WAF Congress Meeting Agenda

2013  Waf ‘s  agenda:

-Affiliation of new members.
-The approval of the reports of the President, Vice-presidents, General Secretary, Treasurer, Referee and sub-committee members.
-The filling in of any existing vacancies on the WAF Executive Committee.
-Selection of location of WAF world championship, other sanctioned championships and seminars.
-Modification of statutes, bylaws and rules.
-New business presented by affiliated member organizations.
-Review of audited accounts. Appointment of auditors

1 : From Canada President Fred Roy

1. Discussion on proper protocol for WAF constitution
2. Discussion on proper protocol and conduct of WAF Presidency
3. Discussion on lack of proper communication and recognition of the President’s office.

2 : From USA Bill Collins Vice president

Greetings Assen and Executives
On May 17, 2013, I received the 2015 WAF-USA contract and to my surprise the contract has changed drastically.   I’d like to clarify that during the 2012 congress meeting, USA was voted as host for the 2015 WAF World Championship and before proposing to congress (2012), I spoke with Fred Roy (2012 reining president) several times about any changes in the WAF contract,  Fred Roy concurred the contract language has not changed in years and reads the same as the USA 2010 agreement.    At this point USA proposed to congress the 2015 WAF-USA World Championship, under the assumed conditions (same terms and agreement) as explained from Fred Roy.
USA proposal was based on the existing condition confirmed from Fred Roy, the new language in this contract has challenging demands that were not the same terms or conditions during the time USA was awarded the 2015 WAF Worlds, the new LANGUAGE and TERMS were added “after” USA was awarded the 2015 WAF Worlds.
How can this committee allow these changes to be made after the Championship is awarded? I assume the executive committee and president can answer this question..
Also does the excutive committee fully understand these changes, friends in Armwrestling have the same objective (moving this sport forward), but very few countries can comply with such high demands, most countries will not be able to host a championship unless they receive huge corporate sponsorship in excess of $100,000.00 USD.
I’m asking the president and executives to understand the terms and conditions when USA was awarded the 2015 WAF World Championship and requesting the USA contract to remain as explained from the current president at the time USA was awarded the 2015 WAF Worlds.   USA did not propose to host the 2015 WAF World under these new contract conditions!
The 2010 WAF-USA Worlds was well planned and organized and the 2015 will display several enhancements, this concern needs immediately attention before the 2013 Worlds in Poland.
Sincerely,.   Bill Collins Vice President, United States Armwrestling Federation

3 : From Asia

The president of Asian Federation of the Armwrestling Dzheenbek Mukambetov charged to me to send questions to you for discussion and decision-making on WAF Congress in Poland during carrying out the World Cup.
1 . To recognize Russian,  along with the English, the second official language of WAF.
Basis: (Russian is one of five languages of the approved UN.
In an armwrestling it is more than Russian-speaking athletes than English-speaking. )
2 . To change the starting Redi team! – “Public educational institution”! on “Don’t Move”! – “Public educational institution”!
Basis: Isn’t present in the Constitution of a clear boundary between starting teams. (It is written – “to say separately”). Almost all Referees say   recognized existing team together, especially it is observed to final duels of sorevnoaniye and at judicial capture when tension  as much as possible increases. Referees seek to be exempted rather from disobedient athletes and don’t divide two words of starting team and some athletes start on “Redi”! to outstrip the opponent on start.
Don’t-Move team! sounds as the order and athletes perfectly understand it. “Public educational institution”! after such team sounds as a shot! Interview and the majority of athletes will be for change of starting team. It is necessary to interrogate athletes, instead of heads and officials.
3 . To reduce time since one minute, approved by the Constitution for the correct starting capture, till 30 seconds.
Basis: All participants of the morovy Championship have to know, observe and carry out Rules the WAF described in the Constitution. Starting capture is a neutral position identical to both athletes, one of them should have no advantage on start. In practice it turns out that porridges the dy athlete seeks to get advantage on start (bends a wrist, comes to a phalanx of a thumb of the opponent, twists capture, closes the capture center, tears off an elbow from an armrest and ????? tries to make capture, etc.) and the referee or passively observes the whole minute, or corrects one-another without results and only a minute later or declares judicial capture more. To the audience to look at it nepryatno and time is spent aimlessly.
It is necessary after the first amendment for any violation to declare to the athlete “Remark” half-minute Later Obyavit judicial capture.
Best Regards!V.Drexler

4 : From Slovakia

on behalf of Slovak armwrestling association I would like to send official bid for 2016 WAF World Championships.
The Championships will be organized in 2nd half of September in Bratislava {capital of Slovakia}.

5 : From Switzerland

Dear WAF board and members,
In the name of Swiss Armsport Federation , I would like to propose that Worlds would be held like in the past, last week of November or first week of December.
It has been point out to me by a lot of athletes that Worlds in September is not a good solution. Main reasons are these ones :
Too early in the season, Nationals have just been done.
Summer time is the worst to train because of hot weather.
Summer holidays are too close.
Big competitions such Nemiroff Cup are just after the Worlds.
Too close to the Europeans
Because of all these reasons, athletes would like to have the Worlds at the end of the year as we had before. Thanks for voting this proposal during next WAF Meeting.

6 : From Poland

our suggestion is that before the organization of the World Championships WAF provide to organizer a list of the official  federations together with contact persons about visas.

7 : From Kazaksthan

Armwrestling Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, asks you to add at the agenda of upcoming World Congress «WAF», which will be held from 01-08.09.2013 in Gdansk (Poland), our proposals, which were unanimously approved by Asian countries, the Asian Congress with a 25-28.06.2013g. in Tashkent, and a vote on the following proposals:

1. Give Russian the status of a second language, official, equivalent, the international language of «WAF», and all the World Championships to provide all the official program translated into two languages (Russian, English).

2. Submit to the World Championships in judging program “jury” that all the time will be directly in competition, and consider all protests take on them, and make fair decisions. The structure of “JURY” should include an odd number of people.

3. All the World Championships set to fail, on every table camcorder and the protests recognize this movie as in many Olympic sports.

4. Punish judges, lowering their rank in the same category below, which made more than two errors in a single day of competition.
Thanks in advance, Sincerely, Marat Asainov – President KAF

8 : From Hungary

Here is the bid of Hungary for 2017 World championship.we would like to organise a WC at 2017. And we do not know is there a rule in WAF at the WC the teams must to accommodate at the official hotels or not. If there is we haven’t got a proposal. If there is not we propose that the teams must be accommodate at the official hotels.

9 : Proposal from Bulgaria

Bulgaria gave you the bid for 2016, include them into the agenda please.
Also put into the agenda, proposal from me to specify the details for Junior division 18-21
– who can compete
– when they do weigh in and when compete

10 : From Czech Republic

would like to make a proposal for WAF Congress. We would like to host WAF World Armwrestling Championships, which will be chosen on this year’s Congress, in the Czech Republic.

11 :  Proposals from Doping Control Committee:

1)  Like the Referees and the other Technical committees, I propose that the travel expenses ( to go to the World Championship location ) of the Doping Committee members will be covered by WAF.
The fines and extra money paid by the Positive competitors or Federation whose competitors have been found positive will be used by the Doping Control Committee.
2) I propose that WAF applies to be member of WADA .
The choice is given to Congress appreciation between 2 possible memberships :
a)) as a SPORTACCORD  member
b)) as an independant Federation.
J-F André , Director of Doping Control Committee

12 : Proposals from Ukraine for approving for the WAF Congress, Gdynia, Poland

Approving of terms of world championship of armwrestling

We offer to lead world championship of armwrestling from October till November.

Explanation: The beginning of September is very bad term of leading world championships.

In the beginning of September in many countries in schools, colleges, universities classes begin and it is a big event for children and their parents.
The majority of athletes who take part in the world championship are students and pupils.
In July and August there is abnormal heat in many countries for many years and athletes need to prepare for the world championship during these intolerable conditions.
July and August is a good period of the year when people have their rest. Many athletes are parents and they want to be together with their families and children and to have a rest near the sea!
But the terms which are given for leading world championship don’t give them this opportunity!
The World Championship is the main championship for many athletes from many countries. And there must be the most comfortable terms for leading the world championships!

Approving of the world championship’s form of protocols

The world championship’s protocol is an official document which approves the participation of the athlete in this competition.
On the last world championships we got the protocols where we couldn’t sort out the results. There were not any algorithm of showing results of the competition, and there were cases where some categories were absent there.

We offer to approve a new form of protocols of competitions:
Surname of the athlete and then his name must be written at first in the results of the competition.
Now somebody writes surnames of athletes at first, and others write names of athletes at first in the results of competition!
There must be one system – surname, name!
There must be written the year of birth in the results of competition.

Approving the name at the junior age groups
Sub Junior – 18 years and under
Junior – 21 years and under

Approving the regulations of return medals of athletes who were disqualified

Nowadays there is not a regulation of return medals of athletes who were disqualified.
Many athletes can’t get back medals from athletes who were disqualified for many years.
We offer a regulation – the president of federation or the authorized person by the president must return the medal of disqualified athlete to the president of another federation on the nearest EAF or WAF Congress.
If the medal is not returned in a given period, the Federation will have a penalty from
100 to 200 Euros!
The responsible person for return medals must be appointed.
He will have to announce to everybody on the EAF or WAF congress that the medal was returned.
Approving the regulation of leading championships
There is not any regulation of the world championships during last time.  It makes a chaos during the competition. All athletes suffer!
On every championship athletes from many countries complain because of the absence of regulations and they ask to solve it!

Application for leading world championship of armwrestling in Ukraine in 2016

We offer to lead the world championship of armwrestling in Kharkov, Ukraine, in 2016.
We have all conditions for this:
Supermodern Palace of Sport of Modern Class which includes 8000 places which is situated in the city center. There will be its opening in 2014!
In 2012 in Kharkov the Europe Football Championship was on a high level. In 2015 in Kharkov. We have a great experience in leading huge events.
We have good hotels of different classes for athletes and fans.
Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Brazil and many other leading countries don’t need visa to take part in the competitions.
The full support of the city administration, Ministry of Sport of Ukraine of leading this competition.

13 : Proposal from the Swedish Armwrestling Federation

Background
When athletes show positive in doping test it only affects the individual person by suspension of two years. We need to ensure that national federations take a problem with their athletes seriously and propose the following:
Proposal
For every test that is positive, the national federation of that athlete should be forced to finance an additional doping test to be carried out on any one of their athletes the following championship.
This should be in addition to the ordinary doping test financed by the championships.
For example: If three athletes from one nation are found positive, three additional tests must be carried out within that nations team at the following championships, and be paid for by that federation.
Aim of the proposal
To ensure that national federations do everything in their power to send only clean athletes to championships.
Anders Axklo
President
Swedish Armwrestling Federation

14 : Minutes of the EAF Congress Meeting 2013, Lithuania, May 2013 Page 1 of 5

Our reference: EAF1026 / 26.06.2013
EUROPEAN ARMWRESTLING FEDERATION (EAF)  PROPOSALS
to WORLD ARMWRESTLING FEDERATION (WAF)  CONGRESS MEETING
GDYNIA, POLAND, September 2013
A. PROPOSALS AND DISCUSSIONS
B. CHANGES IN THE CONSTITUTION
C. CHANGES IN THE RULES
D. RULES & CONSTITUTION VIOLATION OF THE FORMER WAF PRESIDENT AND GENERAL SECRETARY.

A. PROPOSALS AND DISCUSSIONS

1. Clarifications and following of WAF constitution for EAF registered members in Greece and Finland (WAF constitution article 3 and 15)

ARTICLE 3: COMPOSITION
WAF is composed of Continental Federations. The Continental Federations are composed of participating countries from within their continents. The countries may have as many active armwrestling organizations as they want, but they may only be represented by one national body from each country. Each national body from within the country must meet criteria as set forth by their continental federations, which they receive from WAF. The member countries are ultimately WAF. Membership criteria are set forth in Article 15.

ARTICLE 15: MEMBERSHIP
1. A national armwrestling organization wishing to become affiliated to WAF must first apply to their Continental Federation.
4. Full membership becomes valid only if the physical presence of the applicant country is established through the participation by an official or athlete at a WAF World Championship.
5. After all WAF formalities are completed, the new member will be given an official welcome at the WAF Congress.
7. A member country may lose their affiliation for the following reasons
a) Non compliance to WAF constitution, rules and bylaws.
b)Non payment of affiliation fees for more than two years.
11. Only Members in good standing are allowed to vote or participate in discussions.
Good standing includes paid up membership fees. Each member shall have one vote.

Minutes of the EAF Congress Meeting 2013, Lithuania, May 2013 Page 2 of 5

2. Nominate Mr. Marcin Mielniczuk for the WAF Director of Scoring and Technical Director position.

3. Nominate Mr. Mircea Simionescu-Simicel for WAF Treasurer and WAF Marketing Manager positions.

4. Nominate Mr. Jean Frederic Andre for WAF Director of Doping position.

5. Move WAF headquarter and register WAF as non-for-profit organization in Sofia, Bulgaria. Unregister the WAF office and commercial registration in Canada.

6. Approve to use EAF scoring system, all technical and TV broadcast equipment, this year and from now on as Official WAF Scoring, Technical and TV Broadcast platform for all WAF World Championships.

7. Approve to have two weigh-in days as in WAF Rules and as in EAF Championships. This follow WAF rule: “Weigh-in will be done no sooner that 24 before the first day of competition start time.”

First weigh-in day: Tuesday – Juniors 18, masters, disabled. First competition day: Wednesday
Second weigh-in day: Thursday – Juniors 21, seniors. First competition day: Friday
8. Discuss about WAF official website and approve the new waf-armwrestling.com as the only official one. Request the former WAF page administrator to remove all WAF symbols and names and notice the viewers this is not the official WAF web page

9. Create, rules, responsibilities and job description document for officials and executive members.

WAF should create rules for officials and executive members. Rights, responsibilities, working terms, procedures and penalties in case they violate the rules. If they accept the job they must accept also the responsibilities.
WAF should create job descriptions for all available positions.
10. Propose WAF to create a commission to audit the activity of WAF in regard of bad management of former President and General Secretary.

11. Propose WAF to create a commission in charge with SportAccord affiliation as full members with leading of EAF General Secretary Mr. Mircea Simionescu-Simicel. The commission should take actions to members which do not apply with our requests.

12. Propose WAF to introduce yearly competition licenses for athletes as cost 5 Euro/person as in Europe.

13. Discuss and propose to divide team classification by gender.

14. Unify North and South America as one continent America the same as in other major sports organizations (IOC and SportAccord).

15. Discussions and taking actions to legalize current WAF Executive board and continental representatives. At the moment, except EAF, continental federations are not registered bodies.

16. EAF Referee Panel proposals:

In recent years the WAF championships has started very late mostly due to Identity Badge problems this proposal should stop the problem.
Now we have competitors areas and scoring screens it is not necessary to give the competitors 60 seconds to get on stage.

Minutes of the EAF Congress Meeting 2013, Lithuania, May 2013 Page 3 of 5

16.1. Competitor Identity Badges
– Competitors must have a valid competitor Identity badge “for the correct class” with them every time they enter the stage to pull;
– At all times at least 1 Executive committee member (not counting the General Secretary) must be working with the team to help produce and distribute the badges;
– Competitor Identity Badges Must be given out / collected no later than 7.30pm the evening before that day of competition.
– Any submissions for corrections must be made that night no later than 8pm and collected that night.
– No corrections can be made on the day of competition, even if this results in that competitor not being able to pull.
16.2. Start time
– All competitors must be in the competitor’s area at least 15 minutes before the start of the competition for the class list checks;
– The competition will start at the stated time regardless of any competitors being missing;
– Competitor’s names will be shown on the scoring screens, if they are not on stage when their match is on their name will be called;
– They will then have 30 seconds to come on stage or they will be given a loss.

B. CHANGES IN THE CONSTITUTION

1.1. MODIFY OF ARTICLE 6, POINT 2, LETTER E)

Original:
2. Every fourth even year, using 1992 as a reference, Congress will decide on the following:
e) The election of continental representatives to the positions of President WAF, Vice- Presidents, General Secretary and Treasurer. (Positions of General Secretary, Referee and Treasurer do not have to be continental representatives. They can be from any country, but must be able and wanting to do the job.) This election will be done by the membership in a quick and expedient manner.
Proposal:
2. Every fourth even year, using 1992 as a reference, Congress will decide on the following:
e) The election of continental representatives to the positions of WAF President and Vice-Presidents;
The position of General Secretary will be appointed by the President and voted by the congress;
All nominations for WAF executive positions must be made only by adjoining continental federations;
Persons nominated must be citizens of Continental Member Countries. (Ex: Europe can not propose an American citizen and so on).
Persons suspended by their national or continental federations can not be nominated in any executive positions.
Scoring and Technical Director, the Marketing Director and Doping Director are appointed by the President, this appointment is subjected to the approval of Congress.
1.2. MODIFY OF ARTICLE 6, POINT 17
Original:
17. Minutes of the Congress meetings will be recorded and distributed in a timely fashion by the General Secretary.

Proposal:
17. Minutes of the Congress meetings will be recorded and distributed within 30 days by the General Secretary.

Minutes of the EAF Congress Meeting 2013, Lithuania, May 2013 Page 4 of 5

1.3. MODIFY OF ARTICLE 16, POINT 1

Original:
1. All payments of fees are to be in cash U.S. dollars only.
Proposal:
1. All payments of fees are to be in cash EURO only.
1.4. ADD ARTICLE 23: DISPUTES:

In order to apply with SportAccord membership requirements we need to include in our constitution that we “recognize the exclusive jurisdiction of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, in Lausanne, Switzerland;”

ARTICLE 23
Disputes
1. All disputes arising under this Constitution shall, in accordance with its provisions, be subject to an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne (CAS).
2. The CAS appeal shall be in accordance with the rules of CAS currently in force, provided always that the CAS Panel shall be bound to apply the Articles of this Constitution and the appellant shall file its statement of appeal within sixty days of the date of communication in writing of the
decision that is to be appealed.
3. The decision of CAS shall be final and binding on the parties and no right of appeal will lie from the CAS decision. The decision shall have immediate effect and all Members shall take all necessary action to ensure that it is effective.
4. The governing law of any such appeal shall be the law of the country residence of WAF and the
arbitration shall be conducted in English, unless the parties agree otherwise.
5. All disputes arising under the Rules and Regulations shall be resolved in accordance with their provisions.

C. CHANGES IN THE RULES

1. All payments of fees are to be in cash EURO only. Conversion USD – > EUR for penalties and protest fees 1:1.
Proposals:
2.1. At each WAF world championships the Director of Referees must hold a Technical Training Seminar, that all Team Captains must attend.
2.2. The penalty to each country who’s nominated Team Captain does not attend the seminar will result in an automatic fine of $100 to the Countries Federation.
3. When the armwrestlers are called for their match if they both want to go straight to a strap match or straight to a referees grip or to a referees grip in the strap, they will have the option to do so as long as both competitors agree/ want to do this.
4. Armwrestlers have up to 30 seconds to grip up, before being put into a referees grip.

Minutes of the EAF Congress Meeting 2013, Lithuania, May 2013 Page 5 of 5

5.1. To add a small ½ inch (12,7 mm) lip round the pad
5.2. To change the size of the elbow pad, from 7” by 7” square to increase to 7” (17,78 cm) across and 8” (20,32 cm) deep (from the table edge to the center of the table).
6.1. The hand peg warning to be removed from the rules and to be replaced by – If your grip slips from the hand peg and you do not replace it within 2 seconds then a foul will be called against you.
6.2. If you pin your opponent whilst not holding the hand peg you will receive foul and not be awarded a win.
7. Gripping the table will be a foul.

D. RULES & CONSTITUTION VIOLATION OF THE FORMER WAF PRESIDENT AND GENERAL SECRETARY:

1. Refusing to provide current financial statements, information about current technical equipment properties, handing of orginal waf registration documents as non-profit organization;

2. Allowing WAF website to be a personal property;
3. Erasing without approval weight categories in brazil;

4. SportAccord file management;

5. Very bad championship management of last world championship in Brazil;

6. Illegal decision of not accepting Finland and Greece matter (see art.3 and art. 15 from WAF constitution);

7. Dress code for officials. At the opening of 2012 World Armwrestling Championship in Brazil, General Secretary was dressed with short pants and sandals;

8. Preparing incomplete and truthless minutes recordings from WAF Congress in Brazil 2012.

15 : Proposal from Turkish Sport Federation for the Physically Disabled

Proposals for disabled category
Proposal 1 – First I would like to remind the 2 items of World Armwrestling Federation (WAF) Rules of Armwrestling Sitdown and Standing.
İtem 2.1 and 2.8 are below
2.1 Table
Sit down: 28″ from floor to top of table.
Stand-up: 40″ from floor to top of table.
All other specifications are identical for both sit down and stand-up table tops.
2.8 Seats
They should be 18″ square and 18″ from floor surface to seat top surface. The front edge should be exactly in line with the table edge. The seat and table should be secured to a platform or floor.
At any Championship the tables and seats should be provided in standard dimentions, depending on the rules by WAF and EAF.
Proposal 2 – A classification must be done to disabled competitors recently hwo takes a stick or whow says not to hear are count disabled. This a big injustice to real disabled competitors.
At disabled category real disabled competitors should compete. The competitors should prove that they are at least %20 disabled with a healt report from a government hospital, or before the championship a physiotherapist should allow the competitors to compete at disabled category.
Proposal 3 – Recently some disabled competitors are competing on standing position at sitdown table. The disabled competitors should sit on seats and during the match at least one side of buttocks should touch the seats.
Proposal for all category
To stop drug:
1 – The competiton fee for each arm should be increase up to 50 Euro.for WAC and EAC, drug test should be applied every first and second place at senior, junior and disabled category
2 – If more than 3 competitors are positive at the same championship
At first time the country should be suspended 1 year and 5,000.- Euro
At second time the country should be suspended with 2 years and 10.000.- Euro
At third time the country should be suspended whole life
3 – If a competitor is positive personal and national team trainer(s) should be suspended for 2 years.
4 – Any positive competitors should prove they are clean 2 months ago before the championship which they are alloved after punishment finished. They should give sample to WADA and the result directly should be sent to WAF and EAF from WADA.

This text was copied from the official website of the World Armwrestling Federation (WAF):

www.waf-armwrestling.com