President's Letter to Delegates and Committee Chairmen 2008-1

24th March 2008

Dear Delegates

As I sit here in 24 degrees C in the autumn in New Zealand it is a bit hard to imagine that it is snowing in the UK! The climate variations are really interesting this year.

The Plenary meeting in Rome, and the associated Bureau meeting, were very productive. My thanks to the Aero Club of Italy and the Italian Gliding Federation for hosting us all in Rome, especially to Senator Leoni, Andrea Tomasi and Marina Vigorito.

Congratulations to Derek Piggott (UK) on the award of the Lilienthal Medal and to Maksymiliana Czmiel-Paszyc (Poland) on the award of the Pelagia Majewski Medal. Both awards recognise a lifetime of service to our sport of gliding.

Peter Platzer (Austria) joins the Bureau after Vladimir Foltin stood down and Goran Ax has taken over the Chairmanship of the Annex A Group from Axel Reich. Vladimir and Axel have devoted many hours to the service of the IGC over the past four years and I am pleased that they will both continue to be closely involved with IGC work in other roles.

The key decisions from the Plenary meeting have been posted on the IGC website and a number of action items will be completed in the next month, including setting up two new working groups to look at “Country Development” and “Continental Records”.

The 2009 Plenary meeting will be held in Lausanne on Friday the 6th and Saturday the 7th of March, 2009. Bureau meetings will be held on the 6th and 7th of October 2008 and the 4th and 5th of March 2009.

The World Air Games 2009 are rapidly approaching. The current World Gliding Champions and European Gliding Champions will be invited to fly the GP race at the World Air Games. Invitations will go out shortly to each of these pilots.

Best regards and safe flying

Bob Henderson
President, IGC
24th March 2008