IPC Plenary Meeting - Frankfurt 2016 - Day 5

Sunday 24th January Day 2 of the Formal Plenary

Click here for list of Delegations

We commenced the day with the Roll Call of all delegates present conducted by Markus Haggeney.

Gustavo Eduardo Reyes introduced his report on the Technical and Safety Committee 37 countries supplied date – 31 fatalities in total - 3 students, 7 intermediate and 21 expert skydivers. He then went through the complete breakdown of the statistics as to how these occurred.

After giving his report Gustavo then went to the proposal from Patrice Garadin at the open meeting to gather more dynamic information and the committee had discussed this and they came up with a proposal to have a Safety Net to cover all NACs and those countries that were not included in the FAI. The Safety Net will reflect that which is already in place in many countries, not only fatalities. This idea will be tried for the year and report back to the Plenary in 2017.

Ronald Overdijk then presented the report from the Rules and Regulations and he spoke about what was covered in the open meeting. The proposal regarding how an FAI Controller will be appointed. This is clarified as to a recommendation to the Bureau from the discipline committee and the decision is made by the Bureau. He also covered the situation with Diplomas and Buzz had come up with suitable wording which left this decision to the discipline committee. Ronald then covered final wordings of the many items covered during the open meeting.

A vote was taken on the proposal on a change to the CP records – CP Drag Distance be changed from 70 m to 50 m. The vote was unanimous in support.

Kirk Verner, USA, then made his proposal for a new record for FS and CF large formation night records. This was discussed at length – it was then proposed that this be voted on in principle and the wording be referred to the Rules and Regulations Committee for the technical wording. This was voted on and there were no objections therefore it was accepted.

Ronald then moved on to the proposed changes to the Internal Regulations. These had been discussed during the open meeting. Ronald then said he would like to take a vote on the proposals and as these affected the Internal Regulations, a 2/3rds majority was needed. There were a couple of questions which were answered well by Ronald.

There was then very considerable discussion regarding the proposed change to the rules regarding Approved Observer, it was put to the vote and 30 votes cast in approval, so the 2/3rds majority was met.

Ronald then called Exi to comment on Annex 61. Exi then spoke about his proposal of limiting the number of committee members to a maximum of 2 from the same NAC. After comments on this from John Smyth and Alberto , Exi agreed to withdraw his proposal.

Exi then spoke about Annexes 62, 63, 64, 65 and 66 have been covered and presented by the Rules and Regulations Committee.

As that concluded the first part of Ronald's agenda items, after thanks by Graeme for the shortness of the presentation, he suggested he completed his committee's presentation and the Judges could present after the coffee break.

He then moved to the Application Documents and satisfactorily answered questions, so it went to the vote – no objections - so it was accepted.

He presented changes to the Jury Handbook but in response to a question from Gernot he agreed that handbooks are for reference and guideline and there is no need to vote on them as they are not "rules".

He then ended the Rules and Regulations Committee presentation and was congratulated by Graeme as it was so short.

Dr. Rainer Exi Hoenle then presented the list of selected Juries for the competitions in 2016.

The list was accepted by all with a request that the information be circulated.

Doris Metz-Hunziker then presented the Budget for 2017 and explained the bottom line and it was voted on to be accepted unanimously.

The meeting then broke for a half hour Tea Break.

11.00 am: The delegates regather in the meeting room to continue with the next Agenda Item - the Judges Committee's presentation.

Pia Berggren said she was not going to repeat what was covered in the open meeting, she just commented on the budget approval which means the Judges can move forward with the new training tool. She then quickly went through the rules that had already been discussed at the open meeting but there was a lot of discussion from the floor on the changes for the new discipline to allow judges from those new disciplines to quality to FAI standard. The objection from the floor was withdrawn after Pia's explanation.

The proposed changes were put to the vote and accepted.

The Published Judges' List was voted for and accepted.

New Competitions agreed at this Plenary, it will be possible to nominate judges for these competitions up to March 1st and this will be published on the FAI/IPC Website.

Chief Judges for 2016 and 2017:

The Modial   Canopy Piloting – Bjorn Korth
Artistic Events -  Thi Bich Van Ha
Formation Skydiving -  Karla Cole
Canopy Formations -  Bernard Nicolas
Speed -  Arnold Hohenegger
Style and Accuracy Landing - Gunter Berendt

Austria   Para-Ski - Darko Svetinaw

Z'Hills, Florida - Wingsuiting Kate Chartes

Poland Indoor Skydiving - Artistic Events – Aliya Ananina
                                              Formarion Skydiving – Jurata Janusauskiene

Voted and accepted

Pia announced her retirement from the committee and introduced the new Chair, Bernard Nicolas and the new committee member, Aliya Ananina.  Graeme thanked her again for all her work over the years.

Back to Ronald Overdijk who then spoke about the awards and asked the Delegate of Finland to present the trophy in memory of Raja Kosonen Award in Freestyle

The vote was unanimous.

Helmut Bastuck stated the late bid to host the competition in Saarlouis this year, that there would be no increase in the entry fees due to the rule changes that had been accepted at this Plenary. This was welcomed by the President and so he proceeded to a vote to accept the bid which required a 2/3rds majority. It was accepted unanimously.

We then moved on to the award of the FAI GOLD PARACHUTING MEDAL nomination to TOMAS BERRIOLO (Argentina) and this was voted and was accepted.

The nomination for the Di Vinci Medal was withdrawn and would be re-presented next year.

Any Other Business

Before we moved to the elections, the Hungarian Delegate raised the Internal Regulations relating to the conduct of an IPC Plenary. The organiser must attempt to have an Internet Connection and he called for the 500 Euros to be deducted from the organiser of this Plenary.

Graeme asked this to be referred to the Bureau.

The Chair of the CP committee asked for the Plenary to consider new wording to the weight procedure. He said the committee had come up with new wording to better explain the procedure. So this was put to the vote and it was unanimously accepted.

Agenda Item 27 – confirmation of the committees and working groups.

The Recording Secretary, Liam McNulty,  then presented the proposed list from the various committee chairs for their committees. There was a question from the Russian Delegate regarding the removal of Julia Sotnikova from the CF committee. This was answered by the Chair of the committee and was a committee decision. Graeme put them forward as a block to be voted on. No objections, the committees and working groups as presented was accepted.

IPETA Directors, Graeme proposed this be moved to after the elections so that we are know who the Bureau officers are.

Graeme then proposed that we leave the position of WAG Liaison Office open for the moment.

World Games Liaison Office, Elisabet Mickeallson was re-elected

Media Liaison Officer, Susan Dixon was re-elected to that post.

Randy Connell was elected to the new position of FAI/IPC Records Officer.

We then came to the elections of the new Bureau. Markus Haggeney reconfirmed the number of votes in the room – 34 + 6 proxies. This gives a total of 40 with a majority of 21

For the position of IPC President the following names were nominated:

Gernot Rittenschober - refused
Ronald Overdijk - refused
Dr. Rainer Exi Hoenle – accepted - number of votes received: 22
Graeme Windsor – accepted - number of votes received: 18
John Smyth - refused

Delegates who accept the nominations are then allowed to make a short presentation to the Plenary.

Both 'Exi' and Graeme made their presentations and it was then up to the delegates to place their votes and the papers were handed out again.

Dr. Rainer Exi Hoenle thanked the Plenary for their support and he also thanked Graeme for his work over the years and suggested that he be made an Honorary President of IPC.  After a standing ovation and applause in recognition of his wonderful contribution over the pawt 9 years he accepted the post of Honary President.

Markus Haggeney asked Dr. Rainer Exi Hoenle if he wished him to continue with the election of the Bureau officers and was asked to continue. We then moved to nominations for the post of 1st Vice President.

Ronald Overdijk - refused
Alberto Martin Paracuellos - refused
John Smyth - refused
Patrice Girardin - accepted
Rina Gallo - refused
Sarka Blaskova - refused
Kirk Verner - refused
Liam McNulty - refused

The delegates declined a vote and so Patrice Girardin was declared the 1st Vice President.

Markus then called for the nominations for the two Vice Presidents – two names on the same paper.

Alberto Martin Paracuellos - accepted
Ronald Overdijk - accepted
Ani Stamenova - refused
Trude Sviggum - refused
Kirk Verner - refused
Sarka Blaskova - refused
Gustavo Reyes - refused
Liam McNulty- refused
John Smyth – refused
Mike Teague - refused
Ron Miasnikov - refused
Rina Gallo – refused

So Alberto Martin Paracuellos and Ronald Overdijk became the Vice Presidents.

The Nominations then moved to the IPC Finance Secretary:

Doris Merz Hunziker - refused
Dr. Istvan Sipos - refused
Jiri Blaskov - refused
Sarka Balskova - refused
Kirk Verner - refused
Gustavo Reyes - refused
John Smyth - refused
Ray Williams – refused
Gunter Berendt - refused
Gail Bradley - refused

As there was no candidate for the position it will be the first task of the Bureau at their inaugural meeting.

We then moved to the IPC Recording Secretary:

Liam McNulty - refused
Faye Cox - refused
Susan Dixon - accepted
Randy Connell - refused
Ron Miasnikov - refused
Mike Teague - refused
Isvan Sipos - refused
Alberto Paracuellos - refused
John Smyth - refused
Susanne Schodel - refused
Sarka Blaskova – refused.

Susan Dixon was appointed to the position of IPC Recording Secretary.

That was the end of the voting procedure.

Susanne Schodel welcomed Dr Rainer Exi Hoenle to his position and also thanked Graeme for his work over the years with the office and particularly since her appointment.

Liam and Doris both received a standing ovation of thanks from the floor.

We then moved to the election of directors of IPETA. Exi proposed that both Gail and Marylou continue in their roles and Ronald, Isvan and Graeme continue in their positions as there is no point in making a change now that things are beginning to come together for IPETA.

The next item on the agenda was the selection of a venue for  the IPC Plenary 2017 – the process starts with a vote, which requires a 2/3 majority, NOT to go to Lausanne. This was conducted and received unanimous approval to go elsewhere.   We then moved to the actual bids which had been tabled for consideration from Australia and Portugal.

The Australian delegate, Gail Bradley presented the bid by the Australian Team.

After the excellent presentation there were no questions so we went to a good, but less specular presentation from Portugal.

We then moved to a secret ballot.

The votes cast were Australia 14 and Portugal 24, so Portugal will host the next IPC Meeting 25-29 January 2017.

Graeme then thanked everyone for their work and attendance and to the Hosts, the German Parachute Association for a wonderful job done under very trying circumstances. Susanne Schrodel made a presentation to Helmut Bastuck and extended their thanks from the FAI for being such an excellent host.

 The new IPC Bureau

Patrice Girardin (France) 1st Vice President - Ronald Overdijk (Netherlands) Vice President, Susan Dixon, Recording Secretary, Dr. Rainer "Exi" Hoenle (Germany) President and Alberto Martin Paracuellos (Spain) Vice President