2005 Titled Events have an organiser. ? Alexandra Vigoureux, the Barefoot Council Secretary, explains the Council decided to organise their first European Senior Championships together with European Junior Championships this year. They are still looking for an organiser and would welcome any proposals. Showing the sport done by Seniors and Juniors will demonstrate that Barefoot is not dangerous. ? Sid Adriaensen announces two changes: the Barefoot Seminar will be held on the 7-8th of May and the Cable Wakeboard Seminar is on 15-17 April. ? Franz Kuhn informs the Congress that the President of the Portuguese Federation, Mrs Isabel Relvas, isn’t here because she is ill. Her husband will give a presentation. He thanks EAME for letting them organise the 2005 EAME Tournament Senior Championships, the Wake Skate Championships and the Wakeboard Seminar. In the presentation is shown what you can visit in the tourist region in the south near Lisbon. There are a lot of lakes and seaside places for water ski in the area of Setúbal. Many accommodations in five star hotels are present in this area. The Seminar will be held 10 km from Lisbon. The Tournament Championships’s site is located 30 km from the International airport. The Seniors will be held on a private, man-made lake that is being fitted with the proper installation in the next 2-3 weeks. The fee for a 2-day stay with all meals included is 135 Euro. The site of the Wake Skate competition might change. The date of the Wakeboard Seminar is still subject to change. ? Franz Kuhn gives some information about the 2005 Tournament Open Championships that will be held again in Linz-Steyrigg, Austria. He received this information from Mr Tusch from the Austrian Federation who couldn’t be here today. Franz Kuhn knows the Organisation Committee is working hard and all is running well. The lake is ready; a new ramp was built last year, and there are two slalom courses and two new Correct Craft . It’s not 100% the right time of the year, but for a last qualification for the worlds the first week of August is excellent timing. At the “summerhouse hotel” the price per person, single or double room, is 29 euro including breakfast. From this hotel it’s only 8- 10 km to the site and 7 km to downtown Linz. The Linz Airport is nearby and it’s also

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 16 /22 possible to come by train. The President hopes the best European skiers will be there to compete. ? Mrs Karin Ahlen, the Swedish delegate, welcomes everyone to the EAME Tournament Youth Championships in Linköping, Sweden. ? Sid explains the codes on the Titled Events Calendar and stresses that the List of Obligations is a contract that EAME cannot go back upon once it is signed, unless the Congress has some major remarks on it. He announces that for 2006 there are still many competitions that are not allocated yet. ? Luis Polome announces that the 2006 African Championships will be held in Capetown, South Africa on April 14-17. He also wishes to place a provisional bid for the EAME Seniors on 6-8 October 2006 in Durban, South Africa. ? Sid Adriaensen explains that there are bids from The Netherlands, South Africa and Italy for the 2007 European Under 21 Championships. All will show a presentation and let the Congress decide. The site The Netherlands propose will be in Groningen. The Disabled Championships were held there last year and all was very well organised, and a lot of National Championships and Cups were held there. There is no backwash on this water. The Italian site would be in Brescia: it’s a new site in a touristic parc near the town of Brescia. All facilities are there and the Italian Championships will be held there next year. Any date in July or August is possible. ? South Africa withdraws it’s bid because it would rather make a bid for the World Under 21. Louis Polome asks if holding the 2007 World Under 21 Championships at the end of 2006, ideally November, would do. Kuno Ritschard, the IWSF President, replies that this will be impossible at that time because of other competitions. Marie-Anne Persoons adds that most skiers under 21 are students and November-December is their exams’ period, so it’s difficult for them to participate. Louis explains that due to the different hemispheres and climate a suitable date needs to be found, and that his Federation is very keen to host a World Championship in South Africa. Dimos Alexopoulos asks if it is correct that the Tournament Calendar runs from November 1st until October 31st. Franz Kuhn replies that the Calendar year runs from the 1st of January until the 31st of December. Dimos Alexopoulos remarks the rules are different for the Ranking List. ? The President of the Tournament Council, Stefan Rauchenwald remarks that both sites should be checked out by the Tournament Council before they can give any comment. ? A public vote is taken according to the Tournament voting powers of each Federation. Sid Adriaensen explains a secret ballot is only mandatory when a person is voted upon. The scrutineers note the votes. On a total of 59 votes Italy get 37 votes, The Netherlands 19 votes and there are 3 abstentions. Franz Kuhn asks the Tournament Council to check if Brescia is the right place for the 2007 Under 21 Championships and congratulates the Italian Federation. Candido Moz promises a wonderful competition. The date of the competition, probably the middle of August, will be confirmed in a week’s time. ? The French Federation announces it’s not interested in hosting the 2006 Team and Individual Tournament Championships and requests to take this from Calendar. ? Another presentation is made by Harry De Laat for the Dutch Federation regarding the Tournament Open Championships 2007 in Handel, The Netherlands. Harry De Laat explains the Dutch Federation will exist 50 years that year and they wish to celebrate this with a lot of competitions. Their site will be modified to accommodate for this competition; the Dutch Government will give money to accomplish this when the Dutch Federation has a contract to host these Championships. There is a homologated slalom course and the organiser has a lot of experience with large competitions, such as the European Juniors that were held in the nineties. There is clubhouse with restaurant and a good first aid organisation. There is a special building for the Judges. And of course

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 17 /22 there are sanitary provisions and changing rooms. The boats used are Correct Craft and Perfect Pass is also there. It’s a very well protected, small lake with no backwash and almost no wind that can easily be reached and there are many hotels nearby. Sid Adriaensen confirms this site is very well sheltered from the wind and that it is one of the most beautiful sites in Europe to hold a competition. Gill Hill is also familiar with the site and asks if there will still be an eight buoy slalom course after the alterations, which is confirmed by Harry De Laat. ? No counterbids are offered so the bid from The Netherlands is voted upon by show of hands and the bid is accepted. ? Sid announces after the break that a bid was received from Greece to hold the Open Tournament Championships at Kaiafa’s Lake, so now all Tournament competitions in 2006 are covered.

18. Proposals by the Federations ? None were submitted prior to the meeting.

19. Budget for 2005 (01/12/2004 – 30/11/2005) ? Rob Tuin remarks that the budget for the subscription fees was set a little lower because there will probably be not many new members this year. The budget for the homologation fees and the entry fees is also less because not so many big competitions will be held this year. The budget for the meeting allowances was increased from 90 euro to 100 euro per meeting. Not all of the promotional budget was spent last year, so we made a budget for 4.000 instead of 5.000 euro for this year. ? A complete calculation of the Councils’ budget appears on the last page of the Financial Report. The new budget is 30.000 euro for all Councils per year. With the transfer of money that wasn’t spent in the past, the total 2005 budget for the Councils is 37.980 euro. ? The budget is agreed upon unanimously. ? Franz Kuhn points out that he had a meeting with Sid Adriaensen and Rob Tuin regarding the budget and he thinks we did good last year: we’re not in the red like many other sport federations and companies. He thanks Rob Tuin for his work and hopes the Congress agrees upon how the finances are being handled.

20. Honorary Membership ? Franz Kuhn announces that Lill Fitzpatrick and Adriano Bottinelli have been elected for Honorary Membership. ? Des Burke-Kennedy reads out a note from Lill Fitzpatrick who is having major hip surgery right now. She is amazed, honoured and pleased to be proposed as an Honorary Member. She thanks the Admincom for this and is sorry to miss the Congress. In her years she worked and participated in many sports, and considers working with disabled skiers the hardest but also the most rewarding and pleasurable. Her work brought her into contact with dedicated, hard-working, non-complaining and fun-loving athletes and officials! It was her honour and privilege to represent such a group. She asks to please forgive her if she should forget to thank someone. She is grateful for all the support and friendship in the early days of Aubrey Sheena, Kuno Ritschard, Brian Scoffham and the Admincom members. And in later years she wishes to mention Franz Kuhn, Sid Adriaensen and Admincom, and of course down through all those years, Gill Hill. She is very aware that she would not be receiving this honour without the help of her co-workers

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 18 /22 on the Disabled Councils, skiers and officials past and present and wishes to pay tribute to them. ? Des Burke-Kennedy is presented with the Certificate for Lill Fitzpatrick by Franz Kuhn. ? Stefan Rauchenwald accepts the certificate for Adriano Bottinelli, who couldn’t be here for reasons of business. Everyone knows this man who worked hard for the Tournament Council in the past. He put up the new system of how to deal with homologation fees. He spent a lot of hours working for water skiing, but fortunately his family was also involved in water skiing. His lovely wife Barbara Fasola, who works for the Italian Federation, and his daughter are international officials. He wasn’t an easy-going person at times: some called him Adrinalino… but he did a lot of good work, many times as a Chief Judge at Tournament. He was a good friend and Stefan is proud to have had him in his team for so long. Stefan Rauchenwald thanks the Admincom for nominating Mr Bottinelli as a Honorary Member. He knows he feels very honoured by this. ? Kuno Ritschard, the representative of the Swiss Federation, will present the Certificate at the Swiss General Annual Meeting at the end of February. He thinks Adriano Bottinelli really deserves this and is thankful he was nominated.

21. Distribution of Certificates & Awards 21.1. Announcement of the Athlete of the year awards Franz Kuhn announces the Male and Female Athlete of the Year 2004. The Admincom voted with a very clear result and a good mix of the different disciplines. Ladies’ first place: Joulia Gromyko-Meier - Cableski (BLR) Second place: Clementine Lucine - Tournament (FRA) Third place, Kirsten Gronvick - Barefoot (NOR) Mens’ first place: Andy Mapple - Tournament (Slalom) (GBR) Second plac e: David Small - Barefoot (GBR) Third place: Dimitri Bertels - Racing (BEL) A special prize for this will be given at the European or World championships.

21.2. By the divisional councils by the Council Presidents For Barefoot Alain Le Gac announces two certificates for the best skier in the World, David Small (GBR). He set an EAME and World Jump record of 27.4 meters. He also set a new EAME and World Trick record of 9.550 points. The certificate is presented to the representative of the British Federation. The members of the Barefoot Council also nominated Philippe Turchet Barefoot Man of the Year 2004 for his wonderful work on the website, his dedication and his great personality. For Cable Ski Marie-Anne Persoons presents a certificate for Joulia Gromyko-Meier (BLR), who lives in Germany and overwhelmed everyone by breaking the Region EAME and World Jump record with almost 3 meters, setting it at 47,60 meters. And then there was another EAME and World record in Men’s Jump of 60,10 meters for Thomas Bauer from Germany. Marie-Anne comments that jumping is harder to do behind a cable than behind a because you can’t go wide-split and there is no letter choice or gazing. For Disabled Philippe Turchet explains that there were not so many competitions last year, but that the performances seem to have been concentrated on those few

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 19 /22 competitions. He will only list the European records, but many World records were also broken. For Denmark Lars Laudrisen broke three European records. He set a Tricks’ record of 1.700 points and a Jump record of 16.30 meters and of 17.20 meters in the Men’s L category. For The Netherlands Toon Van Der Ploeg, who helped organise the Disabled European Championships and who was nominated as EAME skier of the year, set a Jump Record in the Men’s A category of 29,40 meters. For Belgium Greet Meskens, a blind skier, set a slalom record in the Ladies’ V2/3 category of 5,5@14, which is quite a fantastic performance. For Great Britain Vivienne Orchard, a leg amputee, set a slalom record of 4@46 outer slalom, and Mike Appleford set a Jump record with an incredible jump in the Mens’ MP3 category of 22 meters. For Tournament Stefan Rauchenwald has three certificates for Clementine Lucine (FRA) for a European records in Tricks of 8.110 points and also a new World and European record Overall with an unbelievable 2.903,43 points. Jason Seels (GBR) set a European record Ski Fly of 85,40 meters in the USA. For Wakeboard Boat Alain Nieles announces there are no certificates to hand out because of problems with their secretary and he hopes to do better next year. For Cable Wakeboard Hans Otte announces the first in Ranking 2003 were Tom Watson (GBR) in the Junior Men’s category. Tom had a terrible accident and Hans Otte wishes him all the best. In the Ladies’ category first in ranking was Kinga Horvath (HUN) and in the Mens’ category it was Martin Nuis (NED). First in Ranking 2004 for Junior Men’s was Michael Skupin (GER); Bakro Balasz (HUN) for Boys - Hungary has a very strong young team. Benni Suess (GER) was first in ranking for Men and Ekes Csaba (HUN) for Masters’ Men, which is like Seniors but starts at 30 years instead of 35. First in Ranking for Ladies was Julia Bormann (GER).

22. Future Congresses 22.1. Congress 2006 (28 January 2006) ? Franz Kuhn mentions the 2006 Congress is a voting Congress. There is a bid from Cyprus, and also from Doha, Qatar. They will both make a presentation so the Congress can choose. ? Chris Anastasiou, representative of the Cyprus’ Federation, mentions the present temperature is 25 degrees; the medium is 18 degrees in January. He introduces Cyprus as a small tourist island in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The Congress will be held in a five-star hotel in Limassol. The climate is excellent with sunshine all year round. Flights are cheap and the accommodation is great with excellent facilities for a Congress, at reasonable prices. The package deal per person is 320 euro in a single room and 250 euro in a double room, including two nights’ accommodation, breakfasts, two lunches with one beverage and a gala dinner with unlimited drinks. ? The Secretary General from the Qatar Federation, Sami Abu Shaikha explains that the Prime Minister and his son like water skiing. The Prime Minister would like to hold the Congress in Doha and this contact might result in good sponsorship for the future. KLM flies at good prices to Qatar, even from Norway, for around 600 euro. He also states there are no five-star but six-star hotels in Doha, Qatar. The price will not be more than 150 euro for a day and there will be a lot of free facilities – all

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 20 /22 dinners, lunches, and excursions to see the desert and to see the difference between skiing on the water and skiing on the sand. The current temperatures in January are 20 - 25+. ? The Congress votes with the voting powers for General Business and the choice is made to go to Qatar in 2006 (54 votes) and not Cyprus (43 votes). ? The representative from Qatar promises to find a way to reduce the air fare and hotel costs.

22.2. Bid for 2007 – Italy, Rome (27 January 2007) ? Franz Kuhn announces 2007 is a very important year because EAME will be 60 years old. The Congress and this 60th anniversary will be combined. ? Cyprus cannot make a bid for 2007 and the bid for Rome, Italy, is accepted by the Congress.

22.3. Bids for 2008 and beyond ? Portugal makes a bid for the 2008 Congress in Madeira Island. This will be decided upon next year, as there might be other bids from other countries. Franz Kuhn asks the Portuguese Federation to send a written bid.

23. Meeting dates for the year Sid Adriaensen announces the IWSF World Congress will be held Thursday, 18th of August at 15.00h. All Councils meet tomorrow and on the 11th and/or 12th of November in Juan- les -Pins. The Admincom meetings will be on 13-14 November (Juan-les -Pins) and on 20- 22 May, Shinousa Island. Sid announces the other meeting dates and places of the Councils.

24. A.O.B. None.

25. Closing of the Congress Franz Kuhn thanks Henny Van Delden, who has now retired, for all her work for Barefoot. Henny is applauded to. Franz thanks everyone present for their friendship and work and thanks the French Federation and Alain Amade for organising this congress. In spite of some complications it was a very good congress. Alain Amade thanks Alan Goggin for his good work as Chairman, and everyone who helped him organise this Congress. He will resign as President of the French Federation after having been involved in the Federation since 1980 and being President for 12 years. He wants to make room for new, fresh ideas and jokes some might be happy that he leaves the Federation. He thanks everyone for coming here and hopes we will have a nice party tonight and a save trip back home tomorrow. At 18.00 Franz Kuhn declares the Congress officially closed. There will be no Admincom meeting after the Congress because there are no urgent points to discuss at present.

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 21 /22 Attachments ? List of Countries present and their delegates ? Letter from Aubrey Sheena ? Presentation of TwinSkates (Jean-Marc David) ? Voting Powers ? Report of the Medical Committee (Lorenzo Benassa) ? Report of the Tournament Coaching Commission, Jean-Michel Cau

EAME Congress January 29th, 2005 – Monte Carlo, Monaco page 22 /22