Held on July 27, 1999 In Rochefort, Belgium

Those present; Igor Akhmedshin President EAF

David Eilertsen General Secretary EAF

Assen Hadjitodrov Financial Director EAF

David Shead Head Referee EAF

Willy Deneumostier Belgium

Valeri Babuk Belarus

Harri Naskali Finland

Henry Ballester France

Petra Spatz Germany

Janneke Schaap Holland

Lene Eilertsen Norway

Facchin Roberto Switzerland

Alex Filimonov Russia

Excused : Vaktang Museliani Georgia

Guest Observers;

Carl Smith Austria

Dave Devoto USA

Those absent; Milan Capla Vice President EAF

Maristella Avanzini Italy

Ben Zion Beyer Israel

MEETING COMMENCED 14.30

Mr Akhmedshin opened the meeting he welcomed and thanked all countries for coming to the European Championships here in Rochefort, Belgium. He proposed that Miss Kim Shoesmith & Miss Sonia Ellis would take the minutes of the congress meeting.

Vote Taken 10 Yes 0 No Unanimous

He also proposed two members of the congress to count the votes taken in the congress meeting.

They were Roberto Facchin from Switzerland & Mr Henry Ballester from France.

All countries agreed.

Proposal for the agenda to be accepted was put forward by the President.

Vote Taken 10 Yes 0 No Unanimous

1) Presidents Report Mr Igor Akhmedshin

This is the official EAF Championships & Congress meeting as per the decisions made by the two congress meetings held in Slovakia and Lithuania respectively.

Igor thanked Willy for his hard work and preparation for the 1999 European Championships, and the representatives of the attending countries for coming to Belgium. We are expecting 17 countries to compete.

Much hard work is being done by the Russian Federation to gain full recognition from the Russian Government and they are in a very strong position. The Federation held a very successful Golden Bear tournament in April of this year.

Igor thanked David Shead for his hard work, as he has already visited 5 countries so far this year on behalf of the EAF to observe what is happening in these countries. He also thanked Assen Hadgitodorov from Bulgaria for his support and hard work within the Federation.

He welcomed our observers to the meeting Mr Dave Devoto from USA and Mr Carl Smith from Austria. He thanked Dave for his hard work for the development of armsport in the world. Thanks was also conveyed to Mr Fred Roy Chairman WAF.

Igor explained that our policies remain the same and he hopes that the countries that attended the unofficial competitions in Egypt and Hungary will hopefully join us.

Vote Taken to accept the Presidents Report & work 10 Yes 0 No Unanimous

2) Admission of new members EAF - Austria

Igor asked the new representative from Austria to introduce himself to the congress and he explained that for provisional acceptance into the EAF Mr Carl Smith must provide a completed application, a letter of recognition from the Austrian Government and regulations for the Austrian Federation.

Mr Carl Smith expressed his thanks for being invited to the meeting and explained that he had all the paperwork in place for acceptance into the EAF and would give it to the President after the meeting. He is the President of the Austrian Power Lifting Congress and the Austrian Armwrestling Congress To date he has not heard of any competitions for armwrestling or any knowledge of any officially recognised body in Austria and he does not think that there has ever been. He has approached his Parliament and everything is in place all he needs now is membership to the EAF but he does need full membership not provisional membership. Carl Smith is more than happy to work with Mr Smitten who used to run the Austrian federation.

David Shead asked Carl Smith if it would hinder his work if he was granted provisional membership instead of full membership to enable the EAF to investigate the situation with regards to Mr Alexander Smetena and prepare a report to be discussed in Japan at the World Championships. Carl Smith explained that this would give him great problems with his work in Austria and slow down the progression of armwrestling in his country.

Willy Deneumostier General Secretary WAF explained that he has done extensive research to find Mr Alexander Smetena or even some of the Austrian armwrestlers he has sent registered mail and has even had a friend go to their addresses to ask after them and nobody knows anything about them. Mr Alexander Smetena has never had recognition from the Sports Minister and has not answered any letters sent to him by the General Secretary WAF. The last contact from him was two years ago and has not been seen at our

competitions since then.

David Shead proposed that we take Willy Deneumostier’s findings as the official report and give full membership to Carl Smith. If Mr Smetana or any other member of the original Federation protests then this matter will have to be revised.

Vote Taken to grant full membership to Austria 10 Yes 0 No Unanimous

General Secretary’s Report Mr David Eilertsen

David explained about the annual calendar that he had prepared, after gathering the information from as many countries that he had managed to get a response from. Which was sent out to all member countries earlier this year.

David also gave his resignation to the Congress from his position as General Secretary.

Vote Taken to accept General Secretary’s Report 10 Yes 0 No Unanimous

Many thanks to David Eilertsen for his work with the EAF and many regret’s for his resignation however he will remain very involved in armwrestling in Norway and helping to promote our sport.

 Head Referee’s Report Mr David Shead

David has been travelling to many countries to various competitions on behalf of the EAF. In 90% of countries everything is fine the only problem is that some countries are not encouraging people to become referees. We need to push for more countries to hold referees training as David is very keen to travel to as many countries Nationals as possible to train referees. Then he will report back to the EAF on what is happening in these countries.

David explained about the official procedure for making a protest which is as follows;

The country representative makes the protest to the Head Table, the Head Table direct the protest to the official concerned to be dealt with.

Vote Taken to accept Head Referees Report 10 Yes 0 No

Financial Director’s EAF Report Mr Assen Hadgitodorov

Assen expressed how happy he was to meet again and make his report he ran through the financial report with the congress of what monies there are.

He also explained that not enough countries were putting someone forward to be a member of the EAF Business Club and that therefore there was not enough money for the Club to operate properly. He asked for a representative from each country to attend a meeting on Thursday 29/7/99 at 10am at the Malle Poste hotel. He also requested that each country must put forward a person to work in the Business Club.

Vote Taken to accept Financial Directors Report Mr Assen Hadgitodorov 10 Yes 0 No

Igor Akmedshin

He explained about the importance of sponsors and their inclusion into the Business Club.

In Russia they have very good sponsors and it is very important to have a good working relationship with your sponsors in Russia they meet with them and play football with the sponsors etc. So when Igor is organising a competition he knows he has their backing.

Switzerland explained the difficulties in getting sponsors in their country and this is also the case in many countries including Belgium. Igor will talk to people after the meeting to give them ideas to help obtain sponsors.

Willy Deneumostier

We need to promote armwrestling centrally as well as just in our own countries for group media for the EAF.

David Shead

There are currently to many international competitions being held in Europe so this is affecting attendance. With so many international competitions the competitors cannot attend all of them so many are decreasing in numbers instead of growing and this is not good for our sport.

Willy Deneumostier

Asked where the rest of Executive Committee were Mr Milan Capla, Miss Maristella Avanzini and Mr Ben Zion Beyer.

Igor has received no information or reply from any of them.

We know that they went to Hungary but the EAF decision was to go to Belgium so why did they go to Hungary?

What should we do about it?

Igor suggests that with Maristella Avanzini and Mr Ben Zion Beyer we fax them again and give them a second chance to change their mind and come to Japan.

With Mr Milan Capla it is a different matter we have received a fax from Mr Milan Capla in which he asked people to attend Hungary and he breaks the EAF’s decisions and our constitution. David Shead & David Eilertsen have had a meeting in Sweden with him and he does not want to represent EAF anymore.

We propose that Mr Capla forfeits his position as Vice Chairman EAF and any further action is pending an enquiry.

To sum up the situation Mr Capla has become the Head of another organisation so he should not be our Vice President. So the position is now vacant we don’t have to fill the position until the next elections to be held in 2000.

4) Vacancies of the Board of Directors

Igor Akmedshin

The General Secretary has resigned therefore we need to have candidates put forward.

David Eilertsen from Norway proposes Miss Sonia Ellis from England she accepted the nomination.

Harri Naskali from Finland proposed Miss Kim Shoesmith from England she refused the nomination.

No other candidates were put forward for the post of General Secretary.

Vote Taken for Sonia Ellis as General Secretary EAF 11 Yes 0 No Unanimous

5)Approval of calendar for European/Junior Championships 2000 & 2001

Unfortunately Bulgaria are unable to host the 2000 Europeans

Mr Valeri Babuk from Belarus proposed to host the 2000 he was asked whether he had secured a sponsor, he has had a meeting with the Sports Minister and hopes that everything will be alright.

He has organised many competitions and events and everyone has been happy with these competitions.

Igor knows Mr Babuk very well, he is a good man and very industrious, he is successful in Belarus.

A list of requirements will be sent to Mr Babuk explaining the conditions that must be met in order to host the Championships. Approximate date June.

Vote Taken to hold 2000 Europeans in Belarus 11 Yes 0 No Unanimous

Europeans for 2001 no proposals were put forward

If any countries want to submit a proposal they can send them to the General Secretary and it will be voted on at next years Congress meeting.

Proposal for the junior Europeans to be held at the same time as the senior Europeans

Vote Taken to unify the Junior and the Senior Europeans 11 Yes 0 No Unanimous

Please note that date should be the end of June beginning of July due to the exams at school in May June time.

 6) 2^nd World Armsport Championships

Can anyone hold this years Junior World championships in October/November? No countries can host it at the moment.

7) EAF Proposal for a new Biathlon System Mr Filimonov Russia

Explained the basics of this system and the reduction in the amount of weight classes, everybody is to think about it and discuss in their own countries.

David Shead

This would make a very major changes to our sport and needs a lot of deliberation all countries should list their thoughts and to vote when everybody is ready whenever that is 1 year, 2 years, 3 years.

All countries agreed to consider this proposal and to send their ideas to the General Secretary Miss Sonia Ellis. All countries to make their report before Japan.

8) Amendments to the EAF Constitution Mr Igor Akhmedshin

The EAF Constitution is out of date

The % of members needed to hold an extra ordinary meeting at the moment it is 1/3

we should amend it to more than 50%

Vote Taken to amend this point in the Constitution 11 Yes 0 No Unanimous

9) The Report from the General Secretary WAF Mr Willy Deneumostier

There have been some changes in the Executive Committees in some countries but these countries have not sent in these amendments. It is very important that the General Secretary is kept informed of any changes.

David Eilertsen has been asking for 3 years for the information for the EAF Calendar so that competitions do not clash, but countries do not send the information in.

Countries have booked hotel rooms here in Belgium but have not told me when they arrive or when they are going to leave. We must have good communication between us Willy has sent over 200 E-mails in the last 6 months and he has only received a few replies. There must be good relations and communication between all of us this is very important. It is also very important that all countries have representatives in the meetings.

David Shead

Team Uniforms not clear in the rules as to team uniforms only refers to no jeans allowed. David asked for a decision of how strict the members want him to be on stage with regards to team uniform.

The members voted that all competitors must wear National Team T-Shirts and either sports pants or shorts. If a competitor comes on stage without their uniform then they do not compete.

Vote Taken 10 Yes 0 No 1 abstained UK