International Masters’ Speed Skating Committee

 

 

           

            Mailing Address: International Masters’ Speed Skating Committee (IMSSC)

                c/o Dr. Volker Serini, Sebastian-Kneipp Weg 2, D-47802 Krefeld, GERMANY

                Phone +49 2151 563177, Mobile Phone +49 172 263 6664, Fax +49 2151 563975

                Email: info@imssc.org  Internet: www.imssc.org

 

           

                                                                                              Krefeld, January 20th, 2008

 

Minutes

27th Session of the IMSSC in Krefeld, Germany, 2007

Working Session

 

The 25th Session of the IMSSC was held

in the Club House of the Swimming Club SV Bayer Uerdingen 08,

Am Waldsee 25, 47829 Krefeld-Uerdingen/Germany,

on Saturday, 01 Sep 2007, 09:00 – 14:00 h.

 

Participants:  

            GER    Joachim Krebs (Head Organisation Committee Games Erfurt)

            GER    Dr. Volker Serini         (IMSSC Member)

            ITA     Antonio Nitto               (IMSSC Member)

            LAT    Lasma Kauniste           (IMSSC Member)

            NED    Bram de Vries             (IMSSC Member)

            NOR   Sven-Åge Svensson     (IMSSC Member)

            SUI      Markus Ulmer             (IMSSC Member)

            USA    Andrew Love              (IMSSC Member)

 

Distribution of the Minutes:

            Participants of the Session

            Further Members of the IMSSC

            Ottavio Cinquanta                    ISU President 

            Gerhard Zimmermann              ISU 1st Vice President

            David M. Dore                       ISU 2nd Vice President

            ISU Council                            Members

            ISU TC Speed Skating            Chairman and Members

            Fredi Schmid                           ISU Director General

            Peter Krick                             Chair Sports Directorate

            Hugo Herrnhof                        ISU Sp.Sk. Sports Director

            Rhea Schwarz                         Coordinator ISU Adult Fig. Sk. Gr.

 

 

Item 1: 

Approval of the minutes from Calgary meeting

 

The meeting began with some questioning of the minutes from Calgary. Sven-Åge Svensson began stating that section 5.5 did not accurately reflect what happened. Section 5.5 refered to the discussion of the implementation of the Masters Sprint Games alongside the Allaround Gmaes.

 

This lead the delegates to launch right into the sprint games discussion, there was disagreement about the approval of the minutes of the meeting.  Sven-Åge, Bram, Antonio & Andrew all spoke upon the subject of the masters sprint games, as this was where the disagreement lay.

 

Braum discussed the work of the sprint the committee this summer, there was considerable energy expended, and that there is still an outstanding email proposal. 

 

Andrew talked about the path forward in that we need an end result soon, all seem in agreement that the sprint games are a good idea, but Sven-Åge’s objection was that process was not followed in the email proposal.

 

Discussion on the minutes was then closed. 


Sven-age had questions on the minutes of the IMSSG financial accounting. He had questions about how some of the accounting was itemized. Volker has used his own account to pay for some office items, and has been reimbursed by the IMSSC. 

 

Lasma: There are many questions about the accounting, and this is the 7th year that this same accounting question has come up!

 

Sven: A lot of you don’t understand accounting, the problem is that you have office costs, but in the accounting there are no office costs & the auditor has not divided them out correctly.

 

Bram:  I can easily send a framework to help this confusion, as this is my profession as an accountant.   Bram will send a framework to the Volker’s accountant.

 

Non one doubts the principal of Volkers efforts/honesty, but it’s just in the wording chosen by the accountant who audited the IMSSC accounts. And all items must be accounted for in a regular way.

 

There was also discussion about if the summer session should be able to make decisions just like the winter session. There are advantages & disadvantages to both.

 

Close of discussion.

 

 

Item 2:

Presentation by Mr. Joachim Krebs from Erfurt.

 

Erfurt is ready for 200 competitors, given the normal attrition rate of 10% of non-attendence, that makes a total of 235 entries. The registration list will be updated online every week.   Cost is 15 euro per day for training times before the event.  Training times 8:30-9:45, 14:30-16.  

 

Website for information:

www.erfurt-tourist-info.de

 

The current plans are that the closing dinner could POSSIBLY happen on the infield of the track!!! Tents, catering.. bars, a stage, they host world cups & world championships, so they are experienced with this. After this competition, the ice will be taken away, so the temperature can be made higher for the dinner, heaters will be placed there.

 

Nitto: What is the logistical hotel solution? 

Krebs: There is a race headquarters hotel.

Volker: The hotel is not near the track.

 

Krebs: We use this hotel for all the world cups, championships.  If we have many skaters in this hotel, shuttle bus. If we give skaters accreditations for the events, then they can use the train for free.

 

Sven-Åge: we need something right next to the rink,  as people like to walk to the rink to watch their colleagues race.. is there a hotel right there?

 

Krebs: there are 2, but only have 20 rooms each. There is a bigger hotel near the ice-rink, but it is 100 euro a night.  there will be no special deal, 65 euro including breakfast,   40 euro each…   61 euro for 1, 80 for a room that sleeps 2.

 

Krebs: Merkur, the main hotel has 200 rooms.

 

Lasma pointed out that there are some errors in the entry form, about the distances for the older categories.

 

Volker said that the decision was made about the change of the distances for age groups 65-70   that the votes were taken 10-1 about the distances. The distances were only changed for the men over 70.

 

Bram said that there was a severe drop in participation after age 65 in Masters races, this is partially to do with the longer races.  There was a decision about the men, but not decisions about the women at the voting discussion in Calgary, the proposal means to be re-organized to just for the ladies.

 

Interestingly, the membership could not remember what was decided about the ladies. As the discussion had centered on the men, currently the older ladies have races that are longer than the older men!!!

 

The whole question would be forwarded to the winter meeting.

 

The final comments of the discussion had to do with Russian skaters, there were many examples of Russians entering, but not attending races.  This is not a problem with the Inzell sprint classics, a race many Russians attend, but is an issue in the entry-limited masters speedskating games.

 

The question became who gets those empty slots?  & How can the IMSSC help the Russians participate, as there are many obstacles they face. 

 

Markus: I had some issues with Swiss skaters, but was able to overcome it with a confirmation process. 

 

Final Question was from Joachim Krebs, inquring as to how many people will be attending in total. Skaters + family & friends.

 

Bram: Many Dutch will be attending with husbands, wives, grandchildren, because it’ so close. So the number of attendants will be more.

 

The whole committee thanks Mr. Krebs for his time & attendance.

 

Close of discussion.

 

 

Item 3:

Games 2011 Location

 

Collalbo/Kobestein:   Would like the games, but also has the senior world champs interested in 2011.  2012 would be ideal for Collalbo.  Inzell is always interested.

 

Sven-Åge: The Netherlands have so many skaters, shouldn’t they be interested in hosting worlds again?

 

Bram: there are MANY problems with organizing events in Holland. It can be VERY expensive. But we will try.

 

So there will be applications from Italy, NED,  Berlin, for 2011.

 

Close of discussion.

 

 

Item 4:

Masters Competitions besides the Games

 

Last season there were 1675 skater races, over 500 different Masters skaters raced.

Over half of the participants skated 2 events or mote.

 

Confirmation of the competitions for the upcoming masters races for the 2007-2008 season.

 

Antonio Nitto: Please we invite participants for the Baselga race!!!   The Italian federation is now involved in master’s activity!  So we really need participation, we have proved last year, with 35 racers,  Training in the track is FREE!  We will organize many events as well as the race…a party, a wine testing,   We really need support.

 

The Netherlands have introduced the IMSSC age groups including 70+ age groups.

 

Sven-Åge:  The age group 30-35 is a bit artificial, there are so many professional skaters in this age.  I would like some time in the future that this age group should be thought about as a “masters” group.

 

Antonio Nitto: Can the IMSSC send a formal letter to announce about the status of each member to each federation head?

 

Close of discussion.

 

 

Item 5:

Alterations of the IMSSC Rules at the 26th Session in Calgary/CAN

 

There were questions from Sven-Age about the email rules.

 

Sven-Åge:   Re-reading the rules, what do they mean?   Interpreting the draft rules, it is unclear.

 

Bram:  What I want is the right to vote & use email to make decisions before or after the winter sessions. We should be able to make decisions even during the summer sessions.   The proposal maker must do the work, and that is ok!  

 

Volker: It used to be possible to vote by letter, but it was so much work!   (Volker explained the history of this).

 

Sven-Åge:  I respect for the process, we should not charge ahead.

 

Antonio: These are general operation issues, there are issues that can be discussed in the summer & the winter. It’s important to have time to reflect.

 

Bram:  We need to be able to move on issues without losing a year of time between meetings. We need to be able to do things before the season starts.

 

Markus: I like the ability to communicate via email, & so we can think through proposals & discuss things.

 

Lasma: It’s not so good for skaters who take part in competition & also sit in this committee for the winter session   it’s hard to sit for 5 hours. Can we move the IMSSC meeting 2 days beforehand.

Much discussion

 

Sven-Åge: The IMSSC is something that appeared beside the ISU, we are trying to be recognized by the ISU, these minutes are read by them, we need to do things in a serious manner, in a manner that can be respected by them.   We have to be efficient.

 

Discussion closed.

 

 

Item 6:

Record Applications, Problems

 

Sven-Åge: Calgary promised many things, Calgary promised protocols. There were a LOT of errors, errors on their website, results missing. I asked them to send it via email. FED-Ex tried 10 times to deliver CD to my home,  it did not work!!

 

Finally on the 25th of June, I got the CD that I requested. We have many age groups, and are in many ways more complicated than the senior WR process.   There were 96 records set in Calgary.   We have too many records.

 

Sven worked hard, & the whole group sends their thanks.

 

Volker: Sven-Age is really the true compiler of the records. If there are mistakes in the records, then an athlete will contact us through their IMSSC member.

 

Bram: send us the record list, and we can all look at the record list, and make sure it’s all correct. There were mistakes in the protocols.

 

Discussion closed.

 

 

Item 7:

Miscellaneous Business

Problems with Ice-Oval

 

Volker: We will stop ICEOVAL as an physical publication, and do it as a .pdf printout. With 750 entries, it’s too much work to cross index all the names. 90% of the skaters are on email, and so we will simply email it. Those that don’t will simply have to get them from their friends kids.We still need to send the ICEOVAL to ISU, as a physical magazine.

 

Andrew: It’s important to still send a “Click-here” email, linking directly to the latest issuem letting people know that the magazine is published.

 

Volker: I spoke with ISU officials about world championships & records concerning masters. Many ISU complicated rules have to be changed to accomidate  masters.  I spoke in depth with Mr. Zimmerman. The ISU has a lot of work to do to treat the current professionals right, and the rules need to be separated between figure skaters and speedskaters. We need to lower the level of championships, if we would “lower the level” of the championships, then the ISU council might allow that Wording: ISU world championships vs Masters world championships… if the latter wording is used, the we could have that title. 

 

Short Track Group

 

This is a preliminary thing, Antonio Nitto is trying to organize.

Sven-Åge: why are we concerned with short track? Its separate on the ISU website?

Lasma: but it’s dangerous. Maybe for 30 & 40 ages, but not older.

Andrew: Many North American skaters love it! You should see them go!

 

Discussion closed.

 

INTERNATIONAL MASTERS’ SPEED SKATING COMMITTEE (IMSSC)

 

Andrew Love

 

(IMSSC Member)

 

                                                                                                                             07-session27th-krefeld-minutes.htm

IMSSC Members:

Hubert Kreutz (AUT), Willy Caboor (BEL), Brett F. Arnason (CAN), Petr Novàk (CZE), Indrek Aarna, Ph.D. (EST),

Matti Kilpeläinen(FIN), Dr. Volker Serini (GER), Antonio Nitto (ITA), Jae-Seok Choi (KOR), Lasma Kauniste (LAT),

Bram de Vries (NED), Sven-Åge Svensson (NOR), Miklos Jenei (ROM), Vladimir Tkachenko (RUS), Markus Ulmer (SUI),

Donald Drielsma (SWE), Andrew Love (USA)

IMSSC Honarary  Members:

Roland Hagemann (GER), Dominik Wehling (GER), Aris J. Dijksman (NED), Drs. Harry G. Falke (NED), Peter Reimann (SUI)