EGF AGM 2000

The Annual General Meeting of the European Go Federation was held at Lakeside Hotel, Strausberg, Berlin on the evening of Friday August 4th 2000. It started at 18:15 and ended the same day. Martin Finke as Vice-President took the chair up to the elections as the President, Erik Puyt, was absent following the recent birth of his son. There were 25 countries represented, including newly joined members Bosnia and Belarus. There were strong objections to the 1999 minutes both by and about Italy. The previous day there had been a three hour meeting to discuss the proposed constitution changes: those that allowed the installation of an EGF Appeals Commission and some small amendments were passed; those that allowed observers alongside a sitting member in the same country were not accepted. The executive will start to plan towards a replacement constitution in the coming years. A motion from France to mediate in the Italian dispute was passed, but the part about the EGF picking Italian representatives was not. The accounts were passed, but there was big concern that the EGF was investing some money in stocks rather than bonds. The new executive was elected without opposition as President Zoran Mutabzija, Treasurer Thomas Pfaff, Secretary Matti Siivola, Vice-Presidents Oleg Gavrilov and Tony Atkins. Zoran chaired the rest of the meeting.

The various EGF commissions' reports were examined: areas that the executive will look at are Promotion and Education (maybe better as two rather than one commission) and the need for a new logo. The new executive is committed to better spreading of information to the member countries and how to handle email voting should be investigated. The EGC in Berlin had attracted 600 participants and was running very well. The IGA presented Dublin 2001 plans, including posters and price information, though the discount structure has not been decided yet. In 2002 the EGC will be in Zagreb in Croatia. 2003 was given to St. Petersburg in Russia and surprisingly the congress will return to Tuchola Poland in 2004. The Swedes, Finns and Czechs are all interested in 2005.

Other topics discussed were representation outside Europe, professional visits, training, Ing Fund proposals and the recent registration of the EGF as a legal entity in the Netherlands. The 2001 European Youth will be in Poland (03/03/01), Pairs in Bosnia (07/04/01) and the Teams in Russia (17/03/01). Finally the EGF agreed a fund should be set up to pay for future visits to congresses by sensei Saijo as he is retiring this year.