Minutes of the FISTC GENERAL ASSEMBLY in Nova Pec on June 5 & 6 2004.
1- Welcome.
The president welcomes everybody and thanks the Czech friends for the organisation of the meeting.
2- Definition of the participants and list of votes.
The number of the votes is 20 at the beginning of the meeting. The detailed list will be attached to these minutes.
3- Adoption of the agenda.
The agenda was unanimously adopted after the addition of the point of electing also an Animal welfare supervisor. cf. Point 8 elections; inserted between point 6 & 7.
4- Adoption of the minutes of the last GA in Paris.
The secretariat didn't receive any remarks during the year concerning the minutes of the last G.A.
The minutes were unanimously adopted by all voting members.
5- Reports of
a- President: Franco Mannato read his report. A copy will be attached to the minutes.
b- Vice -president: Miroslav Dano read his report and a copy was distributed to all members present. A copy will be attached to these minutes.
c- Secretary: Luc Put read his report. A copy will be attached to the minutes.
d- Treasurer: Walter Treichl presented the financial situation and the results of last year. A copy of the report and the budget will be attached to the minutes.
e- Technical director Sprint: Franz Stadolka read his report. A copy will be attached to the minutes.
f- Technical Director MD / LT: Olivier Favre distributed his report to all present members. As it is written in 3 languages everybody could follow it while Olivier asked to read it in German.
g- Responsible PR / Website : Luc Put explained the absence of Zuzana Scherer and summarised her report. A copy will be attached to the minutes.
h- FISTC Veterinarian: Arno Roos read his report. A copy will be attached to the minutes.
6- Report of the financial controllers.
Marleen Van Cauteren read the report of the financial controllers, who proposed to the GA to accept the accounting.
7- Discharging the members of the board.
The voting results for discharging the board members were: against: 0; abstentions: 0; in favour: 20
The board was discharged for the year 2003-2004.
8- Elections.
- designation of the members of the voting office: Richard Ammann and Guus Glaastra were appointed as the two members of the voting office.
- election of the new board:
1. president
Candidate : Franco Mannato. vote results : against: 0 ; abstentions: 0 ; in favour: 20
2. vice-president
Candidate: Arno Roos. Vote results: against: 0 ; abstentions: 0 ; in favour: 20
3. general secretary
Candidate: Jana Henychova. Vote Results: against: 0 ; abstentions: 2 ; in favour: 16 ; Nil:2
4. treasurer
Candidate: Walter Treichl. Vote result: against: 0 ; abstentions: 2 ; in favour: 18 ;
5. technical director sprint
Candidate: Franz Stadolka. Vote result: against: 0 ; abstentions: 4 ; in favour: 16 ;
6. technical director MD / LT
Candidate: Olivier Favre. Vote result: against: 0 ; abstentions: 2 ; in favour: 18 ;
7. Animal Welfare Supervisor
Candidate: Guus Zagers. Vote Result: against: 3 ; abstentions: 5 ; in favour: 12 ;
8. Webmaster
Candidates : Andre Vandeput and Jana Henychova.
Before voting Marleen Van Cauteren had drawn the attention to the fact that the webmaster should also take the responsibility over the Data Base. The president agreed upon this.
Vote result: Andre Vandeput: 5 votes
Jana Henychova: 15 votes
Jana will combine this function together with the general secretariat.
9. Vet
Candidate: Arno Roos. Vote results: against: 0 ; abstentions: 0 ; in favour: 20
Before passing to the next point of the agenda, the president reminded the GA that the Animal Welfare Protocol wasn't adopted last year. So he proposed to adopt it right now. The Animal Welfare Protocol was adopted unanimously by the GA.
9- Admission of new member countries.
- SSD: the new German Federation was created like announced last year on the GA in Paris. Andrea Heinrich presented the new SSD. The secretariat declares to have received all documents needed for admission at the FISTC. The statutes are in conformity with those of the FISTC. The GA voted on the admission.
Vote result: against: 0; abstentions: 0; in favour: 20.
This meant that from this moment onwards there were 21 member votes.
Before passing to vote on the admission of the SSVÖ, the problem of double membership was tackled. After an open discussion the GA asked to vote on this topic. The president agreed and stipulated that a member club or federation of the FISTC is not allowed to be at the same time member of the WSA. This has nothing to do with the mushers who can run races at the WSA.
Vote result: against: 0; abstentions: 1; in favour: 20.
So this means that all FISTC members can no longer be member of the WSA. A choice will have to be made. The DSHK and the new Austrian federation will have to solve this matter asap.
- SSVO: the new Austrian federation was founded like announced at the GA in Paris. Michael Planck presented the new Austrian federation. The secretariat remarks that not all documents were present and that there are some changes to be made in the statutes to be conform to the statutes of the FISTC. The Secretariat proposed to have a separate meeting with Michael Planck after the GA in order to discuss the points which have to be changed before the 1st of December 2004. M. Planck accepted this proposal. So the president proposed to the GA to vote on the admission of the SSVO on condition that the necessary changes to the statutes of the SSVO will be made before 1st December 2004.
Vote result: against: 0 ; abstentions: 0 ; in favour: 21
From this moment onwards there were 22 member votes.
- FIMSS : a new Italian Federation was presented by Mr. Massimo Bassan. All members had a chance to ask questions before voting for admission. The secretariat declared to have received almost all document needed for admission. The list with the organised pure-bread races was missing. Also the statutes were not in conformity with the FISTC statutes. The board explained that they had been discussing during the board meeting with the FIMSS to find a solution concerning the statutes. The FIMMS is covering an open section and a pure-breed one. They are willing to adapt the structure in order to be able to make statutes for the pure breed section within the FIMSS. This would mean that the pure breed section could become a member of the FISTC as soon as all formalities will be done.
Giovanni Nardelli representative of the CIS, at the moment the only admitted Italian club at the FISTC, declared that he has no problems with admitting the FIMSS but he asks to respect the rules. He proposed that the FISTC should wait one year in order to let the FIMSS arrange the statutes for the pure-breed section and organise some pure-breed races during the next season. The Austrian representative states that it would not be wise to make exceptions.
The president asked the GA to vote on the point that the FISTC waits one year before accepting the FIMSS.
Vote result: against: 0 ; abstentions: 0 ; in favour: 22 .
The president will make some time after the GA to discuss with the FIMSS and the CIS
10- Request and proposals of the member countries and the board.
Proposals from the board:
1. In the FISTC Championships Sprint, MD and LT, no team will be allowed to start if it has not been checked beforehand.
This proposal was slightly changed into following text:
The day before the race, at the latest at 16.00pm, unless the organisation is informed of a major problem, all teams must be available for pre-race checking.
Vote result on this proposal was:
Against: 0 ; in favour: 16 ; abstentions: 6 .
2. For the category Pulka the abolition of the obliged minimum weight in sprint and middle distance races, not applicable for Long Trails.
Vote result on this proposal:
Against: 2 ; in favour: 20 ; abstention: 0 .
Proposals of the members
1. FISTC should respect and apply their own rules (presence of judges during the championship events, no disqualification of dogs after second heat,.). The final version of the proposal to vote on became :
No dog can be disqualified for non-conformity with the standard later than 2 hours after the finish of the first heat. Vote result:
Against: 0; in favor: 22; abstention: 0.
2. Luc VANDERMOTTEN is a candidate for the financial controller for the GA 2005.
This was considered as information and had not to be voted on.
3. Belgium is still a candidate for organizing the next GA 2005, as approved during the last GA in Paris.
Also considered as information.
PSRCN
1. Legal participation in open championships.
The board proposes the following: legal participation in open championships for the mushers on condition that:
- IFSS only deals with open results, this means no separate classification for pure-breed teams;
- IFSS recognises the FISTC as the dominant pure-breed organisation ;
- no participation of the mushers on the WSA championships.
Vote result: Against: 0 ; in favour: 20 ; abstention: 2 .
2. No limitations on the number of participants in existing classes on the championships.
The organization of Donovaly confirms that there will be no limitation on the number of participants. However, they are expecting only the best teams of each country.
3. The delegation meeting on championships should not be limited to one single representative of each member country.
This proposal is adopted by limiting two persons per country.
4. To organise championships of a better quality by decreasing the time limits. To create a good qualification system for all the member countries.
The board explains that qualification races are a national matter and not a FISTC one. Concerning the time limits the board proposed to decrease in a first step to 140%.
Vote result: Against: 10 ; in favour: 10 ; abstention: 2 .
The statutes foresee in the case of equal votes that the vote of the president should be predominant. The president is in favour of the 140% rule. This rule will be applied as from next season onwards.
5. To establish FISTC dog-pass numbers, like the musher passport numbers. This to prevent that people could make their own dog-passes which are not controlled.
The board will establish new dog-pass numbers to be attributed to all members.
6. Explanation about the disqualification case of Jurgen Stolz. What happened to the other party, who committed a bigger mistake, and so far as known wasn't punished for that.
The board explained that Stolz was boxing another musher on the finish area. This is forbidden. There was no official protest from Stolz against the other musher.
Mushing Holland
1. Same as point 1 of Belgium. FISTC should respect their own rules.
- This was already treated.
2. A shorter way must be found for taking in use new rules and proposals. For example the Animal Welfare Protocol.
- Written procedures will be prepared for the future.
3. If there is a protest, the delegates of both countries should be involved in the following process.
- This is normally the rule which is supposed to be applied.
4. The FISTC should try to be closer involved in organising an EC or WC. And try to improve some little things as: complete lists for all competitors at the morning of each race day.
- The FISTC is already closely involved. The complete list for all mushers each day is not necessary; they will have the complete list at the final ceremony.
5. Try to make the FISTC GA shorter through publishing the reports of the Board members before the GA.
It can be read in advance and if there are no questions you can go on. (Works at our GA's)
- The board refused to distribute the reports in advance.
6. This is an addition to point 3 of the PSRCN, namely a limit of 2 to 3 persons with one spokes man.
- This point was already dealt with.
Austria
1. Category Skijoring: a maximum of 2 dogs.
After a discussion the vote result became: Against: 14; in favor: 2; abstention: 6.
The Skijöring remains with a maximum of one dog.
11- Results and price-giving FISTC-EURO-CUP.
The only result the FISTC received was the one from Weng. The cups will be distributed at the beginning of the World championships in Donovaly. Miro Dano will take care of the purchase.
12- Race-calendar for the season 2004/2005.
- World championship Sprint: Donovaly (SK)- 10 - 13 / 02 / 2005
- European championship MD/LT: Innerkrems (A) - 10 - 13 / 03 / 2005
- FISTC Eurocups:
- Austria: St. Ulrich 21-22/ 01 / 2005 sprint organised by SSVO
- Austria: Weng 08 - 09/ 01 / 2005 sprint organised by Mushing Holland
- Slovakia: Krahule 18 - 20 / 02 / 2005 MD/LT organised by Slovakia
- Another race will be organised by MH; details will come later.
13- Establishment of the national contingent for the next championships.
The contingents were established. The result is attached on a separate list.
14- Place of the next General Assembly.
The next GA will be in Belgium in the city of Leuven.
15- Establishment of the number of mushers by the member countries.
Each member will give his number of mushers of last season.
The treasurer noted down all the figures which were given.
16- Miscellaneous.
- European passport for dogs: Arno Roos explained the creation of the European passport for dogs. He showed the contents and the way it should be filled in by the veterinarians. All members were told that they still should find out if there are some particular regulations in their countries concerning the transport and keeping dogs.
- the quotas must be paid once they are asked.
- Austria complains about the bad behaviour of a Slovak musher in C2 at the price giving.
The Slovak Delegates apologised and will enquire on this matter with the musher involved.
The president closed the GA by thanking all participants for their active and constructive participation and invited everybody to look at some pictures and videos of the races organised during the season. The GA was closed at 19.30h.
Writen down by Luc Put- General Secretary