EBL General Assembly 2007

The Topkapi Palace Hotel was the venue for the General Assembly, which was attended by the delegates of the member countries of the EBL.

At the beginning of the meeting, Radoslaw Kielbasinski, the President of the Polish Bridge Union, withdrew his candidacy for the position of President.

The President of the EBL, Gianarrigo Rona welcomed everyone to the meeting and then submitted his report, which was unanimously approved by the meeting.

In the vote that followed he was re-elected to serve as President of the EBL.

Mario Dix of Malta reported that Monaco and Malta, though members in good standing, were being denied a vote through Article 24 of the EBL Constitution, along with 12 other countries. Malta, for good reason, had not fielded a team in Warsaw and Article 24 then prevented the NBO from exercising its vote here. Patrick Jourdain of Wales added that Article 24 was up for amendment during the forthcoming changes to the Statutes but was being made even more harsh, resulting, on his interpretation of the new wording, on a further eight countries who were not fielding teams in Jesolo losing their right to vote. He opposed the old clause and the new, harsher, wording. The EBL President gave Mr. Dix and Mr. Jourdain permission to formulate a revision that would be put to the meeting.

Anna Maria Torlontano withdrew her candidacy for a position on the Executive Committee, and left the board after 22 years service.

In 1995 Anna Maria received the European Bridge League Gold Medal and in 2004 was honoured with the World Bridge Federation Gold Medal for her services to Women’s Bridge.

Here in Antalya she was given the title of Honorary Vice President of the EBL, receiving the pin of the Committee of Honour from the EBL President.
Anna Maria was honoured for her distinguished and extraordinary service to the EBL as Chairman of the Women’s and Protocol’s Committees since 1985, the year in which she was elected as the first woman to serve on the board of the EBL Executive.

She will still continue to work for the EBL!
Congratulations Anna Maria!

The Assembly elected the following 12 members to serve on the Executive Committee.

Sevinç Atay, Turkey, Yves Aubry France, Jens Auken Denmark, Jean-Claude Beineix France, Marc De Pauw Belgium, Panos Gerontopoulos Greece, David Harris England, Radoslaw Kielbasinski Poland, Micke Melander Sweden, Guido Resta Italy, Armand Trippaers The Netherlands, Pim Vaders The Netherlands.

Nissan Rand of Israel was made an Honorary Member of the European Bridge League.

The EBL marked the Anniversaries of the founding of the following Bridge Federations with the presentation of the EBL Plaque:

Austria, 2004, 75th Anniversary – the oldest Federation in the World

Belgium 2006, 75th Anniversary

Ireland 2005, Golden Jubilee

Norway 2007, 75th Anniversary

Poland 2006, Golden Jubilee

Netherlands celebrated their 75th Anniversary in 2005

Kay Downs of Ireland was presented with the EBL Plaque for her services to bridge over many years.

The Treasurer’s report was presented by Marc De Pauw and was approved.

It is anticipated that at the end of 2007 the General Reserve fund of the EBL will be approximately 430,000 Euro.

Geert Magerman presented a report on University Bridge, highlighting the Universities Championships to be played in Brugge 4-9 August 2007.
He also informed the meeting that Bridge is now recognized by FISU, a most important development for those seeking to develop University Bridge within their countries. Details are available at www.unibridge.org and a copy of this important document can be downloaded.

On behalf of his father, Paul Magerman, he received the Gold medal of the WBF from the President of the WBF, José Damiani.

José Damiani, President of the WBF and President Emeritus of the EBL addressed the meeting.

Referring to the question of voting rights, the WBF President said that participation should be rewarded but he agreed with the two delegates that the proposed new wording was too harsh.

He reported that he continues to work with the IOC and this is helping member countries both with development and the injection of funds.
He cited the example of Equador, which is a member of its IOC and has received a grant of US$ 30,000.

The World Mind Sports Games will take place next year in Beijing, featuring, Bridge, Chess, Draughts, Go and Chinese Chess.

As other mind sports involve many young people it is vital that Bridge promotes the right image. The President, alluding to the Television show Desperate Housewives, described himself as a Desperate President.

He has written to all 48 member countries of the EBL urging them to send Junior teams to Beijing, but so far only 17 have replied, not all of them in the affirmative.

He urged all the delegates of the countries present to give this matter their urgent attention; otherwise this vitally important event may be cancelled.

The EBL President asked the meeting to approve the proposed new Statutes of the EBL.

Before the vote Mr. Jourdain reported that the new Article 25, replacing the old Article 24, rewarded participation in EBL Team events with an extra vote, meeting the point made by the WBF President. So there was no need to punish non-participation. He proposed, seconded by Mr. Dix, that the proposed new sentence regarding non-participation be deleted. This deletion was Passed Nem Con.

Mr. Kielbasinski of Poland proposed that the words in the new Article 39 ‘nominated by the Executive Committee’ be deleted. Article 37 already allowed the Executive to re-nominate existing Executive members so the effect of the deletion would merely be to ensure that candidates in the first instance must be nominated by an NBO. This deletion was Passed Nem Con.

Mr Tomas Roche of Ireland had spotted that the new Article 43 referred to ‘ten’ votes for the Executive whereas previously it had been twelve. The President said this was a typing error and it must be amended from ten to twelve.

With these three amendments the President put the proposed changes to the Meeting and they were approved en bloc. The meeting approved a proposal for the restructure of the WBF in line with the earlier proposal of the WBFPresident.