WDSF Annual General Meeting in Budapest (HUN) 10/06/2019

The WDSF National Member Bodies gathered in Budapest, Hungary, for the WDSF Annual General Meeting weekend on June 7-9, 2019. The event started on Friday with the Annual General Meeting of the WDSF Professional Division and Annual General Assembly of the WDSF Continental Association of Europe (DanceSport Europe). Many official and unofficial meetings were held on Friday, as the schedule allowed time for networking and discussions inside and outside meeting rooms.

The agenda of the Open Forum on Saturday had some current topics, for example the Sports Series, new structure of the competition rules, and Breaking and the Olympic Games project. There were also presentations by three NMBs (Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal), and the Chair of the Medical Commission, Dr. Patrizia Melchert (AUT). The discussions were positive, and especially towards the end they were really constructive and gave good input to the Presidium and the Commissions in their work.

We had a chat on Monday morning with the Canadians Patricia Goh and Phil Lee. Patricia commented on the Open Forum: ”The Open Forum was very informative and the atmosphere was very nice, people felt comfortable and at the same time people get a lot of information. I followed the interactive platform and I think it is the way to go, the social media way. It gives people an opportunity to participate in the discussion even though they might not want to go in front. It also saves time.”

Phil commented: ”The Open Forum this year was relaxed, it seemed to have an agenda, people felt they can talk and feel free to talk, and there was a good interaction between the Presidium and the people who were there. There was no time restraint like last year, so I think people felt they could be productive. The way interactive platform was used also helped the Presidium to answer the questions clearly.”

In general, about the AGM on Sunday, Patricia wanted to say that even though she was a guest and not a delegate at the meeting she noticed that people come from all around the world and this time there was time allocated for each of the topics. Phil continued with this thought by saying, that the members should handle the motions more efficiently and better. ”The motions from the USA were moved to the next AGM, that was done properly and I think people felt they were treated correctly.”

Four elections took place during the WDSF Annual General Meeting in Budapest (HUN) on Sunday, June 9th. Election of WDSF President to serve the balance of the term until the 2021 WDSF AGM was conducted. After becoming WDSF President in November 2018, Mr Shawn Tay (SGP) voluntarily undertook to stand for election to confirm his mandate as President of WDSF. Mr Erich Stäldi (SUI) chaired the election, and Mr Tay was elected as President with 127 votes in favour, 5 abstentions.

Mr Nenad Jeftic was elected to serve as the WDSF Vice President for Sports. The office had not been appointed since November 2018, after the previous 1st Vice-President and VP for Sports Mr Shawn Tay took the Presidency. Mr. Jeftic was elected with 118 votes in favour, 15 abstentions.

The current terms of the office of the members of the WDSF Disciplinary Council expired at the end of the 2019 WDSF Annual General meeting and the elections to the offices in the new WDSF Disciplinary Council for the term of four years (2019-2023) were held.

Mr. Erich Stäldi (SUI) was elected to Chair the Disciplinary Council. The elected two Vice-Presidents are Jens Grundei (GER) and Noel Laman (PHI), and the Members are Karina Geerts (BEL), Hermann Goetz (AUT), Antun Marki (CRO), Lars Wallin (SWE), Peter Loja (SVK) and Karen Pedersen (DEN).

The current terms of office for four members and the Chairperson of the WDSF Ethics Committee expired at the end of the 2019 WDSF AGM and the election of the new WDSF Ethics Committee was held. Due to the AGM decision of modifying the structure of the Ethics Committee prior to the election, a substitute member was also elected.

The WDSF Ethics Committee for the term of 2019-2023: Chairperson The Honorable Sandra Nori (AUS), members Tomas Eriksson (SWE), Poul-Eric Hoyer (DEN), Brian Nook (USA), Viktorija Tomic (SLO), and the substitute member Anatol Kotau (BLR).

Congratulations to all elected persons and thank you for all delegates and guests for attending the AGM weekend! Thank you for the Hungarian NMB for the arrangements and a special thank you goes to the Lausanne Office, General Manager Guillaume Felli and his team for organizing the event in such a professional manner.