March 15th, 2006
If the enthusiasm and focus of the Delegates at the 2006 Plenary meeting was to be measured it would surely be the fact that a total of 77 separate votes (including voting amendments to proposals) were taken during the 7 and a half hours of business on the Saturday. And there was still time for coffee and lunch and the meeting concluded on schedule at 5:45pm.
My sincere congratulations to all Delegates, who attended the meeting, for focusing so well on the business at hand.
The voting decisions are available on the IGC website. The Minutes will be posted on the website shortly.
Sir John Allison, President, Europe Air Sports, provided a thought-provoking address on the Friday and this is also now available on the IGC website. M. Pierre Portmann, FAI President, attended the Plenum on the Friday morning and addressed the Delegates on the future of the FAI.
Congratulations are extended to Ian Strachan (United Kingdom) for the deserved award of the Lilienthal Medal and to both Fransois van Haaff (Netherlands) and Martin Simons (Australia) for the award of the Pirat Gehriger Diploma. The citations for each of these recipients are available on the IGC website.
The 2nd World Sailplane Grand Prix (2007) was awarded to New Zealand.
The 5th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championships was awarded to Szeged, Hungary and the 6th FAI Junior’s World Gliding Championships was awarded to Räyskälä, Finland.
The French Federation have advised that the 4th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championships 2007 will now be held in Romorantin, a suitable airfield 100 km south of Bailleau.
The re-election of the Bureau, with the addition of Goran Ax replacing Arild Solbakken, is very pleasing and indicates strong support for the direction the Bureau is moving with our sport.
For 2006 the single biggest challenge is going to be ensuring that the eight Qualifying Grand Prix events are all produced to a consistent standard and supported by good public presentation of the event, especially on the internet. These events this year give us the chance to educate the gliding community about the Grand Prix; to show that it is not just a short glider race, but that it also creates a high level energy and excitement and inclusion by having other air sport activities occurring on the airfield.
The Bureau is intending to provide direct assistance to each Grand Prix organiser to help them prepare and run the event.
We plan to produce a dedicated Grand Prix Newsletter to keep everyone up to date with developments with the Grand Prix.
The synergies now available to us with this new glider race and the public presentation of the event that have been demonstrated give us a unique opportunity to showcase our sport and to take the sport out into the media and public arena and create interest and attract attention. From such exposure flows interest in the sport, increased activity, sponsorship potential and leverage on both the sporting and political levels.
Finally – for your Dairy - the 2007 IGC Plenary meeting will be held in Lausanne, at the Olympic Museum, on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd March. Key Dates for this meeting are:
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
March 15th, 2006