Board meeting report - October 2019
Thursday 10 October 2019
Present: Absent : Pim Vermeulen, Technical Officer
Carla Hanson, President
Alex Russu, Vice-President
Sasa Jeremc , treasurer
Sridar Paramalingam, secretary
Uros Kojic sport officer
Christian Fotinger judge responsible
Kostas Madouros media
Marco Cosentino chief of safety
Judge and student cards
Carla opened the meeting with a discussion regarding the identification cards issued by Reprof for judges and freediving Ed. Students . Alex indicated paragraph 7.2 from the Statutes as reference for the payment approval, but based on the particular sutuation the Board decided that the money was paid by the students and AIDA will pay Reprof without further delay.
Vote for World Championships and Statutes Change
Then the vote for the 2020 World Championships proposals and re-vote for the statute changes was discussed and the Board determined that the vote text is complete. Carla will send the text and attachments to Sridar so he can submit the vote to the Assembly .
Travel expenses to represent Aida
Carla asked for approval for funds to attend DEMA in Florida. She will be there 5 days in November and meet with DAN , Suunto, maybe CMAS ,possible sponsors and represent Aida at the convention in the Deeper Blue booth. The Board approved the expenditure .
Carla also requested that expenses be approved for a representative to be sent to the EUF meeting in Vienna in December. The representative will be coming from Europe . The Board approved .
Future World Championship Policy
Alex Russu explained that the WCs are AIDA’s flagship product, and should be used as a platform to showcase the AIDA safety school, the IT systems developed in support of the competition system and organizational know-how. It should become an AIDA asset together with the School and the Ranking, but in order to do so, AIDA must take the control of the event. To reach this goal Alex proposed to integrate the registration payments into the actual event registration platform for AIDA to receive the money and to pay all the collaborating entities in exchange of following the AIDA requirements.
The actual “organizer” will act as local collaborator working for AIDA in exchange of a salary. Alex would like to have this new policy in place by 2021. Carla pointed out that we will need to craft the procedure and plan and then ask for approval from the Assembly. The Board approved this 2021 objective (pending Assembly approval)
WC/competition organizer manual
For the realization of the above plan Alex proposed a project to write an internal manual for WC organization so AIDA can centralize the accumulated experience and develop inhouse knowledge. This will allow to train internal teams to take-over tasks that are not under our control today. A simplified version of this WC manual will be used for adding a future “AIDA competition organizer” certification in our portfolio.
Concerning the budget, it was proposed to follow the same model as the existing manual projects. The board approved the WC organizer manual project and the exact budget will be voted together with other 2020 projects.
Safety at WCs
Alex added that AIDA should be guiding the safety procedures and offering competition safety diver courses prior to the event to provide an AIDA certified safety team. Marco added that it is his opinion that the WC safety team should be hired and compensated with a stipend by AIDA. Marco added that most organizers try to save money by not paying the safety team, such as in Nice, where all the safety team members were volunteers. Other competitions have a $50,000 safety budget to provide professional safety of the highest standards. AIDA needs to follow this professional model to provide safety divers at the WC and this way AIDA can establish its safety standards. Sasa retorted that the situation in Nice was unique and not something we had encountered before and we should expect better collaboration between the organizers and AIDA. We shouldn’t have to change everything because of this one bad experience. Brian added that he does not think that money will solve the problem. Uros agreed that judges and the safety team should be paid but that will require a budget of $100,00. We will have to decide if that expense is feasible. Alex replied that we have the funds and should invest in providing a strong WC in all aspects to showcase AIDA.
WC prize money.
The Board agreed that cash prizes will be awarded to the winners of the medals and Molchanova awards. Sasa will handle the payments to the winners. Unfortunately, the prizes were not presented at the awards ceremony because of complications and objections from the organizer and local laws. We lost the opportunity to promote Aida with this benefit but we will still reward the winners, as promised. Uros asked for approval for medals – approved.
Judge Review Committee
Following the frequent controversy in the WC judge decisions; Carla and Alex suggested that a Judge review committee should be established to improve procedures and suggest improvements to judging and rules. The committee will not punish any judge but set standards for judging the similar situations in the future. There will most likely be 3-4 high level judges on the committee.
Green Team contract
Alex R provided the agreement for the ‘Green Team” (environmental focused area of education ). He stated that all future payment requests should be in a structured form such as this.
Education Report
Brian stated that EOS in now in the testing phase . The first EFMR (emergency first responder) is running in October and instructor courses will begin next year.
The new instructor course manual is in the pipeline. First draft of the monofin course has been created.
Brian asked Carla about insurance in Korea . Carla said she will check with DAN Asia/Pacific but Brian will contract with another insurer for one year until DAN is in place.
Brian and Carla discussed the new instructor rash guards from Fourth Element. Fourth Element will sponsor a total of 700 shirts for judges and instructors. Carla will contact Fourth Element for a price quote for an additional 350 instructor rash guards. Aida also needs polos for judges and instructors. Uros is working on a plan to have these manufactured.
Brain received approval for €1,000 for equipment for the instructor course .
Dropbox storage
Alex is researching and testing alternatives to Dropbox for more flexibility with the number of users. He will let us know what the options are.
Sens07
Sridar offered information on the Sens07 vest for divers. He will send additional information to the entire Board.
Please contact the Board with any questions or comments .
