The minutes from the general assembly are published below

 

Minutes of meeting:         BAMA  GENERAL ASSEMBLY  (GA)- STARA ZAGORA

 

Held At:                              Press Room of the  Beroe Stadium             Date:22  Sept 2017

                                             Stara Zagora     -    19:30 hours

Co- chaired by:                 BAMA President   ZDRAVKA  YORDANOVA

                                            BAMA  Gen Secretary Valeriu  Rosetnic

 

ln attendance:

Gouncil  members:        Zoran  Milakovid  BAMA Vice-President  (ZM)

                                          Ergan  Ozkan         BAMA Technical  Director (EO)

 

BAMA  Members:

 

 No           Gountrv                   Representative

  1    Bosnia-Herzegovina    Dr Zlatan  Hrelja       (ZH)

                                                Elvir  Kadrid           (EK)

  2    Bulgaria                         Zdravka Yordanova  (ZY)

                                               Krasimira  Chahova (KC)

  3    Croatia                          DamirJakobovi6 (DJ)

                                               lvan  Puk5ar            (lP)

  4    Greece                         Odysseas Agros          (OA)

                                              Julious Abott            (JA)

  5    Rep Moldova              OIqa Coqalniceanu (OC)

  6    Montenegro               Gojko  Banjevic         (GB)

                                              Draqoliub  Koprivica (DK)

  7    Romania                      Robertino  Tdnase  (RT)

                                             Dan  Marinescu  (DM)

  I    Serbia                           Nebojsa  Besara         (NB)

                                             Du5ka Lorbek  Mandi6 (DLM)

  I    Slovenia                      Jurij  Novak            (JN)

                                            Marko  Sluqa           (MS)

 10    Turkey                      Nurettin  Memur         (NM)

                                            Ercan  Ozkan            (EO)

 

Guests:

Vesna  Repi6 Cujid         EMA Representative

Selma  Turkkal               WMA  Council member

 

Michalis  Coutsoudakis OEVAS delegate for Agenda  item 7.2 (MCl

Nick  Lagoyiannis  OEVAS delegate for Agenda  item 7.2 (NL)

 

Distribution: AII

 

 

      0.     lntroductorv  Matters

 

      1.    President Zdravka Yordanova welcomes  the delegates  attending the BAMA

             Ordinary  General Assembly  and introduces the Council  members  and the  guests.

      2.    EMA representative Vesna  Repid speaking  in Serbian and then  in English extends

             the  EMA Council greetings  to the attendees  and wishes  success  to the General

             Assemblv and to the athletics  competition.

      3.     All  BAMA Members  are duly represented  in the statutorily  convened GA and the

             voting power of each Member  is statutorily recorded  making  a total of 24.

      4.    The GA agenda is unanimously  confirmed.

      5.    The voted delegates  for the certification  of the Minutes  are dr Zlatan  Hrelja from

             Bosnia and Ergan Ozkan from Turkey.

      6.    The proposed  scrutineers  are Jurij Novak from  Slovenia  and Dan Marinescu from

             Romania. Accepted.

      7.    Proposals  bv the  Council

             The General Secretary  proposed a Seven Years'  Turn rule to host BAMA

     7.1    Outdoor championships by the seven countries which  have organized  the

             event starting  in 2011.

             The Slovenia, Turkey and Croatia delegates confirmed the commitment of their

             federations to  host  BAMACS  in 2018,2019 and, respectively  2020.

             The delegates from Romania, Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria expressed their

             agreement with the principle only given the  relatively long time  span ahead delayed

             a commitment  for a precise year.

             To the general satisfaction the proposal passed successfully.

      7.2    The BAMA Members were asked to make a resolution on the representation of

             Greek masters  in the future  General  Assemblies.

             The delegates  from the Greek Masters'Athletics  (GMA)  and, respectively,  the  Greek

             Veterans Athletic Federation  (OEVAS) were each  given five  minutes to put their

             case in front of the Assembly.  Each Member federation could then ask one question

             to each  of the two.

 

        The GMA representative OA apologized for the internal fight within the two masters’

        organizations in his country.  He told about the letters the GMA had sent to the

        seniors'  federation  in Greece  - the SEGAS-  and to the current  OEVAS President

        seeking mediation to end the current  dispute.  Contacts had been initiated with the

        OEVAS controlled clubs in view of cooperation to register a united Greek team  in

        Stara Zagora. All these actions had no answers from  the other  sides.

        The OEVAS delegate MC pointed out from the start that Mr Symeon Symeonidis  is

        no longer in charge of the organisation  he represents and the OEVAS  is committed

        to respecting  the democratic  procedures  of the  BAMA assembly. He went on to

        underline that  the  OEVAS is a federation of many clubs rather than a single club like

        the GMA. The Greek Ministry of Sports  has officially  confirmed the OEVAS as the

        only representative of Greece  in foreign  affairs  and therefore the OEVAS should  be

        considered as such by the other parties.  The OEVAS delegate ended by saying that

        they will  respect  any decision made  by the  BAMA  regardless  of the outcome,

 

        Romanian delegate  DM recalled  the  EMA  Council  decision  dated  July  2016 whereby

        the OEVAS  was suspended from the WMA role and asked the  OEVAS  whether this

        letter was  received  and given  consideration by them. The answer was "no".

 

       The BAMA President asked  each side which  future action will  be taken  by the

        winning party with  respect  to the other after the vote.  OA stated that he would

        continue his efforts for a united Greek  masters'  movement  under the  SEGAS.  MC

        repeated the  previous  statements as regards the  OEVAS  representative  status.

 

        Comments on this sad and regrettable Greek case were  also  made by ZM and ZH

        before the  assembly  proceeded to vote. The  President  proposed to have a secret

        ballot on this  item of the agenda.  Two countries  actually making two fifths  of the

        membership requested an open ballot and the opinion was  in favour of this latest

        proposal,

 

        By a special majority - eight federations in favour against one abstention, Greece

        not allowed  to vote on this  item- the GMA was  recognized  as the only representative

        of the Greek  masters in the future  BAMA GA-s.

 

 8.    Proposals bv the  Members

        Balkan outdoor championships to be organized in July  (proposal by the GMA)

8.1   The arguments put forward by the majority of the Members were against  this

        proposal.  lt was  recalled  by the longer serving  members of the Assembly  that this

        calendar issue was first  debated  many years ago and the conclusion  had been in

        favour of the third week-end  in September  which  since  remained.  The proposal was

        withdrawn.

8.2   Kosovo athletes to be seen in BAMA competitions (proposal  by the TAF

        Masters Board)

 

        EO put the case in the terms that the Kosovo athletes have full participation rights in

        the IAAF competitions  (WMACI, EMACS)  and consequently  they should  become

        BAMA Members.

 

 

        The Chair presented to the GA the 22.02.2017 application of the Kosovo Athletic

        Veteran Association (KAVA) to become a BAMA Member - application rejected by

        the Council on account  that five  of the ten Members have never recognized Kosovo

        Independence. One whole page of that application is actually a political manifesto in

        support of Kosovo independence with  the  remaining half a page concerned  with

        athletics.

        The position of the Chair was that the federations from the 'non-independence'

       countries cannot  be pushed  into any form  of indirect recognition  of the Kosovo

       independence declaration. As regards the  IAAF  membership it was  pointed out that

       the rights and obligations  of countries under the  IAAF Constitution  only apply to

       competitions organized  by a Continental (Area) Association which  is not the case of

       the BAMA  championships. BAMA is not under ABAF either, not forgetting that some

       BAMA federations are not related to their national athletics federations.

 

       After making a parallel with the endless ethnic and political tension in his home

       country  -Bosnia-  ZH assessed  the difficulty of the decision  to be made by BAMA. He

       underlined the  necessity to avoid  any political  influence  in making such  decision.  lt

       should only  be based on athletics  considerations,

 

       DM put forward a compromise proposal by which the Kosovo athletes could receive

       membership status under the  name of their  athletics federation  (KAVA)  subject  to

       particular restrictions regarding  any display of national  symbols.  lP make the remark

       that  an amendment to the Statutes  would  have to  be drafted to accommodate such

       solution.

 

       JN commented that whereas by the time of the 2011  DomZale  BAVACS some

       Kosovo athletes participated in individual capacity, with Slovenia having recognized

       Kosovo independence in the meantime they could now be seen as representing

       Kosovo.

 

       ZM draw attention upon the fact that the discussion of this item had been for much

       of the time about  politics rather than athletics.  He noted that there were no Kosovo

       athletes present  in Stara Zagora  regardless of the fact that  Bulgaria  is one of the

       countries which  recognized  Kosovo  independence.

 

       Considering  that whichever  way  the vote on Kosovo  membership  would  have gone it

       would  have created an unwelcome  rift in the BAMA athletics family the Chair

       suspended the item from the agenda. The situation of Kosovo  atheltes'  participation

       in BAMACS  remained  as it had been  before  ie in individual  capacity.

 

 

8.3  Starting  in 2019  lndoor Balkan  Championships  to be organized  every other

       year in the years when there  is no EMACI scheduled  (proposal by the TAF

       Masters Board).

 

       The Chair  noted that further  on the agenda  there are a bid from Serbia to host

       BAMACI  in Belgrade in 2018 and additionally  a declaration of intent from  Rep.

       Moldova to host BAMACI in 2A19  in Chishinau. Besides, the 2019 WMACI are

       already scheduled to take  place in Torun - Poland which  does create a similar type

       of conflict.

 

       It was finally agreed to stay for the time being with the Statutes provision in art.

       21.3.2  in that  BAMACI may be organized  in the spring depending  on hosting

       availability and the GA decision.

 

 

 9.    Bids to organize future championships

 

       a. Outdoor

         al 2018 Slovenia - Celje

 

       The Slovenian delegates distributed a leaflet presenting Celje and the athletics

       tradition of the citv. On behalf of the organizers a ladv athlete presented the

       competition facilities  and some details  of the  project. There was a short debate on

       the proposed dates:  21-23 September - five days only  after the end of the  Malaga

       WMACS. The Slovenian delegates pointed out that one week later would mean

       shorter  daylight  and rather  lower temperatures  which  may cause  some  discomfort.

       The Celje  bid was approved  unanimously and Jurij Novak -the running president of

       the SAZS - was greeted  with applause as the  new BAMA President  starting  the end

       of the current championships.  JN confirmed that the Celje BAMACS web-site is

       intended to be started  at the end of November.

 

 

       a2 2019 Turkey

 

       As agreed in 7.1 before, Turkey was approved as the  host for the 2019  BAMACS.

       The details  of the  host city remained  to be announced in the future.

 

 

       b. Indoor

       b1. 2018  SERBIA - Belgrade

 

       On behalf of the Serbian federation  DLM distributed to the delegates brochures and

       leaflets illustrating some  highlights of Serbia  and Belgrade. The newly built venue

       intended for BAMACI  was  inaugurated  in 2016  and was  used as a warm up facility

       for the elite athletes  taking  part in the 2017  European  Championships.  The dates in

       the proposal were  10-11 March. The bid was unanimously approved by the GA.

  

{0.     Miscellaneous

       a. Free talk to identify solutions to start and maintain the BAMA web-site

       (Council initiative)

       The conclusion on this  item was that there was  need to find  an lT specialist to

       provide the  list of related  activities and  costs  and then seek a solution  to cover those

       costs and start the site. All were  invited to find  the key to this  initial step.

 

       b. Discussion for the Rules of Championships in the future to  provide that

        "Each  participant  may compete  in as many disciplines as one rm.shes.  Besides

       it will  be conformed with  EMA and WMA  r.tles",  (initiative from  GMA  -

       Odysseas Agros)

 

 

       There were arguments in favour  (DM stated that  it would  be beneficial  for combined

       events athletes to have an opportunity  to assess themselves  when  attending

       BAMACS)  and against (MS stated that besides safety concerns, scheduling the

       events would  become a nearly  impossible  task for the organizers  within the

       BAMACS three days timeframe).  Finally it was left for the Rules of Competition

       when drafted and approved  to settle this matter.

 

 

       c. Preliminary steps to host BAMACI in Rep Moldova (initiative by the Rep

       Moldova Athletics Federation - Olga Cogilniceanu)

 

 

       After recalling the Moldova masters’ long time commitment to Balkan athletics, OC

       made a passionate plea in favour  of hosting BAMACI in Chigindu in 2019.  Cautious

       however that the available  hall may not be up to the highest  expectations  of the

       visitors she  invited a BAMA technical  team to come, see and assess the

       appropriateness of the bid. The invitation was approved and it was left to the BAMA

       technical body to plan the trip to Chigindu and make  its assessment

 

  12.    Closing of the General Assembly

 

        The General Secretary particularly wanted to thank Zdravka Yordanova and Zoran

        Milakovid for accepting the BAMA presidency during the previous two years, a

        relatively difficult time  in the history  of the Balkan Association.  ln recognition of their

        contribution he offered  them the  miniature BAMA flag  as a memento of these years.

 

        This was received by the GA with a ripple of applause.

 

        President  Zdravka  Yordanova  closed the GA by extending her thanks  to the

        delegates for their  contribution  to the success  of the  meeting  and welcomed  Jurij

        Novak as the coming  BAMA President.

 

Signed  by:

 

        President  ZdravkaYordanova

 

        Secretary   Vateriu  Rosetnic 

                                                      

 

Certified by

                       Dr Zlatan  Hrelja

                       Ergan Ozkan