Voting results at FISA's 2005 Extraordinary Congress

The Congress reconvened on Saturday and quickly went through any final amendments to wording before starting into the voting. It should be noted that any change to the Statutes or Rules requires a 67% vote.

VOTING RESULTS

Statutes

Declaration of Principles
This updated section was approved which included new wording on ?Environmental Responsibility? as well as commitment to the ideas of ?Inclusion and Accessibility?. These passed unanimously.

?Chairman to Chair? (Article 9)
This proposal from the Council passed with 68 votes in favour against 14 against. Therefore, 83% of the votes in the room.

?Ethics? (Articles 56 to 59)
The new section entitled ?Provisions for Ethical Issues? passed unanimously.

Finally, all the proposed restructuring of the Statutes passed unanimously.

Rules

The ?Under 23? Proposal (New Rule 4)
The German and Ukranian Federations’ proposal to change the World Rowing Under 23 Regatta to the World Rowing Under 23 Championships passed with 92 votes in favour, 6 against, therefore with 94% of the valid votes cast. There had been significant discussion about how the upcoming organizing committees would pay for this ?upgrade? to ?World Championship? status. As added insurance for this, the Australian Federation proposed a motion to allow the Executive Committee of FISA to charge entry fees, if necessary. This was voted on and passed with 76 votes for and 6 against. A further proposal would allow FISA to combine the Junior and Under 23 Championships, if it was possible and wanted. This passed with another strong majority.

?Lightweight Weights? (New Rule 23)
The Congress voted strongly against any change in the system for average weights. The vote was 39 in favour of changing the system in 2009 and 60 against – 39% in favour. There was an amendment proposed by the British Federation to change the lightweight singles to 70 and 57 kgs. Maximum weight which achieved 42% and failed. The lightweight singles will remain at 72.5 and 59 kgs maximum.

?Lightweight Eights? (New Rule 29)
The Australian Federation proposed the re-introduction of the Men’s Lightweight Eight after three years where there were less than seven entries at the World Championships. This proposal passed with 72% of the votes cast (54 in favour, 21 against). A further proposal from the Australian Federation that was referred to as the ?protection? clause passed with 86% of the votes cast and will now protect all eights on the World Championship programme as well as all Olympic categories from the ?natural death? clause of three years, less than seven entries. Finally, in this section, the proposal of the Australians to require a ?lane determination? race for categories at the World Championships which have less than seven entries passed with 80% of the votes cast. Finally, the Tunisian proposal to add lightweight singles to the Olympic programme failed.

?Boat Minimum Flotation?
The new proposal of the Council requiring all boats to be built with a minimum standard of flotation when full of water passed unanimously (Bye-Law 1.11 to New Rule 31).

?Advertising Rules? (New Bye-Laws to Rule 41)
The Council made an addition to the newly published Advertising Rules to allow certain advertising on the decks of the boats. This was confirmed by the Congress unanimously.

Elections

Competitive Commission
The Council announced the appointments of Roland Baar (GER), Premysl Panuska (CZE) and Faycal Soula (TUN) to the Competitive Commission to replace Brian Richardson (CAN) and Michael Mueller (GER) who have stepped down.

Events Commission Chair 
Mike Tanner (HKG) was confirmed unanimously by the Congress as the New Chair of the Events Commission until 31st December 2006; to complete the term of Mike Sweeney.

Executive Committee Replacements
John Boultbee (AUS) and Jean-Christophe Rolland (FRA) were confirmed unanimously to complete the terms of retiring Mike Sweeney and Denis Masseglia (he is only retiring from the Executive Committee).

Honorary Chair of the Events Commission
In the very last vote of the Extraordinary Congress, Mike Sweeney was granted the coveted status of ?Honorary Chair of the Events Commission? by the Congress based on the recommendation of the Council.

Awards Ceremony
That evening the results of the FISA Team Trophy competition were announced for 2004. This includes all ?senior? events taken from the results at Athens and Banyoles including the Adaptive Events. The winner was Germany with 77 points followed by 2nd place Italy with 61, 3rd place Australia with 55, 4th place USA with 52, 5th place France with 51, 6th place Great Britain with 50, 7th place Canada with 44, 8th place The Netherlands with 31, 9th place Denmark with 30 points and 10th place Romania with 29 points.

President Denis Oswald strongly praised the excellent facilities and services presented by the Croatian Rowing Federation and the organizers Zoran Emersic, Damir Subotic and Sandar Jurcic.

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