USAWA

Minutes from the 2017 IAWA General Meeting

By Al Myers, IAWA President

The 2017 Annual IAWA General Meeting was called to order at 6:30 PM, on September 29^th at the Belmont Sports Club in Perth, Australia by IAWA President Al Myers. Roll call was taken and these members were in attendance: Al Myers, Peter Phillips, John Mahon, Denny Habecker, Anne Whitehead, Sam Trew, Justine Martin, and Sharni Clifford.  After the roll was taken, a few moments of silence were observed for the late George Dick.  Minutes were read by Al Myers from the 2016 meeting, since General Secretary Frank Allen was not in attendance.  John moved to accept the minutes, a second was made by Sharni, and it passed unanimously.  Reports from the IAWA Vice Presidents were next.  USAWA VP Denny Habecker said there was nothing new to report from the USAWA.  A report from the IAWA-UK VP Steve Gardner was given on his behalf by Al Myers.  In his report Steve stated he wanted to stay on as a IAWA-UK VP and that events in the UK are going strong. The ARWLWA Vice Presidents Robin Lukosius and Peter Phillips gave their reports next. They talked about the expansion of All Round Weightlifting in Australia, which included a new club from Melbourne and hosting of the Australian Championships in Bunbury. They also mentioned successfully getting sponsorship from the City of Belmont for the World Championships. Peter moved to accept the Vice Presidents reports, with a second by John, and it passed unanimously. A report on the 2017 IAWA World Postal Championships by promoter Al Myers was presented next. It was reported that 45 lifters participated in the World Postal, with lifters from the USAWA, IAWA-UK, and the ARWLWA participating. As been the tradition, the first day lifts of the World Championships were contested. Recognition was given to the overall club champion – the Western Australia Club. Peter moved to accept the report, with a second by Robin, and it passed unanimously.  A report on the upcoming 2017 Gold Cup was given by Al Myers since the promoters Matt Finkle and Andy Tomlin were not in attendance.  Andy had forwarded a report which stated that the plans for the 2017 Gold Cup were on track for November 4^th  in Glasgow Scotland, and entries were coming in.  John moved to accept the report, with a second by Sam, and it passed unanimously. The IAWA Technical Committee report was next on the agenda, but Chairman Dennis Mitchell was not in attendance so no report was given. A discussion ensued with the technical committee members in attendance (Al Myers, Denny Habecker, and Peter Phillips) commenting that they had not heard of any new news from Dennis regarding any new technical issues to discuss.  Al stated the current members of the technical committee – Dennis Mitchell, Denny Habecker, Al Myers, Steve Gardner, Steve Sherwood, and Peter Phillips.  Peter suggested that we formulate a current email address list for all committee members so better communication may be done in the future. This was agreed upon by consensus. A report on the 2018 IAWA World Championships and 2018 Gold Cup was given next by Al Myers.  This report was sent by IAWA-UK Vice President Paul Barette.  The 2018 Worlds will be promoted by Mark Haydock on October 6-7^th, 2018 in England, with a venue to be named at a later date.  The proposed lifts for day one include: Front Squat, Clean and Press behind Neck, One Hand Barbell Snatch, and the One Hand 2” Dumbbell Deadlift.  The proposed lifts for day 2 include: Power Row, Continental Clean and Jerk, and the Deadlift.  The 2018 Gold Cup will be promoted by Frank Allen in Leicester England on October 13^th.  It was planned to be the following weekend after the World Championships to encourage overseas competitors to make both events. Discussion following the report centered on the lifts selected for Worlds.   Al Myers stated that these proposed lifts should be evaluated by the Technical Committee before they became official, as this should be a responsibility of the Tech Committee.  Denny moved to accept the report, with a second by John, and it passed unanimously.  There was no Old Business.  New Business was the next agenda item.  John Mahon brought up the interest in the Old Time Strongman in Australia, and how he would like to see a IAWA World Championships for it. Discussion ensued how this would be possible with the current IAWA competitions (Worlds and the Gold Cup), and how it could be done without taking anything away from those competitions. John moved that IAWA host a World Championships for the Old Time Strongman for 2018 in a postal format that would include all lifters from their organization performing the lifts on the same day at a set venue place for all countries involved.  Denny gave a second, and it passed with unanimous vote.  The ad hoc committee of John Mahon and Al Myers will make the plans for the 2018 IAWA Old Time Strongman World Championships.  More new business discussion included more discussion about the technical committee. Al Myers commented that he would like to see equal group representation on the Technical Committee and would like to see another person from Australia added to the Technical Committee.  Al explained that having a technical committee of 7 would be better than 6 for voting purposes, as matters are decided by majority vote. John Mahon agreed he would take the position, and a vote was taken and it passed unanimously.   There was no further New Business.   Next up on the agenda was accepting bids for the 2019 IAWA World Championships and the 2019 IAWA Gold Cup.  Al Myers submitted a bid for the World Championships to be held in Abilene, USA for the first weekend of October.   John Mahon submitted a bid for the 2019 Gold Cup to be held in Perth, Australia the first weekend of November.  There were no other bids.  Peter moved to accept the bids, with a second by Denny, and it passed with unanimous vote.  At this point a few words from the World Championships meet promoter John Mahon was given which included details of the weekend’s competition.  John then moved we adjourn the meeting. A second was given by Sam, and a unanimous vote was taken.   The meeting ended at 8:30 PM.