Minutes of the ECF Annual General Meeting held in Grindelwald, SUI on Dec. 12, 2002 Download the document as pdf-file   Start of the meeting: 10:00   In attendance:   Executive Committee Malcolm Richardson, President Dieter Kolb, Vice-President Kate Caithness, Member at Large Karel Kubeška, Member at Large Olli Rissanen, Rep. Northern Europe Ann Stone, Rep. United Kingdom Erika Müller, Rep. Central Europe Konstantin Zadvornov, Rep. Eastern Europe Saskia Krügl, Secretary/Treasurer   The 26 member nations were represented as follows: Member nations represented in person with full voting rights: AND, AUT, CZE, DEN, ENG, FIN, FRA, GER, ITA, LAT, NED, NOR, SCO, RUS, SWE, WAL Member nations represented by proxy: BUL Member nations not represented or without voting rights: BEL, BLR, HUN, ISR, LIE, LUX, ROM, ESP, SUI   More than one half of the member nations were represented. The Secretary therefore reported that there was a quorum and that the total number of votes available was 17.   The President welcomed everyone to the meeting. He informed the members that the former ECF President Eric Harmsen (NED) had died recently and asked the members to stand one minute in silence in recognition of the deceased. (Note of the Secretary: At the end of December 2002 Sten Willer-Andersen (DEN), also former ECF President, died as well)   Toni Baumann, President of the Grindelwald Organising Committee, thanked the ECF for awarding the European Curling Championships to Grindelwald for the fourth time after 1981, 1985 and 1995. He had compared all four events and expressed the opinion that nowadays the negotiations with sponsors are much more difficult than in previous times, although Curling became more popular after the Olympic Winter Games. He went on saying that the relation and communication between ECF / WCF / Gruyère and the Organising Committee was not easy. In previous times the host contract was nothing more than one page, today the contract is filling an incredible 13 pages. He wished all members a pleasant stay in Grindelwald as well as interesting and exciting games.   1. Apologies   Apologies were received from Leif Öhman (Member at Large of the Executive Committee) as well as from BLR.   2. Minutes of the ECF Annual General Meeting 2001 (Vierumäki, FIN) and approval thereof   The Secretary reported that Leif Öhman had of course attended the meeting in Vierumäki, FIN as well, but was unfortunately not mentioned on the list of Executive Committee Members. The Secretary apologised.The minutes of the ECF Annual General Meeting 2001 (Vierumäki) were taken as read and were (with the above amendment) unanimously approved.   3. Matters arising from these minutes   None   4. Correspondence   None   5. Progress Report Organising Committee European Curling Championships 2003 (Courmayeur, ITA)   Franco Zumofen informed the meeting that all preparations are going well. He apologised that he was not in a position to bring with him leaflets/information material about the championships but this was not ready yet because of the event logo still being under discussion. He announced however that prices would most probably remain as indicated earlier or might at the most raise by 5%.   6. Progress Report Organising Committee European Curling Championships 2004 (Sofia, BUL)   There was no representative from Sofia present at the meeting. Therefore, the President informed that he had visited Sofia 8 weeks ago and that the facility with 2 ice rinks will be the ideal site for a wonderful event in 2004.   7. Progress Report Organising Committee European Curling Championships 2005 (Garmisch-Partenkirchen, GER)   Christoph Falk informed the meeting that the preparations in Garmisch-Partenkirchen were going well too. He confirmed that in Garmisch-Partenkirchen two ice-rinks will be available as well and no problems at all are anticipated with hotels.   8. Future venues   The Secretary reported that the Executive Committee had discussed the amount of the rights fee to be paid by Host Committees of the European Curling Championships. It was felt that this fee must be substantially raised in order to cover the higher administration costs, inflation, etc. It was proposed that from the 2006 event onwards a total of EUR 3.000,00 must be paid by each Host Committee in two instalments, i.e. EUR 1.500,00 when bidding for an event (bidding fee) and again EUR 1.500,00 if a bid was successful (award fee). (Note of the Secretary: In case of an unsuccessful bid the bidding fee will of course be paid back to the Bidding Committee as it was also handled in previous times). This proposal was unanimously approved by the members.   The President announced that there were two committees who would like to present their bid for future European Curling Championships, namely Basel (SUI) and Andorra.   Presentation Basel Bruno Schallberger made a short presentation on Basel and emphasised the following facts: 180.000 inhabitants, sports city, 2 arena site, close to French/German border, concrete podium for TV-cameras, 10 parking spots for TV-trucks, more than 1500 lux lighting within the arena. A short video film on Basel was shown.   Presentation Andorra Josep Duro, President of the Andorra Curling Association explained that it is a national priority for Andorras Prime Minister that the European Curling Championships be awarded to Andorra. The members were also assured that an Andorran Host Committee would do its utmost to organise perfect transportation by buses and mini-vans, to offer attractive packages with good prices and to provide sufficient volunteers for the perfect running of the event. Here as well, a short video film was shown.   The President thanked both bidding committees for their presentation and mentioned that two aspects must be taken into consideration when awarding the European Curling Championships: First of all the event must of course be organised and run well. On the other hand it is the duty of the ECF to help promote and expand the sport as much as possible.   He then invited Bruno Schallberger to speak again as he had been informed that both bidding committees had reached an agreement regarding their bid. Bruno Schallberger moved that the European Curling Championships 2006 be awarded to Basel, SUI and that the European Curling Championships 2007 be awarded to Andorra. The motion was seconded by Günther Hummelt and carried unanimously.   9.       Playing System   Playing system for 2003 The President advised the meeting that the playing system for next year would be dealt with first. He explained that there are two options:   a) Have the B-group played during the first part of the championships and the A-group during the second part of the championships. This would however pose a problem with regard to the challenge games. b) Have the A- and B-group played at the same time, but with the B-group split into two groups once there are 10 or more teams in it.   LUX strongly felt that it was important for smaller nations to meet the “big” Curling nations as this gives them a feeling similar to participating in the Olympic Games. After a lengthy discussion it was agreed that option b) would be used for the European Curling Championships 2003.   Future playing systemRegarding the future playing system the members were invited to send their proposals/ideas to the ECF Secretary until end of March 2003.   10. Subscriptions / Finance   The financial report 2001/2002 as well as the budget 2002/2003 as presented by the Secretary/Treasurer were unanimously approved.   It was also agreed that the amount of subscriptions would remain unchanged. The Secretary informed the members that due to the change of the ECF currency from GBP to EUR the subscriptions will in future be EUR 280,00 for the small nations and EUR 430,00 for the big nations.   The Secretary said as well that EUR 7.500,00 (equivalent to GBP 5.000,00) had again been invested at 3,1% until March 1, 2004.   11. Change of constitution   As discussed during the Annual General Meeting in Vierumäki, the representatives were requested to vote on a change to the constitution. It was proposed to make an addition to paragraph 4) c) of the current constitution as follows (addition written in bold capital letters):“If a Member Association’s subscription, including arrears, is not paid by the due date, that Member Association MAY NOT PLAY IN THE EUROPEAN CURLING CHAMPIONSHIPS AND ITS voting rights shall be suspended until three (3) months after payment in full is received.”   The change of the constitution was accepted unanimously.   12. Elections   The Secretary informed the Annual General Meeting that the members of the Executive Committee would be elected in the order President, Vice-President, Regional Representatives, Secretary/Treasurer.   The Meeting then elected the following Executive Committee:   President: Malcolm RICHARDSON (SCO) only nominee / elected by acclamation   Vice-President: Dieter KOLB (GER) only nominee / elected by acclamation   Representative Northern Europe: Olli RISSANEN (FIN) only nominee / elected by acclamation   Representative United Kingdom: Ainsle SMITH (SCO) only nominee / elected by acclamation   Representative Central Europe: Urs MÜLLER (SUI) only nominee / elected by acclamation   Representative Eastern Europe: Konstantin ZADVORNOV (RUS) only nominee / elected by acclamation   Members at Large: Leif ÖHMAN (SWE) elected with 10 votes John STONE (WAL) elected with 4 votesKarel KUBESKA (CZE) elected with 2 votes   (The fourth candidate for the position of Member At Large, Ivo Petrov (BUL) had only received one vote and dropped out.)   Secretary/Treasurer: Saskia KRÜGL (GER) only nominee / elected by acclamation   Both President and Vice-President especially thanked the meeting for being re-elected and expressed their joy to serve the ECF also during the next two years.   The President thanked Kate Caithness, Erika Müller and Ann Stone for their valuable support during their period of office as Executive Committee Members and mentioned that apart from the Secretary the Executive Committee would in future unfortunately only be consisting of male members.   13. Any other business   Alain Contat (FRA) felt that the region of Central Europe was getting bigger and bigger. He therefore expressed his idea to split Central Europe into two zones (Central Europe and Southern Europe), which would mean that one additional regional representative would join the Executive Committee. The representatives were invited to think about this proposal.   14. Next Meeting   The next Annual General Meeting will take place on December 11, 2003 at Courmayeur, ITA.   The meeting closed at 11:45 hours.