THE PRESIDENT’S ANNUAL REPORT
                                                  The period from July 2005 to September 2006


The board has during the passed financial year consisted of president Claës-L. Ljung (Sweden), vice president Berit Tveter Alm (Norway), vice president Dieter Beck (Germany) together with vice president and secretary-general Fredy Moder (Switzerland). Mrs Sabine Klettenhofer, Austria has started up in a fantastic way as treasurer for our organization.

The labour in our committee has been productive and friendly. For me myself it has been a source of inspiration and an opportunity to meet with interesting people. During the past fiscal year I have experienced good help from the whole committee and I also know that my colleagues in the board as well as I myself during the year has been in contact with many of our members!

The 52nd general assembly of the FEGAT was held in Molecaten Park, Leersum, The Netherlands on Saturday the 10th of September in connection with the European Championship for Gentlemen drivers.
Claës-L. Ljung from Sweden was re-elected as president for the coming 3 years.
Dieter Beck, Germany was re-elected as vice president for the coming 3 years.
Fredy Moder from Switzerland was re-elected secretary general for 1 year.
Sabine Klettenhofer was re-elected treasurer outside the board for 1 year.

Board meetings have been held on the following occasions during the past fiscal year:
in Düsseldorf, Germany in April
in Vienna, Austria in connection with the World Championship
in Leersum, The Netherlands in connection with the European Championship for Gentlemen Drivers
in Paris, France in May 2006

There has also been several telephone calls between the committee members. Between the secretary general and myself there has been contacts practically every week.

In connection with the world championship this year a meeting between all participating countries was held in Rome. There we stated that the next WC will be held in the US followed by New Zealand in 2010 and most likely France in 2012. FEGAT was also given the supervising of the championships and an affilation from overseas nations to the FEGAT for the WC matters is a question that has turned up during the time we spent in Italy. Our board is as always open for discussions.

The championships and FEGAT Europe Cup
The EC for men was, as indicated above, held in the Netherlands 9th til 13th of September. Champion became Klaus Tho Seeth from Germany followed by Stefan Lind-Holm from Denmark and Fred Handelaar from the Netherlands.

The ladies version of the EC was held in Czech Republic, who for the first time stood as arranger for an entire championship. European Champion was Monika Fremstad, Norway, followed by Laurence Kindler, Switzerland and Cathrine Hellberg, Sweden – all well known profiles in their home countries. The championship took place in Prague 23rd – 25th of September.

FEGAT EUROPE CUP was held in Kiev, Ukraine. Also Ukraine stood for the first time as organizer of an event and did it with honour! Winner of the cup was Fred De Zoete, nestor in the Netherlands and a very skilled driver. The cup took place on October 16th.

World Championship 2006 was again hosted by Italy (last time 2000!). Wonderful racing and a worthy winner, Kimmo Hämälainen from Finland. The championship was held 18th til 23rd of July.

Existing 13 members. As always in an organization like the FEGAT we have different engagement from different members. Some seems to sleep between our annual meetings and some have a very good contact with the board during the entire year. I think you can feel a little yourselves on which side you belong and remember that we like to have a close contact with every single member country!

The fact that some of you do not inform the secretary general about current addresses to you and your club is not acceptable! I sincerely advice you to give all current information to us in the board without delay so we can supply you with up to date material.

http://www.fegat.info/index.html  - our website, is recently updated as decided on our general assembly 2004. Our secretary general has performed a tremendous work and now it is up to you all to supply him with material and upgrading as to addresses etc.

Former members. I have been in contact with France and Italy about their re-entering the FEGAT. The FEGAT board members met with UNAT president Alain Pagés on May 6th and this meeting has now given result in a written application for re-entrance of France into the FEGAT. As for Italy I have written mails with the clearly expressed wish to meet with them to discuss a re-entry. They have until now not answered although it has been unofficially mentioned that they have a desire to come back.

Work in the board. The five-year plan for the work inside the FEGAT is going on. Some of the items have been successfully performed and some are still to deal with. On the board meeting in April Berit Tveter Alm and Dieter Beck were given the mission to freshen up our 11-point strategy, which as for today looks as follows:
1. The board feel that the number of members in the FEGAT will remain unaltered during the coming 5-years period and it is no reason for changes in the system around championships and likewise.
2. The new rules for world championships worked out by the secretary general and the president in the FEGAT after hearing the non-FEGAT participating countries, shall be approved in time before the WC in Denmark.
3. The entire FEGAT shall try to find an international sponsor who will follow our championships and use the good will of them for their promotion.
4. In general we shall try to reach a higher standard for our championships.
5. In every member country shall be a race named the FEGAT Race every year. An honorary price shall be provided named “FEGAT - HONORARY PRICE”.
6. The amount of races driven under FEGAT flag shall be expanded. Press releases, starting lists and results must be forwarded to our secretariat. The FEGAT name must be given more importance. Our secretariat stands willing to provide all addresses and contacts necessary to make this possible.
7. Within the frames of our economy and with possibilities we know of we will make promotion over the Internet and over our homepage. Every country is responsible for finding sponsors who will have advantage of our homepage and who are willing to pay a sum for this.
8. Economy: we must be able to keep the standards of today and hopefully raise them. One way to do this is by higher member fees (see the proposal from the board for the general assembly 2001).
9. We will help to act as intermediary in finding practice jobs for interested persons with the aim to give tuition to young, horse-interested people.
10. In our homepage we will give the opportunity for interested sponsors to add a
link to their homepage.
11. We will present an annual book again.

I hope that you will read the 11 points above with a little self criticism. Have you as a member fulfilled what you are expected to do? 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 are all works for us all – what have you done the last year???

Alm/Beck will present a revised version on our general assembly.


To all of you I want to express my gratitude for the passed year. Despite big differences in the possibilities for the sport, in culture and character the FEGAT stands strong. We have been able to give and to take in a way that makes us all to feel like winners.

I feel especially happy that we now have reached a point were it is necessary for our members to fulfil their duties as organizers if they don’t want to sit on the bench and wait for a possibility to participate.

I also want to use this opportunity to say thank you to the amateurs in The Netherlands for the gentlemen’s EC, Czech Republic for taking care of the ladies EC and Ukraine for the FEGAT EUROPE CUP.

FEGAT of today. FEGAT is widening the field of action. In Austria 2005 it was unanimously agreed by all countries participating in WC that FEGAT should be the head for coming world championships. This decision was taken, as a known fact is that we have been the active part in the world championships all since I was elected president. The work done by our board has met with an international respect shown not only by this decision. Since the Vienna meeting we have been in frequent contact with Australia regarding education.

FEGAT is going ahead with good speed and a wise general assembly and a productive board successfully perform our work! Thank you!


    Always be proud to be a member of the FEGAT!

Fegen August 2006

Claës-L. Ljung
President