The existing Bureau : Niels Christian Levin Hansen. Vice President; John Smyth, Vice President;  Liam McNulty, Technical Secretary;  Graeme Windsor, President, Gillian Rayner, 1st Vice-President and Richard "Buzz" Bennett, Financial Secretary.

Sunday 2nd February 2014

Roll call was taken - the figures have real importance today - Election Day - prepare for battle, as all the positions on the Bureau are subject to election from the Plenary..

41 votes        21 =  majority             28  =  2/3rds majority

Graeme started the meeting with the awards for the FAI Gold Parachuting Medal, the Australian nomination has been withdrawn so there are 2 nominations. First requirement is whether to make the award this year. A show of hands gave agreement. Buzz raised the point that proxy votes do not count – 31 valid delegate votes in the room.

As the resumés for both are given in the papers, annex 64 and 65 Graeme asked the delegates to put the name of the person they wish to vote for in the subsequent secret ballot.

Felix Baumgartner won with 20 votes, Svetlana Klenina 11 so the award goes to Felix Baumgartner.  Graeme encouraged Russia to put a bid in again.

Leonardo Da Vinci Parachuting Diploma – Marylou Laughlin is the only candidate – Buzz called for a secret ballot and asked delegates to put ‘Yes’ to award the diploma or ‘No’ not to. 25 votes Yes and 6 No – so it is awarded.

Graeme emphasised how important it is to award people who have contributed to Parachuting and also to use the publicity it creates to promote our sport. Also winners will be invited to the FAI General Conference which also helps to promote parachuting.

We then moved to Gillian Rayner's presentation of the Jury Lists with the changes - but due to last minute changes this will be presented later in the programme.

Buzz Bennett then moved to present the budget for 2014

Based on the proposed sanction fee of 90 Euros (no change) and is updated to include the competitions approved yesterday.  As a conservative budget this gave us a 10,000 Euro deficit, but given that conservative nature and also the healthy condition of our funds Buzz felt confident in putting this budget forward. Exi then commented on the allowance for a mid-term bureau meeting, but Buzz answered the question with from a treasurer’s point of view, all he is doing is being prudent in including the possibility.

There was unanimous support from the floor to approve the budget.

Buzz then asked the plenary to approve the 2015 budget to conform with FAI requirements. Buzz explained that this is very provisional. It was approved.

Buzz then thanked everyone and said goodbye as Financial Treasurer – wished his successor the very best and offered his help and advice if needed.

Graeme formally thanked Buzz for his many years of excellent service to the IPC and said he was so glad he would still be around to offer his support and advice.

We moved on to the fact that the Czech Republic has offered to include the new discipline of Speed Skydiving into the programme.   So Graeme asked for a 2/3rds majority vote to discuss the event.

No abstentions and no one against discussing the inclusion of this event in the 2014 calendar. After some discussion and a vote was called for giving the bureau the authority to work with the committee and the organiser to include this event in the World Championships to be held in the Czech Republic. The plenary voted unanimously to include a Speed Skydiving World Cup in the Czech Republic.

Gillian Rayner then read out the various Jury proposals for 2015.   Graeme asked if there were any objections to the proposed juries, and as there were none, it was voted on, unanimously to be accepted.

We then moved on to the composition of the Committees and Working Groups. There was discussion about the new proposed composition of the Canopy Formation Committee and this was held over for discussion by the committee during the coffee break when it would be represented to the plenary. The Finance Working Group will also be held over until the new Financial Secretary is appointed.

There was one against and the balance of the room for acceptance of the other committee and working groups as proposed.

Gilliian Rayner was recommended by the Bureau to retain the position of Liaison Officer for the World Air Games.

Graeme thanked Ronald Overdijk for his role as World Games Liaison Officer and Graeme was very happy to welcome Patrice Giradan back into IPC and in this role.

The formal appointment of a Media Liaison Officer was voted on and accepted by the total plenary and the appointment of Susan Dixon to that role was unanimously approved.

We then proceeded to the voting procedure for the Bureau.

The first position to be voted on was the IPC President.

First we have a secret ballot of nominated delegates to that post. The delegate names nominated were Bennett, Hoenle, Levin Hansen and Windsor.  Mr. Bennett and Mr. Levin Hansen refused the nomination and both Dr. Rainer “Exi” Hoenle and Mr. Graeme Windsor accepted. They then each gave a short presentation as to why they should hold this position.

The result of the vote is: Dr. Rainer “Exi” Hoenle 16 and Mr. Graeme Windsor 24 with one abstention.

Graeme Windsor is re-elected as President of IPC.

After Coffee Break.

We then moved to election of the 1st Vice President – first the slips are handed out to delegates for nominations for the post.   There were 6 nominations

Al Swailim : Hoenle : Levin Hansen : Paraquellos : Rainer : Smyth.  Only Mubarak al Swailim and Gillian Rayner accepted the nominations. Following a motion from the Canadian delegate and seconded by the German delegate, both nominees were asked to give a short presentation of their skills in that position. Following their presentations we moved to a secret ballot.

Mabarak al Swailim   19   Gillian Rayner 22 – Gillian was appointed as 1st Vice President.

Next are the positions of Vice President (2), so this time nominations were called for – up to two names per nomination paper.   Al Swailim : Hoenle : Levin Hansen : Paracuellos : Reyes : Smyth : Verner. Only Mr. Mubarak al Swailim, Mr. Niels-Christian Levin Hansen and Mr. John Smyth accepted the nominations, so we move to an election of 2 to the posts of Vice President.

Mr. Mubarak al Swailim – 31 votes :   Mr. Niels Christian Levin Hansen – 26 votes and Mr. John Smyth 11 votes: Mr. al Swailim and Mr. Levin Hansen are appointed as IPC Vice Presidents.

The next position is that of Financial Secretary and this is a vacant post following the resignation of Richard “Buzz” Bennett. So first we go to nominations and this time the nominee is not required to be a delegate.

Bennett : Bradley : Merz Hunziker : Smyth   Only Mrs. Gail Bradley and Mrs. Doris Merz Hunziker accepted the nominations. Again it was proposed, accepted and voted that both candidates make a short presentation to the meeting.  Following this a secret vote was taken. The result is:

Mrs. Gail Bradley         12                      Mrs. Doris Merz Hunziker      27

There were 2 Abstentions

Mrs. Doris Merz Hunziker is elected Finance Secretary.

We then moved to nominations for the Recording Secretary – the only nominee was Liam McNulty and unanimously appointed.

Following the end of the elections. Graeme thanked John Smyth for his work and welcomed Mabarak al Swailim to the board. He also thanked Gail Bradley for coming to IPC and welcomed Doris Merz Hunziker to the Bureau.

The next item is the presentation of the bids to host the next IPC Plenary meeting, following Graeme’s explanation of the fact that he considered Vienna to be in the vicinity of Lausanne does away with the need to meet there.

The various bids from first: Bulgaria – dates 27th January – 1st February 2015 in Varshets, Bulgaria. The next bid was from Sweden – Bid is in the Agenda – at a Conference Center that is used by the NAC and the Swedish Airsports Federation and it is close to Arlanda Airport. All meals are included in the bid.

There followed the bid from Croatia for the meeting to be held in Zagreb.

The Plenary then took a vote not to go to Lausanne next year and so could proceed to voting between the three bids.  Following a vote the result was in favour of Bulgaria.  They had an absolute majority of 21 votes with Croatia and Sweden having 10 votes each.

Australia then announced the intention to bid for the IPC meeting in 2016, and so does Germany.

The Canopy Formation committee and Finance Working Group was then presented to the Plenary.

That was the final work for this year.  Graeme thanked the Austrian Aero Club for hosting such a successful meeting, particularly as this was the centenary of the Austrian Aero Club.  He made a small presentation on behalf of the FAI to Johann Gritsch and his helpers.

We will meet again next year in Bulgaria.

Full lists of committees and working groups, plus Juries and Chief Judges for 2014 will be published on this web-site.

THE END