Le creed according to JC BAQUÉ : «Bring, share, exchange, discuss, receive, ...»
02/12/2000 - 30/12/2000
The Executive Board opened its meeting with a impassioned call for solidarity by Jean-Claude BAQUÉ in the presence of Raphaël NIEMI, who was representing Société Générale’s Head of Sponsorship, Ms Hafida GUENFOUD-DUVAL. Mr. NIEMI was sincerely thanked for his current hospitality and was invited to attend next year’s General Assembly!
Having welcomed all countries and in particular the new Chairmen, he went on to congratulate the nine European countries who have qualified for the RWC and in particular the Eastern European countries who are achieving at both senior and junior level. He also congratulated the English Women’s team for its performance on the global stage. The Chairman of FIRA-AER spoke of its new organisation both in terms of its new offices and its administrative governance (Gilles BIZOT, Executive Officer and Amandine GUICHARD, Secretarial & Communication’s Assistant). He expressed his satisfaction that they were now working in “ideal conditions”. Thanks to the work of the two RDMs from the IRB FIRA-AER’s action plan, implemented over the past three years, has been accomplished. This has been achieved, of course, in conjunction with the work of the various committees, in particular the High-Performance Committee, the Sevens Committee and the Communications Committee (Internet site). He noted just one down side : “I am concerned by the bad results from the Northern hemisphere compared with those of the South … this is across the board, Seniors, U20 and Women’s competitions. We need to address this collectively and take action . On the other hand, congratulations to Georgia, Russia and Romania who exemplify the progress being made on the pitch. Thank you to the teams from across the Channel who are now taking part in the U18 competitions. With regard to financial matters, the devaluation of sterling and the freeze on IRB grants have resulted in an overall decrease in funding forcing us to try to achieve more with less. There is only one way we can do this and that is if we bring, share, exchange, discuss, receive and give, connect and unite in order to make progress. From a global perspective we are a restricted sport in terms of numbers of participants. We need to open up to the masses and to train top-class Educators. The bigger nations need to assist the smaller ones in their development by creating competitions for young players. We need to focus our efforts on the RWC 2015. In the words of the poet Alfred de Musset, Let us join hands ““All men are not capable of great things but all men are sensitive to great things””.
The new governance structure comprises; a Political department composed of a Chairman, an Executive Committee (which we will introduce later) and Executive Board, an Administration department and a Sports department (RDM) all of which will be linked by the Secretary’s office. The three departments will of course work in collaboration with the IRB.
Following a second roll call of nations and board members by Jean-Louis BARTHES England, Armenia and Ireland were found to be absent due to transport difficulties caused by the deteriorating weather conditions.
RDMs Michel ARPAILLANGE and Douglas LANGLEY presented the 2010/2011 action plan, which includes the U16 and U17 camps (35 unions), the Seniors, the U17 tournaments (12 Unions) who are preparing for the U18s (31 Unions), U19s (8 Unions) U20s (4 tournaments of 4 nations, culminating in a final tournament), and finally the pinnacle: the seniors from all nations. We won’t go into the detail of the competitions, nor that of the training courses for coaches and officials (all of which have increased in numbers) as the final figures for these will be compiled at the end-of-season conference. The member’s (full or associate) bylaws to be modelled on those of the IRB will also be drawn up on that occasion.