The first point of the agenda was 1) the follow-up of the items agreed in January, followed by 2) the 2021 provisional budget which was the main subject this month and for closing, the Assembly discussed 3) the opening for the Technical Officer position and the eventuality to update the role of this position before the application request.   

1) The follow-up of the previous meeting

- the items requested by the Assembly for vote (the creation of the “Staff” category with the General Admin opening, the new regulation for the National of the athletes and the opening of a tender for a communication agency), have been sent and the vote results are ready: https://vote.aidainternational.org/VotingSessionResults-23

- the feedback for the Nationals/athletes deadline to commit to the 2021 WChs has been requested and the Sport Officer gave a brief presentation of the responses that have already been received (most common: pools are closed and it’s impossible to train). The cut-off date for the decision about having a WCh this year is set for the middle of March.

- The updated articles 4.1.3.2 and 3.2.6.1 (National records & National membership) with the form chosen by the Assembly will take effect on 01.01.2022 to give time to Nationals to adjust their internal procedures and to inform athletes about the changes in the rules.

- It was requested by AIDA Germany to open the discussion about the exclusion or suspension of an AIDA National member for disciplinary reasons. Alexandru Russu warned about the implications of the National exclusion: considering the upcoming obligation to register to the National of citizenship, an exclusion from this national equal the international exclusion from the sport. In the Olympic system, it’s only the (central) Olympic tribunal that handles these litigations for the athletes of all member nations. In exchange of receiving the monopoly of the athletes of a country, the Nationals shall respect a series of external rules concerning the exclusion of the athletes from the sport. The Assembly is requested to think about what these rules should be, so they can be applied uniformly to all AIDA athletes worldwide.     

2) The AIDA 2021 Provisional budget

Following the budget document sent to the Assembly for discussions, the Board opened a Q&A session and directly answered all members’ questions.

3) The Technical Officer opening 

The Board informed the Assembly about the opening of the Technical Officer position and proposed updating the role to the coordination of AIDA rules and regulations across the organization (for alignment and consistency of the AIDA system) before the application request.  

Additional subjects discussed at the video conference. 

-  The Board reminded Nationals about the strategic goal of providing “easy worldwide access to safe and fair competitions”, their role in this plan and the budget allocated for its implementation.  Active Nationals can apply for partial subvention of their National Pool and Depth Championships (500 EUR for National Pool and 500 EUR for National Depth Championship for every National). AIDA Russia proposed to increase the amount of the support in case the WC-2021 is canceled due to global situation and travel restrictions.

-  AIDA Australia pointed out difficulties to promote the Australian judges to level A and B, as it requires experience at a big number of World Championships and this number is difficult to meet. The Board will look into alternative ways allowing to reach a similar training level with a smaller number of WChs.

-  The next Assembly video-conference was scheduled for Saturday, the 20th of March 2021, at 1 pm UTC.