Saturday, 1st February 2014      -      1st day of the plenary meeting

9am start this morning

First day of the Plenary - 1st February 2014

This is the formal business of the week, today all the delegates are here and sit in the assembly room behind the flag and their Country’s name.
The Meeting was opened by Graeme Windsor, President of IPC, who called for a minute’s silence for those members who are no longer with us and then after welcoming everyone to the meeting, he handed the mike to the organiser, Johann Gritsch, who welcomed the 43 countries represented at this plenary. 
He then introduced the representative of the City of Vienna, Mag. Thomas Reindl who welcomed all to Austria and thanked Johann Gritsch for his organisation and for bringing people to Vienna. This area is famous for the production of bricks (one of the largest in the world) and all the bricks needed to build Vienna and told us a little of the history of Vienna. Johann then introduced the Vice President of the Austrian Aero Club, Kommersialrot Josef Kuchling, as the president was currently in China, who then, on behalf of the President, wished all delegates a good meeting and hoped to welcome everyone back to Vienna another time.

Graeme then handed the mike to Rob Hughes from the FAI who then took the roll call, asking each delegate to give their name after he had called the country name. There was then a long discussion about FAI Representatives from various countries who having failed to prior register their delegate and do not have voting rights today.   Even though Rob Hughes explained that the rule governing this is in the process of being changed at this meeting, it is not possible to allow voting rights to the 5 delegates in question.   Two apologies received – delegate from India, Sanjay Thapar and Charles R. Maccrone, President of Honour.

Graeme announced that papers from the open meetings are available from the organisation on a USB stick. The Minutes of the previous were then discussed, a minor change approved and the last meeting were accepted.

There then followed a report from the FAI General Conference by the FAI representative Rob Hughes. The FAI annual report will soon be available on the web site and covers all air sports commissions and is well worth reading. Rob also reported on the improvements to the databases at the FAI. Therapeutic Use Exemption – register with FAI anti-doping if you are receiving prescription drugs before competing.    Rob Hughes then complimented IPC on being the air sports leader in the professional presentation of their sport following his presence at the World Games. Exi then complimented Rob’s work in Cali with regard to the TV.  

Niels-Christian Levin Hansen, from Denmark, responded to Rob Hughes and asked Rob Hughes to go back to the FAI executive board and ask for support for the desire of IPC to move their sport forward rather than blocking everything the air sports commissions try to do to promote their sport. Rob responded by reinforcing the one opportunity IPC has to change things is to vote at the General Conference for the “right” people on the Executive Board.

Graeme Windsor, President, referred people to his report of the General Conference which he would not read here. He then spoke of the milestone 2012 was for the FAI and IPC with the Mondial in Dubai – the largest air-sport event ever. He then spoke of some of the new events being developed around the world but that do not fit neatly into our traditional categories and how we deal with these to grow airsports.  Graeme then spoke about some of the problems he had experienced with the FAI, executive board and executive officers and echoed Rob Hughes in asking delegates to approach their NAC’s representatives to vote at the next General Conference for a new Executive Board.

Rob Hughes - FAI Representative

Coffee break

After the coffee break Graeme Windsor, as President, referred to his report which is Annex 3 – he mentioned the anit-doping situation and IPC and how there is a move by the FAI to try to get rid of this idea of registered testing.

Rob Hughes says the FAI is trying to reduce the impact of WADA but it is difficult.   Parachuting is under threat due to the increasing use of airspace both for unmanned craft and increasing airline use and this is something that constantly needs to under review everywhere. Graeme thanked all the people who work so hard as volunteers in our sport.

Bosnia & Herzegovina update, there will still be a World Championships in Banja Luka this year with a new organiser and Graeme asked that the plenary authorise the Bureau to make the necessary decisions to ensure this conforms to our requirements.

All the decisions made during the year by the bureau be ratified. This was proposed by John Smyth and seconded by Gillian Rayner.  A question for a clarification of the decision to agree to send “Bushman” Anderson to attend the City of Events exhibition and FAI asking for a repayment of this expense. Graeme said that this had been paid for by FAI who now owned IPETA but this is something that will be dealt with as part of the cost of establishing the company which had initially been born by IPC.  Carried with one vote against.

Ronald Overdijk then presented his report from the World Games. He announced that he is stepping down from the role he has held for 4 years as it took 4 times more of his time that he expected. He wished his successor well, who has made himself known and will be part of the voting tomorrow.  It is very important to present our sport in an exciting and dynamic way and Canopy Piloting at Cali gave us that.  It is also very important to have a good commentator and we had that with Regan Tetlow.  He emphasised the importance of good scoring systems and fast results and easily understood by all.

Questions from "Exi" Hoenle

There were contributions from the floor asking that we must not sell our sport for the sake of being accepted by media. That we must ensure that we present our sport in the most dynamic way possible but still keep the essential core as our sport.  

Graeme thanked Ronald for his report and also for all the work he has done.

The next World Games will be in 2017 in Poland and Graeme proposed Patrice Girardin as the new liaison officer to be voted on tomorrow.

Gillian Rayner then gave a report on the no information on the World Air Games.

Susan Dixon then gave a short update to her report on the Web Site and spoke about the plans currently under way to actually create a new site for IPC usable on all modern devices and with the support of Ron Miasnikov (Israel) and Elisabet Mikaelsson (Sweden) to design and build this site within 4 months. Graeme thanked Susan for her work, for the help she was being given by Ron, Elisabet and Fay Kimble when attending the First Category Events.

We then moved to the Election of the IPC directors of IPETA.   To appoint 2 from the Bureau and 3 from the Plenary – John Smyth and Graeme Windsor from the bureau and from the floor – Sipos Isvan (Hungary) Jacqui Coetzee (South Africa – formerly Bruwer) – Marylou Laughlin (USA) – Henny Wiggers (Netherlands). There then followed discussion as to whether nominations could be accepted from people who were not present, but it was known that they were willing to stand. We then proceeded to a formal vote of 5 from the 6 nominated. Whilst the count was under way Graeme called Gernot Rittenschober forward to make the CISM report.

Gernot Rittenschober said that the only point he wished to make in addition to his report was part of the agenda. He spoke about the Memorandum of Understanding that had been signed in October between CISM and FAI, and now he invited Graeme to sign a similar Memorandum of Understanding between himself as CISM representative and IPC so that the work could continue at de-conflicting the parachuting sporting calendar and bringing Judging and the Competition Rules into a common agreement -  to give all athletes the greatest opportunity to compete at both military and civilian level.  He also invited all delegations to speak to their military and to participate in the CISM World competition (17-28 September 2014) in Indonesia.

Rob Hughes was then in a position to give the results of the election:

John Smyth 29 : Graeme Windsor 33 : Isvan Sipos 32 : Jacqui Coetzee 18 : Marylou Laughlin 29 : Henny Wiggers 36. So the directors of IPETA are the two from FAI plus those nominated excluding Jacqui Coetzee.

Before the lunch break Niels-Christian Levin Hansen presented the final report from the Technical and Safety Working Group following the discussion from the Open Meeting. The first step that will be made to actively go out to the equipment manufacturers to increase the information flow. They would start with PIA.   Second leg to facilitate the dissemination of information on safety was to invite key-note speakers to future IPC meetings. Not only statistics, but how different countries structure their safety and training programmes. To increase the sharing of information between countries.

He reiterated his request that delegates or the people in their countries responsible for safety, share information with the committee for everyone.

Spain has a proposal to alter Sporting Code 5 1.2 and 1.3 – to ensure that all competitors in a FCE have to have a ram air reserve. The committee supports the motion. As there was no-one against the proposal it received unanimous support.

A total of 37 countries had provided data for the 2012 report which was circulated in CD format to all delegations.

After lunch the meeting started promptly

Richard “Buzz” Bennett, then presented the balance sheet – with no changes from that shown at the open meeting and has no way to let the plenary know when he would have a finalised account as he is still reliant on the FAI to give him figures. Doris Merz, Switzerland, raised the question as to why Buzz has no access to bank account statements. Buzz explained that this is at the insistence of the FAI of complete control from the top to the bottom. However things are beginning to move.

Buzz further confirmed that from now on all costs connected with obtaining a visa up to a maximum of 150 Euros will be included in the Reimbursement Policy Document. When put to the vote this received unanimous support.

Buzz then asked for committee chairs to give him their expenditure lists so that he can prepare a budget to be shown for the coming year, which will be shown tomorrow.

The Wingsuit Working Group work was then presented by Ronald Overdijk.  Would like to expand the definitiions to invistage further record categories to

New records – 2 performance records (1) Absolute longest feefall time to the opening of the parachute or 1000 m above the ground. (2) No grip largest formation. Have been working on how to judge this and they now have a working proposal using a grid.   To judge this using AE or FS judges who have attended a Wingsuit judging course. Use of a drogue would not be allowed under (1).

Competitions – will investigate the various competitions around the world and gather information to come up with a proposal for 2015.

Composition of the working group – Ronald would like to stand down as chair, and he presented his new panel.

Unanimous approval from the floor to include these new definitions and records in the sporting code.

We then moved on to Niels-Christian Levin Hansen and his presentation regarding Ranking Lists. He thanked those delegates who had responded to his request for a response to the Ranking Lists. He would propose to work with Para-Ski committee to produce listings. He also proposed to include 2nd category events and he would work with committee chairs on how to do this. Further he would also look to introduce individual based ranking lists for the future – probably utilising para-ski as a test event.

Gillian Rayner then spoke about Indoor Skydiving.  Any proposed Competition Rules and changes to the Sporting Code would be presented at the time they made those presentations for approval. The bid from iFly Austin to host a world cup in 2014 would be presented to the Plenary after all the rules and regulations have been accepted. Graeme thanked Gillian for all her work and the fact that we can bring young juniors into our sport.

We then moved to the presentation of Speed Skydiving as a new discipline – over 10 years this sport has developed and in the past two years they have worked hard to move closer to the NAC’s and IPC – during 2014 there will be 13 competitions and for the next event they already have 50 competitors registered. They wish, for the sake of the competitors that they can display their sport on an IPC level. The Austrian delegate proposed acceptance of this new discipline into the IPC family.

This was then put to the vote by the plenary. There was one abstention and none against acceptance from the floor. The rules were then accepted unanimously.

The group would like to propose Elisabet Mikaelsson as chair of the new committee.

The next item on the agenda is the Bid from the USA for a Mondial 2016 at Skydive Chicago. There have been a few changes made from the original bid presented on the agenda. Skydive Chicago have revised some of the figures and have been able to lower the registration by $78 per event. They have included all re-jumps and practice jumps – taken on board the fuel price risk themselves and also free transport from the airport to dropzone. They would schedule events to reduce the total time of attendance. Finally they would solicit grants and corporate sponsorship with the goal of subsidising all junior competitor entry fees.

Graeme thanked Skydive Chicago for taking the comments from the open meeting on board and rethinking the original bid to reduce costs for competitors.

A few questions from the floor and a secret ballot was called for. ‘Yes’ if you want a Mondial in Chicago – ‘No’ if you do not, and if you wish to abstain you may.   Rob Hughes announced of the 41 votes cast – 32 Yes and 9 No.

Gunter Berendt prepared to present his Committee’s report to the Plenary.  He spoke about his presentation about 2013 and reported on the poor attendance at the World Cup and European Championships during 2013. However he was looking forward to the World Championships for 2014 in Banja Luka and he hoped that many nations would attend.

The proposed changes in the rules were approved unanimously.

The committee then presented the bids for the coming competitions. There is a bid for Bulgaria for the European Championships and as it was late in arriving, having handed over the deposit to Buzz and 100 support for accepting the bid for consideration, and then total support for the competition to be held in Bulgaria in 2015. Gunter also confirmed the 2016 Mondial which had been accepted previously.

No other future bids were put forward.

Mark Szulmayer then reported for the Formation Skydiving Committee. At the open meeting the committee wanted to work on bringing the FS and VFS competition rules into one document and the work on this would continue during the year for presentation 2015. However the rules for Indoor skydiving have been produced as a single document. Gillian Rayner pointed out that there was no Junior category and asked that the committee rethink and include this in the rules. Mark apologised and said yes they would.

The few minor rule changes were then presented for approval.  Unanimous approval from the floor.

The committee also supported the venue change for the 2013 World Championships as outlined in the open meeting and this was approved unanimously by the plenary.

Lindy Rochow-Williams then presented the work of the Canopy Formation committee.   She commenced with paying tribute to Barry McAuley and all the work he had done for the committee and the discipline. She congratulated the USA team for the achievement of their World Record at the 4thDPIC. She also thanked InTime and OmniSkore for their work in providing judging systems for this discipline.

Although Canopy Formations does not hold World Cups in off years, but paid tribute to UAE for including CF in their 5thDPIC.

Lindy then moved on to the presentation of the proposed rules changes. As there were no comments on the proposals they were put to the floor for a vote – resulting in a unanimous agreement to accept them.

Future championships – 16th World Parachuting Championships will take place this year in Bosnia & Herzegovina and the Mondial in 2016.

After thanking Lindy for her presentation Graeme then called on Ronald Overdijk again to present the work of the Artistic Events Committee.

Very little work for this year, thanked the organisers of the World Cup and European Championships in 2013 and also to UAE for including Artistic Events in the 4thDPIC.

He then moved on to the few proposed changes in the competition rules. As Annex 38 is an agenda item he asked the USA if they were willing to withdraw their proposal – which was not supported by the committee or go ahead and ask if the plenary agrees to accept the proposals. Unanimously done so.

The committee accepts the venue change for 2014, and at the moment there is no bid on the table for 2015. For 2016 we will all be in Chicago.

Michael Eggar then presented Para-Ski committee’s work to the Plenary.   Three items; work of the committee, future competitions and rule changes. He thanked all the work of his committee and as Buzz Bennett is stepping down a special thank you for all his work over the years.

The number of competitors for Tanya, Russia has now increased to 91. The weather this year is very bad for the World Cup Series 2014. The committee is working on getting the World Cup Series as a Second Category Event. For 2015 there is a bid from Germany and the committee supports this bid.

The vote when unanimously in support of the German bid.

There were no questions about the rule changes. The Plenary voted to accept the unanimously. Michael Eggar then called for bids for 2016 and 2017.

Next up is Dr. Rainer “Exi” Hoenle reporting on the work of his committee for Canopy Piloting.

Cali worked well as a competition and this was run with 6 judges + 2 technical judges. Also a good competition, well run, in Kolomna. Reports on both competitions are contained in the agenda.

The rule changes are the tidying up of the “mess” of the rules written in a hurry last year, and these have now been done, and other changes to the visor, acceptance of a score in accuracy if the wind is over limits as already applies in speed and distance. The committee does not accept the Czech Republic’s proposal re compulsory use of video cameras – they feel it is too early. A slight change to the “naming” of the accuracy zones.  

Two bids on the table for 2014 from Z’Hills USA and Kolomna, Russia. Both bids are acceptable by the committee and the suggestion is that the Plenary votes either for USA or Russia.

Proposed by Graeme to adopt the changes in the competition rules. One vote against acceptance, but the balance in support so they are carried.

We then moved to a secret ballot on which venue will host the World Championships in Canopy Piloting 2014.

USA received 30 votes and Russia 11 – so the World Championships 2014 will be in the USA.

For 2015 there is a bid from Canada, but as this arrived late a 2/3rds majority to consider the bid was put to the vote with 100% acceptance. One vote against and one abstention so the bid has been accepted.

Graeme then called for the delegate from the UAE to make a short announcement. Helmut Schlect drew attention of the plenary to his position as an observer due to the late submission by his NAC the UAE in submitting his role as delegate. He however wished to announce the 5thDIPC and the time frame for this championships has been reduced to 12 days which includes 2 arrival days leaving a total of 7 days competition.

Pia Berggren then prepared her presentation from the Judges Committee.

The work on bringing together Chapter 4 and Chapter 6 of the SC – in addition to ensure that all training courses wherever they be held be of the same standard and using the same training material and so proposed the post of Chief Judge of Training Courses and Karla Cole is appointed to this position. Also although Tamara Koyn is not present she has a report in the agenda on her role as Judges Video Librarian.

Pia then went through the various proposed rule changes.  These were accepted with 100% support from the plenary.

Pia then called for approval of the Judges List which has been displayed throughout the meeting, any changes drawn to the attention of the committee had been made, and it was accepted unanimously by the plenary.

Pia then presented the nominated judges for the forthcoming competitions and these were accepted unanimously by the plenary.

After a coffee break 

Buzz Bennett – Rules and Regulations Committee.

Just a few points from the open meeting. Jiri Balska, Czech Republic, had proposed the name “bodyflight” as opposed to “indoor skydiving” – the committee discussed this and preferred Indoor Skydiving and Jiri withdrew his proposal.

We then moved to the age for junior in Indoor Skydiving competitions from 13 as proposed by the committee: Exi had suggested 14.  Buzz asked if Exi wished to speak and it was opened up to the floor. Buzz called for a vote on Yes or No to one or the other. 3 in favour of 13 balance voted in favour of 14.

Ranking lists will now be displayed at FCE’s along with World Records.

Proposal relating to Protest submission from Alberto Martin Paracuellos - although the committee did not accept the suggested wording, however they did propose an amendment of altering the two hours to three.  Alberto did not accept the change and asked that his proposal be voted on. The vote was taken as a secret vote and “Yes” would be for Alberto’s proposal, whereas “No” is for the committee’s counter proposal.  Votes cast – 21 YES, 16 NO with 4 blank papers.

The proposal was therefore carried as proposed by Alberto Martin Paracuellos.

Buzz then called for a vote to accept the proposed changes to Section 5 from the Rules and Regulations Working Group and these were accepted unanimously.

The Controller Handbook – refers only to the requirement to check the Sporting Licence Information and therefore can refer either to paper or database. Alberto Martin Paracuellos to make the use of a database as mandatory – change the wording to:  Check the Sporting Licence Information on the FAI Database. This was accepted by the delegate from Spain and was voted on with all in favour.

Gillian Rayner then thanked everyone for approving all the rules and regulations for Indoor Skydiving and although the bid comes from an organiser and not a NAC,  the delegate from USA did state to the meeting that they had no objections to the bid.  iFly were then called on to explain the changes to the bid and with the rules more defined and it was possible with help that was provided to reduce the entry fees.

The bid was put to the floor and with one abstention it was accepted. So the First World Cup in Indoor Skydiving will take place at iFly Austin USA in November 2014.

Graeme then called on Dr. Mabarak al Swailim to comment on his report from ASIANIA.  He reported on the work to expand the recognition of the role of Asiania as a parachuting body in Asian and Arab countries and had achieved recognition by the Olympic Council of Asia.  His aim is to get parachuting accepted into the Asian Olympic Games in 2018. Graeme congratulated Dr. Mabarak al Swailim on the work ASIANIA has done which in his opinion sets an example for the FAI to follow.

With seven minutes left Graeme called on Gustavo Euardo Reyes to talk about his report on the work of COLPAR.  Four years on from the formation of COLPAR, the Latin-American Confederation of parachuting associations, they are working to further develop parachuting in the region.  It is a large area with the large countries taking the initiative to organise competitions for the smaller countries in the region.  Starting with 5 countries they are now 12. They have organised many Latin-American championships. They also work hard to promote safety, rules and improving the parachuting security conditions within their countries. They are currently working on a new Latin-American continental large formation record during 2014 or 2015. They also have a plan to try to run more Judges' training courses to quality Latin-American judges. All COLPAR competitions are open to anyone from the world to compete in.

Before the meeting closed Pia asked to speak to the delegates to state the deadline for the nomination of judges for the two competitions that have been approved at today’s plenary:

Canopy Piloting and the Indoor Skydiving competition submissions of nominated judges must be received by the 1st March and the lists will be published on the IPC Website within 7 days.

 Counting Voting Slips

That ended the business of the first day of the Plenary.  9.00 a.m. start in the morning for the final day, and the elections of officers.