60th IPC Meeting, Västeras (Sweden), 27 Jan - 01 Feb 2009

Sunday 1st February 2009 - Västerås, Sweden

Sandra and Daniel Dahiman - Former World Champions in Lindy HopThe closing banquet on Saturday evening, organised by the Swedish Association, was a very enjoyable event.  We were entertained by Sandra and Daniel Dahlman (sister and brother) to some excellent Lindy Hop dances.  They are the former Lindy Hop World Champions.

The last half day.  With the Bureau elected for two years it is a much quieter day ahead.  The morning started with the roll call as some Delegates had to leave already.  The total voting membership is now 34 (including 3 proxies).

The Chair of the FS committee stated the committee had decided to remove the suggested amendments proposed the previous day.    

Mubarak al Swailim, the new ASIANIA President made his presentation.  Graeme Windsor introduced him with the news that the second book on Parachuting, written in Arabic by Mubarak had now been published.

The 2nd Vice President as her role as Chair of the Sporting Code working group then presented their work, housekeeping, and new document proposals.

The rule changes were accepted unanimously, as were the new bid guide documents.  Other proposals had either been covered by the appropriate committees following the open meeting, and the French proposal to require the Nominated Chief Judge for a competition to liaise with the organiser (rather than the other way round) was approved.  The proposed changes to Chapter 4, SC Section 5 (as indicated in the agenda papers) was approved by the delegates with one abstention.  The proposed Jury Members Handbook was accepted.

The current jury list in terms of those persons on the list who were present at this 2009 meeting was accepted by the delegates.

The proposed FAI Controllers and Jury Members for the competitions in 2009 were proposed, and accepted.

The next item on the agenda was the Awards, following the procedures contained in the FAI ByLaws section 10.  The nominations for the award of the FAI Gold Medal, which would be made next year, is contained in the agenda papers and next year the Plenary will vote whether or not to award it to the nominee.  There was then a secret ballot on the award of the Leonardo DiVinci diploma (as nominated in the agenda papers).  The delegates voted with a clear majority to award the Leonardo DiVinci diploma to the Russian nominee.  Graeme Windsor has asked the Sporting Code Working Group to simplify the process of nomination and awards and proposals to maximise on the publicity - in keeping with the Strategic Plan. 

The treasurer then presented the budget for the coming year.  The budget was accepted with 2 delegates voting against.

The Russian delegation then presented the amendment to their bid for the World Championships in 2010. 

Brazil made their bid to host the 2010 IPC Plenary meeting in Curitiba.  They answered questions on their bid and there was discussion about the hosting possibilities in Lausanne (where IPC is committed to go unless a 2/3rds majority decides to move elsewhere).  There was a secret vote and 32 members votes were still present.  The vote was double checked and the result is: 11 for Lausanne and 21 for Brazil, so the 2010 IPC Meeting will be in Lausanne.  

Montenegro announced their intention to bid for 2011 IPC Meeting.

The meeting was then closed by Graeme Windsor. Thanks must go to the Swedish Association for the excellent organisation, facilities and support provided. Efforts were made the whole weekend to reduce the amount of paper (save the trees) and the delegates left with a CD containing the various papers rather than a heap of paper.

Saturday 31st January 2009 - Västerås, Sweden

2009 Plenary - DelegatesThe working days are over, now we start with the serious stuff - the Plenary.  Each delegation sits behind their delegation name, the dress is formal.  Over the next day and a half decisions which affect the future direction of our sport will be made.

The meeting started with the traditional minute's silence for departed friends, this was followed by a short speech of welcome from the President of the Swedish Association, Lina Gardlow, who thanked those members of their association who had worked so hard to organise this event.

There then followed the roll call by the FAI representative Jean-Marc Badan, of the IPC membership to establish who was represented at today's meeting to establish the voting number.  36 votes in total including 3 proxy votes.

Graeme Windsor then referred those present to the Agenda for the meeting (this is available on this web site - About IPC - meetings - agenda)

Jean-Marc Badan then gave a report on the activities during 2008 of the FAI.  The FAI membership now stands at 89 member countries.  

After covering the previous year in his President's report Graeme moved onto the Strategic Plan for IPC - Attractive and Dynamic - a succinct catch phrase to describe our sport.  The proposal to accept this plan was approved unanimously by the membership.

Then followed reports on the progress of the WG and WAG both taking place in 2009. There was discussion about the possibility of the cancellation of the use of air to ground equipment.

Liam McNultyAfter a mid-morning coffee break Liam McNulty presented the results of the Safety Survey Report gathered from the returns made by 41 countries.  This report will be presented on disc to each Delegate. 

Buzz Bennett then presented the proposal of the Financial Working Group to allow a Guarantee for the deposit to be used by an organiser of an IPC approved competition.  This was unanimously approved by the Delegates.

The USA Delegate then presented their bid to host a Mondial in 2010. There was discussion from the floor on the provision contained within the bid relating to a safeguard (ability to increase prices) due to a possibility of fuel price increases.  

The discussion continued after lunch, and having consulted with the organiser of the Mondial the USA delegate answered questions that had been raised before lunch.  As a result of some of the comments from the floor the President undertook to look, in the future, at the regulation of giving priority to a Mondial bid.

A secret vote was taken on whether or not the bid from the USA to host a Mondial in 2010 would be accepted.   The result of the vote was 24 NO and 12 YES.  The bid was declined.

The Chair of the Style and Accuracy then made his presentation.  The agenda and reports are contained in the papers for the meeting.  One move the committee has made is to clearly define in the Sporting Code what qualifies as a World Record - so that all records are made on a "level playing field" i.e. by defining the number of rounds that must be completed to qualify as a World Record performance.  The committee have also allowed for the possibility of a competitor entering Style but not Accuracy and the rules have been clarified in this respect.  This is as a result from a comment made during the open meeting.

The bid prepared by Montenegro to host the 31st Freefall Style and Accuracy Landing World Championships in 2010 including the 5th Junior World Parachuting Championships had been presented at the open meeting and the delegate and representatives of Montenegro where available to answer questions.  The USA withdrew their bid for the Freefall Style and Accuracy Landing World Championships (as part of the mondial). A formal vote was taken and the bid was accepted.

There was then a lot of discussion about the acceptance of the balance of the USA bid for other disciplines, and also the late Russian bid to include Artistic Events in their original bid to host Formation Skydiving and Canopy Formations.  The technicalities of the correct way to proceed according to the regulations of IPC were complicated, but were resolved and we continued with the meeting and the presentation from the Formation Skydiving Committee.

The proposal of the committee to introduce a rule that no competitor may enter both FS and VFS events if the two events are held together, caused discussion and the committee was asked to take away the various comments and return later with a reworded proposal.  There were several "housekeeping" proposals to the rules.  The committee chair then presented the proposed rules for the WG and WAG which vary from the usual rules which govern our FS events.  The sticking point on this presentation was the proposals from the committee to accommodate the possibility of a World Record during the championships and the difference in the judging criteria.  The committee took on board the comments and will return with revised proposals.  

The President then explained how the voting procedure would happen with regard to the bids from the USA and Russia for the Formation Skydiving World Championships in 2010.   Graeme asked for a vote from the floor for his proposed procedure and this was positive.  The Russians then took the floor to present their bid to host the Formation Skydiving World Championships in 2010.  They proposed changes to the bid in terms of a reduction in the number of the days of competition and consequently the price.  They also agreed to move the dates so as not to clash with the CISM calender.  The USA delegate also answered questions on the changes to their bid with the removal of Style and Accuracy.

The delegates were then asked to vote (a secret ballot was called for) for either USA or Russia.   36 votes were cast and the result was Russia 19, USA 17.  The 19th World Championships in Formation Skydiving will take place in Manzelinsk, Russia 1st - 5th August 2010. 

As a result of this vote the USA withdrew their bids for any other events, and congratulated Russia and wished them a good competition.  The delegates then voted unanimously to accept the bid that was on the table, from Russia, to include Artistic Events.

CFThe chair of the Canopy Formation Committee presented the proposed changes to the Dive Pool and the removal of the NJ, a point will have to be judged as good or not good, and if not good, defined as to why.  The Web Challenge will be used for 2009 instead of a World Cup, to trial new rules and also to give competitors the opportunity to compete. The delegates accepted the rule changes.

The delegates approved the bid from Russia to host the 14th World Championships in Canopy Formation in  Manzelinsk, Russia 1st - 5th August 2010.

The main proposed change to the Artistic Event rules is the combination of the gender category in Freestyle to a single event, the remaining changes are to the dive pool and 'housekeeping' rule amendments. After a short discussion on the decision to combine the male and female events in Freestyle to one event, there was majority approval of the proposals.  The chair then moved onto the rules for the WG.

The chair of ParaSki made his presentation at the end of the day.  After his presentation following his annual report, as in the agenda he handed over to the President.  Graeme Windsor then read a letter from the Austrian Parachute Association regarding a wish to increase the jump price (i.e. entry fee) for the World Championships in 2009 due to the unforseen increases in costs.  This was approved by the delegates (with 2 delegates abstaining).  The increase will be based on the fact that the bid in 2006 was based on jump prices of 20 Euros and were now 24 Euros, and the currently published Bulletin 2 would be adjusted accordingly.  

Michael Eggar then presented the various rule changes to clarify and bring their rules in lines with other disciplines. The changes were approved unanimously by the delegates. 

The President asked that the bid that Italy has proposed to make for the 2010 World Cup can be dealt with by the Bureau, as it will be too late to consider this at the 2010 Plenary.  This was granted by the delegates.

The Canopy Piloting chair covered his report from 2008.  There is a bid on the table for the World Cup to be held in South Africa 2 - 6 December 2009.  The delegate from South African clarified the bid and answered questions.  The delegates then voted to accept the bid and this was unanimous.  With the USA withdrawal for 2010 there are no bids currently on the table, but the chair has 3 potential bids which will be put forward for the Plenary 2010.

In order to obtain a good judging and scoring system that will allow the display of results as the event happens, the committee will apply for funding to purchase this once they have sourced a suitable system.  The proposed changes to the competition rules and those which will apply to the WG and WAG were then presented.  Once approved these will be published on the FAI web site.  There was unanimous support from the delegates. 

The final presentation for the day was from the Judges Committee.  After presenting 'housekeeping' rule changes, the Chair spoke about Re-evaluation and Training Seminars that will be announced on the IPC Web site (providing the information is forwarded to the Webmaster).  They also undertook to provide a specification for the Scoring and Display System by the end of April 2009.  The changes were unanimously approved by the delegates.

The chief judges for the 2009 World Championships will be:  Alya Ananina, Artistics; Rina Gallo Formation Skydiving and Marylou Laughlin for Canopy Piloting and Barry McAuley for World Games and World Air Games.  The Proposed Chief Judges and the FAI Judges List which had been displayed during the meeting was approved by the delegates.

Friday 30th January 2009 - Västerås, Sweden

Please forgive the late start to this report, but I was involved with the first committee to present today, the Judges Committee and the subsequent committee meeting.

The Judges Committee presented to the meeting, the On Line Judge Training programme developed by Elisabet Pettersson along with other members of the committee.  The first part, the introduction and rule section has been completed.  Work is underway for Formation Skydiving, and the other disciplines will follow, so that by the end of this year there will be an On Line Judge Training Course available for all disciplines.  The full potential of the course was demonstrated to the room and it will be available from a link on this web site by the end of the month (February).  It was very soundly welcomed and the committee was congratulated from the floor on the work they have done.  The majority of the other points raised by the committee were housekeeping - except for the subject of an electronic judging & scoring and public display system. There  were considerable comments and discussion from the floor and the committee will put forward a proposal to the plenary of the direction they wish to go.

The rest of today will consist of meetings and discussion groups to finalise the proposals to go before the Plenary meeting which starts tomorrow morning.  I will be back on line then.

Thursday 29th January 2009 - Västerås, Sweden

This morning started at 8.30 with the treasurer's report.  There was a proposal from the Financial Working Group to allow organisers to use a form of Guarantee rather than paying a cash deposit. Due to the volatility of currency exchange rates it could mean an organiser loses  between the time of transferring the deposit to the IPC and the refund after the satisfactory completion of the competition.  This was approved of by members present as a positive move to encourage organisers (rather than put obstacles in their way) - however discussion ensured on the safeguards needed to be taken by the SCWG to ensure the value of the security.

Next came the presentation from the Formation Skydiving Committee.  The proposal of the committee to move to a reduced speed viewing (approx 70%) for judging met with opposition from the floor, particularly in light of the aims of the Strategic Plan.  There was a similar response from the floor for the proposal to change the current time-frame for competition.  

There then followed a presentation from the organisers of the 2009 European Championships and World Cup in Formation Sydiving in Formation Skydiving and Artistic Events in Prostejov, Czech Republic 80.8 - 6.9.2009. This was followed by a presentation from the USA for a Mondial to be held in 2010 in Perris Valley, California. After the delegate answered questions from the floor, the next presentation was from the Russian delegate for a World Championships in Formation Skydiving and Canopy Formation in 2010 in Manzelinsk, Tatarstan, Russia.

CF Committee

After the coffee break it was the turn of the Canopy Formations committee.  They presented the changes to the 4 way dive pool.  The introduction of 2-way sequential had proved a great success in achieving its objective of increasing participation in this discipline.  16 nations participated in the World Championships in the Netherlands in 2008.

The only criticism on the conduct of the event, made by the organiser, was the delay in posting results.  The committee proposed to use the WG and WAG as a trial for single view judging.  The next item on the agenda was the Web Challenge and the ideas for increasing participation during 2009.  The committee presentation ended with a viewing of the excellent Sky Sport TV programme.

A pause for lunch and various committee meetings and then the open meeting continued with Style & Accuracy .  The committee rejected the suggestion that the Overall title be retired - this was put to the open meeting to assess the feeling of the room.  The majority in the room asked the committee to reconsider their decision.  A very passionate appeal to retain the overall was made by Jiri.  Then there were good contributions from the floor.   The development of a scoring ranking system to increase public interest and excitement during an accuracy competition was announced and generated enthusiasm and discussion.  After discussion on the other points in the agenda (see meeting documents) a presentation was made by Montenegro to host the World Championships 2010 in Freefall Style and Accuracy Landing (August/September 2010). 

The USA delegate confirmed some of the details of their bid for a Mondail in 2010, in relation to questions that had been posed privately after the main presentation. 

Another break, over coffee and cakes, groups meet for quick discussions before the next committee chair addresses the open meeting.  Now is the turn of Canopy Piloting  First item was the proposed changes to the competition rules.   Including revisions to Zone Accuracy and a new Speed event scores calculation. The other changes are more housekeeping, rewording etc.   The committee wishes to commence a bidding process for an official scoring system.  The committee will ask for funding for the development as well.

Presentations were made for the future World Cup 2009, South Africa and the USA Mondial is the only bid for 2010.  South African has asked to change the date from their bid to the 1st December - 6th December; more stable weather and cheaper flights.  The prices quoted in the bid are provisional and the actual prices will be put into the Bulletin no. 1, but will not exceed the prices in the bid.  This is to protect the organisers from fuel increases.

The last presentation for today is from the Sporting Code Working Group.  This is the work done by the Vice Chair, Gillian Winter, the secretary of the working group, Buzz Bennett and the committee chairs on ensuring the Sporting Code is updated with the necessary or suggested changes either to clarify existing text or in line with current requirements.  Do look at the proposals included in the agenda papers.  All changes will be published on this web site with the next edition of the Sporting Code March 2009. 

The condition that organisers of First Category Events must use the FAI medals caused considerable discussion.  This condition had been included in the Organisers Agreement as it is a requirement of the FAI for all commissions.   Jean-Marc Badan from the FAI spoke to the meeting about the background and the why for these medals.  To recognise the high quality of the achievement of the athletes, it is important to provide high quality medals.

The meeting closed at 1900 hrs.  Now off to committee meetings to finalise papers for the plenary.

Wednesday 28th January 2009 - Västerås, Sweden

The delegates have arrived and are gathering in the meeting room for the start of the 2009 60th IPC Meeting.  Scheduled for a 9.30 start, and after reading the agenda, a full 4.5 days work ahead.  The bureau have already had a meeting yesterday and an early meeting this morning.

After the introductions Graeme Windsor presented to the meeting the Stratigic Plan that has been developed by the Bureau following the direction given to them at last year's IPC Meeting.  (To read the details of this plan go to the "About IPC" button at the top - and then "meetings" and you will find all the documents for this meeting there.) 

However before he developed the details he introduced John Smyth who presented to the meeting the Video of the HONDA advertisement which was shown in the commercial slot of a TV transmission.  This advertisement which was filmed live during the transmission and was watched in 1 million homes across Europe.  John emphasised that this could be the same for final rounds of World Championships if the proposals of the strategic plan are followed.

Buzz Bennett then talked about the latest position with regard to the World Games taking place in Kaohsiung, Chinese Tiapei this year - and his report is there amongst the papers for this meeting.  Gillian Winter then also presented the latest position with regard to the World Air Games, Turin this year, and also the representatives from the Parachuting Organisation for the WAG.

After a coffee brake, Michael Eggar presented the agenda of the ParaSki committee.  There was some discussion on proposed rule changes and then a presentation on of a preliminary bid from Austria for the World Championships in 2011. 

After lunch it was the turn of the Technical and Safety Committee to present the results of their latest report on skydiving incidents throughout the world.  This was followed by a presentation on very interesting research conducted by two Swedish skydiver Doctors.   They had run an internet based questionnaire through the Swedish federation and gathered statistics on injury reporting over a two year period.  They also placed this information into the context of the skydiving community culture.  The results of this research will be available to all delegates, and therefore through NAC's for the future.

Artistic Events was next.  After Roland presented his report on 2008, and the proposals of the committee for 2009, there was considerable discussion following the proposal of the committee with regard to Freestyle: -  to either 1. combine the gender for freestyle or 2. leave as it is or 3. do away with the male event.  This will be discussed fully at the Plenary - so watch this space for the decision! The  second point that caused discussion was the question of single view judging.  Following the Strategic Plan proposals this is a discussion point that will recur throughout this meeting I am sure.

This was the last of the open meetings.  Now the delegates split up into the various committee's for meetings to refine their proposals to present to the plenary.  There will be a lot of discussions between now and the weekend.   

During the next few days this stragic plan will be discussed in great detail.

You can now download the Agenda for this meeting at:

http://www.fai.org/parachuting/meetings/2009

At the same time please ensure that Judges Nominations for 2009 are submitted by the end of 2008.  Details and forms available at:

http://www.fai.org/parachuting/judges

Reminder notice from the Technical Secretary:

The 60^th IPC Plenary Meeting shall take place on Saturday 31^st January and Sunday 1^st February 2009, at Västerås, Sweden. 

1                    Items for inclusion in the Agenda (Internal Regulations 3.7.3)  Proposals or other items for discussion, bids to hold First Category Events, awards nominations which are discussed by the Plenary, Committee Chair reports and reports from Chief Judges of 2008 First Category Events should reach the IPC Secretary 75 days before the Plenary, that is by 17 November 2008. 

2                    Agenda availability (Internal Regulations 3.7.2) The agenda will be available on the FAI web site by 17 December 2008.  Delegates and Committee Chairs are asked to please note that 17 November 2008 is the final date for receipt of the items listed at 1 above.  The e-mail address to which to send material is:- lmcnulty@skydiveireland.ie  

Liam McNulty, IPC Secretary, 4 September 2008