40th ICSD Congress Minutes - Salt Lake City 2007

SALT LAKE CITY, UNITED STATES

1-2 February 2007

1 February

  1. Roll call:
    48 countries and 96 votes

  2. Appointment of Scrutineers:
    Martin Bogard, Béla Pányi and Barbara Søndergaard – Approved

  3. Welcome messages:
    President Donalda Ammons welcomed everyone to the Congress and Dwight Benedict CEO of Salt Lake City Organizing Committee welcomed all delegates to Salt Lake and provided updates on behalf of the 2007 Winter Deaflympics Organizing Committee.

  4. Confirmation of 39th Congress Minutes:
    Mr. Helder Duarte of Portugal felt that we could not approve the 39th Congress minutes (2005) because the 2005 meeting minutes the delegates approved to use “Deaflympics” and now we are not allowed to use the term “Deaflympics. President Ammons believed Mr. Duarte had misunderstood the intent and asked to just only approve the contents of the meeting minutes that were discussed in Melbourne 2005.

    Passed with 72 YES, 6 NO, and 16 ABSTAIN

  5. Admission and Recognition of National Federations:
    A total of 4 countries have been approved for membership:
    • Gambia - Gambia Deaf Sports Association (GDSA)
    • Bolivia - Federacion de Deportes Bolivianos de Sordos (FEDEBOIS)
    • Italy - Federazione Sport Sordi Italia (FSSI) (transferred)
    • United Kingdom - UK Deaf Sport (UKDS) (transferred)

    Passed with 90 YES, and 2 ABSTAIN

    Marijo Lusic of Croatia wanted to briefly mention that delegates and ICSD are encouraged to help with Serbia Montenegro since the country is now split up which causes loss of manpower and resources.

  6. ICSD Report 2005-2006 – Presentation was given by President Donalda Ammons with a slide show. A copy of report booklet was distributed to each delegate. At the beginning of the report there was a section of “In Memoriam” where there was a one minute silence for all athletes, coaches, leaders, who had passed away since 2005.

    There were comments from the delegates that they wanted to have these reports available ahead of time and mailed to them for their review before attending Congress. They do not want to receive this information at Congress. They also request to have all Commission Member names available and not limited to only Chair. Donalda had responded that we would put this information up on the internet.

  7. Finance Report 2005-2006
    Terry Berrigan, a Deaf accountant hired by ICSD, provided the 2005-2006 financial report for review. He mentioned that due to the time of the year that the Congress was held, an audited report would have to be sent to each member country in a formal annual report later this year, hopefully by June 2007.

    Sport Director Josef Willmerdinger reviewed the new proposed penalty fees for congress’ approval. However, the delegates felt they did not have time to review and did not wish to vote on new proposed penalty fees, because it was not included in the proposal packet that was sent in November 2006.

    It was then agreed to postpone it until the 41st Congress in Taipei.

    Knud Søndergaard took the floor to become the facilitator for this proposal.

  8. Proposal to declare Mr. Rafael Pinchas “persona non grata” (See proposal 65)
    Croatia and Germany explained the rationale behind their proposal. Mr. Rafael Pinchas offered his defense. Then Mr. Kelby Brick, ICSD attorney, explained the history of the case and Mr. Pinchas’ attitude toward ICSD. A 20 minute Q and A period was granted before casting votes.

    Passed with 34 YES, 27 NO, 32 Abstain and 1 Invalid

    Adjourned at 18:00

2 February

Roll Call:
49 countries and 98 votes

Remarks:
Before beginning the 2nd day of the 40th Congress, President Donalda Ammons had announced her resignation from ICSD, based on the results of the votes on Proposal #65. She interpreted it as a lack of respect for ICSD as an organization under her leadership. She expressed her gratitude for having served on ICSD board since 1995.

Vice President David Lanesman then took over in presiding. Shortly after that, Josef Willmerdinger, Sports Director and Siv Fosshaug, Member at Large had decided to resign from the Board as well.

After some frantic discussions, which indicated that the delegates misunderstood the voting procedures, the delegates then asked President Ammons not to resign for the sake of ICSD and suggested that a vote of confidence be taken, to show that they would like for her to stay as a President for the remainder of her term.

Vote results: 80 YES 18 NO

President Ammons agreed to return and continue to work for ICSD. Ammons then asked two board members, Josef Willmerdinger and Siv Fosshaug if they would also come back to work for ICSD. They replied that they would.

Knud Søndergaard and Jerald Jordan, in their role as honorary life members and Legal Commission members, took the floor and chaired all the proposals.

  1. New Proposals for Adoptions (attachment in PDF)
    • Constitution
    • Deaflympics Regulations
    • Deaf World Championships
    • General

    All proposals that have been approved would become effective immediately and updated on the website. (March 2007)

  2. Applications and reports for Deaf World Championships
    • 2008 World Deaf Volleyball Championship – Argentina – Approved
    • 2009 World Deaf Ice Hockey Championship – Canada – Approved
    • 2010 World Deaf Beach Volleyball Championship – Israel – Approved
    • 2011 World Deaf Swimming Championship – Portugal – Approved

    These other countries had an opportunity to provide updates for their upcoming World Championship events:

    • 2007 World Deaf Futsal Championship – Bulgaria
    • 2008 World Deaf Football Championship – Greece
    • 2008 World Deaf Wrestling Championship – Armenia
    • 2008 World Deaf Athletics Championship – Venezuela

    Details can be found on our Calendar of Events on Deaflympics website.

  3. Final Report from 2005 Summer Deaflympics
    A 6-page PowerPoint presentation was given by Australia president Brent Phillips. The presentation included some key statistics, financial information, and some recommendations for 2009 Taipei - 21st Summer Deaflympics.

  4. Progress Report from 2009 Summer Deaflympics
    Please click here to get summarized progress report on 2009 Summer Deaflympics.

  5. Progress Report from 2011 Winter Deaflympics
    They plan to provide more information in the upcoming months through our ENEWS.

  6. Selection of the 2013 Summer Deaflympics
    Approved by ALL for ATHENS, GREECE to host the 22nd Summer Deaflympics in 2013. Electronic version of Greece bid presentation will be sent to each National Sports Deaf Federation through email.

  7. Announcement
    From Knud Søndergaard, He conveyed greetings from the WFD and mentioned the adoption of the new UN Convention and the possibility of using this in our efforts to keep the deaf sports independent.

  8. Adjournment – 17:30
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