INTERNATIONAL ORIENTEERING FEDERATION

Transcription

1 INTERNATIONAL ORIENTEERING FEDERATION Minutes of COUNCIL MEETING No. 173 Place Frankfurt, Germany Date January 2015 Participants Brian Porteous (BWP) President Leho Haldna (LH) Senior Vice President Michael Dowling (MD) Vice President Astrid Waaler Kaas (AWK) Vice President Owe Fredholm (OF) Member Tatiana Kalenderoglu (TK) Member Mikko Salonen (FIN) Member Niklaus Suter (NS) Member Maria Silvia Viti (MSV) Member Dominic Yue (DY) Member Laszlo Zentai (LZ) Member Tom Hollowell (TH) Anna Jacobson (AJ) Riikka Tolkki (RT) Secretary General Assistant Secretary General Sports Administrator 1 Opening President Brian Porteous welcomed the members, and welcomed new Secretary General Tom Hollowell to his first Council meeting. 2 Approval of the agenda The agenda was approved with the addition of 2 items to agenda item 35, All other business. It was noted that additional agenda items could be inserted due to issues raised by Commissions from their meetings being held in parallel with at the Council meeting. 3 Approval of previous minutes Several corrections were made to the minutes of Council meeting No. 172, held on October 2014; Item 10.3 Review of Commission Structure, was amended with the following The agreed division of responsibilities is included in an appendix to these minutes. Item 26 IOF LiveCenter project, was corrected to reflect the Councils agreement that For major IOF events in 2016, Council decided that 100% of the participants shall carry GPS tracking devices,. Item 32 Future Council meetings, Item 32.2 was corrected to show the correct dates of the Councils spring meeting as April, 2015.

2 2 Thereafter the minutes were approved as true records of that meeting. BWP commented to item 31.7 of the previous minutes that no venue or date had yet been set for the Urban Games. 4 To note decisions taken by since Council meeting No Decisions taken by Council 17 January 2015 (amendment to prior decision 29 November 2014): The Council unanimously authorised Secretary General/CEO Tom Hollowell to sign in the name of the IOF, on his sole signature, all business and legal documents of the IOF, and to operate, on his sole signature, the IOF bank accounts with Nordea Bank and Danske Bank, including the right to a credit card. Further, Tom Hollowell was granted the right to authorise Assistant Secretary General Anna Jacobson, and Sports Administrator Riikka Tolkki to sign IOF documents on their respective sole signature to the extent he deems appropriate, and to authorise Anna Jacobson to operate, on her sole signature, the IOF bank accounts with Nordea Bank and Danske Bank, including the right to a credit card. The Council granted Visma Solutions Oy (Business ID ) access to the International Orienteering Federation's (IOF) bank account No. FI with Danske Bank, the purpose of which is to allow use of the Netvisor software for management of the IOF s monetary transactions. Council also agreed to register the IOF s account No. FI for Danske Bank s Business Online ebanking services. 15 December 2014: By voting 10 in favour, none against, and no abstentions, Council confirmed the membership of the IT Commission for the years One member was absent. 20 November 2014: The Council unanimously confirmed the IOF Commission membership , noting that the proposed Italian and Norwegian members were still subject to approval by FISO and NOF, and that the structure and composition of the ITC was still under review. 15 November 2014: The Council unanimously approved the dates and the programme of the WSOC 2017 in Russia. The event will take place in the period 5-13 March 2017 as follows: 5 March: arrival 6 March: training 7 March: competition day 8 March: competition day 9 March: competition day 10 March: rest day 11 March: competition day 12 March: competition day 13 March: departure 4.2 Decisions taken by the ESB 30 December 2014: The ESB ruled on the FOC s proposal for changes to the WCup 2015 Special Rules, and the dates of the 2016 WCup round in Poland as follows:

3 3 1) Change of dates for the 2016 WCup round in Poland Decision: By voting 3 in favour, none against, and no abstentions, the ESB approved the proposal. 2) 2015 World Cup round in Sweden and Norway Decision: By voting 3 in favour, none against, and no abstentions, the ESB approved the proposal for single races, i.e. that all runners are allowed to run in the A-final, with the best runners starting last, if there are less than 90 entries, and that they will be starting between if there are more than 90 entries. 3) Request for a rules deviation to allow for a 1.5 min start interval in the 2015 WCup competition 6 (middle distance) in Sweden. Decision: Noting that the organiser's proposal had been rejected both by the SEA and by FOC, the ESB did not approve the proposal. One ESB member was absent. 23 December 2014: The ESB approved the proposed dates for SkiO events in 2015/16 as follows: SkiO WCup Round 1: Organiser: Finnish Orienteering Federation Venue: Ylläs, Lapland, Finland Time period: 26 Nov 2 December 2015 SkiO WCup Round 2 and 2016 WMSOC: Organiser: Orienteering Germany Venue: Oberwiesenthal & Klingenthal, Saxony, Germany Time period: January 2016 SkiO WCup Round 3 and 2016 JWSOC: Organiser: Austrian Orienteering Federation Venue: Obertilliach, Osttyrol, Austria Time period: 29 February 7 March 2016 The ESB noted that the detailed programme, when available for all rounds, would require a separate decision to be taken. 22 December 2014: The ESB unanimously supported the 2015 ESOC/WMSOC organiser's request for a rules deviation to allow use of the SportIdent Air+ system at the event to be held on January. 13 December 2014: The ESB unanimously approved the revised Competition Rules for IOF FootO, MTBO and TrailO Events December 2014: By voting 3 in favour, none against, and no abstentions, the ESB decided to approve the revised Competition Rules for IOF SkiO Events One member was absent. 3 December 2014: By voting 3 in favour, none against, and no abstentions, the ESB approved SOC's proposal to appoint Per Frost (SWE) Senior Event Adviser for the 2015/16 SkiO World Cup Round 1 in Finland. One ESB member was absent. 24 November 2014: The ESB unanimously approved SOC s and MC s joint proposal for revised International Specification for Ski Orienteering Maps (ISSkiOM).

4 4 5 Correspondence 17 November 2014: The ESB unanimously approved the FOC s proposal to move the deadline for applications to host World Cup 2018 competitions to 30 June November 2014: The ESB approved SOC's proposal for a change to the World Ranking rules (rule 7.3), i.e. to give ESOC winners a score of In SkiO, the World Cup is biennial, and there is no SkiO World Cup in Vote: 3 in favour, none against, and no abstention. One ESB member was absent. 4 November 2014: The ESB unanimously approved the organiser s request for a change to the WOC 2015 programme, i.e. that the Sprint Qualification race will take place in the evening of Friday 31st July. 27 October 2014: The ESB unanimously supported the Foot Orienteering Commission proposal to appoint Urs Hofer (SUI) SEA for the 2018 WOC in Latvia, Brigitte Grüniger-Huber (SUI) SEA for the 2017 JWOC in Finland, and Peter Molnar (HUN) Assistant SEA for the 2016 EOC in the Czech Republic. 5.1 International World Games Association (IWGA) Letter announcing amendments to the IWGA Constitution which are to be decided at the IWGA Annual General Meeting in Sochi in April. Council delegated to BWP and TH a mandate to review the constitutional amendments and represent the IOF at the AGM. 5.2 International University Sports Federation (FISU) Letter announcing the opening of applications for FISU Technical Delegates to be appointed for the time period In connection with this letters had been received from; Ola Kåberg, current FISU TD for orienteering, asking for IOF s endorsement of his application, and from Japan Orienteering Association asking the IOF to endorse the candidature of Shin Murakoshi Council decided to endorse the candidature of Shin Murakoshi and prepare a letter of support to be forwarded to Japan Orienteering Association. In deciding not to endorse Ola Kåberg s application Council would like to extend to him their deep appreciation of the work he has done for orienteering in the capacity of FISU TD since Following the meeting, FISU was in contact with the IOF (through BWP) regarding a misunderstanding in their call for applications. The IOF was welcome to endorse several applicants as FISU will now be appointing both a main TD and reserve or alternate TDs (a change from former practice). FISU also commented that they had been very pleased with the past work carried out by Ola Kåberg and asked the IOF to consider a letter of support for him. Due to the short response time required BWP and TH agreed to prepare a letter of support also for Ola Kåberg.

5 5 5.3 FISU Winter Olympiade 2019 An invitation to the 1 st CTI Meeting for the Winter Universiade 2019 in Krasnoyarsk Russia. TH informed Council that the Ski Orienteering Commission (SOC) had appointed a representative to participate at the meeting. 6 Membership applications 7 President s report An application for provisional membership from the Egyptian Orienteering Federation had been received. Council found all application documents to be in order and unanimously decided to welcome the Egyptian Orienteering Federation as the 79 th member of the IOF. Council would like to add their thanks to those expressed by the Egyptian Orienteering Federation in their application letter, to IOF regional development coordinator Zoran Milovanovic, for his efforts in Egypt. BWP reported that most matters would be tabled under the respective items in the agenda, however he did wish to report on 3 items at the start of the meeting. BWP reported from the IOC Session in early December 2014 about the approval of the Agenda 2020 proposals and how this could potentially impact the inclusion of orienteering in the Olympic Games. Most significant is the move from sports based inclusion to events based inclusion. The decision to allow the inclusion of new events may be made either by the IOC or the appointed local organizer. The process for inclusion of events is as yet unknown but BWP hoped that further information would be given by the IOC at a meeting to be held in connection with the SportAccord conference in Sochi in April. BWP reported from discussions with the IOC related to developments in Ukraine and the Crimea. Related to participation in IOF events it was confirmed, as in the rules, that passport holding athletes may choose which country they represent as long as it is done in accordance with IOF representation rules. Related to the organization of events in the Crimea, BWP reported that the IOF would continue to follow United Nations guidance on territorial boundaries and that applications from RUS to host IOF events there could not be approved without the approval of the UKR federation. Finally BWP reported that Barbro Rönnberg was assisting the IOF Office in closing the 2014 financial accounts and wished to express thanks once again to Barbro for agreeing to this delay in her retirement to assist the federation COUNCIL WORKING PRACTICES 8 Implementation of the Activity Plan It was agreed that the Office, through the CEO, would collect and assess progress towards the implementation of the Activity Plan and produce an updated report for each Council meeting. 9 Joint Council-Commission meeting Council reviewed the agenda and presentations in preparation for the joint meeting on January 17.

6 6 10 Finance 10.1 End-of-year 2014 financial report (preliminary) The Council reviewed the preliminary end-of-year 2014 Balance Sheet and the Income and Expenditure Account noting a positive development in income and expenditures but a continuing cash-flow problem primarily due to poor payment discipline from certain member federations. The Council decided that letters were to be sent to 3 member federations who had significant overdue debts to the IOF reminding them of their obligations as members of the IOF, their contractual obligations in connection with major events and the consequences of non-payment. The Council also asked the CEO to develop IOF contracts documents to include terms related to late payments, i.e. the previously decided interest terms, terms describing sanctions for non-payment and a new proposal for standard staged payments. The document review and development should include application guidelines Budget 2015 review It was agreed that TH and LH would update the 2015 budget and present this at the next Council meeting in April Sponsorship issues TH and BWP reported that an agreement for the sponsorship rights for WOC 2015 had not been reached with BOF and local organizers. BWP reported that agreement had been reached with SOFT related to Gold Partner 1 sponsorship rights for WOC 2016 in Sweden Financing model, IOF A-D programme 11 IOF structure Following up on the discussion at the October Council meeting, LH presented a revised proposal for a sustainable financing model for the IOF Anti-Doping programme. The Council discussed the financial model as outlined by LH, and agreed that the model should be modified to include only 2 components, i.e. organizers and athletes fees. Furthermore Council asked LH to initiate consultation on the proposal with the respective AC and member federations Regional and Youth Development Commission (RYDC), membership AWK presented the proposed members of the new commission. The proposal was approved and it was agreed that AWK should progress to gain approval from the respective member federations for support of their commission members. Several additional members were proposed by Council members and it was agreed that AWK would follow up these proposals and they could be added to the commission at the next Council meeting.

7 Commission remits LH briefly presented the remits agreed with the various commissions. Council agreed that these should be sent out for review by Council members with any comments to be forwarded to LH. An decision about the final remits will be reached as soon as possible Appointment of new member to Medical Commission (MedC) AJ presented the proposal that Christer Rolf (SWE) be appointed member of MedC. Council approved the proposal Environmental Commission (EnvC) need for appointments OF raised the issue that the EnvC consisted of only one member, Eje Andersson (SWE). It was agreed that a request should be sent out to encourage member federations to nominate new members for the commission IT Commission (ITC) The Council noted that there would be a new chair of the ITC, Håkan Blomgren (SWE) and would like to express its appreciation to Björn Heinemann (GER) for his past service as Chair and his willingness to remain in the commission as a member Commission membership corresponding members Following discussion, Council agreed that the term corresponding member was misleading and would no longer be used in terms of commission membership. All members in a commission have equal standing. 12 Athletes licence system The Council noted the status report presented by LH, and agreed that this should be consulted with the respective AC and member federations together with the A-D financing proposal. FOCUS ON KEY OUTCOMES 13 Strategic initiatives in the Activity Plan 13.1 Provisional members It was agreed that the newly appointed RYDC should, in cooperation with the Council members responsible for each region, assess the status of all provisional members and report to Council with advice on provisional membership status and/or need for support. 14 Status reports on development in the regions DY reported that the Asian Junior and Youth Championships would be held. Dates are as yet unknown and a EA appointment is needed for the event. AWK reported from Zoran Milovanovic that progress was being made in Kosovo and Albania with it being likely that they will soon apply for IOF provisional membership.

8 8 International events will be held in Cyprus in March 2015 and he is also providing development support to Bosnia. MSV reported about the Orienteering Championships of West Sahara. MS reported that he had been in contact with the federations in CAN and USA who had no specific issues to raise. LZ reported from the WMOC in Brazil that very few participants from other South American countries had participated. He raised the issue of provisional members being notified about their membership responsibilities. MD added to the report that following The World Games in Colombia there was ongoing activity. MD reported that the Australian federation was participating in a project supporting schools which is funded by Sports Australia. 15 Academies and Clinics AWK reported that plans for the WOC Clinic were progressing with an invitations list being finalized. The aim is 20 persons in total participating in the Clinic. TK suggested that Greece be invited to be represented by a young athlete. LZ suggested that invitations should be sent to the newest member nations, e.g. Egypt. AWK will finalize the invitations list and send out letters based upon previous years. It was noted that coordination should be done with O-Ringen Academy to ensure optimal impact of academy and clinic activities. AWK presented a proposal for regional development funding grants and it was agreed that AWK could decide on allocations within the agreed budget. 16 Potential new members As noted above it is likely that Kosovo and Albania are closest to applying for membership. YOUNG PEOPLE 17 Status report on project activities MSV reported on several website updates which have been done or are forthcoming related to Youth activity; A translated guidleines for producing school maps from the Scool project (SUI) A report from the Orienteering Championships of West Sahara An interactive game from WADA to teach about anti-doping A translated document about the School orienteering project SkolSprinten (SWE) It was agreed that MSV and AWK would discuss division of work related to the RYDC.

9 9 POSITION ON THE WORLD SPORTING STAGE 18 Political agenda for our Olympic ambitions BWP reported that invitations had been sent to key IOC dignitaries to attend ESOC 2015 in January. BWP reported that the SOC had started some lobbying activities in KAZ in support of positioning ski orienteering for inclusion in the Olympic Winter Games 2022 if KAZ should be successful in its Olympic bid. 19 SportAccord Convention IOF event organisers AJ reported about the IOF exhibition booth which would be manned primarily by AJ and Hans Jørgen Kvåle (Ski Orienteering Athletes Commission chair). BWP and TH will also attend SportAccord and represent IOF at Annual General Meetings and conferences Appointment 2017 World Trail Orienteering Championships (WTOC) Council approved the Trail Orienteering Commission s recommendation to appoint Lithuania organiser of the 2017 WTOC. The dates of the event were also approved Approval of event dates World Orienteering Championships 2018 The Council approved the Foot Orienteering Commission s proposal that the WOC in Latvia be held in the period 27 July to 5 August Approval of the event program for EOC 2016 Council had received a request for approval to organize a Sprint Relay as a part the 2016 World Cup program, within the EOC program. FOC proposed that this not be approved at the current time to preserve a rest day in the EOC program. FOC would however work with the local organizers to see if a suitable solution could be found to organize a Sprint Relay World Cup event in connection with EOC. Furthermore FOC recommends that the EWG consider the inclusion of Sprint Relay as an official event in the EOC program. Council approved the FOC proposal and delegated the decision about the final EOC 2016 program and Sprint Relay World Cup to the ESB Summary of applications for IOF events January deadline RT presented the summary of applications received prior to the January deadline for submissions. Council noted that no applications had been received for JWOC 2018, ETOC 2018 or for WOC Council decided to reopen the application period for JWOC 2018 for applications received at the latest by March 15 th Council decided to reopen the application period for WOC 2019 for applications received at the latest by June 30 th 2015.

10 Appointment 2016 World Masters MTB Orienteering Championship (WMMTBOC) The Council approved the MTB Orienteering Commission s recommendation to appoint Lithuania organiser of the 2016 WMMTBOC. Dates are to be determined Approval of event dates for 2017 World MTB Orienteering Championships (WMTBOC) and Junior World MTB Orienteering Championships (JWMTBOC) The Council approved the MTB Orienteering Commission s recommendation that the WMTBOC and JWMTBOC be held in the period 19th 27rd August Approval of the 2018 World Masters Orienteering Championships shortlist The IOF received 3 applications for WMOC 2018 from Bulgaria, Denmark and Slovakia. Following the recommendation of the FOC Council approved to shortlist Denmark and Slovakia. FOC member David May will conduct an assessment visit to these two candidates prior to WOC FOC will make a recommendation for Council about the WMOC organiser during WOC Appointment 2017 World Masters Ski Orienteering Championships (WMSOC) Council approved the Ski Orienteering Commission s recommendation to appoint Finland organiser of the 2017 WMSOC. The dates of the event were also approved Review of the IOF competition programme, status report MD reported to Council on the status of the work done in the project group. The group has initiated a feedback phase and has prepared 2 documents requesting feedback related to the Split WOC proposal. The first document will be sent to the expert group, the second (which is a shorter version of the first) will be sent to all member federations. It was agreed that the first document would also be distributed to Council for answers. Based upon these responses the project group will prepare a draft report and recommendation for the Council meeting in April. MD reported further that work would begin within the project group to look at the MTBO competition program and to review the connection between WMG/WMOC. 22 The future of the World Cup in Foot Orienteering MD reported that little progress had been made since the October meeting to allow the new CEO to become involved in the project. It was agreed that TH would facilitate a meeting between the World Cup 16/20 group and a potential commercial and broadcasting agent. Based upon the result of that meeting TH will report back with a recommendation on how to proceed at the Council meeting in April. TH will also give feedback to the FOC with status of project in consideration of the bidding process for WC 2017 and 2018.

11 11 23 Event quality 24 WADA OF presented an outline proposal for an event quality process to be presented at the joint meeting with commissions. Council commented on the proposal and asked OF to progress by writing a formal document describing the Event Quality process for subsequent approval by Council Appointment of Doping Review Panel and Doping Hearing Panel 25 Competition rules Council approved the recommendation from AJ for members of the Doping Review Panel, Doping Hearing Panel and TUE Panel Rules Deviation MTBO World Cup 2015 Hungary The Hungarian Orienteering Federation had submitted to the Council a rules deviation request related to the use of the SI Air+ punching system. Since the final approval of the SI Air+ system is expected prior to the event the Council decided not to approve the rules deviation as this will most likely not be necessary Proposal from MTBOC - Unofficial Masters MTBO World Cup The MTBO Commission had submitted to the Council a proposal to introduce the event title Masters MTBO World Cup (Unofficial). The Council did not approve the use of the wording World Cup in the title as World Cup is a brand of the IOF, but welcomed the MTBOC initiative to make an attractive masters competition series as long as this was not seen to be an IOF sanctioned event Proposal from MTBOC rule change reconsideration The MTBOC had submitted to Council a proposal asking for a reconsideration of a rule change decision made at the Council meeting in October 2014 related to the use of GPS enabled devices. Council decided that the item should be delegated to the Rules Commission (RC) for a recommendation and that a decision be made at the Council meeting in April The MTBOC had submitted to Council a proposal asking for a reconsideration of a rule change decision made at the Council meeting in October 2014 related to adding a new mass start competition at the WMTBOC. Council, by majority vote, voted against this proposal but delegated this item to the Major Events Programme Review Project for consideration in its upcoming work The MTBOC had submitted to Council a proposal asking for a reconsideration of a rule change decision made at the Council meeting in October 2014 related to 5 year age categories at the WMMTBOC. The proposed division into 5-year age categories was approved at the October meeting but not the merging of classes if there were less than 10 participants in an age category.

12 12 The Council rejected the MTBOC proposal to reconsider the rule change Rules deviation request WOC 2015 The FOC had recommended approval of a rules deviation request related to the use of the SI Air+ punching system for the Sprint Relay at WOC Since the final approval of the SI Air+ system is expected prior to the event the Council decided not to approve the rules deviation as this will most likely not be necessary MTBO World Cup 2015 Hungary - Bulletin The World Cup organizer had requested approval of bulletin 2 for the event and the SEA had asked for guidance from the IOF Office and Council related to the descriptions of entry fees in the Bulletin. Counter to the requests from Council the organizer had refused to make changes in the bulletin and has published it in the public domain. The contract for the event is not signed. Council agreed that the unapproved published bulletin must be modified to meet IOF requirements or the event will not be supported or sanctioned by the IOF Punching System Approval Process The RC had proposed a revision to the Punching System Approval Process simplifying and clarifying the process. Council approved the revised Punching System Approval Process Provisional approval of the SFR punching system 26 Rules project 27 IOF World Ranking 28 IOF Eventor The RC had recommended provisional approval of the SFR punching system for use at WRE events for a 2-year period. Council gave the provisional approval for the SFR punching system in accordance with the recommendation. This item was tabled until the next Council meeting in April. LH reported on the status of the IOF World Ranking system. The update project can now be considered complete. Council thanked LH for the report and his efforts in improving the World Ranking system. LH reported on the status of the IOF Eventor project. The system is now in use and although there are some quality and adoption issues progress is favourable. The guarantee period will end at the end of February There is a plan for new developments which will need to be considered in respect to the 2015 budget.

13 13 29 IOF LiveCenter project LH informed Council of the current status of the project. The LiveCenter is fully operational and the agreement with the vendor TraxMeet is signed by the IOF. It is now possible to implement Geoblocking of the web-tv feed. Implementation of live split times from controls is currently being investigated. One issue that should be considered is having a separate TV-commentary for the web-tv portion of LiveCenter. 30 Proposal from MTBOC World Cup diplomas The MTBOC had proposed IOF diplomas should be awarded to the 1-6 placed athletes at every World Cup event. Council rejected this proposal. 31 Reports The Council took note of the following reports WMOC 2014 Brasil LZ reported from the WMOC in Brasil. Concerns were raised about the local event organization however overall the event was successful. This would not have been possible without the extensive efforts of SEA Øivind Holt and David May and Council expresses their appreciation of these efforts JWOC Development Project FOC had submitted to Council its recommendations from its review of the JWOC development project. The primary finding was related to reinstatement of the banquet as an official part of the JWOC program. Council decided to table the discussion and decision related to this until a later meeting and asked MSV to consult about this in connection with JWOC The World Games 2017 (POL) TH reported on the status of work related to The World Games The dates of The World Games has been changed to July 20 th 30 th 2017 to prevent conflict with other major events. Jerzy Antonowicz participated in the 1 st General Meeting for IF Competition Managers, a meeting which was very informational and well-planned. Decisions need to be made about the necessary IOF support team to assist the local organizers and appointed SEA.

14 14 INCREASED VISIBILITY 33 TV project, status report BWP informed Council that the financial result of the WOC 2014 TV project was better than expected. It was agreed that TH should give the promised feedback to the Nordic federations who had contributed to the project about the final result. BWP also informed Council about the status of the TV broadcasting project for WOC IOF Promotion and Marketing Strategy It was agreed that MD and TH will cooperate in moving this item forward. OTHER MATTERS 35 AOB 35.1 IOF representation 2015 The Council reviewed the list of IOF Representation at Events and Conferences. The updated list will be distributed Rules deviation request starting interval at WOC 2015 races The Council approved the proposal from FOC related to the starting interval at the WOC 2015 Long Distance race. The Council approved the proposal from FOC related to the starting interval at the WOC 2015 Middle Distance race. Council will also request of FOC to prepare a rule change to avoid getting the same RDR year after year as has been the case here Rules deviation request extend WOC 2016 from 8 to 9 days The FOC had forwarded a proposal from the WOC 2016 SEA and organizers asking to extend the period of WOC 2016 from 8 to 9 days for information. FOC is not yet ready to make a recommendation as it will seek further advice from AC and coaches. Council noted that this was a major issue which might require consultation with member federations as it was a significant issue within the competition programme Revision of WOC Special Rules The FOC had proposed a revision of WOC Special Rules aimed at protecting the ranking in starting order at WOC. Council felt that this could have consequences that could not be judged in the short time available at the meeting and agreed that TH review the proposed changes with the WOC SEA for decision by the ESB.

15 Staffing of the IOF Office TH reported on the status of staffing at the IOF Office. The Office has a backlog of work which has not been able to be completed and in accordance with decisions at the October meeting a temporary has been employed for 3 months to assist RT and AJ. During this time the workload at the Office will be assessed. The Sport Director position has not been replaced, but Jørn Sundby has been employed on an hourly contract with a cap corresponding to a 40% position to take on the duties of WOC SEA for WOC 2015, WOC 2016 and preparatory work for WOC 2017 and WOC TH will at the April Council meeting present an organizational plan for Council review and approval. 36 Future Council meetings, dates and venues April 2015, Istanbul, TUR August 2015, Inverness, GBR (in conjunction with the 2015 WOC) October 2015, Vienna, AUT (to be confirmed) January 2016, Copenhagen DEN or Frankfurt, GER (preliminary) 37 Closure of the meeting President Brian Porteous thanked the participants and formally closed the meeting. Brian Porteous President Tom Hollowell Secretary General/CEO