WBF - World Bridge Federation

Mr. José Damiani, President in the Chair
Mr. Marc Hodler, President of Congress
Mr. Ernesto d’Orsi, Past President
Mr. Gianarrigo Rona, President of the European Bridge League
Mr. Jean-Louis Derivery, Treasurer
Mr. Dan Morse, Secretary
Mr. Ata Aydin, President of Turkish Bridge Federation
Mr. Jeff Polisner, General Counsel

The following Executive Council Members attended:

	Mr. Jens Auken	Mr. Radek Kielbasinski
	Mr. Bharat Bhardwaj	Mr. Jim Kirkham
	Mrs. Joan Gerard	Mr. Al Levy
	Mr. Panos Gerontopoulos	Mr. George Retek
	Mr. Mazhar Jafri

Also in Attendance:

Mrs. Carol von Linstow, Secretary to the President

Excused:

Mr. Marc De Pauw
Mr. John Wignall

The meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m. by the President, Mr. Damiani, who welcomed the delegates to this Congress meeting and thanked them for their presence. The meeting then proceeded as follows:

1. Roll Call to Determine Quorum

Mr. Dan Morse, Secretary, called the roll. The following member NCBOs were represented by their President or his accredited representative, or by that representative’s proxy:

Argentina	Mrs. Delia C. Biquard	Japan	Mr. Tadayoshi Nakatani
Australia	Mr. David Stern & Ms. Margaret Bouros	Jordan	Mr. Ghassan Ghanem
Bangladesh	Mr. Khandaker Mobinul Islam	Kenya	Mr. Bharat Bhardwag
Belgium	Mr. Fred Van Meebeeck	Korea	Ms. Eunsun Sohn
Bermuda	Mr. Bill Pare	Latvia	Mr. Ivars Rubens
Bosnia	Mr. Faruk Masic & Mr. Aleksandar Kaludercic	Lebanon	Mr. Faycal Hamdan
Botswana	Mr. George Daniel	Luxembourg	Mr. David Thompson
Brazil	Mr. Ernesto d'Orsi	Malta	Mr. Mario Dix
Canada	Mr. James Priebe	Martinique	Mr. Guy-Alain Germon
Chile	Ms. Beatriz Marangunic	Mexico	Mr. Gonzalo Herrera & Mr. J. Podvilewicz
China	Mr. Sun Chengmo	Morocco	Mr. Chafika Tak-Tak
Chinese Taipei	Mr. Che-Hung Kuo	Netherlands	Mr. Armand Trippaers
Costa Rica	Mr. John MacGregor	New Zealand	Mr. Murat Genc
Croatia	Mr. Emil Tedeschi	Norway	Mr. Alf H. Jensen
Cyprus	Mr. Kalavanas Dimitris	Pakistan	Mr. Azwerul Haque
Czech Republic	Mr. Pavel Pekny	Philippines	Mr. Jehran Chua
Denmark	Mr. Peter Westrup	Poland	Mr. Radek Kielbasinski
Egypt	Mr. Mohsen Kamel	Portugal	Mr. José Manuel Soares de Oliveira
England	Mr. David R. Harris	Reunion	Mr. P. Hamel
Estonia	Mr. Peeter Lond	Romania	Mr. Marius Georgescu
Finland	Mr. Jaris Backstrom & Mr. Lasse Utter	Scotland	Mr. David Liggat
France	Mr. Yves Aubry	Serbia & Montenegro	Mr. Radmila Maksimovic & Vlajnic Branko
French Polynesia	Mr. Alain Cotti	Singapore	Mr. Steve Robinson
Georgia	Mr. David Chechelashvili	South Africa	Mrs. Di Adrain
Germany	Mr. Göran Mattsson	Spain	Mr. Eduardo Molero
Greece	Mr. Anny Karamangli Lydaki	Sweden	Mr. Hans-Olof Hallen
Guadeloupe	Mr. Philippe Bonnet	Switzerland	Mr. Nicholas Nikitine
Hong Kong	Mr. Anthony Ching	Syria	Mr. Hala Farhat
Hungary	Mr. Tibor Nadasi	Tunisia	Mr. Mokaddem Mejid
India	Mr. Mukul Chatterjeee	Turkey	Mr. Ata Aydin
Indonesia	Mr. Amran Zamzami	U S A	Mr. Dan Morse
Ireland	Mrs. Kay Downes	Venezuela	Mrs. Micheline Bernazzani
Israel	Mr. Zvi Ben Tovim	Wales	Mr. Patrick Jourdain
Italy	Mr. Guido Resta

The President declared the meeting open, a quorum having been obtained, there being 67 NBOs represented.

2. Approval of the Minutes of the 2002 Meeting

The minutes of the 2000 meeting of Congress, held on 21st August 2002 in Montreal, Canada, which had previously been circulated to all NBOs, were approved and ordered filed with the official records of the Federation.

3. President's Report

The President asked the delegates to stand for a minute’s silence in memory of two great bridge figures who had died this year, Mr. Carlos Cabanne from Argentina and Mr. Nils Jensen of Sweden.

The President then thanked and congratulated the Turkish Bridge Federation on the wonderful job they have done in organizing these championships and made particular mention of Mr. Ata Aydin, President of the Turkish Bridge Federation and Ms. Sevinç Atay as well as all their team for their incredible hospitality.

He went on to introduce Mr. Marc Hodler to the participants, as the President of Congress and presented him with the pin of Honour of the WBF.

Mr. Hodler made a short speech of thanks. He supported the WBF wholeheartedly, believing strongly in the mens sana in corpore sano.

Mr. Damiani went on to read his report and made particular mention of the problem presented by the changes in schedule that had been made by the European Bridge League, the result of which is that certain countries are unable to send teams to both the European Championships and the World Championships in the same year. He believes that this needs more discussion between the two Executive Committees.

The President underlined the fact that bridge players worldwide were getting older and insisted, once again, on the importance of attracting younger players to the game. He said that the WBF were organizing, under the aegis of the FISU, the 2nd University Bridge Championship this year here in Istanbul starting on Monday, 1st November. He was disappointed that there were not more teams participating, considering all the efforts that had been made to encourage and assist the younger players.

He reported that the first School Championship for under-20s had been held in New York earlier this year.

4. Treasurer's Report

Mr. Derivery presented his report which summarized the financial position of the WBF at end 2003 and is attached as Exhibit 4.

Mr. Geert Magerman was invited to make a brief presentation on the FISU. There are 134 National University Federations, with 7000 participants and 27 championships. FISU will set up a platform so that participants can communicate together. He suggested giving responsibility to young people within the Federations, as they are the ones who can get more youngsters interested in the game.

David Stern of Australia said that Australia felt there was no point in doing anything for youth. The President said that this was very short-sighted and if Federations carried on thinking along these lines, then bridge would die. Bridge has to be taught in schools. Before, bridge was learned within the family. Because of life-style changes, the only way now is to teach bridge in schools and then to be played in university.

Mr. José Oliveira was then invited to make a presentation on the venue for the 2005 Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup, the Seniors Bowl and the Transnationals to be held in Estoril, Portugal.
They have received strong help from the Portuguese authorities because the venue is a great tourist attraction. The modern congress centre opened 3 years ago, the hotel situation is very good and Estoril is a lovely resort.
This was followed by a short video presentation.

Mr. Giuliani Bianucci and Mr. Gianarrio Rona then made a brief presentation on Verona, the venue for the 2006 World Bridge Championships.
The President thanked Mr. Oliveira, Mr. Bianucci and Mr. Rona for their presentations and said that both sites had chosen excellent hotels with a huge price range for everyone. He encouraged delegates to attend both of these events and to opt for one of the many hotels. He also mentioned that the 2006 championships would be completely transnational in all events.

5. Unfinished Business

There was no unfinished business.

6. New Business

There was no new business.

There being no further business, the meeting was terminated at 11.45 a.m.