Minutes of the ECF Annual General Meeting held in Courmayeur, ITA on Dec. 11, 2003Download the document as pdf-file
Start of the meeting: 10:00 In attendance: Executive Committee Malcolm Richardson, President Dieter Kolb, Vice-President Leif Öhman, Member at Large John Stone, Member at Large Olli Rissanen, Rep. Northern Europe Ainsle Smith, Rep. United Kingdom Urs 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, BUL, DEN, ENG, FIN, FRA, GER, ITA, LUX, NED, NOR, SCO, RUS, SWE, SUI, WAL Member nations represented by proxy: CZE, ESP Member nations not represented or without voting rights: BEL, BLR, HUN, ISR, LAT, LIE, ROM
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 19.
The President welcomed everyone to the meeting.
He informed the members that the former ECF President Sten Willer-Andersen (DEN) had died and asked the members to stand one minute in silence in recognition of the deceased.
1. Apologies
An apology was received from Karel Kubeska (Member at Large of the Executive Committee).
2. Minutes of the ECF Annual General Meeting 2002 (Grindelwald, SUI) and approval thereof
The minutes of the ECF Annual General Meeting 2002 (Grindelwald) were taken as read and were unanimously approved.
3. Matters arising from these minutes
None
4. Correspondence
Bids for European Curling Championships 2008 The Secretary reported that she had received two bids/letters of interest to host the 2008 European Curling Championships as follows:
The Executive Committee recommended to make a decision on the 2008 Championships in December 2005 only, i.e. three years in advance which is according to the ECF Host Manual/Bid Guidelines.The members however felt, that a decision 4 years in advance would give any Host Committee more time to find sponsors resp. more time to organise a perfect event. It was therefore decided that a decision on the 2008 event would be made in December 2004.
Letter from Swiss Curling Association regarding Continental Cup The Secretary reported that she had received a letter from the Swiss Curling Association containing a proposal that the European teams for the Continental Cup should in future be selected as follows:
The President explained that this letter had been discussed in length during the Executive Committee meeting and although the Executive Committee would not make any recommendation it was felt that there should be any basic criteria on how the teams are selected.
Urs Müller explained why this proposal was submitted: A Swiss team had been informed by the WCF that they were qualified for the Continental Cup and the players were of cause enthusiastic about that fact but: soon afterwards another team was invited to the Continental Cup and the Swiss team was totally disappointed about being disinvited. He therefore stressed that a decision must be made on the basis of sports results.
The President invited the members to discuss the Swiss proposal and a lengthy discussion followed. The following opinions were expressed:
It was also said that this is a WCF matter but the President replied that if a recommendation came from all European member nations the WCF would for sure consider this proposal.
Eventually, John Brown (ENG) made the following motion (seconded by Alain Contat):
That the European Curling Federation resolves to recommend to the World Curling Federatin that, when considering the selection of European teams for the Continental Cup, it should consider as a matter of priority the following teams:
a) the winner of the last European Championships b) the best European team at the last World Curling Championships except in an Olympic year when it should be the best European team at the Olympics c) a team of Scotland following negotiations with the RCCC.
This motion was carried with 12 votes in favour.
5. Progress Reports of future Organising Committees (2005 until 2007)
Courmayeur 2003 First of all the President thanked Franco Zumofen (Courmayeur Organising Committee) for his great dedication in organising the 2003 Championships and expressed his appreciation for all the hard work he had done.
Sofia 2004 Ogi Sapunov informed the members that the Bulgarian Minister of Sport will be the President of the Sofia Organising Committee. He also emphasized that they were having great support from the Bulgarian Government. He presented samples of the medals to be awarded at the championships in Sofia and informed that the championship website would soon be available. The headquarters hotel will most probably be the Kempinski Hotel. Regarding the dates he explained that they were doing their utmost to accommodate the wishes of ECF/Eurosport to have the championships from Dec. 4-11 instead of having it from Dec. 11-18, 2004 which would have been much more convenient to them. The President explained that there are only a few sports events during the first week in December and therefore, if we had the European Curling Championships in the earlier week, much more TV-coverage could be arranged. (Note of the Secretary: In the meantime Sofia was able to confirm the championship dates which now are: Dec. 4-11, 2004)
Ann Stone (WAL) emphasized how important it would be to have all players accommodated in one hotel. Joep Wayers (NED) asked whether appartments could be rented, not because of financial reasons but the teams would very much appreciate to eat at times convenient to them. Ogi Sapunov assured that everything would be done to accommodate all wishes.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen 2005 Christoph Falk from Garmisch-Partenkirchen informed the members that the Host Agreement with the ECF had now been signed. Also, the respective homepage will be available soon. He furthermore informed the members that the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Host Committee will be represented in Sofia during the 2004 European Curling Championships in order to promote the 2005 event.
Basel 2006 Bruno Schallberger mentioned that all preparations were well under way.
Andorra 2007 Andrew Ferguson-Smith assured the members that the Andorran organizational abilities are far greater than their Curling abilities. Nevertheless, the Andorran Host Committee would very much appreciate to have a test event in order to gain some experience already prior to the European Curling Championships 2007 in Andorra. He therefore proposed to host the 1st European Curling Mixed Championships in 2005. The details of such an event were outlined as follows:
In addition Andrew Ferguson-Smith presented a letter of the Andorran Prime Minister with a financial guarantee for 150.000,00 in case that Andorra be awarded the 1st European Curling Mixed Championships.
Andrew Ferguson-Smith then moved that the 1st European Mixed Curling Championships be awarded to Andorra (seconded by Arthur Beattie – SCO).
After a short discussion John Brown (ENG) made the following counter-motion: That the ECF Executive should discuss the proposal of Andorra for a European Mixed Curling Championship with its members and bring forward a firm proposal in Gävle.
13 members voted in favour of the counter-motion, 6 members were in favour of the motion. Therefore, the counter-motion was carried.
6. Playing System
The President thanked all nations for their input. He also referred back to his letter dated May 14, 2003 in which he had summarized all the proposals received from various nations.
The majority decision would look as follows:
The President asked for a motion according to his above mentioned summary and a respecitve motion was made by Günther Hummelt and then carried unanimously.
7. Subscriptions / Finance
The financial report and balance sheet 2002/2003 as well as the budget for 2003/2004 as presented by the Secretary/Treasurer were accepted unanimously.
It was agreed that subscriptions would remain unchanged.
The President informed the members that, due to the increasing workload, he would recommend to review the current payments made to the Secretary/Treasurer. He also stressed the fact that the Secretary/Treasurer had not asked for an increase but it was his proposal. Currently the Secretary/Treasurer was paid EUR 2.400,00 to off-set the office costs plus EUR 800,00 salary. As the Secretary was working at least 400 hours per year for the ECF it was proposed to raise only her salary to EUR 1.600,00. This proposal was accepted unanimously.
8. Acceptance of a new member nation
Full and complete applications for membership had been received by Ireland, Poland, Kazakhstan, Slovakia and Lithuania.
A representative of each country was asked to stand up and introduce himself to the members.
All five applicants were unanimously accepted as full ECF members.
9. Any other business
- The members were advised that ECF General Meetings would in future be held on Tuesday mornings of the respective championships week, i.e prior to any WCF General Assembly.
- The Secretary mentioned that she was very much enjoying the work with so many experienced gentlemen but would still appreciate to see at least one woman within the ECF Executive Committee. The members accepted this idea and the Secretary was asked to work out a respective change of the constitution so that one of the 3 members at large be of the opposite gender.
- Alain Contat reminded the members of his proposal during the General Meeting in Grindelwald, which was to split the region of Central Europe into two regions, namely Central Europe and Southern Europe. Arthure Beattie expressed his opinion that Scotland should have a permanent seat within the ECF Executive Committee. Following a short discussion John Brown moved that the Executive Committee should come back with an Executive Committee structure proposal in Gävle. This motion was accepted unanimously.
(Note of the Secretary: If any nation has an input please forward it to the ECF Secretariat until Feb. 15, 2004).
- John Brown mentioned that the ECF homepage should be kept much more up to date. Didi Kolb answered that he was only a non-professional webmaster but would welcome any help that anybody could give him.
- The members in general expressed their view that the cost of accreditation only at the European Curling Championships has doubled during the recent years and that the players who did not purchase the official package were not receiving any value for the money they paid for the basic accreditation package. The members emphasized that it is unfair to make money out of the players who are actually doing the show
- Ann Stone mentioned that future Organising Committees must accept credit cards for payment. The President answered that this requirement had already been included into the new host agreements.
10. Next meeting
The next ECF General Meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 20, 2004 at 10:00 hours in the Scandic Grand Hotel in Gävle, Sweden.
The meeting closed at 11:30 |