SWISS GO FEDERATION
Minutes of Annual Meeting
Bern 2/2/2002
Present: L. Trippel, R. Morrison, P.Grüter, A. Held, U.
Rusterholz, A. Rosenheck, R. Meyer, E.D.Wolf, M.Wirdnam.
HELD gave a short summary of the years events. This included ordinary
tournaments taking place in Bern, Zuerich, Lausanne, Genf, a one day
tournament in Winterthur, the championship in Basle, and the team
league. In addition, Daniel Baumann had organized a ski and Go stage,
with Laurent Heiser as the visiting sensei. He felt that given the
size of our Go community this was not a bad showing.
As a result of his victory in the championship, Adrian Zweig will be
representing Switzerland at this year's amateur championship in Japan.
e also reported on the EGF meeting in Dublin saying that unfortunately
a large part of the meeting was devoted to the problem of the two
Italian federations. The problem is now several years old, and is no
nearer to a solution, and mostly as a result of this problem, the
E.G.F: has had five presidents in the last five years, and a political
split is developing between the countries of the East and the West.
He indicated that he would not be going to the meeting in Croatia this
year, and unless someone from Switzerland who was willing to go to the
meeting would be there, we would have no vote. Given the situation,
he felt that it was important that our vote be given. The
constitution of the EGF makes no requirement as to citizenship or
status in the country's federation. It simply requires that whoever
appears at the meeting has been officially sent and that the president
be so notified.
After some discussion, it was decided that if by the middle of June
noone from Switzerland intended to go and be willing to attend the
meeting, the president would be empowered to select someone to
represent Switzerland. The suggestion was to ask Neil Mitchison to do
so if he were willing.
TRIPPEL delivered a brief financial report, the jist of which was that
we are in good financial shape, with a war chest of about 5340 S.Fr.
We had paid 77 S.Fr to the E.G.F. and 260 S.fr to
the I.G.F. He explained that in principle every club had a right to a
contribution for its tournament, but that noone had bothered to ask
for it. A figure of several hundred francs per tournament was
proposed, but then on adding up our anticipated expenses and income,
this seemed unreasonable.
It was decided for the moment not to dip into our capital, but to wait
for the year end and see just how much income above our expenses we
actually have in 2002 before distributing. that kind of money.
Suggestions for the profit from this years operations were to begin to
build upan inventory of equipment which would travel from tournament
to tourmanent, but on discussion it was agreed that this was no longer
necessary, as each of the major clubs was now ina position to supply
sufficient equipment for its own tournament. The exception was
Lausanne. MEYER reported that in fact there was a store of clocks in
Lausanne which did belong to the federation. This came as news to the
meeting. Since the other clubs now had sufficient clocks, it was
agreed to donate the clocks to the Lausanne club.
It was decided that there were enough funds available to support the
teams to the extent of 1/4 of the trainfare, being 1/2 of the
trainfare assuming a 1/2 Tax card. (This was later changed
c.f. below.)
It was pointed out that we were not in Ranka last year and that if it
is not too late, an effort should be made to submit something. Held
says he will look into it.
GRÜTER reported on his participation in the teacher's training weekend
in Amsterdam. It took place at the same time as the Fujitsu finals,
so most of the strong players in Europe were present. This meant that
there was much interaction between the participants and these players.
Some of them gave talks, but the weight of the week end was on
discussions on how to teach and how to help spread go. On the
favourable side, the strong players were very much interested in the
spreading of go. He felt that it was a little unorganized, but that
probably the participants profited.
The meeting agreed that we should try to get more of the brochures
that the EGCC had prepared, as they have proven effective for the
teaching of beginners.
ING FUND: An application for 1000 S.Fr to the fund to help Daniel
Baumann with his organizing of his annual Ski and Go week will be
made, depending on whether or not he is prepared organize it again
next year.
TOURNAMENTS: There was a discussion over the possible changing of the
format for the championship. A suggestion was made to make it a
closed tournament - open onlyto those with Swiss Passports, but this
was turned down. A certain dissatisfaction was expressed with the
current sytem, but it was decided to continue as is for at least this
year, to give people with other ideas a chance to put them on paper
and circulate them before the next meeting.
It was agreed that in order to participate in the chase for points, a
player must partake in at least on of the turnaments during the year.
However since our tournament year reallybegins with the Bern
tournament, it was decided that this would go into force following the
Bern tournament in 2003 in order to make the regulation known in
plenty of time.
The tournament calendar for the year looks somewhat like (exact dates
not yet fixed).
Zuerich - March
Geneva - May
Lausanne - June
Winterthur - fall ????
Championship - Zuerich (Okt - Nov.)
CITY LEAGUE: There was a discussion concerning the city league, and
Basle announced that they would not be participating this year. The
main objection was that for a days travel one participated in one
game. Other possible formats were discussed, and no real satisfactory
arrangement could be agreed upon. It was pointed out that several
years ago we had had a very successful week end at a Youth Hostel in
xxxxxxxx. Perhaps the two events could be combined or maybe the
league dropped in favour of one or more such week ends - perhaps one
during the summer and another in the ski season. The possibilities
are to be investigated.
INTERNATIONAL: Switzerland can expect with a very high degree of
probability an invitation to participate in the world pair
championship in Japan towards the end of the year. It was decided
that in view of the work that he has done for the federation, Lorenz
Trippel should be part of the team. In all probability the other
member will be Ursela Dumermuth. This has to be verified.
Switzerland was also invited (on very short notice) to send a
participant to the playoff to decide the European representative for
the world Toyota championship. It would have been a chance for a
Swiss player to get killed by one of the better players in Europe,
however we had all of 3 days to find a rep who in addition had to have
over 1900 points on the European rating system. This proved
impossible, so we had to decline the invitation.
ELECTIONS: As there were no other candidates and as both Held and
Trippel were willing to carry on, they were reelected as president and
treasurer respectively. H-P. Baumann, not being present to defend
himself was reelected as vice-president.
There being no other business, the meeting was closed at 11:15 P.M.
