INTERNATIONAL ORIENTEERING FEDERATION

Transcription

1 INTERNATIONAL ORIENTEERING FEDERATION Minutes of COUNCIL MEETING No. 175 Place Inverness, Scotland, UK Date 1 August :00 15:00 3 August :00 16:00 5 August :00 12:00 7 August :30 12:00 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 (MS) Member (1 August) Niklaus Suter (NS) Member Maria Silvia Viti (MSV) Member Dominic Yue (DY) Member Laszlo Zentai (LZ) Member Tom Hollowell (TH) CEO (3, 5, 7 August) David Wästlund (DW) Sports Administrator (1, 3, 5 August) Hans Jørgen Kvåle (HJK) Marketing Manager (1, 3, 5 August) 1 Opening President Brian Porteous welcomed the members and the new Marketing Manager, Hans Jørgen Kvåle, and new Sports Administrator, David Wästlund, to their first Council meeting. 2 Approval of the agenda The agenda was approved. It was noted that the IOC choice of Beijing 2022 would be discussed under item 16 and also discussed with the SkiO Commission under item Approval of previous minutes The minutes of Council meeting No. 174, held on April 2015 were approved as true records of that meeting.

2 2 4 To note decisions taken by since Council meeting No Decisions taken by Council 11 May 2015: The Council unanimously approved the proposal asking the President to call an Extraordinary General Assembly of the IOF in Inverness Scotland in the timeframe 1 7 August. At the Extraordinary General Assembly the Council will present its proposal for changes to the WOC program and ask the IOF member federations to vote on this proposal. 25 June 2015: The Council, voting 10 in favour and with one vote missing, approved the President s proposal to award Björn Persson (SWE) with an IOF Gold Pin in recognition of his 22 years of service to the IOF. 25 June 2015: The Council, voting 9 in favour, 1 against and with one vote missing, approved the qualification rules for the World Games June 2015: The Council unanimously approved the proposal that the FootO World Cup would continue in its current form for the year 2017 and tasked the FOC with finding organizers for the World Cup The process of tendering the World Cup to a commercial partner will continue in parallel with the aim of having this in place for the 2018 season. The organizer applications form for 2017 should include the possibility for a commercial partner to begin in 2017 if desirable. 4.2 Decisions taken by the ESB 29 April 2015: The ESB unanimously approved the FOC s proposal to appoint Christine Brown (AUS) to be the Senior Event Adviser (SEA) for the 2017 Oceania Championships in New Zealand 29 April 2015: The ESB unanimously approved the FOC s proposal to appoint Chi Sing Clement CHAN (HKG) to be the SEA at the Asian Orienteering Championships (AOC) 2016 in Chinese Taipei. 29 April 2015: The ESB unanimously approved the SOC s proposal to change the rules regarding submissions of applications to organize IOF SkiO events, moving the application deadline forward from 1 January to 31 August each year. The changes become effective immediately and thus applications for the 2017/18 season for WCup, JWSOC and WMSOC and for WSOC 2019 shall be submitted prior to August 31, August 2015: The ESB unanimously approved the FOC s proposal to appoint Greg Hawthorne (AUS) to be Assistant SEA for WMOC 2017 in New Zealand. 4 August 2015: The ESB unanimously approved the FOC s proposal to appoint Adam Zitka (CZE) to be Assistant SEA for WCup 2016 and TWG 2017 in Poland. 4 August 2015: The ESB unanimously approved the FOC s proposal to appoint Száva Zsigmond (HUN) to be Assistant SEA for JWOC 2017 in Finland. 4 August 2015: The ESB unanimously approved the FOC s proposal to appoint Janos Manarin (ITA) to be SEA for EOC 2018 in Switzerland.

3 3 5 Correspondence 5.1 Tokyo 2020 IOF was invited at short notice to apply for taking part in Tokyo IOF had good support from the Japanese Orienteering Federation in preparing the application. The IOF was notified on June 22, that orienteering would not be included on the short list for inclusion at Tokyo Membership applications 6.1 Dominican Republic The Council unanimously accepted the Dominican Republic as a provisional member. This membership is the 80th member of the IOF. The Council had a discussion around how new members are introduced and welcomed as a member federation. The Council tasked the IOF Office to evaluate and create a welcome package with the help from the Council members. 7 President s report BWP reported from a meeting with International Rogaining Federation (IRF) about the future development of the sports. The two federations will develop with mutual respect and there is no ambition presently for the IRF to be an IOC Recognized sport. BWP reported from the 2015 SportAccord Convention World Sport & Business Summit in Sochi. IOF was represented by Brian Porteous, Tom Hollowell, Hans Jørgen Kvåle and Anna Jacobson. The Event started with a speech by the President of SportAccord criticising the IOC and their President Thomas Bach which made a number of federations suspend their membership of the organisation. IOF had a booth in the Convention and met other organizations, media and broadcasting companies. BWP thanked the Russian Federation for their great support at the convention. Among other things, an event of Labyrinth orienteering was shown and appreciated by the delegates. An observation from HJK was that orienteering had more recognition from previous conventions. IOF also had a meeting with IOC representatives and discussed the roadmap to Orienteering entering the Winter and Summer Olympics. BWP and TH had an audience with the Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko at which the inclusion of orienteering in the Olympic Games was discussed. BWP also reported from the good work done by the WOC Clinic group and especially the support provided by Christine Patterson from the British Federation. Despite Visa problems and a slightly decreased number of participants the group have supported the Clinic with honour.

4 4 COUNCIL WORKING PRACTICES 8 WOC 2015 Week Program 8.1 Presidents Conference and Extraordinary GA preparations BWP addressed some practical questions. DW was tasked with checking if Federations has been informed about the pre-meeting to the Extraordinary General Assembly and Presidents Conference on Wednesday. The IOF office was tasked with preparing voting procedures and proposing member federation attendees to check the minutes and to be vote tellers. DW was tasked with collecting the Presidents Conference presentations and having them available on a computer. BWP raised the importance of the split WOC decision outcome and BWP gave Council members a summary of his proposed introduction at both meetings. 9 Implementation of the Activity Plan Finance TH presented an assessment of progress towards the Activity Plan. Council discussed the assessment and asked TH to update status on several points. - It was noted that Erasmus+ projects were being successfully applied for by the Southeast Europe Working Group (SEEOWG) and this should be noted in the assessment. - The new RYDC will now own several of the tasks in the Activity Plan and it is important that this work progresses well. It was agreed that the status of IOF Provisional members will be presented and discussed at the October Council meeting. Council asked TH to update the assessment for each Council meeting and in doing so to also provide further explanation behind each assessment item and clearly note changes in the assessment from previous versions Financial report and forecast TH presented the updated Income & Expenditure Account and Balance Sheet for the period January to July 2015 and an updated Budget Forecast for The balance sheet has shown positive development since the beginning of the year and the current cash position has improved. This was largely due to an improved situation with outstanding payments to the IOF. However, several member federations were still late with payments to the IOF. The Income & Expenditure forecast indicates a negative differential compared to the budget. This is primarily due to one-off staff costs in connection with the transition of Secretary Generals and moving of the IOF office from Finland to Sweden. Of note was also that TV income was increasing and that IT project activities were increasing as a budgeted item. TH was tasked with modifying the structure of the accounts reporting to more clearly indicate TV, IT and organisation transition costs in preparation for the October Council meeting.

5 5 11 IOF structure 11.1 IOF Office and Staff - Status TH presented the status of the organisation changes in the IOF office, and an analysis of the financial impact of the restructuring. Council discussed the report and agreed that the organisational restructuring process should continue as planned European Working Group The Council noted the results of the Orienteering Federations of Europe (OFE) meeting, where it was decided that the EWG working rules will be changed and the remit of the group is to focus on regional development work. This was in line with the discussions previously held between AWK, TH and the EWG leadership. This decision meant that recommendations for the appointment of organizers of European regional events will in the future be done by the respective discipline commissions. Relative to EYOC, Council determined that a decision will need to be made at the October Council meeting if regional youth championships will be official IOF events. It was decided that the RYDC should be asked to establish principles for regional youth championships, to be presented at the next Council meeting in October. Based upon these principles, the respective discipline commissions should be tasked with evaluating and recommending the appointment of organizers. 12 Athletes licence system The Council noted the status report presented by LH. The Licencing System would be presented on the Presidents conference. FOCUS ON KEY OUTCOMES 13 Status reports on development in the region 13.1 South/Central America TH reported about the developments in South and Central America. IOF Regional Coordinator Jose Angel Nieto Poblete had been very active in visits to the region, resulting in the membership of the Dominican Republic. Good progress was also being made in Guatemala and Haiti where membership applications are being prepared. There has also been improved ties with the member federation in Cuba Philippines TH reported on recent developments in the Philippines where activity is going on and where they have expressed interest in getting support from other federations in the region. They have asked about the possibility of attending the upcoming Asian Youth Championships. DY reported also about the ongoing activities in Singapore. The organisation is trying to get official government approval still.

6 6 14 Academies and Clinics 14.1 WOC Clinic AWK informed on the WOC Clinic. 16 enthusiastic persons from 6 countries had entered the Clinic. Special thanks to Blandine Astrade, Zoran Milovanovic and Christine Patterson who were managing the Clinic. AWK suggested that IOF should to improve communication to smaller federations by increasing the communication routes. The athletes and team officials do not always get the information sent from the IOF Report O-Ringen Academy TH reported about the participation and agenda of the O-Ringen Academy. 24 participants from 14 nations had participated in the Academy which had 2 levels of activities Report TrailO Clinic Croatia OF reported that the Clinic had invited 15 participants but got 32 from 19 Countries. OF raised the question if IOF have a common presentation package of IOF to be used for IOF representatives on for example Clinics or other events. The Council tasked the IOF Office to produce a common IOF Overview on presentation slides to be used for IOF representatives externally. OF raised another question if English is mandatory for clinics and if IOF have a policy. The Council had a discussion in which it was noted that because the official language of the IOF was English, SEAs needed to be able to work in that language. However, clinics could be conducted in the local language. A third question raised by OF was if there is any policy on clinic fees. The answer was that there are no policy Planned SEEOA Clinic Bulgaria TH reported about the planned mapping clinic to be held by the SEEOA and supported by the development fund. TH/DY reported that a similar clinic was planned also in connection with the Asian Championships. Funding will also be provided for this. YOUNG PEOPLE 15 Report from the first RYDC meeting AWK reported from the first 2 meetings of the RYDC. There were very eager participants and already at the first meeting it was agreed that an additional meeting should be held during this week in Inverness to further set the structure of the commission.

7 7 It had been agreed that the Commission would be divided into 2 working groups, one for regional development and one for youth. For each working group 7 goals have been decided based upon the Activity Plan and preliminary remit. Among one of the tasks for the youth group it was decided to progress with the World (school) Orienteering Day project. This would be led by Patrick Kunz in the commission. Furthermore plans would be developed for a Young Leaders Clinic to be held in connection with WOC Malin and Tomas Yngström are leading this activity. POSITION ON THE WORLD SPORTING STAGE 16 Political agenda for our Olympic ambitions BWP reported from a meeting held with SOC and stakeholders related to Beijing A division of work was determined where BWP/TH will begin to develop political contacts in China, and SOC will be in contact with OAC to start development work related to ski orienteering in China. Consideration will be given to the need for a visit to China to meet with OAC and Beijing 2022 officials. It was also agreed that work would start as appropriate with member federations who have applicant cities for the 2024 Olympic games, for example Paris 2024 and Rome Open discussion with the Ski Orienteering Commission Council had an open discussion with members of the SOC related to their work. Eivind Tonna (SOC) presented that the commission is more or less on target with their work. They had restructured the commission slightly with more working groups within the commission. Focus will be placed on marketing efforts together with Hans Jørgen Kvåle. The goal is to further develop the discipline without raising costs for member federations. Key issues are visibility i.e. raising the number of spectators and number and quality of TV productions. SOC requested Council support in getting entries for the first FISU Student World Championships and several actions were agreed. 18 IOF event organisers 18.1 Appointment (WMTBOC 2018) Erik Adenstedt, President of the Austrian Orienteering Federation, and Walther Rahbek, President of the Danish Orienteering Federation, were invited to present the candidates for WMTBOC 2018 from Austria and Denmark respectively. Council decided to appoint Austria as the host of the 2018 World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships Appointment (MTBO World Cup 2017)

8 8 The Council approved the MTBO Commissions recommendation to appoint Austria to organise the first round of the 2017 World Cup in early June and France to organise the second round of the 2017 World Cup in late July, including the EMTBOC 2017 and WMMTBOC 2017 competitions Appointment (WTOC 2019) The Council approved the TrailO Commissions recommendation to appoint Portugal to organize the WTOC Appointment (JWOC 2018) The Council approved the FootO Commissions recommendation to appoint Hungary to organize JWOC Note: Council member Lazlo Zentai (HUN) excused himself from the decision Appointment (WMOC 2018) FootO Commission member David May described the evaluation process. Council agreed to appoint Denmark as host of the 2018 WMOC Appointment (WMOC 2019) IOF General Assembly previously set the condition that the final appointment of Latvia as organiser of the 2019 WMOC is subject to receipt of an acceptable application by the application deadline. The Council approved the FootO commissions recommendation, which was based upon an evaluation of the bid sent in by Latvia for WMOC 2019, and the Council appointed Latvia as the organiser Status World Cup 2017 DW and NS reported on the status from the FOC meeting where Janne Salmi presented the current status of the program. The FOC was confident that the current program is a good program and the timelines are met. The world cup program aims to be a strong World Cup with good TV and sponsor coverage. 19 Review of the IOF competition programme, status report MD reported that the MTBOC and SOC processes had been started with a meetings during WOC week Next month the TOC process will start. Council had a discussion about the IOF WMOC ties to World Master Games (WMG). Issues had arisen in discussion with the WMG organizers in Auckland, NZ for 2017, related to sanction fees to the IOF. Council determined that TH should answer the WMG organizers, following liaison with the NZL federation, reinforcing the issue of IOF sanction fee payment. If agreement cannot be reached WMOC status for WMG 2017 will be removed.

9 9 It was agreed that TH would now take the role of Project Manager for the remainder of the review project. To widen the scope of the working group it was agreed that TK would replace MS as member of the working group. MS would remain as a member of the experts group. 20 Report World Cup 2015 Sweden TH reported about the World Cup competitions held in Norway and Sweden at the beginning of June and particularly the cancelled World Cup sprint competition June 6. The reasons for the cancelled competition were discussed and activities to prevent similar cancellations in the future were discussed. TH reported that discussions were underway with the WOC 2016 organizers, since they are the same as the WC 2015 organizers, about how to secure the IT systems for WOC A meeting will be held with the SEA team in late August and the issue will be addressed. The IOF had requested that the Swedish Orienteering Federation (SOFT) be further involved on the IT systems control, and the IOF ITC commission has agreed to assist with resources. Furthermore, Council agreed to task the ITC with formulating and implementing a general Event IT Quality Plan. This activity starts now and will be carried out by the ITC in collaboration with the respective discipline commissions. The goal is to have recommendations ready for the joint meeting in January 2016 and the High Level Event Seminar in February Report WTOC 2015 OF reported that Croatia organized a good event. 26 nations participated with 123 participants in total. 2 new nations, Bulgaria and Turkey, were represented. OF summarized the Event as good and well organized but some problems with result management. Council supported OF s view that the WTOC results management process was a major priority. 22 Event Quality Process 23 Competition Rules This item was moved to the October Council meeting to allow more time to prepare an updated document based upon discipline commission feedback WOC qualifying rules Council approved the proposed Special Rules for WOC. The rules have been changed regarding how federation division scoring is calculated to correct for an unfair calculation method. The new rules will apply for qualifications to WOC 2016 and are to be published immediately on the IOF website.

10 WRE class/course participation rules Council revisited this item from Council meeting 174. FOC had proposed to change the WRE rules so that competitors competing on the same course, but in different classes, could receive World Ranking points based upon the overall results for the course. At meeting 174 Council refused this proposal. However, after feedback from member federations Council determined that this modification could be implemented as long as the following is considered; a) Classes to be considered are only MW18, MW20 and MW21 elite classes. b) The start list draw must be done for the course in whole, i.e. not separately per class. c) Consultation is carried out with all relevant discipline commissions. Council requested that the FOC and RC prepare an update to the WRE rules and guidelines to be approved by Council before or at its next meeting. 24 Rules project, status report 25 IOF Eventor status LH informed Council that a meeting of the rules project group was planned in Inverness, with the hope of restarting the harmonization process. TH informed Council about the status of IOF Eventor. Version 1.0 is now finally released with all functionality as was included in the original requirements specification. User acceptance is increasing however there are still a number of comments and new development requirements to be met. A new version 1.1 is being prepared for release late fall. One of the primary functions to be included will be the management of Athletes Licences. Council commented that it may be valuable to do on-line courses and seminars for users of the system, perhaps via Youtube. TH also reported that the User Support for IOF Eventor being provided through Henrik Skoglund had worked well, and that we will try to increase this by supporting major event organizers in setting up their events on IOF Eventor. 26 TV project, status report TH reported the status of the TV project related to WOC TV rights sales have been made to 10 countries in all, with live rights in SWE, NOR, FIN and SUI. Other countries have primarily purchased a 90 min highlights production and news productions. TV rights sales have increased slightly over 2014.

11 11 27 LiveCenter, status report 28 AOB LH reported on the status of IOF LiveCenter. Productions from most major IOF events have been broadcast via LiveCenter and contracts were achieved with Jukola and O-Ringen for use of LiveCenter for broadcasting parts of their events. There is a potential to use LiveCenter as an orienteering channel for further events. For the WOC 2015 approximately 900 weekly passes have been sold, plus a substantial number of daily passes. Split time functionality had not yet been added but will be done IOF representation 2015 Council reviewed the representation list for the remainder of the year. DY will represent the IOF at the CISM World Games in Korea Official Clothing MD had written a proposal regarding official clothing for Council when representing the IOF. HJK was currently discussing with potential partners for providing representation clothing. Council discussed the requirements for clothing which HJK will take forward with potential suppliers Paralympics eligibility Council was informed about a case where a participant in TrailO Paralympics Class no longer fulfils the requirements for eligibility. The issue is being handled via the participant s member federation Seat of the IOF Council discussed whether the official seat of the IOF should be moved from Finland to Sweden since the office is in the process of moving. It was agreed that TH would prepare a paper describing the consequences of such a move and a proposal to Council if viable. This will be handled at the Council meeting in October. Consultation should be made with the IOF Auditors about this FISU Summer Universiade Council discussed whether the IOF should seek the inclusion of orienteering in the Summer Universiade based upon the fact that we are now included in the winter version. It was agreed that this issue should be explored with FISU Upcoming rules updates TH had received pre-information about rules changes which are being prepared by the RC. The changes are related to the handling of late starts and touch-free punching. These were distributed and will be discussed and decided upon at the October meeting.

12 12 29 Future Council meetings October 2015, Vienna AUT January 2016, location to be determined. (Joint meeting) March 2016, London (preliminary) June 2016, Budapest (preliminary) 30 Closure of the meeting President Brian Porteous thanked the participants for their contributions to the meetings and formally closed the meeting. Brian Porteous President Tom Hollowell Secretary General/CEO