"Skaters Corner"

Official information service by the IFSA-International Figure Skaters
Association


There is good news for all skaters! This year at Worlds in Birmingham,
the skaters founded an association for themselves. There had been
talks over the years that there is a need to get skaters together to
talk about ideas, needs and problems in our sport.  In Birmingham the
time seemed right. After the "Price Giving" all of the participants
were asked to stay and the idea of forming an association was
presented. The skaters agreed and were eager to join in.

The name was decided to be: "International Figure Skaters Association
(IFSA) ". The association is open to all figure skater, eligible as
well as ineligible. Its purpose is to strengthen all skaters.  The
main goal of the association is to get the skaters voices to be
heard. It will be the forum to discuss our sport and its future
development. As today`s skating world changes rapidly, it is important
that the sport will develop according to the needs of today`s
athletes. Because skating is an important part of our life, we should
be interested in its future.

I wish activity from you, the skaters. Together we can create an even
more successful sport.

I have talked a couple of times to the President of the ISU,
Mr. Ottavio Cinquanta, and he has been very supportive towards our
association. He also regards it as a positive move that the skaters
are getting interested in their sport.

I have also talked to the members of the International Olympic
Committee (IOC). They told me that many sports already have an
association for their athletes. The IOC even requires in its rules
that each National Olympic Committee has to have a representative for
the athletes in its council. The IOC finds this arrangement very
successful and is therefore supporting the organisation of the
athletes.

The meeting in Birmingham passed the following resolutions:

	1. The Association (IFSA) will be registered in Switzerland.

	2. It has a five member council to which were elected:

		President		Susanna Rahkamo, Finland
		Secretary		Pascal Lavanchy, France
		Treasurer		Hendryk Schamberger, Germany
		Member		Gorsha Sur, U.S.A.
		Member		Vadim Naumov, Russia

	3. The council members are elected for two years.
	     The first council makes an exception, its term is only one year.

The council is the working body of the association. It`s task is to
make things happen.

Once a year there will be a congress where all members may
attend. Next spring the meeting will take place during Worlds since
then, lots of skaters from different countries are in the same
place. Ineligible skaters are also invited to join. The two
representatives of each country have a very important task. Their job
is to spread information to the skaters in their country. At the same
time they should collect information on ideas to develop international
figure skating. Through these persons the association delivers news
and collects information which the countries consider important to
discuss. We are trying to build a network system that allows
information to travel quickly back and forth between the association
and the skaters. Everybody can be involved in our association that
way.  Information for the skaters is delivered through the
representatives of each country, but we think it is also important to
bring news directly to all the skaters. Different skating magazines
were asked to let us have a column in their paper named "Skaters
Corner". That is important since through the magazines we can reach a
lot of skaters in different countries. All the papers we`ve contacted
were very positive about the new move as well.

Already one hour after the first meeting of the association we found
our first sponsor: Tomy`s Skater Shop.

French lawyer Jean Bertrand is helping the IFSA to prepare rules and
to register. The rules are made using those of some other sports as a
concept (tennis, golf).

To make the new association strong we need activity from all
skaters. Also each country should choose representatives who are
willing to take their time and effort to organise the information
structures in their countries.

At the moment our membership fee will be US$ 10.-/person for one
year. This will help us to cover some mailing costs. For further
activities we`ll try to get financing some other way, like
sponsoring. In the next edition of "Skaters Corner" we will tell you
precisely on how to become a member. For quick infos you may contact
us by e- mail as listed below.

I hope that all of you skaters believe in the importance of this new
project and will join us and give us your support.

I wish you all a very successful season,

	Susanna Rahkamo


With kind regards
INTERNATIONAL FIGURE SKATERS ASSOCIATION


*************************************************************
e-mail IFSA:  Andreas.Waldeck@fernuni-hagen.de
*************************************************************