Report on World Puzzle Federation activities 1999-2000
By Peter Ritmeester (Netherlands), General Secretary
The past year has been a very successful start for the World Puzzle Federation.
We are now a legal entity and truly a worldwide organization, with 18 members
on 4 continents. This is a big step after many years of informal association.
But in order to build on this success and to become of even greater value to
our members, we need to do much more.
The first priority for the future is to continue to attract new members. Having
more members will further the main purposes of the WPF--increasing the interest
in puzzles and encouraging the exchange of new puzzle ideas worldwide. Having
more members will also help us with our second priority--acquiring sponsorship
for the WPF and its activities, including the WPC. As a professional organisation,
the WPF should not be dependent on the enthusiasm and spare time of just a few
individuals, which has been the case in the past. Creating the infrastructure
to make growth and sponsorship possible should be one of our major goals for
the next year. The office
Much of the General Secretary's work this past year has involved administrative
tasks, such as handling requests for information, coordinating the efforts of
the WPF board, and implementing new memberships. (During one particularly busy
week, 15 letters arrived from India alone, after a mention of the WPF and the
upcoming WPC in a national newspaper.)
But working from a home office, on an intermittent basis, the General Secretary
could not do everything he wished. So in August 2000 the WPF office was moved
to a different location. The General Secretary still manages it, but in the
future he will have the help of an additional, part-time administrator, who
will perform regular daily tasks. In this way there will be room for growth--part-time
can become full-time. Also, the office will not only handle the regular tasks,
it will also have the means to take new initiatives.
The new address of the WPF office:
World Puzzle Federation
Kruislaan 419
1098 VA Amsterdam
Netherlands
Tel/Fax: +31.20.8884643
E-mail: office@worldpuzzle.org
The Website
One of the goals for the past year was to build a WPF website. It went online
January 25th, 2000 at www.worldpuzzle.org .
It contains our statutes, rules and regulations, contact information for members,
the contents of all past newsletters, information on the next WPC, and more.
Members
During the 1999 General Assembly in Budapest, the charter members set the minimum
annual membership fee at 500 Euros--an enormous amount of money for certain representatives.
Members were also required to be official legal bodies, which not all the representatives
were at the time.So it is heartening to report that nearly all the countries that
took part in the 1999 WPC have, in fact, joined the WPF. During the upcoming General
Assembly in Stamford (at point 4 of the agenda, to be precise), all these countries
will be able to present themselves and their organisations. What is more, thanks
to the enormous promotional work done by the organising committee of the 2000
WPC in Stamford, we will welcome new members United Kingdom, Argentina, Belgium,
France, and Korea, who were not present in Budapest--and 3 of which have never
before competed in the WPC.
Logo
At the 1999 WPC in Budapest the WPF started a competition to design a permanent
logo for the organization. Finished art was not required; simple ideas were
enough.
The resulting entries can be seen here.
After extensive discussions, a majority of the board was in favour of logo #7
(based on the logo of the 1998 WPC in Istanbul) or a version of it. But not
being design experts, the board asked a number of professionals for their opinions--and
the experts unanimously judged logo #13 to be the best!
So at the General Assembly the board will propose adopting logo #13 as the
WPF's permanent symbol. The members can vote to a) adopt #13, b) adopt a different
logo, or c) continue the search for another design entirely.
Conclusion
The main goal of the General Assembly in Budapest 1999 was to create a World
Puzzle Federation and to transform an informal, yearly gathering of puzzle enthusiasts
into an official legal entity, with members that are legal entities themselves.
This goal has been achieved.
The challenge for the upcoming General Assembly will be to make further growth
and professionalization possible. In this regard, the board will make several
proposals, which you can read in the document 'Board proposals for 2001'.
Amsterdam, September 20th, 2000
