Today the first draft of the minutes of the ICCF Congress 2009 in Leeds have been distributed. I would like to thank Honorary President Alan Borwell (SCO) for acting as Congress Secretary and for the timely distribution of the minutes.
I would also like to thank the BFCC and the team that has prepared the Congress for their dedicated work that made this Congress very successful. Even the English weather was wonderful, and having a beer outside on a sunny terrace made me feel I was on the French Riviera rather than in Yorkshire!
I would also like to thank all the ICCF Officials who have prepared their reports providing a in depth view of the work performed in their commissions, committee, working group and tournament office,... and especially for those who have attended the Congress and presented their reports, suggestions and proposals to the audience. Although we are a "correspondence" federation, nothing will replace the direct contact and discussion during a week in Congress. I hope that more Officials and Delegation Members will be able to attend to the next year Congress in Antalya, Turkey from October, 2nd to October, 9th.
When you will read the minutes, you will see that we had a very busy week and many important decisions have been made. I think it is worthwhile to highlight the main points:
- New officers have been elected: Uwe Staroske (GER) as Marketing Director and Josef Mrkvicka (CZE) as Auditor and new appointments were made: Neil Limbert (ENG) as Qualification Commissioner and Ron Langeveld as Game Archivist.
- New regulations for the World Championship cycle and the interim rules have finally been adopted (they are detailed in the minutes) and they will now be formally drafted in the Tournaments Rules by Duncan Chambers (ENG), the chairman of the Tournament Rules Commission. These rules will be approved by the Executive Board and be applicable from 01/01/2010. I have instructed the Title Tournament Commissioner, Marco Caressa (ITA) to give to Congress a yearly report on the WC cycle so that any drift from the planned objectives will be identified and corrected. The objectives are clear: start a World Championship final every two years from 2013 on.
- With the help of the World Tournament Director, Frank Geider (FRA), I have prepared and presented a Tournament Plan that will also be made available on iccf.com as soon as possible. This will help the players to organize their season and also help the Tournament Offices to avoid the clash of several tournaments starting at the same time. The Tournament Plan will present the Calendar of events of the next three years and will be updated every year.
- The Congress has once more confirmed that postal players are welcome in ICCF tournaments beside the growing number of server players. The postal players will be able to participate in WC finals and Candidates through nodes and postal sections will be organized in the lower levels. Olympiad 19 will be played by post and the preliminaries will start at the same time as Olympiad 16 final (also played by post).
- The Direct Entry facility implemented in 2006 is becoming increasinglypopular with an average number of about 2.5 entries every day of the year. The Direct Entry is not only an easy, efficient and fast entry process for players, it is also a way to attract new players to ICCF.
- A major milestone has been achieved in the Webserver life: the development is now completed and the Webserver Development Steering Committee (WDSC) has handed over the "baby" to the Service Director. We shall thank all the members of the WDSC throughout the years for their very successful work! A permanent Service Committee, under the chair of Raymond Boger (NOR), Service Director, has been created and will be in charge to review and propose improvements of the server, the website, as well as other service to players such as ratings, titles,...
- ICCF accounts for 2008 have been approved and show a healthy financial situation. ICCF is a non profit organisation but must have the financial strength for its future development and marketing activities.
- In 2011, ICCF will be 60 years old (or young!) and it has been decided to prepare a Diamond Book. But unlike the Gold Book, the Diamond Book will be an electronic book which will also be the basis for an archive on the website for ICCF and more generally for Correspondence Chess history. Besides the Diamond Book, many attractive tournaments will be organized in 2011 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of ICCF!
Of course, everything is not perfect and the Congress has also identified areas where the Executive Board and other commissioner and officers have to achieve better results in the future:
- Several Member Federations have been suspended in January 2009 for non payment of their fees for three years of more. Suspending a federation is always the last possible action, but it is not fair to let some federation benefit of all the advantages and fees paid by others. The Congress has decided that similar sanctions would be applied in 2010 in case of non payments of fees of 2007 or earlier, but I hope that every federation will now pay on time inorder to avoid such extreme measures.
- No visible progress have been made on the new website and on the updated of the content of the current iccf.com site. Precise deadline have been given by Congress to complete these long overdue actions.
- Finally the Congress has also discussed the unfortunate situation of Canada, excluded from the Olympiads for having sent their team too late. Recommendations have been expressed by the ICCF Appeals Committee (Other Rules) in order to avoid that similar situation happens again in the future. It is also my feeling that more and better communication between Officials and Delegates would prevent such unfortunate situation.
I hope that these highlights will encourage you to go through the minutes and read them in more details and I will welcome any remarks and comments.
Ghost 
