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In attendance:
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Malcolm Richardson | President | Dieter Kolb | Vice-President | Urs Muller | Member at Large / Treasurer | Leif Ohman | Member at Large | Ainslie Smith | Member at Large | Olli Rissanen | Rep. Northern Europe | Andrew Ferguson-Smith | Rep. Central Europe | Konstantin Zadvornov | Rep. Eastern Europe | John Brown | Rep. Great Britain and Ireland | Saskia Krugl | Secretary General |
The 35 member nations were represented as follows:
Member nations represented in person | AND, AUT, BEL, BUL, CRO, CZE, DEN, ENG, EST, FIN, FRA, GER, GRE, HUN, IRL, ITA, KAZ, LTU, NED, NOR, POL, RUS, SCO, SWE, SUI, WAL | Member nations represented by proxy | ESP | Member nations not represented or without voting rights | BLR, ISR, LAT, LIE, LUX, SCG, SVK, UKR |
The President welcomed everyone to the meeting and advised that Christoph Falk of the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Organising Committee would like to say a few words to the members.
Christoph Falk thanked the ECF and its members for entrusting the 2005 championships to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. He expressed his hope that everybody was happy with the arrangements made and wished everyone a pleasant stay.
The President in return thanked Christoph Falk and the whole Garmisch-Partenkirchen Organising Committee for the excellent organisation of the event.
1. 1 Reading of Notice of Meeting
The Secretary announced that the Annual General Meeting had been convened by intimation to the members on November 10, 2005.
2. 2 Apologies, number of votes and quorum
More than one half of the member nations were represented in person. The Secretary therefore reported that there was a quorum and that the total number of votes available was 27. It was also reported that any decisions needing a two third majority would need a total of 18 votes.
3. 3 Minutes of the ECF Semi-Annual General Meeting 2005 (Paisley, SCO) and approval thereof
The minutes of the ECF Semi-Annual General Meeting 2005 (Paisley, SCO) were taken as read and were unanimously approved.
4. 4 Matters arising from these minutes
None
5. 5 Correspondence
The Secretary reported that she had received the following correspondence:
- Application for membership from the Hellenic Curling Federation (wishing to be accepted as ECF member instead of the Hellenic Ice Sports Federation). This application would be dealt with under agenda item 10.
- Three bids to host the ECC 2009 from: Champery (SUI), Aberdeen (SCO) and Almaty (KAZ).
The meeting continued with agenda item
8. Future championships/Bids and presentations
Both, the cities of Aberdeen and Almaty made a presentation of their bid for 2009. With regard to the bid of Almaty (KAZ) for 2009 the members were informed that the Almaty Host Committee has reached an agreement with Lufthansa and that they would be offering to pay 50% of the flight costs of all teams.
The President thanked both cities for their presentation and advised the members that at this meeting no decision would be made on the 2009 host city. He explained that due to having experienced several technical difficulties with past Host Committees the ECF Executive Committee felt that in future site surveys are mandatory prior to accepting a bid. The ECF Executive Committee therefore had decided to change the current ECF Bid Guidelines in the sense that bids will still be accepted 4 years prior to the event, but a decision will only be made 3 years prior to any championships. The gap of one year in between will give the ECF enough time to visit the respective bidding sites and to evaluate any potential host cities. Also, in future the bidding fee of EUR 1,500.00 will be non-refundable. The sentences that have been re-worded in the ECF Bid Guidelines are as follows (changes are marked in red):
A bid to host the European Curling Championships must be submitted not later than December 1 four years prior to the year of the championships for which the bid is intended. A decision on a bid will be made only three years prior to the year of the championships for which the bid is intended.
The bidding fee is non-refundable and will be used to cover the costs of an ECF site inspection.
(Note of the Secretary: The above changes to the ECF Bid Guidelines will apply for championships from 2010 onwards.)
6. 6 ECC and EMCC System of Play
ECC
The President explained that it had been agreed some time ago that if a B-group consists of more than 10 teams, that B-group would be split into two. It had however never been agreed how the B-group would be split if it consisted of more than 20 teams. The Executive Committee proposed to split a B-group into 3 divisions if more than 20 teams have entered. This was agreed unanimously.
EMCC
The President informed the members that the playing system of the EMCC will be dictated by the number of teams entered. As there most probably will be many teams also for the EMCC 2006, the Executive Committee had decided that in future the teams would still be seeded in order to stay within the required time-scale.
The President invited Andrew Ferguson-Smith to say a few words on the EMCC 2005 at Andorra:
Andrew Ferguson-Smith pointed out how gratified he was about the EMCC and how it turned out. The people in Andorra wanted it to be a quality event, a first class competition with bonspiel atmosphere. Unfortunately there had been severe technical difficulties with the arena floor and he had therefore advised the ECF that he would no longer recommend to have the ECC 2007 at Andorra. Last but not least it had been an objective of him that the European Mixed Curling Championships serve as a vehicle to give the ECF some working capital. He was proud to announce that the Andorra government had been made available EUR 50,000.00 to the ECF.
The President went on saying that in the meantime the host contract for the 2006 EMCC had been signed with Claut, ITA. The event will take place from October 17-21, 2006. The 2007 EMCC will most probably take place in Spain at a venue still to be announced. Konstantin Zadvornov informed the members that the city of Moscow would be interested in hosting the 2008 edition of the event.
7. 7 Progress Reports of future Organising Committees (2006 until 2008 – if in attendance)
Both, the city of Basel, SUI (2006) as well as the city of Örnsköldsvik, SWE (2008) made presentations to the Annual General Meeting and showed a video of their host cities.
The President explained that after the ECF had to withdraw the championships from Andorra in 2007 there was of course a gap and the ECF was left without a host city for that year. Örnsköldsvik did not have a chance to bring their championships forward by one year. The ECF was therefore now looking for a host city to replace Andorra. Alain Contat (FRA) offered to speak to Megeve / St. Gervais. The President hoped to make an announcement on a site for 2007 as early as possible in 2006.
9. 9 Subscriptions / Finance
The financial report and balance sheet 2004/2005 as presented by the Secretary (and previous Treasurer) were accepted unanimously. Urs Müller (Treasurer) reported that the accounts for the year ending September 30, 2005 had been approved by an auditor in Bern. Urs Müller explained that this procedure had to be followed by any Swiss based organisation. Also, the budget was approved as presented. The members were advised that the amount of subscriptions would remain unchanged.
Coming back one more time to the EMCC 2005 the President advised the members that the Executive Committee proposes that the EUR 50,000.00 that had been paid by the Andorran Government should be used to pay any shortfall that Josep Duro or Andrew Ferguson-Smith have incurred when hosting the EMCC 2005 at Andorra. The AGM unanimously approved that this should be done up to a maximum amount of EUR 10,000.00. Mr. Duro and Mr. Ferguson-Smith would however be required to present adequate payment documents.
The President expressed the opinion of the ECF Executive Committee that the situation with the purchase of basic packages in Garmisch-Partenkirchen had not been very satisfying.The President was of the firm opinion that no team should be forced to purchase items of a package that they do not want. The Secretary went on explaining that the Executive Committee therefore would like to propose the following procedure:
For each team that is entered into the ECC an entry fee of EUR 500.00 must be paid to the ECF. Entries to the ECC are only accepted if accompanied by the above mentioned entry fee. The entry fee is non-refundable and will be forwarded completely to each respective Organising Committee. The Secretary advised that the same procedure would apply for the EMCC with the entry fee amount being EUR 200.00. As a result of the payment of the entry fee no team would be fined anymore for late withdrawal from the championships.
The Secretary added that it was the idea of the Executive Committee that each team should pay this entry fee and as a result of that should not be forced anymore to purchase a whole basic package from any Host Committee. Instead the teams should be given the possibility to buy those parts of a package that they really needed (for example: ticket for the Opening Party or Closing Ceremony only). In the end, this system of handling the packages would be advantageous for both, the Organising Committee (as they had a guaranteed income out of the entry fees) and the teams (as they would not be forced to buy basic packages anymore but could choose what they wanted to buy, if any.)
A couple of nations expressed the opinion that this was the right way to go and a motion was put forward to accept the proposal of the Executive Committee. John Stone of Wales made a counter-motion to defer this matter in order to give the nations more time to think about it so that a decision would only be made at the next meeting. John Stone’s counter motion was carried (13 in favour, 8 against, 6 abstentions) – therefore the matter will be raised again for discussion and decision during the Semi-Annual General Meeting to be held in Lowell, USA.
10. 10 Resolutions
The Secretary again explained that the ECF had received an application for membership from the Hellenic Curling Federation (wishing to be accepted as ECF member instead of the Hellenic Ice Sports Federation). The representative of the Hellenic Curling Federation, Mr. Yerolimpos explained that the sport of Curling had separated from the Hellenic Ice Sports Federation and was now an independent organisation. The members unanimously agreed to accept the Hellenic Curling Federation as ECF member.
11. 11 Any other business
ECC as qualifying event
The President advised the members that during the recent meeting between the WCF Executive Board and some members of the ECF Executive Committee the WCF had confirmed that they were not planning to change the current qualification system to enter the World Curling Championships, which means that also in future the ECC will remain a qualification event for the WCC.
Eligibility
There may be a move in the reasonably near future to apply the IOC rule that players must hold a passport of the country they are playing for. The President just asked the members to keep that in mind and wished to make them aware that this might be an issue in the future.
Duties of ECF member nations
The Secretary advised the members that she expected them to better co-operate in the future. She went on saying that only a small minority of the ECF member nations were paying their subscriptions in time or were replying within the deadlines set. She advised all members that in future all guidelines would be strictly adhered to and no more exceptions whatsoever be made. All member nations must in future assume responsibility for their behaviour.
ECF/WCF Cresting Policy
Per Näsman (SWE) advised the ECF that there must be some discrepancy between the ECF and WCF cresting policy as teams need to change sponsor badges on their clothing between ECF and WCF events. He expressed his view that it would be much better if both the WCF and ECF could please coordinate their cresting policies so that no additional work of changing badges would be imposed onto the teams. The Secretary replied that she would look into this matter and come up with a draft.
Internet access in hotels
Gerrit-Jan Scholten (NED) informed the ECF that care should be taken in future that all ECF headquarter hotels should offer free internet access to their guests.
12. 12Next meeting
The Semi-Annual General Meeting of the ECF will take place in Lowell, USA on Tuesday, April 4, 2006 at 10:00.
The meeting closed at 12:15.
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