IAWLS General Assembly, Lienz, January 21, 2006
President' s report
The International Association of Worldloppet Skiers (IAWLS) was founded in 2000 and operated until September 2005 as a non registered body. Mid-2005 our membership had grown to 240 skiers from 22 countries. By that time it had become more and more advisable to incorporate IAWLS in order to get a legal status. For this purpose, seven founders agreed on the statutes at the constitutional assembly, August 27, 2005 at Falls Creek. On September 13, 2005, IAWLS was registered as a non-profit association under the French Law of July 1, 1901. The announcement of the creation of IAWLS appeared in the Journal Officiel on October 8, 2005.
From the strictly legal point of view, the present report should cover the period between the registration and the first general assembly. However, for completeness, I will also summarize some of the previous actions undertaken by the Committee of the non-registered IAWLS which was the predecessor of the actual IAWLS. Indeed, the advice for skiers and the letters to WL constitute a set of documents which were inherited from the proto-IAWLS. One of the most important documents is the set of Recommendations for WL races, 11 recommendations concerning various aspects of the races. The latest edition is included in our letter of April 2004 to WL.
The Committee’s last report to the members was in October 2004. At the end of the 2004-2005 season, we wrote to several races:
-Jizerská Padesátka: adopt a larger number of waves and a corresponding seeding system.
-Dolomitenlauf: eliminate obstacles which slow down the traffic, adopt a Gold Master classic race on Saturday, improve web site and race info package .
-La Transjurassienne: improve marking of finish area, adopt a Gold Master classic race on Saturday.
-Finlandia-hiihto: eliminate short/long race interference, correct km marks at the end, improve web site and on-line registration, arrange a reception for international Masters.
-American Birkebeiner: adopt a seeding system for all waves.
-Vasaloppet: adopt a wave start to eliminate the bottleneck and improve the seeding system.
-Birkebeinerrennet: continue using the excellent seeding system adopted in the 2005 race, use better bibs, extend bus timetable.
In June 2005 we met the Marcialonga president and secretary in Predazzo and presented our views on an improved start system and corresponding seeding system.
In the 2006 Yearbook you have seen that our suggestions to Dolomitenlauf and La Transjurassienne to add in their program a classic Gold Master race on Saturday were accepted. We invite the skiers to register massively in these new races.
It is appropriate to remind you that the IAWLS proposal to swap the dates of Tartu Maraton and La Transjurassienne was accepted, as we reported last year. The new schedule with La Transjurassienne preceding Tartu Maraton will apply for the first time in 2006. It is a welcome change for many WL skiers, especially from overseas, who optimSeptember 25, 2007Now they have the interesting sequence König-Ludwig-Lauf / La Transjurassienne / Tartu Maraton / Finlandia-Hiihto.
In the spring of 2005 we conducted two surveys amongst our members.
The first concerned an idea of the WL Secretary General Angelo Corradini to adopt a virtual passport. The result was a strong support for this idea but the virtual passport has to be considered as an additional option since many skiers still want to have the paper passport with the stamps in it. Now Angelo knows that if he goes ahead with this development, it will be appreciated by the skiers.
The second survey explored the degree of support for a new recognition that we propose shSeptember 25, 2007 for those who have skied all 14 WL races. The result was an overwhelming support for this idea. In October 2005 we sent a detailed proposal to WL. In its October meeting the WL Executive Committee agreed on the proposal and decided to invite two IAWLS representatives to present the proposal to the WL Annual General Meeting, Lienz, June 16-18, 2006, for the final decision.
After the official creation of IAWLS in September 2005, the most remarkable achievement of the Executive Committee is the IAWLS web site. Our webmaster Bengt is continuously working to improve it, and we intend to provide attractive information for skiers with frequent updatings. The statutes, a description of the association etc. can be found on the web site.
A major concern for the Executive Committee has been the seeding of WL skiers in all races. It is obvious that when a skier comes to a WL race abroad, he/she wishes to get a starting position corresponding to his/her level. For this purpose, there is a need for a correct seeding system taking into account results obtained in other WL races. The criterion used for evaluating the level of a skier should be easily understandable by the skiers and not come out of some sort of black box, i.e. the skiers prefer a transparent system. After an extensive study we have found that a suitable seeding criterion for WL races is the time ratio, the ratio between the skier’s and the winner’s times. IAWLS Recommendation No. 8 says: Adopt a seeding system based on the equivalence principle stating that “N % back in any WL race over the two last years = N % back in the local race”. The seeding tables based on this method have to be customized for each race. The seeding problem will therefore constitute a long term project on which we will proceed step by step.
The Advice for skiers has been updated. On the web site you can see the date of the latest revision.
For the future, the Executive Committee plans to continue along the same lines:
-collect skiers’ observations on WL races and communicate our appreciation/suggestions to the race organizers,
-update and improve the Advice,
-organize opinion polls on items of interest to skiers,
-further develop the seeding proposals.
Again, the Executive Committee invites all members, whether beginners or experienced skiers, to communicate with us. Give us your criticisms, ideas and suggestions on what sort of information you would like to have and what we should do in the future.
Hannes Larsson
The IAWLS President
This page was last revised on September 25, 2007