WORLD TENPIN BOWLING ASSOCIATION WTBA CONGRESS - Wednesday, August 29, 2007 The 2007 WTBA Congress sailed through calm waters on its opening session at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Monterrey on Wednesday morning. A good representation of 46 delegates from the 109 member federations were present and 38 carried brought proxy votes from those nations unable to attend, bringing the voting strength of the meeting to 84. The reports from the three zones, the President and Secretary General were all quickly approved, as were the financial reports for the past two years of 2005 and 2006, the latter showing a positive balance of $173,216.64. The auditors gave their approval of the balance sheet and the Presidium are now released. The members are currently on a coffee break before the legislative session commences, hopefully with a kind wind into the sails of the good ship and still calm waters through the day. The legislative session commenced with a new registration from the Virgin Islands, also carrying a proxy, bringing the voting strength up to 87. The first item under discussion and for voting was that any WTBA statutes and playing rules. which are at present governed by a two-thirds majority, will now be down to a simple majority for the playing rules. In favor 83, against 2, abstention 1. The proposal  that zone presidentia may make proposals was carried unanimously. The 'style of play' rule that competition must always be played on a pair of lanes needed to be changed so that play on a single lane can be approved. The proposal was once again carried, 75 - 1. The clarification of a statute regarding the removal of Presidium members for nonfeasance of duties cleared voting 82-4. The rule regarding dual nationality was changed to come into line with IOC rules. In favor 84-0. The Championship format has proposals for dual lane conditions, long and short oil, with Doubles over 12 games, long and short; Trios six games, long and short; Fives six games long and short; All Events to be over 24 games; Masters over four rounds.  Discussion centered around the removal of Singles, especially from the Asian zone, expressing disappointment at losing chances of medals. Dr P S Nathan (Malaysia) made a proposal the the Singles event remains (3 games long, 3 games short). Vivien Fung (Hong Kong) proposed that the Doubles be reduced to six games instead of 12. Dr Nathan withdrew his proposal in favor of that by Mrs Fung. Confusing proposals and counter-proposals resulted in an initial vote to include singles, three games on long and three games on short; the doubles with the same format. That proposal was defeated, 30-51. Amendment from Dominican Republic was for a dual lane condition for Doubles and Singles, one lane with long oil, the other short, each over six games. Argument proceeded to bring the statement that this is a format procedure and does not need a vote as it is in current use and is just a technical matter. Amendment failed, 36-39 with two abstentions. Mexico made a proposal to keep the present playing and format rules. This was ruled as a no change decision and therefore no vote was taken. Back to the original proposal by the WTBA, and that was defeated 28-53 with four abstentions. Therefore, the Championship format will not be changed. Next, the proposals that semi-finals and finals should be played in all disciplines be played. This means that the two semi-final losers will be awarded bronze medals. Comments from the floor were of the opinion that one-game matches would be unfair to the players but best-of-three formats would take too long. Saudi Arabia made the amendment for best-of-three games, seconded by Malaysia. Defeated 4-74, with two abstentions. Original WTBA proposal passed, 63-10, with two abstentions. The proposal to remove amateur and professional status rules from WTBA Statutes and Playing Rules, which was defeated at the 2003 Congress in Malaysia by one vote, was brought back to the floor. Discussion, for and against, mainly trying to define' what is a professional?'. An amendment from Chile asked for all events regarded as Olympic events be allowed to include 'professional' players. Other WTBA events would be restricted to 'amateurs'. Chile's amendment was defeated, 54-25, abstentions two. The vote for the original WTBA proposal was approved, 54-25 with three abstentions. Now time for the lunch break until 14:15 local time. An item of news before the afternoon session is that Dr P S Nathan of Malaysia has withdrawn his nomination for the office of WTBA President, so it is now a straight fight between Heikki Sarso of Finland (right) and Kevin Dornberger of the United States. The voting strength for the afternoon session is 87. The proposal for penalties for cancellation of participation in Championships was approved, 48-32, with three abstentions. A tighter dress code proposal, covering types of uniforms, advertising and logos, was approved, 75-4 with two abstentions. Also a further proposal that a player has the right to wear his own shirt or accept an offer from the host sponsor to wear a shirt with their, was also approved. A proposal that a host federation be permitted to present special awards in one or all events was approved. International tournaments organized and conducted by the WTBA will incur a fee which shall be decided by the Presidium. Approved 68-15. A change to the tie rule for All Events so that the highest last game is the decider was approved, 71-14. A one-ball roll-off in head-to-head matches was also approved, 66-10. The selection of Championship hosts so that the Presidium make the choice brought the amendment from Puerto Rico that the Presidium should consider the applications and make recommendations to the Congress a host for each Championship. The Congress votes on the recommended host. If the Congress does not approve a host, the Presidium will keep the authority to make the choice. After over an hour of arguments, that amendment did not reach the necessary two-thirds majority, losing the vote 18-63. The Presidium will allow the two current Honorary Presidents to remain in that office, but not nominate to elect further to that position. Approved, 63-10 (4 abstentions). The players must not have reached the age of 23 on January 1 of the year of the Championship. Approved, 84-0 (2 abstentions). El Salvador put forward the proposal that the players must not have reached the age of 21 on January 1 of the year of the World Youth Championships. But there was also a proposal to reduce the age limit to 19, starting from 2010. The first vote to decide whether an age limit change is necessary saw a majority vote in favor, 51-35. The second vote for the choice between 19 and 21 saw the latter in favor from 2010. Only bowling balls included in the USBC Approved List will be allowed in WTBA competition. Approved, 73-0. A change in the rules affecting altering surface of bowling balls during practice to change to apply during practice immediately preceding competition and between competition rounds. The change explained by John Davis of the technical committee. Approved unanimously and effective from January 1, 2008. The Dominican Republic made the proposal that this rule becomes effective immediately. The vote needs a two-thirds majority to succeed. The majority was reached and the vote for instant application was approval, 72-5 (2 abstentions). A proposal from Sweden for the WTBA Congress to explore the possibility of joint men's and women's championships combined in one bowling center was passed, 67-6 (8 abstentions). Then a proposal from the United States to go one step further and host a combined World Championships in 2011 in the United States and make several changes to the following years. Sweden put forward an amendment to postpone the USA proposal until after the WTBA study. On this note, the United States withdrew their proposal. Membership fees for 2008-2009 are proposed to be the same as those in current use. Approved 77-0. The next step is the election of the WTBA President for a four-year term. As previously mentioned, this is between Heikki Sarso and Kevin Dornberger. Dornberger's presentation prior to the election stressed the need for more marketing, promotion and media attention so as to attract sponsorship and the need to boost the 18-34 age group back or into the sport. "Don't think being the WTBA President is an easy job, it is not," he commented. "FIQ and the WTBA have to work together more closely and our aim is to be an Olympic sport." Sarso commented that the challenge of being elected President in 2003 was a huge challenge. "I'm very pleased that today we have achieved so many important issues," he said. He informed the group of his progress with the positive recent negotiations with the IOC. "I want to serve bowling and I want to serve all Federations and to do that I need your support," was his closing statement. Vote counting in progress. The result is in favor of Kevin Dornberger, 53-34. "This is hard for me," stated Dornberger, "because I was the one who proposed Heikki for President in 2003. I have good points and bad points but I take my responsibilities seriously. I will not fail you. I am feeling humble right now and I thank you all very much." Photo courtesy of Lucas Wiseman, USBC Communications. The election for 1st Vice-President has three contenders: Salam Abbas Abdul of Qatar; Magnus Johnson, Sweden and Alex Popov, Australia. The first vote brought an insufficient majority for any candidate as Salam Abbas Abdul had 25 votes, Magnus Johnson 28 and Alex Popov 34. It therefore goes to a second vote between Johnson and Popov. That result was Johnson 43, Popov 44. For the office of 2nd Vice-President there are three nominations: Salam Abbas Abdul, Qatar; Magnus Johnson, Sweden and Bernard Pujol, France. Salam Abbas Abdul then withdrew, leaving the vote now between Johnson and Pujol. The new 2nd Vice-President will be Bernard Pujol of France (pictured. left), the votes 55-32. The auditors and an alternate were proposed and accepted for a two-year term. The meeting closed at 19:45 local time. For further information, contact Keith Hale: keithhale679@aol.com

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