The 2nd Executive Committee (EC) finished Friday last week after days of insightful discussions and presentations at the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC). The official opening was done by Ms Patience Shikwambana, SASCOC General Manager, Mr Les Williams, SASCOC 2nd Vice President, and Mr Laurent Petrynka, ISF President.
One of the items on the agenda the first day was the recommendations from the ISF Convention, which took places in Doha, Qatar earlier this year. Based on the recommendations both Beach Games and Winter Games were approved to be organised in future with the latter one including alpine ski, cross-country, and snowboarding.
Another topic that was discussed at the Convention was the frequency of the Gymnasiade. Having received a bid for the Gymnasiade to be organised already in 2018 (2 years after the Gymnasiade in Turkey), the ISF President and Secretary General will make a preliminary visit to check if the proposal can be submitted to the General Assembly (GA) in May next year. The GA, according to ISF rules, must approve the next Gymnasiade’s place and date.
The EC decided to move the GA meeting 2016 from Trabzon, Turkey in July (linked to the Gymnasiade) to Marmaris, Turkey mid-May in order to be able to focus on the meeting exclusively.
Besides this, the EC also addressed the recommendation concerning the participation of selected teams and schools teams, and they accepted that selected teams, i.e. athletes, can participate in individuals sports; next year’s table tennis, badminton and cross-country, and in 2017 athletics, swimming and orienteering, without entering a school team. Adjusting the mode of entry like this, the hope is to have more countries participating in the WSC.
Along with the approval of selected teams, the EC agreed to create four commissions within the areas of education, health and medical, gender equality, and marketing and communication with the purpose of focusing attention on the development of these matters.
Moving on from the recommendations introduced in Doha, another item on the agenda was a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Peace and Sport presented by its Director Laurent Dupont and following approved by the EC. The official signing of the MoU will take place on November 26 during a press conference at the Peace and Sport Forum in Monaco. Following this presentation, the state of affairs for the ISF School Sport Foundation was introduced including the announcement of a solidarity trail that will be organised next year on May 29 for the benefit of the School Sport Foundation.
![flags_newmembers](/isfsports/sites/default/files/flags_newmembers.png)
Some of the highlights from the following days include, among others, the introduction of new statutes and bye-laws, which are all rooted in the purpose of making ISF more transparent and international while assisting the facilitation and acceleration of the decision-making process. Additionally, the EC accepted five new affiliated member countries, which include USA, Cuba, Albania, Republic of Srpska and Azerbaijan, and finally they designated the host countries for the World Schools Championships 2018 except for the WSC Table Tennis and Ski 2018, which are still open for bids until the next EC taking place in May 2016. The countries that were attributed a WSC 2018 during the EC include:
India, Pune – Badminton
France, Paris – Cross-Country
Qatar, Doha – Handball
Israel, Ramat Gan – Futsal
Czech Republic, Brno – Volleyball
Serbia, Belgrade – Basketball 3×3
The EC congratulates all the countries and is looking forward to follow up their preparations towards these future championships.