Worlds @Takapuna: AGM Meeting official Minutes
Annual General Meeting Official Minutes. Original formatted Doc file attached below.
AGENDA
Welcome
1. President Report
2. Secretary Report
3. Economic Report and presentation of accounts and budget – Allocation of IACA funds
4. Membership Fees
5. National Association and Fleet Reports1
6. Election of I.A.C.A. Committee Members
7. Proposals, received by the Secretary from National Associations, ISAF or other institutions.
8. Regulatory and Technical Affairs (Alterations in the I.A.C.A. Constitution, Championship Rules, Ballots etc.)
a. Constitution changes
a.i. Add here
b. Championship Rules changes
b.i. Add here
b.ii. Add here
9. Selection and ratification of venues for 2015 Worlds, 2016 Worlds/Euros
10. Various
Meeting opened by President Andrew Landenberger at 18:07.
Delegates in attendance:
AUS – Andrew Landenberger (Pres), Ian Johnson (Vice President & AUS Rep), Graeme Harbour (Chairman Technical Committee and Auditor)
SUI – Luc De Bois
NZL – Ken Uquhart, Murray Philpott (committee)
GBR – Nigel Lovett
NED – Jan Groot, Piet Saarberg (Secretary)
CAN – Gerry Mawson
GER – Georg Reutter
DEN – Thomas Paasch (Rep & committee member)
USA – Ben Hall (Rep & committee member)
POL – Jacek Noetzel
ESP, BRA, FRA, ITA – Proxies to the President
1. Presidents Report 9.02.14
Dear Presidents,
2013 has been an interesting year with many new challenges for the A Class Association. After the 2012 Worlds in Islamorada we set about to increase promotion and international participation in the class.
One of the first steps was to introduce a professional editor for our webpage who has done an excellent job to date to keep our website current, informative and interesting for our members and followers. I thank Martin for his work in this area and look forward to another year of his enthusiasm.
We have also sailed the past two seasons under trial Championship rules. It was intended during tis period to test an open worlds format. To date this format has not been tested but with possible fleet numbers being extended from 100 to 120 we have seen more nations participate. At this point I have had only positive feedback as the system has allowed more countries to fill containers and make the journey to our international events.
In New Zealand this year we also test a one discard scoring system which has been tabled several times in the past for a possible rule change. Given what we are seeing with new developments in the class the one discard system may be very helpful in keeping the class innovators on a slightly more conservative approach.
Since Islamorada our Technical committee, Chaired by Graeme harbor has been faced with many challenges. The class rules have been constantly tested and challenged and the technical committee has been diligent in providing clear interpretations. I would like to thank particularly Graeme and Thomas for their work in this area.
This meeting we are faced with several submissions for potential rule changes for the class. With the innovations we have already witnessed in the past days we must be careful we make the correct decisions to ensure the future of the A class association remains as strong as we see our class today.
Yours in sailing,
Andrew Landenberger,
IACA President.
2. Secretary Report (presented by Piet Saarberg)
The year has been a turbulent one since Barcelona European champs. There has been a lot of discussion on which way the class should be allowed to develop. This is all with regards to flying A’s. Glenn Ashby remarked in an interview flying with an Americas Cup Cat is completely different to flying an A-Cat. The first has 11 crew on board to keep it under control and on an A-cat there is only the man in the mirror with only 2 hands and one body.
We have seen controlled flying in this WC by the very top sailors, the rest had to watch them disappear into the distance when the circumstances were right to fly. On the topic we have received a lot of mail for and against. In this meeting we have to decide how to approach this issue and this will be dealt with in point 8 of the agenda.
The total numbers of members have decreased mainly due to lower number in USA following the 2012 Worlds and also the Netherlands who have cleaned up their membership register. We hope the present development in the class will not show a further decline over the next year.
3. Economic Report
Bank Balance Euro 39,833. Discussion on gaining some interest on money as account set up at this stage does not get any interest.
Action – Piet to arrange to put a sizeable amount (say 30,000 Euros) into an interest bearing account.
Dear President & Committee Members.
As IACA Financial Auditor I present Balance Sheet & Profit & Loss for the period 1-1-13 to 31-12-13. Due to timing of WGM this is outside IACA Constitution Rule 7.1.15. and for this reason, I have not presented a budget for the coming year and will await outcome of WGM before doing so.
The year has seen a turnaround in our financial position showing a current balance of 39477.06 Euros in our bank account. This positive change from the previous year is a result of increasing member subscriptions from 4 Euros to 10 Euros per member and the cessation of container subsidies.
Income from membership is again distorted with many countries still not paying by due date and a continual lag is evident in this figure.
This issue needs to be addressed. Expenditure for year was minimal. Support of 2000 Euros previously approved to assist countries running World Championships was requested by New Zealand. IACA website costs inline with budget and website is considered a positive aspect to the class.
IACA receives no interest on funds held and this year paid 148 Euros in bank fees for the privilege of the Rabobank holding nearly 40000 Euro of our funds. It is strongly suggested that if possible a portion of these funds be placed in some form of interest bearing account to at least offset the bank fees.
Overall the class appears in a very healthy position and our thanks should be given to Piet Saarberg for his continued excellent control of IACA’s finances.
Graeme Harbour
IACA Financial Auditor
4. Membership Fees
In the absence of a budget the fees would remain the same at 10 Euros per member.
5. National Association and Fleet Reports
All reps gave a brief outline of what has been happening to the fleet in each Nation for past year. Please send written report to ian.m.johnson@bigpond.com for inclusion in the minutes. Received from NED.
6. Election of Office Bearers
All existing office bearer positions were again ratified for the coming year. ITA will be asked to supply a representative to the committee to deal with the 2015 Worlds
7. No other proposals were received from NA’s or ISAF.
8. Regulatory and Technical Affairs
a. The proposal submitted by AUS, ITA and Belgium was modified to remove the rotation example and then approved with all but GER in favour. GER abstained from the vote.
“World championships should be run once every calendar year, preferably with no less than 6 months between events. Preference should be given to helping developing National A fleets if they are able to run such an event. The rotation should be evenly spread between the National fleets and Continents. No one country should hold 2 events in any 6 year period unless there is no other suitable option available. Any National fleet could bid to hold a World championship at any time”
b. Changes to the Constitution to allow Internet voting was passed as all Nations had approved this earlier by email votes.
c. Removal or rule 8.2 by UK, DEN, ESP. This vote was to agree to a ballot to remove rule 8.2. The votes were 56 in favour and 49 against. As the 2/3rds majority was not reached the motion was defeated. Details of votes counted were:-
YES NO
AUS (11 votes) NZL (6)
SUI (9) NED (5)
GBR (4) POL (5)
CAN (2) ESP (8)
GER (14) FRA (10)
DEN (3) ITA (15)
USA (13) BRA (0) – Unfinancial
d. Removal of rule 8.2 for a trial period of 2 years by GER, DEN, UK. Similar voting as previous except that SUI voted no and ITA yes. Motion defeated as 2/3rd majority not attained. The votes were 62 in favour and 43 against.
e. Rule 8.1, reduction of 1.5 m rule supported by GER, DEN, UK. After some discussion this motion was rejected as not being properly worded.
f. Removal of rule 8 on a trial basis for 1 voting period with a ballot following. Votes cast were the same as 8.1 and therefore defeated. In favour 56, against 49.
g. Technical Committee report presented by Graeme Harbour.
Discussion on the new measurement form with some minor changes agreed.
Action – Tech Committee to publish and distribute.
h. Discussion on Championship Rules being either out of date or not strong enough to clearly define.
Action – Ian Johnson to seek support from Jury and Pete Melvin to look at how we re-write the rules to be clearer..
i. Discussion around having Graeme Harbour attend the ISAF International Measurers Conference to get accreditation as International Measurer. Agreed unanimously that Bags has done a great job as measurer and we need more certified measurers. Agreed unanimously to send him to conference and an amount to be agreed by the executive (no more than 5000 Euro) be spent to cover his airfare, accommodation, some incidentals and conference entry fee.
j. Selection and Ratification of 2015 and 2016 Worlds. Punta Alla has been confirmed as venue for 2015
Worlds as proposed via email from ITA.
No proposals at this stage for 2016 Worlds.
Action – ask all Nations for recommendations.
Discussion then centred on lessons learnt from the organisation at Takapuna and the need to have the check list for all venues and a validation procedure. After the meeting Andrew Landenberger produced a template check list proposed by Arno Terra. (attached).
Action – Executive to consider and comment to develop further.
9. The IACA web Editor, Martin Vanzulli has requested a pay increase to 3000 Euros per year. This was agreed to unanimously. Martin still needs to have input from all our regattas so he can publish The best are reports plus good quality photos. Send to editor@a-cat.org
10. Jan Groot led a discussion of the timing of the Lay Day and whether it was necessary or should be at end of regatta. It was agreed the Lay Day is used to catch up when races have been lost and also gives a final date for competitors to know when to book flights. It was agreed to leave the Lay Day schedule as exists.
11. The Open Worlds trial has not really been tested yet outside Europe Andrew Landenberger proposed to extend the trial for 2 more World championships. Seconded AUS, Passed unanimously.
12. Allocation of competitors for Euros. NED requested a review of allocation of entries from outside Europe. The discussion was about the decision some years ago to make all IACA events Open and therefore available to all Nations. The present allocation system asked for expressions of interest from Nations 3 months prior to event and therefore give the European countries sufficient time to have their allocation revalidated as (traditionally) Nations outside EUR have fewer entries to Euros than Worlds.
13. NED questioned the legality of the cassette centreboards on Jakub’s Exploder. Graeme Harbour replied that ISAF have been asked for a ruling and have approved. NED requested send email correspondence with ISAF out with minutes. Andrew Landenberger spoke against this as there was no need to tell everyone as the modification had been approved and therefore legal.
Andrew thanked all those for their attendance and closed the meeting at 21:24
World Champion – Glenn Ashby (AUS)
Master – Andrew Landenberger (AUS)
Grand Master – Luc de Bois (SUI)
Great Grand Master – Scott Anderson (AUS)
Junior – Blair Tuke (NZL)
Ladies – Denise Hellibrand (NED)