Date: 10 May 2015, 14:00-16:30 CET

Meeting: Conference Call (Skype)

Attending:

Kimmo Lahtinen (4/4)

Jean-Pol Francois (3/4)

Carla Sue Hanson (4/4)

Antero Joki (3/4)

Robert King (4/4)

Vedran Milat (3/4)

Petar Bojovic (2/4)

Absent: Ute Gessmann (2/4)

Per Westin (0/4)

 

Financial Matters. The Board reviewed AIDA’s financial status, as presented by Kimmo and Vedran.

 

The Board discussed new banking regulations going into effect in Finland later this month (AIDA’s bank account is with Osuuspankki bank in Finland). The new regulations require individual level strong authentication (available only for Finnish citizens, and for companies and organizations that are registered in Finland). In order to allow AIDA to pay expenses in a timely manner, the Board voted to authorize Pluscom to pay AIDA’s expenses from the Osuuspankki account (which is permissible under the new regulations), on instruction from AIDA (President or Treasurer), and to pay applicable fees for bill pay (which we expect to be minimal).

 

Treasurer Vedran Milat is currently looking at other banking options (e.g. regional banks in Switzerland) to determine if moving AIDA’s account there may be advantageous. No change, however, would be made before end of year.

 

Recovery of Nagel Debt. Robert reported on recovery of funds from former AIDA board member Sebastian Nagel (who was convicted in Switzerland of stealing funds from AIDA, and is under court order to repay those funds. Robert reported that AIDA received approximately €1,600 from Switzerland in December, and another €2,700 in April. This is somewhat above the rate that Swiss authorities estimated AIDA would be repaid (approximately CHF 5,000 per year), which is positive for AIDA. The Board voted to approve payment of legal fees in Switzerland for the period from March 2014 through April 2015, in the amount of CHF 1,324.55 (approximately €1,275).

 

Robert noted the extraordinary amount of time and effort required to stop the embezzlement by Mr. Nagel, and to get the court order for repayment. This resulted both from the criminal action of former Treasurer Nagel, and the grossly negligent (or worse) failure to supervise him by the former AIDA President and Vice President. The Board noted the importance of having outside accountants prepare AIDA’s financial statements, to ensure that this cannot happen again.

 

European Underwater Federation Meeting. The next meeting of the European Underwater Federation is in June, in Bristol, UK. As Kimmo will judge two Aida competitions outside of Europe during June, Antero was asked Antero to attend this meeting for AIDA, and the Board voted to approve his actual travel expenses (hotel and transportation), not to exceed €750.

 

Proposal for 2016 AIDA Pool World Championship. The Board reviewed a proposal for the 2016 AIDA Pool World Championship from the Finnish Divers’ Federation. The Board noted that the proposal appears very strong—with excellent facilities and amenities—and voted to send the proposal to the Assembly for review and vote. The Board noted that the proposals for the 2016 AIDA Team World Championship are due not later than 30 September. Please ask interested organizers contact AIDA International for further information (board@aidainternational.org).

 

2015 AIDA Individual World Championships. The Board voted to elect Radoslaw Gaca as Jury President for the 2015 AIDA Pool World Championships, and Ekaterina Romanova as Vice President. Judge Responsible Petar Bojovic (Jury President in Belgrade 2013 and Cagliari 2014) will be Board liaison to the Belgrade jury, available to consult on all matters, and to ensure that any issues are resolved appropriately; Petar will also review existing and new pool rules with the jury (and athletes) before the competition. Judge Instructor JP François will be teaching an AIDA Judge Course, and oversee measurement of the pool(s).

 

The Board reviewed assistant judge candidates for Belgrade and Cyprus, and approved assistant judges for both events. Because fewer judges applied for advanced selection than the number permitted (16 for Belgrade, and 12 for Cyprus), the jury at each competition will be able to appoint additional assistant judges (up to the maximum number) from students who complete a judge course at those locations. In addition, the Board approved travel subsidies for the three judges from outside of Europe, who will be assistant judges in Belgrade or Cyprus: Guillaume Latzko-Toth (Canada), Fran Rose (Australia), and Rachel Cat Wang (China). The subsidy (as last year) will cover actual costs for hotel (double occupancy) and meals, not to exceed EUR 700 per assistant judge. The Board is please by the interest and commitment shown by these judges, and looks forward to having at this year’s world championships.

 

The Board discussed a suggestion from AIDA Poland to have official AIDA stop watches for world championships. The Board approved the purchase of eight Casio waterproof stopwatches, total expense not to exceed EUR 500; these will be tested in Belgrade, and available for future world championships and world record events. The Board also approved production of 100 cotton judge T-shirts, to be given to judges in Belgrade and Cyprus, at a cost not to exceed EUR 1,500. The Board is reviewing a proposal for sponsored T-shirts for all judges and instructors; if implemented, this would allow all AIDA judges and instructors to order lycra and cotton T-shirts, paying only for shipping (the cost of the shirts would be paid by the sponsor).

 

Robert also noted that there will be judge Continuing Education (“CE”) courses in both Belgrade and Cyprus (like the one held last year in Cagliari). As previously noted, AIDA will be offering AIDA Judge courses in both Belgrade and Cyprus, at a reasonable fee (approximately EUR 70): AIDA International is committed to ending predatory pricing of judge courses at AIDA World Championships: judge students paying for airfare to and hotel at a WC should not have to pay nearly EUR 400 for a 16 hour judge course.

 

The Board voted to approve airfare for Carla Hanson to Cyprus to do media/PR for AIDA (up to EUR 1,200), and EUR 800 for Daan Verhoeven to act as AIDA’s photographer and videographer in Cyprus.

 

Official Gauges. The Board reviewed a proposal to renew the 2011 Suunto agreement, under which Suunto would provide 15 new DX (i.e. “D ten”) gauges, plus maintenance (including on the existing 15 gauges), in return for branding at AIDA world championships and world record events. The terms of the agreement are unchanged from 2011 (except for the addition of 15 new DX gauges). AIDA expects to have more judges promoted to senior levels, and it’s important to have official gauges with many of these judges (it can be difficult to ship gauges to locations outside of Europe, due to customs and risk of theft). The Board voted to approve the renewal agreement with Suunto.

 

Membership. Carla reported on an application for Observer membership from a group in Hong Kong. After reviewing the application, the Board voted to ask the Assembly to vote on admission for this group, and to recommend approval.

 

Sport Office. After discussion, the Board voted to approve promotions for judges, listed at the end of this summary. Petar noted that it required many hours to manually review each judge’s records to determine eligibility for promotion and that this could be automated with an upgrade to JOS. The Board will review options for upgrading JOS to manage more functions automatically.

 

The Board noted that the 2009 IOP prevents nearly all judges from being promoted to higher levels. In particular, no judges met the requirement for promotion to Level C (i.e. being elected to judge at two AIDA world championships); only one judge met the requirement to for promotion to Level B (i.e. judging six world records). The Board noted that until the IOP is changed, it will be impossible for most judges—even those with years of experience judging— to be promoted. The Board voted to request the Assembly to vote on changes to the IOP (mainly as presented to the Assembly in March), in order to fix this long-standing problem (put in place by the previous AIDA Board); this vote will be requested in the coming weeks.

 

The Board voted to appoint Kimmo Lahtinen (Finland) senior judge for an upcoming world record attempt in Bonaire, and vote to appoint Guillaume Laztko-Toth (Canada) junior judge for this event.

 

The Board discussed the need to have a person responsible for each of AIDA’s major applications (e.g. CARS, JOS, EOS), in order to respond to inquiries, manage maintenance, and recommend upgrades. The Board voted to appoint Milorad Vlajic (assistant to the Judge Responsible) as application manager for JOS, and Mario Zuzic as application manager for CARS (and Associate Sport Officer).

 

Assembly Email Service. Please note that the WIggio pilot has been terminated: Wiggio has reliability and interface issues, which make it an unsuitable tool for AIDA. The Board is reviewing a Google email service—which has been recommended by several IT professionals—and plans to begin a pilot of this service in the coming months. We will notify the Assembly prior to starting, and the Yahoo service will continue during the pilot.

 

 

 

Judge Promotions

 

Promoted To Level D

ADOLFSSON Felix

BUBENCHIKOV ALEXANDER

CAMPBELL Sara

D'IMPORZANO LEONARDO

DEMLOVA Zdenka

DODUC Natalie

DUBERN Remy

FALKENROTH Andreas

Filinis Mihalis

FRIEDRICH Christopher

GIOBBI Piero

GOTO Shuichi

GRUEMBEL KREUTZ Michaela

HANSON Carla

HAWRANEK Tom

INABA Tetsuya

LARSEN Nikolaj

LUKOVA Olga

MARTINO GALLO Marco

MATSUMOTO Megumi

MILAT Vedran

MORAWIEC Bartosz

MUKHA Olena

PéAN Philippe

RAKHMATULLIN Yuriy

RUSSU Alexandru

RYLOV Denys

SAEGER Horst

SHARAPOV Evgenii

STUMM Gunnar

SUGAWA Hiroshi

TAPANI Sofia

VAN CROMBRUGGEN Wouter

VERHOEVEN Daan

WAMBERG Britt

ZUZIC Mario

 

Promoted To Level C

none

 

Promoted to Level B

SUBOTIN Darija

 

Promoted to Judge Instructor (Level AI)

BOJOVIC Petar

 

Assistant Judges

Pool Belgrade

JEREMIC Sasa

KANIVETS Nikolay

**LATZKO--‐TOTH Guillaume

RAKHMATULLIN Yuriy

SAVVA SAVVAS

SAYERAS RIERA Ferran

**WANG Rachel Cat

 

Depth Limassol

AL SABEH AYOUN Wessam

BANTU DINU Adriana Gabriela

BORISOV Konstantin

JEREMIC Sasa

KARTAPANIS Marinos

**LATZKO--‐TOTH Guillaume

LIM Suzanne

RAKHMATULLIN Yuriy

ROSE Fran

SAEGER Horst

**WANG Rachel Cat

 

**May choose Belgrade or Limassol

 

Further Information. If you would like further information on these or other topics, please do not hesitate to contact Kimmo, Robert, or any other Board member.