Coparco Congress Minutes 2008

The President informed that the Secretary General wasn’t able to travel because of her high risk pregnancy condition, for that reason her functions will be substituted by Mrs. Gaviria, with the help of Mr. Font, who will also translate to English.

Arrival of Federations representatives took place at 16:00, completing attendance check at 16:30 p.m.

The meeting started with 13 present countries and 5 represented by proxy, that is 18 countries out of 28 affiliated.

With warm greetings, the President welcomed and thanked everyone for attending the assembly. He then proceeded to present his Administration Report, emphasizing the positive development COPARCO has been experiencing, as it seeks to evenly distribute the available resources. He complimented the countries that made it to the Beijing Olympic Games, and then moved on to describing the activities carried out:

The President’s report consisted on an expository explanation of the following activities and achievements during this administration period:

COPARCO Missions

Experts Robert Romero and Maciej Karlowski travelled to the following countries to share their knowledge and experience to help with technique improvement:

Robert Romero traveled to Panama, Costa Rica and El Salvador in two occasions, helping coaches and archers in the Central American region, while Maciej Karlowski traveled to Argentina & Chile, remaining a month in each country.

Olympic Solidarity Support

Some countries have asked for support from Olympic Solidarity for the first time, resulting in the following national and regional archery courses for this year:

There will also be a level 3 coach course in Medellin, Colombia in December, which will involve coaches from 10 to 15 countries.

The President expressed his gratitude to all Federations for the effort put into carrying out successful ranking tournaments throughout the Americas, lifting archery to a very high level, which can be seen in its organization and its archer’s skill.

As can be easily analyzed, the Americas have earned, as a continent, the second place with 12 finalists, if compared to Asia, with 11, Oceania with 1, and Europe, with 24.

The Americas in the Olympic Games

It’s a matter of pride for the Americas to have increased our entries to the Olympic Games, recalling that back in Athens 2004 participated with 5 countries and 13 archers, and now in Beijing 2008 we have 7 countries and a total of 19 female and male archers.

Looking towards the Junior Olympic Games, it’s of great importance to provide all the available help to the Americas in order to get our junior and cadet archers to raise their competition level. With that in mind, an agreement was made with FITA to create an assistance program to get our best athletes to take part in the World Junior and Cadet Championship in Turkey, to be held this year in October.

Food, quarter and registration will be provided for the 10 best archers within the different modalities, male and female, recurve and compound, and junior and cadet categories, according to the established basis in order to send one archer per country. Participating federations must send the list of archers that acquire the established scores so that the Development and Executive Committees can choose the best archers in the continent

In a joint effort, COPARCO, FITA and the 2011 Guadalajara Pan-American Games Organization Committee are requesting PASO (The Pan American Sports Organization) to incorporate the compound bow as a sports discipline.

Treasury Report

The congress went on with the Treasurer Report, presented by Mr. Carlos Hermes, who presented the income and expenses report from October 6, 2007 to June 30, 2008, with all its proper attachments and external audit certification.

COMMITTEES’ REPORT

He expresses being concerned about the low participation of Confederation affiliates, and even though he understands some countries don’t have this modality (indoor), he thinks the number involved should be greater. The South American Federations requested the Board of Directors to consider expanding the time assigned daily for the event, since it will be summer in the region and they like to make the best possible use of daylight for the outdoor tournaments.

He presented a small board containing a sample of medals given in 2007 and 2008 to be kept in the COPARCO headquarters and mentioned having already sent the due medals to the corresponding winners of this year.

Al Wills presents this report to the COPARCO website, asking the different countries to increase their participation, encouraging all to send in tournament results, as well as any other information that will help enrich the site.

Dr. Sergio Font, President of the judges’ committee, informed on recent months’ world ranking tournament activities throughout the region, reporting that there were no incidents, and that an increase in qualification among the judges reflects on swifter and more efficient tournaments. He also thanked all committee members for their support through their timely participation in the decision making process.

He pointed out the need to have FITA and Continental Judges in every member country in the region, since that would drop the expenses in international tournaments by avoiding the “import” of foreign judges for the competitions.

He expressed concern for the lack of judges in Central America, after some of them retired and others failed exams. It’s really disturbing not to have registered national judges, since it is possible, and would be great, for them to be at least continental judges.

He informed the assembly that there’ll be a judge’s course during a Central American tournament to be held in December, and invited all to attend and increase the number of judges in the area.

He gave a short review of the achievements during the FITA Judges Seminar, held in Guatemala, thanking the host country, the Guatemalan Archery Association and COPARCO for all their help and support, which was a great part of the seminar’s success. He also mentioned the involvement of 23 judges from México, USA, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Venezuela, Canada and other countries.

He also pointed out the FITA requirement of having judges under 30 years of age to attend the Junior Olympics.

Maria Emma Gaviria, President of the Development Committee, presented her report summarizing activities held throughout the continent.

She mentioned that the FITA funds granted to COPARCO for this program are used in the training of coaches in several countries through courses, monitoring federations to have a better view of their needs, helping the Americas’ junior and cadet support program for the Turkey World Championship, and also for supporting countries that need help to acquire archery equipment and supporting the development of national and continental judges.

Mrs. Gaviria handed in a summary of all levels coach courses that will be taking place this year in several countries, and which will be sponsored by FITA, COPARCO, and the International or Pan-American Olympic Solidarity.

An ample explanation was given on the procedure to access the support that the International or Pan-American Olympic Solidarity is granting our countries as a way of supporting growth and development, and in some instances, even without touching the National Olympic Committee’s budget.

Dr. Carlos Hermes explained the method currently being followed for the use of medication, and he emphasized the importance of being cautious when taking medicine and timely TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemptions) notifications to FITA and WADA, which is a necessary to avoid any report due to a misinterpretation of a result as a positive doping.

He complemented the attendants for their clean record on injuries during tournament activities held in all Confederation countries, but he mentioned that, in his opinion, COPARCO should require the presence of a paramedic and a physiotherapist during international events, as well as a Medical Emergency Plan. It is important to have all athletes and delegates covered by an international insurance during travel, in case of any accident or medical emergency.

In relation to doping, it’s important to declare that there have been no positive cases so far, taking into account that WADA’s standards have been raised, and he brings to the attention of the attendees, that some substances are detected long after they use. He mentioned the need to be cautious with the use of supplements, since they might be contaminated with substances that can show up on later analysis.

Dr. Hermes then mentioned that TUE’s (Therapeutic Use Exemptions) must be sent to FITA 21 days prior to the competition, and he also explained that sending the whereabouts of national teams is a requirement for all federations, and failing to do so could result in teams being left out of international events.

All countries requesting a World Ranking Event must run anti-doping control tests as follows: a minimum of 4 tests when the number of archers is less than 150, and 6 or more (according to FITA rule) when having more than 150 archers registered for the event. Dr. Hermes handed out official WADA-FITA documents and forms for anti-doping control in each country, mentioning that if more are needed, they can be requested to him or directly to FITA.

The approval of these reports was requested and was unanimously granted by the Assembly.

The election of the Vice-president to Central America and the Caribbean was carried out, being Gloria Rosa, from Puerto Rico, the only candidate. She was unanimously elected for the 2008-2012 period.

There were two candidates for Vice-president to North America, Al Wills, from Canada, and Robert Romero, from the USA. After 15 votes for USA and 3 votes for Canada, Robert Romero was elected for the 2008-2012 period.

Milton Gonzalez (Uruguay), Bárbara Hernandez (Dominican Republic), Al Wills (Canada) and Luis Felipe Pietrini (Venezuela).

The Assembly agreed that being 18 countries with the right to vote, election required a simple majority, equivalent to 10 votes, and each delegate would vote for two candidates.

The results were 17 votes for Dominican Republic, 8 for Uruguay, 7 for Canada and 4 for Venezuela, which made Barbara Hernandez one of the elected members. A new election was held to choose between Canada and Uruguay, which would leave out the candidate with fewer votes. The following two rounds resulted in a tie, with 8 votes for each candidate. After a recess, the election was continued, resulting in 11 votes for Uruguay, 5 for Canada and 2 votes declared void, making Milton Gonzalez the other elected member of the council for the 2008-2012 period.

Proposals were presented for 6 world ranking tournaments to be held in the Americas. The number of candidate countries equaled the number of events to be held, so all proposals were approved and the dates established as follows:

Selecting the Host country for the XIX Pan-American Archery Championship (2010)

With two existing candidates, Mexico and Puerto Rico, 5 minutes were granted to Ruben Ochoa, from Mexico, to show a presentation on the field to be used during the Guadalajara Pan-American Games in 2011, assuring that the field can be ready for both events.

As a result, Mexico obtained 14 votes against 4 votes for Puerto Rico, so the Championship will be held in Guadalajara from October 18 to 24, 2010.

The President proceeded to read the names of the 5 existing committees, remaining unchanged the Judge’s, Medical and Rules and Regulations Committees.

The Target Committee was left unassigned (no members), since it doesn’t play an active role within the organization, but until the statutes are modified in the future, it cannot be left out. The motion is approved.

In relation the Development Committee, after a debate among those present, it was proposed and accepted that Maria Emma Gaviria should put together an ideal group of people to help her with the Committee (a support commission), and it will be until the following congress that proposals for members of that committee will be presented.

1. A proposal by Venezuela on payment of a fee to judges during official COPARCO tournaments is analyzed, and after several interventions, the proposal is approved, taking into account the following variations:

Proposal No. 1: For Bolivarian, South American, Central American and the Caribbean and Pan-American Games, judges will receive their airplane tickets, food and quarter, local transportation, etc. and pocket money according to the following table:

JOB	DAILY US $
One (01) Technical Delegate	100,00
One (01) Chief Judge	100,00
International, continental judges, etc.	75,00

Proposal Nº 2: for Pan-American and America’s Grand Prix (World Ranking Tournaments), judges will receive: their airplane tickets, food and quarter, local transportation, etc. and pocket money according to the following table:

JOB	DAILY US $
One (01) Technical Delegate	75,00
One (01) Chief Judge	75,00

And to all judges wishing to attend such events paying for their airplane tickets, the host federation will provide the following: food and quarter, local transportation, etc. and pocket money (according to table).

JOB	DAILY US $
International, continental judges, etc.	50,00*

*Venezuela’s initial proposal was US$60.00, but after a few interventions, it was agreed to subtract US$10.00 from that amount, being unanimously approved after such modification.

2. Reporting on the web site created for COPARCO, the President yields word to Vicente Martinez, who explains its characteristics and capabilities, mentioning that each country will have a key to access its own web page within the site, and that a forum will be created to discuss topics of interest to archery in the Americas.

Mr. Al Wills will continue in charge of the web site, since he has been doing an excellent job.

3. The President mentioned the need to select a country as host for the next COPARCO congress in 2009 and after receiving no proposals offers El Salvador as host. Vicente Martínez Orga offers Madrid (Spain), with three nights at no cost for presidents or delegates, if Congress accepts. Al Wills, delegate of Canada, mentions that it would be better to make it match a world ranking tournament, in order for delegates to have their traveling expenses covered. Julio Parras, president for Chile, expressed that the idea of not having the congress on the same date of a tournament is good, for it would create the proper environment for presidents to meet without the pressure of paralleling events. The result is 14 votes for Madrid and for El Salvador 4, and the date is left to be determined by the Executive Committee.

With no other matter to discuss, all members present were thanked for their participation and the Congress was adjourned at 2100 hours.