The board has during the passed financial year consisted of president Claës-L. Ljung (Sweden), vice president Dieter Kerbaum (Germany), vice president and secretary-general Fredy Moder (Switzerland) together with vice president Michel Nadji (France). Michel Nadji was elected on the general assembly 2009. Mrs Sabine Klettenhofer, Austria has as always taken good care of our FEGAT assets.

The work performed 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 56th general assembly of the FEGAT was held in IENA/Avenches, Switzerland on Saturday the 29^th of August in connection with the European Championship for Gentlemen drivers.

Michel Nadji from France was elected as new vice president for the coming 3 years after Berit Tveter Alm. The president thanked Berit for her devoted work for the FEGAT.

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 Bern, Switzerland in connection with the European Championship for Gentlemen Drivers 2009.

In Lahti, Finland 1^st and 2^nd of October 2009.

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 have 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 have also been questions about an even closer connection between the non-European countries and FEGAT.

The championships

The EC for men was held in Switzerland 28^th until 31^st of August. We had 3 races in Avenches.  Champion became Christian Mayr from Austria (38 points) followed by Heinrich Wolf from Germany (36 points) and Antonio Valls Barcelo from Spain (33 points).

The ladies version of the EC was held in the Ukraine. European Champion was Julia Kashkovskaya (36 points), Ingrid Bengtsson, Sweden (31 points) followed by Katharina Merz, Germany (29 points). The championship took place in Kiev 11^th until 14^th of September.

FEGAT EUROPE CUP was held in Finland 2009. The first two races were held on the Jyväskylä racetrack and the finals on Lahti racetrack. Annemiek Beekmann from the Netherlands followed by her compatriot Dicky Hof won the final. Third in the final was our treasurer Sabine Klettenhofer, Austria. Adeline Morin from France won the B-final.

Due to FEGAT rules (when FEGAT EUROPE CUP is held there is no world championship) there was no WC in the year of 2009.

Friendly meetings between member countries are numerous. Many of these contests 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 meetings between Russia and Sweden.

The FEGAT now has 15 members. After numerous problems with the Italian membership the general assembly 2009 took the decision to exclude Italy as a FEGAT member. We are sad on behalf of the Italian amateurs who no longer can participate in the championships, but it is a consequence since Italy has not fulfilled their duties towards the FEGAT. So have they for example not paid their member fee for 2008 and 2009 although they participated in the gentlemen’s championship in Belgium 2008. The main reason for the dissatisfaction in Italy is that they do not accept the FEGAT rules for nomination of participants in the world championships, they have the meaning that Italy as a big trotting nation should be able to participate regardless of if they are qualified or not.

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. The reviewed five-year plan for the work inside the FEGAT is still not ready. Maybe this delay is a sign showing that there is no need for this plan. However I myself feel that such a document gives the members and the board a chance to measure if the work inside the FEGAT is proceeding in a good way or not. Some of the items in the plan have been successfully performed and some are still to deal with. Our 11-point strategy now 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 paragraph 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.                                    These rules were activated 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 has proved not to be so easy but the result 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 but we are aware that there are difficulties in for example to have horses enough in the 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”. I know that this has been done in some member countries – but far from all.
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 home-page. 
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 paragraphs 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 Switzerland for the gentlemen’s EC and the Ukraine for taking care of the ladies EC. Also a thank you to Finland for hosting the FEGAT EUROPE CUP.
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:
As president of the FEGAT I thank you all for your devoted support to the board and to myself! Our FEGAT is an organization that is met with respect in the trotting world and I am proud to hold the rudder in my hand!
 

Thank you!

Always be proud
to be a member of the
FEGAT!
 

Fegen January 24th 2010
 

Claës-L. Ljung
President