New Executive Committee Meets in Brussels
October 27th, 2007
"A new era is on its way"
From October 26th to 28th, the new FISU Executive Committee, which was elected for the period 2007-2011 in Bangkok last summer, held its first official meeting in Brussels, Belgium. This was a very important session for the future of FISU. Indeed, as you certainly know, Mr. George E. Killian was re-elected last summer during our General Assembly to lead our federation for a period of four years. Part of the Executive Committee was renewed as well. As a result of the amendment of our statutes, the Presidents of the Continental Associations or their representative now sit on this committee. This was an opportunity to take more into account these associations that will therefore be completely involved in the decision-taking process of FISU. The result of this new policy was to clearly give a larger number of persons the occasion to take part to the debates and to give their opinion on the way FISU is conducted. According to the President: "a new era for FISU" is now on its way! On day one and as usual, the Executive Committee Meeting started with the approval of the report of the previous EC meeting, which was followed by the report of the President George Killian, the Treasurer Danzandorj Bayasgalan and Director General Eric Saintrond. All those reports were very precise and detailed and gave to the EC Members a perfect overview of the FISU activities within the previous three months. Then the floor was given to Christophe Berthaud, Swiss Timing Director, who outlined the collaboration possibilities between his company and FISU. Swiss Timing has an enormous amount of experience in the timing of a multitude of sports and has already established long-lasting working relationships with several international sports federations as well as with Winter and Summer Olympics. Previously, Swiss Timing collaborated with FISU in different events. The 1993 Universiade in Buffalo was the first one. This was also the case during our last Universiade in Bangkok. FISU is now studying the possibility of working with Swiss Timing on a long-term basis and certainly from now on and up to 2015. The 2009 Belgrade Universiade Organising Committee already signed a contract with this company that will guarantee us a perfect results service during the 25th Universiade.
The Commission for the 2013 Bidding Procedure
On Saturday, October 27th, the second day of meeting, the working commission for the 2013 Bidding Procedures presented the results of its work, having worked out sixteen proposals. The bidding procedure was set up earlier than usual in order to give more time to the future organisers to prepare the Universiade. The application procedure was launched on September 1st, 2007, and applicant cities will have until March 15th, 2008 to send their candidature documents to the FISU secretariat. The second phase will consist in assessing the quality of the files submitted to us, which entails an inspection visit to each applicant city. Finally, the Evaluation Commission will prepare a very specific report for each applicant and present it to the Executive Committee for the final attribution that will take place in Brussels in May 31st, 2008. Up to now, we already have 3 applicant cities for the 2013 Winter Universiade: Calgary (CAN), Almaty (KAZ) and Maribor (SLO) and 7 for the Summer Universiade: Edmonton (CAN), Quebec City (CAN), Poznan (POL), Gwang-Ju (KOR), Kazan (RUS), Murcia (ESP) and Vigo (ESP). FISU President George E. Killian was very pleased to present all those applicant cities having in mind that our federation is now one of the most attractive multisport association in the world. In the afternoon session the members for all FISU Commissions were appointed for the period 2007-2011. This was a very long and difficult procedure. Indeed, we had a lot of candidates willing to be part of our commissions. The final list will be on line in the next few days.
Our new Secretary General, Eric Saintrond (left), together with George E. Killian, FISU President
Also as a result of the amendment of our statutes, you probably know that there is no longer an elected Secretary General in our Federation. The FISU Secretary General is now nominated by the Executive Committee Members. At the end of this second day of meeting, our EC members decided to nominate Mr. Eric Saintrond as our new Secretary General. Mr. Saintrond was already FISU Director General since December 2003. He has been involved in our federation since 1985. At this time he entered the FISU as an Executive Assistant. From 1992 he became Assistant to the Secretary General and was involved in the preparation of numerous FISU events. Mr. Saintrond is also lecturer in sport events management at his alma mater, the "Université Libre de Bruxelles". Also note that Milan Augustin was appointed as Director of the Winter Universiade. Kole Gheloshaj was named the President’s Chief of Staff. End (words by Yvan Dufour, Pictures by Nicolas Messner)
