Minutes of the 43rd meeting of the Region EAME Cableski Council
Held in Nice on 9th/10th November, 2001.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Present:
Marie-Anne Persoons
President
Nicky Caine Secretary
Maoz Tal
Juergen Pitz
Latzo Nemes
Apologies
Anne Browaeys
Juergen Pauen
Marie-Anne had received an e-mail from Juergen Pauen on the day of the meeting to advise due to an accident having occurred at his place of work he now could not fly to France and sent apologies. Anne had apologised previously due to work commitments also could not attend but would place a conference call on Saturday to discuss the Seminar
The Minutes of the meeting held in France on 17th/18th March, 2001 were approved unanimously and were duly signed by Marie-Anne and Nicky.
It was noted that the Standings List at present did not include Israeli results which had been sent to Juergen Pauen. Also missing were the results from South Africa and Bulgaria. The Standings List would be further amended by Heidi taking out all competitions that were only “Normal Homologation”
The Provisional Calendar would be agreed in Amsterdam, January, 2002 but at the moment Kosice had applied to hold EAME Juniors in 2003 and Worlds in 2004.
Kosice had also applied to hold an “International” on first weekend of July 2002.
An e-mail has been received from Poland which appears to request that they wish to hold “EAME” Championships and would like to have the competition on 15/16 June, 2002. Poland advise that they need the name “European” in the title of the event to get sponsorship. Kuno has sent Poland the list of obligations on receipt of the e-mail . It was agreed that June was too early to have “EAME” Championships and anyway it would not be possible as it had been agreed that Worlds and Europeans should be on alternate years and therefore 2002 was a “Worlds” year. It was believed that there may be a language difficulty with the e-mail as it was thought they actually were applying for an “International” event to be included in European Cable Tour (ECT)
There has been an offical bid from Alfsee to hold Juniors on 7/8th September, 2001, which was approved by the Council.
At the moment there was no date or venue for “Worlds” and South Africa were no longer interested as they did not have a suitable venue.
It was believed that Australia were hosting Cable Wakeboard Worlds in 2002 and therefore were unlikely to be willing to host Cable 3 event Worlds.
Nicky advised that Great Britain had investigated whether it would be possible to hold it but unfortunately found it would be impossible due to cost and organisation..
However, there is a possibility that an “International” would be held at Princes in 2002 and Nicky would contact Jez Marston to find out more details.
Rene Hoffman would be contacted to find out if he was prepared to try and organise a competition in Orlando at the end of the seaon.
The site in Italy was now up and running
There were also going to be 2 new sites constructed in Germany and Brazil with various sites being built in Russia, Japan and China.
Marie-Anne, Nicky, Juergen Pitz and Maoz Tal confirmed that they wished to re-stand for election.. Juergen Pauen would have to advise. Laco announced that he wished to resign and suggested that Peter Mach also from Slovakia would be happy to stand and the committee were very pleased with this as it is agreed that is was important to have a representative from Eastern Europe on the Council as many of the major competitions are held there.
Anne also announced that she would not be re-standing due to work commitments. She felt that since she could not attend all the meetings, she better leave her place to someone else, but she agreed that she would still be happy to organise the Cable Officials Seminar and the Council thanked her for agreeing to help with this. It was agreed that Anne and Marie-Anne would liase and try and find somebody else from France to replace her.
It was also agreed that for part of the meeting it would useful to have a Skiers Representative and it was suggested that Julia Meyer-Gromyko, who was appointed as Skiers Representative in the past already, should be approached again. Nicky and Marie-Anne would draw up a letter.
The Slovak Federation would be sending a letter to be included in EAME Congress agenda for meeting to be held in Amsterdam in January, 2002.
They wished it to be noted that there was a big difference between Tournament and the other disciplines and IWSF sanction fees to host the Worlds was too high.
It is possible in Tournament for monies to be raised in Boat sponsorship where as in Cable it actually costs money to hire the tow from the owners of the site and therefore the sanction fee to hold the Worlds was far too expensive. This is believed to be the reason why no bid for the 2002 Cableski Worlds has been received yet.
It was also agreed that the subscription fees were too high for Federations who had worked hard to host events that other countries could not or did not wish to hold. It was to be suggested by Slovakia that the basic fee be raised as opposed to in their opinion penalising Federations with much activity.
The Slovakian Federation also wished consideration be given to extending the “Junior” category to 18 years however most of the committee felt that by 18 most of the skiers were actually “grown-up” and therefore felt the age extension was not a good idea.
Poland – The site is a young and very enthusiastic club which had support and sponsorship. The end of the large lake was very windy and unfortunately there had been rain as well. There had been trouble setting up the Jump system and the Trick Judges had to sit in a boat. The results were disappointing and the timetable not good. The site need some more experience and it is not very easy to get to as the nearest airport is Warsaw and then 100KM but it is a bad road.
Havirov (European Championships) – It was a good competition and was professionally organised by Romana and the members of the Club. The Cableski Council thanks the organiser for the work they did. It was noted that it was believed that the spectators did not stay for the whole time of the competition due to the long gaps between disciplines. In future this should be better watched and maybe the competition could start later.
Slalom was very disappointing but the wind had got stronger within about 20 minutes and both Ladies and Men had problems which of course is the disadvantage of an outdoor sport and the slalom and trick event were not switched on the schedule as the organisers had requested that Tricks be the first event of Saturday morning.
It was agreed that the Operator was excellent and that there had been no language problems as he had used small children to assist him. This was a very good example on how to get over a language barrier.
Also at the European Championships the Austrian team had left before the Final Ceremony without advising the organisers which was very pity and caused problems as there was nobody to hold their flag on the stage in front of the invited dignitaries.
Piestany(European Junior Championships) – The weather was very cold and wet( but luckily in town there were very good cheap jackets for sale and the salesmen did a brisk trade!!) The organisation was once again very professional and Renata handled everything expertly in the absence of her father Latzo through ill-health but happily he was well enough to attend the final day!!
There was however confusion again of the total cost of the transportation of the teams from Vienna airport although both Maoz and Nicky had received e-mail confirming total cost of journeys the total cost had changed which makes budgeting for the Team Captains very difficult to arrange with their Federations.
There was also a problem at the main hotel where most of the teams and officials were staying as nobody at check-in desk spoke any English which caused difficulties.
Name of the results needs to be amended to “Junior and Dauphin Championships”
Also to be noted that beer should not be available free of charge to “Junior and Dauphin” skiers at Final Night Party.
Concern was expressed that sometimes due to the cost of the Final Night Party some people are not attending to receive medals due to them because they could not afford it and therefore it was thought that the “Medal Giving” Ceremony should be earlier and with no cost.
Both Cableski Championships took care of this problem very well
Jurgen Pitz would take back to Germany for Jurgen Pauen the dossiers of Israel and Kosice but nothing has been received from Bulgaria.
Discussion was held regarding Admin Com’s suggestion of there being an International Licence at the cost of 10Euros which would need to be shown at all competitions.
It was agreed by the Committee that all entrants for Cableski events would still need to be entered by their Federations so they were not keen on involving more money and time to administer a new system.
The Council were happy to try out the “card” system and agreed that it may help improve the smooth running and discipline needed to ensure a successful competition.
There had been Drug Testing held at Havirov but at the time no results had been received.
Kuno
and Sid join meeting.
Kuno advised that he had heard that Hungary may be building a covered Cable Tow site which if true sounded very interesting.
Kuno advised that EAME monies had been spent on helping Cable “Promotional” Video but was not sure exactly how the monies had been spent. Jurgen Pauen to be asked how many copies were made and who were they sent to?. The Council looked at the Video one more time and it was agreed that it should involve more competition and less scenery.
It was noted that the site at Moscow was now finished and hopefully at the beginning of next year they may be a site in Japan near Tokyo on an artifical lake. Nicky was to ask Gery Russel to phone Jurgen Pitz regarding this site near Tokyo.
It is believed that the sites being constructed in China are all going along well.
It is hoped that Cable Wakeboard will be sport involved in the World Games to be held in Duisburg in 2005 but unfortunately this will be a “one-off”.
The Council meeting will be held on Friday 15th March, 2002 starting at 9am followed by the Judges Seminar also commencing at 9am on Saturday 16th March with it ending at about 12.30 on Sunday lunchtime to allow everybody to get home for work on Monday.
It was agreed with Anne on the conference call that all the information for the Federations would be sent out by Bureau so Marie-Anne requested that Anne would send her 50 copies of pamphlet raised by the Centre where Seminar is to be held which will include a map of the location for the seminar. The centre is about 40 minutes from Lille and close to a train station. Also to sent out will be the various “deals” available for accomodation. The Congress will be open to everybody so all International Judges will be contacted but also top 50 Skiers who hopefully even if they do not attend themselves will advise all skiers they know that anybody can come.
The Council drew up a provisional schedule for the Seminar which covers various subjects including all the new “Technical” rules and advising that there is a possibility to take any pratical exams that are wished. It was hoped that the seminar would provide useful feedback so that the Council would be aware of the feeling of all people involved with Cable Ski-ing.
There is no projector at the Centre so Anne will try and bring one with her and she will also try and organise a large TV
There was a discussion regarding the format of future ECT stops and it was agreed that if possible there should be at least 4 stops but not necessarily a “Final”.
The competitions should be 3 event with all disciplines equal. The events should be self-supporting and the money distributed after total points from all stops are added together. Money would be distributed at November meeting where everything would be dealt with in Euro’s and the money will be distributed on an percent basis.
Martin Ellis and Zdeneck Necas have passed their 2nd Class Judges exams.
Fritz Simmel and Talia Shapiro have passed their International Calculator exams.
Congratulations to all of them. Juergen Pitz will inform them about their results personally.
Pratical and written exams should be taken in the same year and Jurgen Pauen would be asked if he had a video of the Worlds and if so it may be possible to hold a video exam at the Seminar.
It was agreed if possible at major events there should be a wide span of countries represented to avoid any possible idea of “conflict of interest”. However, sites were obviously allowed to make suggestions as to whom the judges should be at their event.
Discussion was held whether only four rounds of slalom should be allowed (unless a World/European Record can be achieved in the fifth round) It was agreed the starting speed of the Finals should be the last speed/rope length that all finalists had completed.
There was a discussion whether tricks should be a 25 or 30 second run and Jurgen Pitz would send a proposal out for more consultation and also whether there should maybe only one round in Preliminary Round and should the points allocated changed.
On the subject of Familiarisation it was discussed whether it should be posted after the course had been homologated whether any buoys had been moved after official training so that the skiers were aware of any changes made. It is surely reccomended to announce any change made to the site after familiarisation, even if the change is only a temporary change for one discipline.
It was agreed that Marie-Anne and Jurgen Pitz should hold the names and addresses of all Cable Site Manufacturers so that if there were any enquiries all known names could be supplied.
Jurgen Pitz was waiting for names to be put forward from Vern for PanAm Region and it was noted that three people needed to be from each region.
Council at present is made up of Jurgen Pitz, Marie-Anne Persoons and Colin Ellison.
After EAME Congress elections the three people to represent EAME at World level would be named and they would not necessarily have to be on EAME Council
Julia Meyer-Gromyko ‘s World Jump Record had already been ratified and the IWSF certificate given to the Belorussian Federation.
The budget that was to be applied for was as 3000 Euros made up as follows;-
1250 Seminar
250 Administration
1500 Development
This budget is still subject to approval by the Admincom.
The report raised by Marie-Anne was agreed with a few small changes. This report will be sent out as the annual report for Cableski 2001.
Maoz wished to know the Council member’s view on holding competitions within Israel.
All members advised that personally they had no problem but before a competition could be held both the skiers/parents and various government offices would have to be consulted whether it was felt safe to travel to Israel.
But the members all advised that we hoped that any trouble would be solved in the near future as we looked forward to being able to allocate an event to Israel.
It was agreed that the meeting after the Congress should commence at 9am on Sunday morning and would finish about 1pm.
Should Laco wish to attend this meeting he would be very welcome.
If there was a World Championships the Council may have a meeting there but if not the scheduled meetings were March before the Judges Seminar and November when all the Coumcils meet in one location normally Nice.
Marie-Anne thanked all members of the Council from attending and looked forward to seeing them in Holland in 2002.
Original text in English.
Marie-Anne
Persoons
Nicky Caine
President
Secretary