European GO Federation Annual General Meeting Held on 30 July 1999 at Podbanske, Slovakia 1) The meeting starts at 19:00. Erik Puyt, president of the EGF, is the chairman of the meeting. The following representatives are present at the meeting: Representatives of countries Kurt Paar - AT member of board Rudi Verhagen - NL secretary Zoran Mutabzija - HR president Terje Christoffersen - NO president Jana Hricova - CZ president Michat Bazynsci - PL president Marc Gonzalez - ES secretary Valentin Urziceanu - RO Denis Hanotin - FR Vladimir Gorzhalstan - RU secretary Matti Siivola - FI president Rudolf Krusina - SK president Tobias Berben - DE vice-president Peter Gaspari - SI president Alison Jones - UK president Niklas Mellin - SE president Tibor Rapai - HU president Arkadiy Bogatskiy - UA president Gionata Soletti - IT secretary A. Milosevic - YU Other representatives Peter Zandveld - NL Auditor EGF Erik Puyt - NL President EGF Anne Tombarello - FR Candidate Thomas Pfaff - DE Treasurer EGF Martin Finke - NL Secretary EGF Observers Marcin Kaminski - PL Oleg Gavrilov - RU Krister Strand - SE Dragan Barisic - BA Lars-Olaf Gratz - DE Tony Atkins - UK Isamu Oka - IT Zoran Janzovic - YU After the opening of the meeting all persons introduce themselves. There are 20 countries represented at the meeting all of whom had paid their dues and are entitled to vote. Thomas Pfaff announces that three countries did not pay: Denmark, Lituany and Luxembourg. Erik Puyt reads an e-mail from Alan Held in which he resigns as Vice-President of the EGF in order to be able to express his views without hindering a view of the executive. Erik Puyt thanks Alan Held for is contribution in the EGF over the last decade. He then reminds the participants to use the simplest English and ask them to intervene if they don't understand something. 2) The meeting minutes of 1998 are accepted without changes (15 votes in favour) 3) Membership a) Bosnia-Herzegovina Republic of Srpska applied for membership. Martin Finke states that the application has been carefully examined by the executive board, although it was received very late and that the executive board would prefer to grant them the observer status until all go players of Bosnia Herzegovina are united in one association. Valentin Urziceanu asks why only an observer status and says that no other association was asked if they represent all the players in their country. Alexander Milosevic states that this association is recognised by the Ministry of Sports of Republic of Srpska. He also takes the example of Football, saying that there are two different federations in Bosnia Herzegovina. Zoran Mutabzija says that the Republic of Srpska is not an internationally recognised country and repeats that the executive board would like to grant membership to a federation representing the whole country. Go players exist also in other parts of Bosnia Herzegovina. Alexander Milosevic: the other part of Bosnia Herzegovina is now organising, the players from Republic of Srpska will take contact with them in order to form an association representing all the players. The AGM then agrees to proceed to the vote. Membership is rejected by 14 votes, Observer status for Bosnia-Herzegovina is granted by 18 votes. b) Membership conflict in Italy Erik Puyt explains that the constitution gives no clue to solve this problem; that is why advice was sought for. Matthew Macfayden presented a report on the Italian situation with three different possible courses of action, then Peter Zandveld was consulted. Erik states that the executive board supports the proposal of Peter Zandveld and that the proposals by Matthew will only be considered if C++ is rejected. Peter Zandveld then presents his new proposition called "C++" (Annex 1). Gionata Soletti thanks Peter Zandveld for his work. He states that this problem is internal to Italy and that the EGF should concentrate on more important matters. He accepts the proposition C++. Peter Zandveld asks if there are some questions. Tobias Berben insists that the key point is that the EGF should not intervene in internal affairs in a country. Gionata Soletti: In case of problems, an authority should be consulted. Peter Zandveld: The present constitution of the EGF does not give guidelines in case of problems. It is not suited for conflicts because it was written by a group of friends. It is the first time that this happens. It might be a long time before the new constitution is adopted, that is why I propose to create an appeal committee. Alison Jones: There should be a time limit to install this committee otherwise there might be no change in the situation. The executive will install an appeal committee before the next AGM. Denis Hanotin: I don't agree with the point number 7 of proposition C++. What do we do if the sitting federation only represents 5 per cent of the go players in the country, and the dissident association 95 per cent? The sitting federation should represent all the go players of the country. Erik Puyt: there is no way in the current constitution to use this as a selection criterion for an association. Gionata Soletti: It is very simple, the FIGG is recognised by the Ministry of Sports. In case of conflict between two associations, the one recognised by the Ministry should be preferred. Tobias Berben: the problem should be solved within Italy. Peter Zandveld: each association should have internal rules to solve conflicts. Then, if it does not work, the EGF could use a scale of sanctions, i.e. forbid participation in WAGC, etc... Marc Gonzalez: to maintain the status quo is only to postpone the matter. Then we can have exactly the same problem next year. Erik Puyt: first, we must break this lack of law and then we can settle the matter. Gionata Soletti: The EGF has a real lack of rules. Valentin Urziceanu: The same kind of thing happened in Romania. It is no good to impose a time limit to solve the matter, it could only make the things worse. And anyway an intrusion from the outside is very difficult to accept. Terje Christoffersen: Are there some people of the AGI in the room. Could we hear what they think of this? Erik Puyt: yes, they are here. I propose to give five minutes to each party before we proceed to the vote. Gionata Soletti stands up and starts to speak: I hope we will become more professional. Chess became Olympic and Go could also but we need a better set of rules. Besides, if the people in Italy are not happy with the FIGG, they should join it and fight from the inside. Tobias Berben, supported by Valentin Urziceanu states that there should be no discussion in the AGM over internal affairs within one country. Marc Gonzalez asks what both associations thought about motion C++; Peter Zandveld answers that he can give the answer: the FIGG is in favour and the AGI is against. Erik Puyt then asks the AGM to vote. Proposition C++ is adopted with 14 votes in favour. Gionata Soletti: the aim of the FIGG is to bring people together. We should all work together, especially for the congress in 2006 which we want to organise in Rome. 4) Financial report Thomas Pfaff presents the accounts. He comments on the financial figures and explains that the EGF has several bank accounts in different currencies and that, due to variations of currency exchange rates, there was some loss in 1998/99. (There is a big quantity US$ bonds in our investments and the US$ became rather weak in 1998. The Finance Commission decided to convert our $ investments into Euro investments. So, in the future we shall become independent from the US$/Euro ratio.) Peter Zandveld, one of the auditors of the EGF, made the following statements about the financial reporting: The auditors checked the financial report, the accounts and the balance. The "Ing accounts" and the books of the Fujitsu Grand Prix were also checked. The auditors came to the conclusion that the statement of income and balances represent the true state of affairs. Peter Zandveld also remarks that last years recommendations that the EGF should check the budget of the European Go Congress was followed this year. A discussion occurred whether the member federations paid the membership fees correctly (0.50 Euro per member per year). Erik Puyt states that the membership fees depend on the honesty of the member organisations. Budget : the budget for 1999-2000 is approved by the meeting. 5) Election of executive and auditors 5a) Election of executive and auditors Erik Puyt presents a report about the work done by the executive board during the last year: Apart from the normal tasks the executive has worked to elaborate on the primary objective of the EGF. All new plans presented later at this meeting have been developed with special attention to the promotion of Go. A new committee has been formed to collect successful Promotion & Education projects by MO's and where possible contribute to spread the game of Go. Increasing the number of Go players throughout Europe is the best way to strengthen the organisation of Go in Europe." The board members are satisfied of their co-operation and all want to continue this year except Alan Held. Martin Finke would like to be replaced as secretary. He will continue as Vice-President to help the new secretary and he will step down next year. There is candidate for secretary: Anne Tombarello from France. Erik Puyt: re-elected as President with 13 votes Anne Tombarello: elected as Secretary with 18 votes Thomas Pfaff: re-elected as Treasurer with 19 votes Zoran Mutabzija: elected as first Vice-President with 19 votes Martin Finke: elected as second Vice-President with 20 votes Peter Zandveld and T. Mark Hall: re-elected as auditors with 20 votes After the election there is a break. 5b) Italian proposal for enlarging the executive to 7 persons per 2000 Erik Puyt reminds the representatives that the current executive is not in favour of the enlargement: The standpoint of the current executive is that for efficiency reasons we would like to continue with an executive of five persons. With seven persons the number of e-mails will increase dramatically. Also the tasks of the new members of the executive needs to be defined then. Besides, a lot more persons are involved now, with the committees and there is also Yuki Shigeno as an advisor. Gionata Soletti: In the past people could not get involved and there was too much segmentation. Also there was a great loss of information when people left their positions. In view of Go becoming an Olympic sport, it would be better to enlarge the board. Peter Zandveld: it is better to have a small board. Erik Puyt: if people want to join, they can involve in the committees. The AGM proceeds to the vote: enlargement is refused with 8 votes in favour, 9 against and 3 abstentions. Erik Puyt remarks it is very close again. 5c) Italian proposal to let the AGM elect representatives from the EGF in external organisations (EGCC, IGF etc.) Erik Puyt: There are two places for EGF in supervisory board of the EGCC and three for MO's (one for the Netherlands, one for Eastern and one for Western Europe) they are elected by the AGM. At least there was a call for candidates two years ago and no one applied, so we maintained Pierre Decroix and K. Grabowski. New candidates can be nominated for the supervisory board for next year, especially candidates with financial experience. This year me and Alan Held were members of the IGF, we worked a lot and met the most important persons. Alan will step down next year. Zoran Mutabzija will become member of the IGF board in 2000 for a period of two years. When a new position for a European candidate in the IGF board will become vacant an election will be held. Gionata Soletti: I was at the meeting of the IGF and I saw that there are no go players in the IGF board.. And if someone else represented EGF in the IGF, it would leave some time out for the President of the EGF. Erik Puyt: the IGF is the organising body for the world, it is therefore very important that the President of the EGF participates. And there is more and more communication between member organisations and IGF. For example, this year China had sent the President and the Secretary of their association, all those contacts are an asset for the EGF. Tobias Berben: if there are many candidates, then there should be an election. Gionata Soletti: we can wait next year. The motion that the AGM appoints European candidates for the executive of the IGF is accepted with 12 votes in favour and 2 against. The deadline for nominating candidates is the same as for candidates of the executive of the EGF. 6) Report from the commissions Erik Puyt announces that he intends to publish an annual report to present what the EGF is doing and to provide all available information. 6a) Rules and Rating Committee Matti Siivola presents the report. He strongly recommends to use the PINs (Personal Identification Numbers) Gionata Soletti: we have many problems with the orthography of names and so I am in favour of enforcing the use of PINs. Matti Siivola: to enforce the use of PIN numbers now would be too fast. Alex Cieply: the PINs are available but pairing programs don't take them into account, so it will take some time. The Rules and Rating Committee will contact writers of pairing programs to ask them to incorporate the PIN numbers in their programs. The AGM then examines the proposal for the new rating system in which there are three categories of tournaments with different weights for the rating. After a short discussion, the AGM proceeds to the vote: the new rating system is accepted with 18 votes in favour. 6b) Ing Treasurer There are no comments. Stephan Hruschka is re-elected by acclamation. 6c) Promotion and Education Committee Yuki Shigeno has accepted to become a special advisor in this committee. Erik Puyt invites all the countries to join their efforts, in order to produce some documents, CDs, guidelines... 6d) Finance Commission Thomas Pfaff presents the report of this committee. Alan Held stepped down from the finance commission, he was replaced by Erik Puyt. Now, the members are: Vladimir Danek, Pierre Decroix, Stefan Hruschka, Thomas Pfaff and Erik Puyt. Thomas Pfaff is the new chairman of the commission, in place of Alan Held. Also in 1999, 12.000 USD Ing money will be added to the investments of the EGF. The commission is discussing a new system of managing the investments and is developing the investment policy. The commission will make some proposals, a report will be presented at the AGM 2000. 6e) Logo Committee The deadline of the logo competition has be postponed to the end of this year. A committee of three persons, Gionata Soletti, Zoran Mutabzija and Anne Tombarello will choose the new logo which will also be used for the Toyota Tour. Gionata Soletti: more people should enter the competition 6f) Stefan Hruschka is appointed as liaison officer of the EGF in Japan. 7) European Go Cultural Centre report on last year's activity Things are going well at the EGCC as can be seen in the annual report that was circulated. Several persons left but we have some new help. We are still making and translating some documentation and of course we try to define the best way to help National associations. We will continue with this superstructure. 8) Future European Go Congresses Martin Finke makes a general announcement: The EGF will collect experiences of organisers in Berlin and Dublin and together with information from earlier Go congresses, form a blue print for Go Congresses organisers. Gionata Soletti: the EGF does not know anything about the place of the congress until they arrive on the spot. Peter Zandveld: the place for this congress is very nice. At first it was planned in Bratislava but this is much better. But in every congresses people have the same question: were does the money go? Gionata Soletti: After Abano we transmitted a financial report to the auditors. All congress organisers should do the same. Erik Puyt: For several years the EGF has supervised the budgets for the congresses. We will have a financial report for this one as we did last year. Rudolf Krusina: we did what we could and anyway the congress runs now. Zoran Mutabzija complains of the absence of internet connections. Anne Tombarello insists on the necessity to have a very detailed budget as early as possible. Congresses 8a) Berlin 2000 The plans haven't changed since last year when they were presented, the congress will take place in Staussberg about 1 hour by train from Berlin Centre. It is nice city with 28000 inhabitants. There are some lakes and forests very near by. The playing location is situated in a school which is brand new. There will be many different categories of accommodation and on location, there will be catering and a restaurant for 300 people. Q (Matti Siivola): Is it possible to find a double room in category 2 or 3? A: Possible in category 3 Q (Oleg Gavrilov): will there be a discount for eastern countries? A: It is possible but every situation will be studied separately. And it can be done only upon direct contact between the national associations and the congress organisers. This years congress It was pointed out that the playing conditions are not good, the playing rooms are too small for the number of participants especially in this hot weather. Furthermore, it is stressed to register early for Berlin; the congress fee is 150 DM until March 31, 210 DM until July 25 and 280 DM for registration on the spot. 8b) Dublin 2001 Tony Atkins distributes a small leaflet sent by Noel Mitchell. He informs the AGM that the British Go Association works with the Irish federation to organise this event. Noel Mitchell is a professional congress organiser. Q (Peter Zandveld): what are the different categories of accommodation? A: there is mainly one, on a campus. It costs around 20 Irish pounds (50 DM) per night and per person. 8c) Plans for 2002 and later years Croatia is candidate for 2002 The AGM proceeds to a vote and the congress in Croatia in 2002 is accepted with 15 votes in favour. For 2003, there are two candidates, Russia and Poland. But the projects are not yet developed enough for the AGM to decide. Gionata Soletti asks the AGM to give the FIGG a firm engagement for the congress in Italy in 2006. Martin Finke says it is too far ahead. Gionata Soletti: it is an important year, there will be the winter Olympics, and besides it is a very touristic country. We have to book 4 or 5 years in advance. We would like to organise in Roma and there are 85% chances we will succeed. We will have a wide range of prices for accommodation, it is very safe. The AGM proceeds to a vote and the congress in Italy in 2006 is accepted with 15 votes in favour. 8d) Sponsoring of congresses Erik Puyt informs the AGM that EGF cannot guarantee sponsoring for the future congresses. Hitachi has stopped its sponsoring for this year but they might resume it. We shall see. 9) European Tournament Calendar 9a) European Tournament Calendar The following changes are made in the proposed calendar. The European Youth Championship will be held from the 2nd to the 5th of March 2000. The Prague Tournament will be held on November 20 1999. The Austrian Tournament will be in Velden. The Dublin Tournament will be held on the 1st of April. The European Pair Go Championship will be held on April 8 in Prague. The congress in Berlin starts on July 29. With those changes the European Tournament Calendar is accepted. 9b) Proposal for a new selection system for the Toyota Tour Erik Puyt presents this proposal: the Grand Prix did not work very well. Thanks to Saijo Sensei we found a new sponsor and we will start this new system. There will be less tournaments and more prize money. We hope that this tour will help in the promotion of go and will permit us to implement new ideas. Q (Gionata Soletti): why do we have to suppress the Grand Prix? A: we want to avoid the confusion. There should be a clear distinction between the two systems. Q (Michael Bazynsci) What kind of support will be given to the tournament organisers? A: some guidelines will be given, promotion material will be provided. The AGM proceeds to the vote and the new selection system for the Fujitsu Cup is accepted with 14 votes in favour. 9c) Proposal for a new European Tournament system. There is some discussion about the number and the categories of tournaments in the Toyota Tour. This has been decided upon together with the sponsor. Local sponsoring is allowed as long as it does not conflict with the interests of Toyota, the main sponsor. There is also a discussion about the fact that a number of important tournaments were held in Amsterdam in the EGCC. The conclusion of the meeting is that the EGCC is a European institute and therefore it is justified to have those tournaments there. The proposal is accepted with 17 votes in favour. 10) Representation outside Europe World pair go championship: no questions Martin Finke proposes Rudolf Krusina as Team Captain for the World Amateur Go Championship. Rudolf Krusina is accepted by acclamation. 11) Promotion, Teaching and Education 11a) Teachers Program in Japan This program has been stopped by the Nihon Ki-in for budget reasons. 11b) International Professional Go instructors There is a new certificate delivered by the Nihon Ki In. 11c) Visiting Professionals This year a number of professionals made a "teaching tour" before the congress. Countries interested in hosting professionals before or after next year's congress are asked to contact the EGF. 11d) European Masters We must make more use of Internet. A knock-out tournament with four of the strongest European players and 4 rounds is proposed. Q (Kurt Paar): is not it strange to use the money of the Promotion Committee for strong players? A: strong players are teachers too. Gionata Soletti: it is strange to give this money to Guo Juan or Rob Van Zeijst. Erik Puyt: then we could try to find a sponsor for this event. The AGM proceeds to a vote. This tournament is accepted with 12 votes but it is agreed that the money from the Promotion Teaching and Education budget should not be used for this purpose. 11e) EGF Web Pages Zoran Mutabzija presents this topic. EGF web site (http://www.european-go.org), with intention to present European Go activities in one place, is divided in sections: - Organisation (EGF documents, Constitution, Executive and Committee members and reports) - Members (separate information for member countries, clubs and individual players) - News (Executive News, Official Ratings, Tournament Calendar, News distribution lists) - Events (European Go Congresses, WAGC, Fujitsu, Toyota, Ing, Pair-Go, Youth etc) - Links (to European and other internet Go sources of information) - About the game (Rules, European Go Server) Everybody interested can join the project, by individual contribution or by maintaining web pages. We would like to promote European Go Server to play internet matches or teaching sessions. The server is situated in Zagreb, Croatia. E-mail contact: croatia@european-go.org. 11f) China is considering to invite strong European Go players for an "insei-like" stage in China. If you want to propose candidates, please contact the EGF. 12) Ing Proposals Erik Puyt reminds the representatives of the purpose of the Ing Fund which is to spread out the Ing Rules, and especially in schools. The proposals must be received before the 1st of October and the EGF will pay before the end of the year. Guidelines for the applications will be prepared. Ing Memorial Tournament: it will be held in Helsinki in 1999 and in Amsterdam in 2000. 13) European Youth, Team, Ladies and Pair Go Championships Pair Go will be held in Czech Republic April 8, 2000 Youth in Romania in March 2000 Team in Russia in 2000/2001 There is no candidate for the Ladies Championship 14) Discussion on proposals for a new EGF constitution Peter Zandveld presents this subject: The discussion is going on, going legal appears necessary. Gionata Soletti: our constitution is amateur. We should set up a committee with lawyers to write the new constitution so that we can vote next year. Peter Zandveld: first we must decide if we want to become legal and investigate the consequences. There no comments on the present constitution discussion. 15) Complaint from the French representative Denis Hanotin: "Mister President, before the closing of this meeting, I want to draw an official complaint in the name of France about the way the Italian question was handled with. Mister President, you stopped the discussions and proceeded to the vote. You did not even grant the possibility to speak to the representative of the AGI. If think it is a very important matter which deserved a much longer debate. I want this protest to be noted in the minutes of this meeting." The meeting was closed at 00:00 ------------------------------- ANNEX 1 APPLICATION FOR EGF MEMBERSHIP BY THE AGI Supplement by Peter Zandveld I have been asked by Erik Puyt and Matthew Macfayden to continue the work on reporting how the application of the AGI has to be handled at the AGM. The key point of this issue is that, according to our constitution, there can only be one member organisation per country, so that accepting the AGI would imply that we have to expel the FIGG first. This is an AGM matter. We are here to decide in what direction we have to move. When I was asked to advice on this matter, I took a fresh look at the constitution and realised that it was not written with this kind of problems in mind. I have therefore added in the auditors report some comments in this respect. In my view, the decisions you are about to take about the Italian question should: - be applicable to future problems with member nations, - the decision should be based on facts and able to stand a test in a court of law, - legality is not our only problem, our decision must not only be legal, but also widely supported to ensure that we will not be confronted with the same problem next year. I have prepared a new proposal for the AGM to vote on: PROPOSAL C++ The first part of this proposal will have to apply to all member organisations in the future. 1. An association should establish clear rules about outside representation. 2. In case of objections, the rules and rating Committee will audit these rules and give, when satisfied, a stamp of approval. 3. In every organisation there should be a procedure for handling internal conflicts. 4. All associations should open their doors to all nationals who want to become member and compete for outside representation or election to the board. 5. The conditions for membership of all national associations must be reasonable. 6. In the rare occurrence when a conflict cannot be solved internally, an appeal committee in the EGF has to be installed to handle appeals. Rules should be formulated in order to define how this committee should handle complaints. The rest of the proposal applies mainly to the Italian situation: 7. The EGF cannot recognise the AGI as a member organisation, as there is already a recognised Italian federation. In order to recognise the AGI, the FIGG should be expelled first. At the moment, there are no rules nor procedures within the EGF to handle this kind of situation and we have received no proves that the FIGG has done something which calls for expulsion. 8. The EGF welcomes the AGI like any group of people willing to work on the promotion of Go and we hope the AGI will in the future work together with the national federation. As a consequence, an Italian go player who wants to participate in, for example, the World Amateur Championship has to become a member of the FIGG. Italian people who are not FIGG members can participate in tournaments like the Go congress and can organise tournaments.