|
The board has during
the passed financial year consisted of president Claës-L. Ljung (Sweden),
vice president Berit Tveter Alm (Norway), our new vice president Dieter
Kerbaum (Germany) together with vice president and secretary-general
Fredy Moder (Switzerland). Mrs Sabine Klettenhofer, Austria has been a
most reliable and charming 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 a lot of interesting people sharing my passion for horse racing.
During the past fiscal year I have experienced good help from the whole
committee and I also know that my colleagues in the board has been in
contact with some of our members! This, I can assure you, is also the
case for our secretary general and myself.
The 55th general assembly of the FEGAT was held in Kortrijk,
Belgium on Friday the 21st of March in connection with the European
Championship for Gentlemen drivers.
Dieter Kerbaum from Germany was 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 Kalmar, Sweden in connection with the European Championship for Lady
Drivers 2008
in Mönchengladbach, Germany February 2009. The main issue on this
meeting was the proposal for new parts of our statutes presented by a
committee existing of Fredy Moder and myself.
Between the secretary general and myself there has been contacts several
times every week. I have also been in contact with the other two board
members. The SKYPE program on Internet has been most helpful to give
economic communication between us.
There has been technical contacts between non-FEGAT countries concerning
the development of the amateur sport and legal advice for forming
national organizations in Australia and New Zealand. There has also been
questions about an even closer connection between the non-European
countries and FEGAT. Three out of four non-European countries have
accepted to pay an amount of EURO 500 a year for the work performed by
the FEGAT in connection with the world championships.
The championships
The EC for men was held in Belgium 21st until 25th of March. We
had races in Ghlin on March 22nd, Kuurne on March 23rd and Tongeren on
March 24th. Champion became Carlos Cruellas Munar from Spain (40 points)
followed by Thomas Mjöen from Norway (37 points) and Andre Pögel from
Germany (35 points). From the curious events during the racing we had a
strange experience – heavy snowfall in Belgium!!!
The ladies version of the EC was held in Sweden, unfortunately
with too few possibilities for each driver to compete. European Champion
was Gundula Bauer, Austria, followed by Hajdu Biborka, Czech Republic
and Maria Carmona, Spain – all well driving ladies. The championship
took place in Kalmar 12th of September and Tingsryd 14th of September.
FEGAT EUROPE CUP was not held this year due to a decision taken
on a general assembly that the year a world championship is organized
there will be no FEGAT EUROPE CUP.
In May the World Championships were held in the US. FEGAT was
represented by Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany,
Hungary, Czech Republic and Spain. Gavin Cook from New Zealand is now
ruling World Champion followed by Teddy Wang, Denmark and Fred Handelaar
The Netherlands. We were racing on two racetracks in the Chicago area,
Maywood Park and Balmoral and four tracks in the New York area,
Monticello, Yonkers, Freehold and The Meadowlands. A fantastic
arrangement – thank you NADA and thank you Joe Faraldo!
Friendly meetings between member countries are numerous. Many of
these matches are brought up as ideas on FEGAT meetings when members
have been talking off record – so is the birth of THE NORDIC
CHAMPIONSHIPS as well as a yearly meeting between Russia and Sweden.
Now 16 members but maybe 15 after this general assembly! We were
happy to say welcome back to Italy and Spain who are members again from
our general assembly two years ago in Denmark. While Spain have been
fulfilling their duties, Italy have not. They have not paid their member
fee for the years 2008 and 2009 and are due to our statutes to be
expelled. This has to be discussed and a decision to be taken on our
general assembly 2009. A reason for Italy’s missing member fee is
probably that they were quite astonished that they had to use the FEGAT
rules when it came to who would represent Europe in the world
championships 2008. They thought they had a given place in the event
while the truth is that FEGAT rules only gives possibilities for
participation to the first 8 (or whatever digit that will be actual) in
the European championships the year before. Italy was last in this
championship.
|
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 throughout the entire year. I think you can feel
a little yourselves on which side you belong and remember that we in the
FEGAT board like to have a close contact with every single member
country!
Work in the board.
Berit Tveter Alm and Dieter Kerbaum will present the reviewed five-year
plan for the work inside the FEGAT in writing on our general assembly
2009. Some of the items the board has have been successfully performed
and some are still to deal with. On the board meeting in April 2006
Berit Tveter Alm and Dieter Beck were given the mission to freshen up
our old 11-point strategy, which in the old ruling version looks as
follows with my own commentaries in italics:
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. This § is
now irrelevant.
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. We used these rules in the US in
2008.
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 business promotion. This is a responsibility for all members!
4. In general we shall try to reach a higher standard for our
championships. We are of course grateful for all help from our members!
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”. I know that this has been done in Russia and Sweden – but any
place else?
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. However, this does not mean that FEGAT
shall have any more championships/friendly meetings organized by the
FEGAT. It would be too hard to find all organizers!
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.
Some of our members have done this, some not…
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. If
all members sell some advertisement place on our website the problem
will be solved! This would be a better way than having a higher member
fee.
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. This has been done and we must evaluate if we
shall continue or not!
10. In our homepage we will give the opportunity for interested
sponsors to add a
link to their homepage. See other proposals concerning our website!
11. We will present an annual book again. Most likely not! We now
have our website as a tool.
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???
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 all
members are carrying out their duties with arrangements in the scheduled
way! This is now also true for the world championships – France will
organize 2010 and New Zealand in 2012.
I also want to use this opportunity to say thank you to the amateurs in
Belgium for the gentlemen’s EC and Sweden for taking care of the ladies
EC.
FEGAT of today. FEGAT is the only umbrella organization for
harness amateurs throughout the world. Overseas nations search our aid
and maybe we should widen the sphere and have a worldwide branch to give
everyone a possibility for shelter. These are current issues for the
board to work with!
As always:
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 July 21st 2009
Claës-L. Ljung
President
|
21.07.2009/fmo
Copyright
2006 fmo