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. Croatia 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.