Report on the 14th General Assembly of the World Puzzle Federation
Kraljevica, Croatia, October 4-5, 2012 by Hana Koudelkova
OPENING
The meeting was called to order by Will Shortz (WPF Chairman, USA) on October 4 .It was held in two sessions over two days. Other board members present were Kamer Alyanakyan (WPF Treasures, Turkey), Vítězslav Koudelka (Czech Republic), Jaanus Laidna (Estonia), György István (Hungary).
The WPF members present were China, Croatia (also voting for Serbia), Czech Republic, Estonia (also voting for Latvia), Finland, Germany (also voting for Switzerland), Greece, Hungary (also voting for Romania), Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA (also voting for Canada). Also present but not voting was Slovakia.
REPORTS
The minutes of the 2011 General Assembly were approved as printed in the WPF Newsletter 17.
Hana Koudelková (WPF Director) presented the financial reports of the WPF accounts (distributed to the delegates in advance) and confirmed two Dutch WPF accounts have been cancelled with zero value and all the money transferred to the WPF account set up in the Czech Republic. As of September 28 the account had a balance of 32 438,14 EUR. The reports were approved.
There was a voting whether a check of the Dutch account needed to be carried out by a certified accountant again - 19 votes in favour of not having the audit again.
PRESENTATIONS
Board members
This year one board position was open as the 3-year Kamer’s period was over. There was only one candidate, Alan O’Donnell, nominated by György István. Kamer decided not to candidate again in order to help Alan get the position on the board as it could help UK when organizing the Championships. Mike Colloby, UKPA secretary, presented Alan on behalf of him.
WSC/WPC Host
There was only one candidate for hosting the WSC/WPC 2013 – China. Bulgaria decided to postpone their candidacy due to the financial situation.
The presentation on the 2013 WSC/WPC was done by the Chinese representation. The event will take place in Beijing in the second half of October. It will be held over seven nights and eight days. The cost of both events will respect the WPF rules. The Chinese asked WPF for help with the puzzles for the WPC. WPF promised to help with this matter. As there was only one candidate, the voting was immediate and all 19 votes were in favour.
After this, the only candidate for hosting WSC/WPC 2014 - Mike Colloby (United Kingdom) made his presentation. The venue of the event has not been defined yet as there are several scenarios. London as a venue seems to be too expensive and self-booking would be too risky, so the GA suggested an area outside London with one hotel for all participants. UK team asked for a period of six months (until March 2013) to select the best venue and confirm more details. As there was only one candidate, also this voting was immediate and all 19 votes were in favour.
WPF MEMBERSHIP
Kamer Alyanakyan proposed a provisional affiliation for new members. It was decided no new term needed to be created for the new members or candidates for the membership. Hana will be in touch with the candidates and try to get as much information about the activity as possible and encourage them to continue their job and keep us posted.
Vítězslav Koudelka proposed that only members of the WPF could participate at the WSC/WPC or a special fee should be set for the non-members. He proposed 100 EUR fee per person in addition to the participation fee for non-members with room for exceptions. He also mentioned there was a rule already set in the WPF Rules and regulations about the Individual membership.
György István proposed that there was no fee for the participant competing for the first time and next time the extra fee would be charged. He proposed a rule specifying that if at the championship there were up to three participants from one country presented, the fee would be 50 EUR, if there were four and more participants, the fee would be 100 EUR. György later on removed the proposal.
Juha Hyvönen proposed 80 EUR fee so that the fee for 4 participants +1 captain would be equal to the WPF membership fee.
The vote was on the general rule that all the WSC/WPC participants must be WPF members of individual members. All 19 votes were in favour.
The next voting was on the height of the fee and there were three proposals: 50 EUR – 10 in favour, 80 EUR – 3 in favour, 100 EUR – 6 in favour. Hence, the 50 EUR fee for the individual membership was approved.
RULES AND REGULATIONS
Association year - Vítězslav Koudelka suggested to change the association year from the current July-June to the calendar year as it said in the WPF statutes. It was confirmed that WPF had to follow the statutes and have the association year same as the calendar year.
There were two options how to change the invoice period. Either raise the next invoice for period July 2013 – Dec 2014 by 600 EUR or in July 2013 raise the invoice for period July 2013 – Dec 2013 by 200 EUR. It was agreed that the latter option would be more convenient for everybody.
If there is a new member, the invoice will be raised by 400 EUR for the whole association/calendar year.
B-teams - Vítězslav Koudelka proposed to include B teams into the official ranking. The rule was not accepted: 1 in favour, 15 against and 3 abstentions. Another voting was that members of B teams should be included in the official ranking, but teams not. Neither this rule was accepted: 4 in favour, 15 against.
It was confirmed that the number of participants from each country was not strictly defined by the WPF and it was up to the organizer to set this number.
WSC/WPC guidelines - Vítězslav Koudelka informed the assembly about partial WSC/WPC guidelines. It was agreed WPF needs a complete set of rules that can be provided to the host of WSC/WPC. This document should also help WPF to control the work of the organisers. There was a committee consisting of Vítězslav Koudelka, Nick Baxter and György István. Their goal is to prepare the complete set of the rules by the end of the year 2012.
ONLINE SUDOKU TOURNAMENT
Hana presented an idea to organize WPF online tournament hosted by the WPF members. The reason was that there is no major activity done by the WPF for the puzzle friends during the year.
There were several proposals on the name of the event like WPF Grand Prix online sudoku/puzzle cup. The tournament should start in January 2013 and end in July 2013. There will be official rankings of the registered players maintained by the WPF. Not all the tournaments will be included into the final rankings and top 10 players will be invited to the next WSC to play off in person. Registration fee 5 EUR should be paid either online via Pay Pal or in cash during the championship. The income will be divided between WPF and the host. 2013 will be the first trial year with no fee. In 2013 only Sudoku tournament will be organized and later on also the puzzle version could be prepared. Each of the top 10 players will receive a 100 EUR discount off the cost of attending the next WSC. This amount will be provided to the organiser by the WPF.
Countries that promised to host one of the online events are Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA.
WPF ARCHIVE AND COPYRIGHTS
Nick Baxter suggested creating an archive of all puzzles used at the WSC/WPC, national championships and other tournaments that should be available for all the WPF members. The aim of the archive should be to facilitate to all members the access to all the puzzles from the national and world championships.
Hana should ask all the members to send the puzzles from the past events in vector graphic (Illustrator, Corel Draw) so that the archive could be restored. Only members of that year can have access to the puzzles, therefore password for each year needs to be set up.
Hana also asked the assembly to recap the rule concerning publishing rights for the WPF members. All the members have exclusive rights to use the puzzles for printing purposes and only 10 % of the puzzles can be published online.
György István proposed to limit the exclusive rights to use the puzzles for a period of two years, after that the right would go back to the WPF. The WPF would be entitled to sell the puzzles for a certain amount of money at the WPF web page for personal use only. This was approved.
Nick Baxter suggested to change the 10% rule to the play off puzzles. This proposal was approved.
SPONSORS
There was a discussion if there was any regulation about the name of the sponsor in the official WPF logo or name of any WPF event. This was raised mainly by George Wang from China as this was very important for their future organization of WSC/WPC. George Wang stated that the name of the major sponsor would be included neither in the official WPF logo nor in the name of the championship 2013 in China. It was approved that if such a case occurred, it would have to be discussed within the board and certain amount of money charged to the organizer. It will be evaluated case by case.
WSC/WPC COMBINING OR ALTERING
György István asked all the delegates about their opinion on the championship format. There was a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of the combined format and it was confirmed the same format would be held at least for the next two years.
SIDE TOURNAMENTS
Hana Koudelková proposed to launch side tournaments during the WSC/WPC for categories under 18, above 40 and best debut performance.
This was approved by the assembly.
There was a vote on the age limits of the senior category. There were three proposals: 40 and over - 3 votes in favour, 45 and over – 5 votes in favour, 50 and over – 11 votes in favour. The 50 year limit was approved. The rule for the determination of the age was that the age at the end of the year must be either 18 and less or 50 and more.
ELECTIONS
New board member – Alan O´Donnell as the only candidate was elected by 18 votes.
The election of the site for WSC/WPC 2013 and 2014 was done right after the presentations.
QUESTIONS AND REMARKS
György István stated that there was not much known about the activity of the WPF members. Everybody was asked to send an update twice a year and report the activity to Hana Koudelková
Valter Kvalic asked whether it would be possible to offer a loan to the organizers of the championships. This is to be discussed among the board members.
George Wang said that he would like to know more about the activity of WPF member in Hong Kong. Hana promised to contact the members and ask for an update.
Yuhei Kusui from Japan asked about the activity of Korea member. For quite a long time they have been an active member but with no participants at the WSC/WPC., Yuhei Kusui said he knew about potential participants. Hana was asked to contact the member and Yuhei to ask the players for more details.
Hana Koudelková informed about the recent board activities. In France and Italy there have been concerns coming from individual participants regarding the work of the WPF member. This issue was discussed with both sides and hopefully a consensus was found and cooperation between both sides agreed.
Will Shortz asked all the delegates who could be a potential future host of the WPC/WSC within 5 years. Greece, Turkey confirmed this possibility.
CLOSING
Will Shortz thanked Valter Kvalic and the organisers for the successful WSC/WPC 2012. Will Shortz thanked Hana for her work in the position of WPF Director.
There being no further business, the meeting was closed on October 5 at 12.30 p.m.
