Much of the meeting was devoted to the formal business of the Federation, namely approving the accounts and formalising the budgets for the coming year. The list of Directors of the Company (International Water Ski Federation Limited) was also updated to take into account changes of personnel in the Asian / Australasian and Pan Am Confederations and new Council Chairs. Peter Person from Canada, the new President of Pan Am was able to be present, however, Paul Fong, the new President of AA was not able to attend at such short notice, having been voted in at the AA Congress only one week before. Varna Laco and Richard Gray were especially welcomed to their first meeting as the Chairs of the Cable Wakeboard and Barefoot Councils respectively.
The meeting also ratified decisions concerning the venues of future World Championships ?
The 2009 World Wakeboard Championships in Chuncheon City, Korea from 1-7 September; The 2009 Under 21 World Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico during the second half of October/first half of November.
Other decisions include:-
Agreement to form an IWSF Show Ski Committee under the chairmanship of Sherm Schraft from the USA.
The IWSF will produce a brochure promoting the benefits and attractions of Cable water ski and wakeboard, based on the successful model from EAME.
Formation of the IWSF Therapuetic Use Exemption Committee under the Chairmanship of Nenad Dikic from Serbia. This is a very necessary part of the IWSF commitment to promoting a clean sport free from doping. The EB also agreed to amend its 4 year plan to include more Anti-Doping activities and information for athletes.
On the Olympic front the EB agreed to stage a demonstration event during the 2009 IOC meetings in Copenhagen. This would provide an excellent opportunity to remind the IOC members what our sport is about and to discuss with them our ongoing fight to get water skiing and/or wakeboarding as an Olympic Sport. A four year action plan would be prepared to set out our path of actions towards this goal. Meanwhile the World Cup series would continue to bring media and public recognition to our sport worldwide. Strenuous efforts were also being made to gain regular inclusion in the Pan Am Games, the Mediterranean Games and the Asian Games. Water skiing is already part of the World Games with our tournament, barefoot and wakeboard divisions. The 2009 Games will be held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and a trial event is being held there in November to ensure the site is suitable and that the organisers know our requirements. All these multi-sport Games remain highly important for IWSF to be part of ? and can be a vital part of our aim of Olympic inclusion.
During 2008 the following new Federations were welcomed into membership ? Monaco, Bermuda, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The full Minutes of the meeting will be distributed to all Federations in the near future.