To All Members Of The IIHA:
From Wednesday the 21st of May till Sunday the 25th of May, 2014 the IIHA sent three of its executive members to the annual IIHF Congress in Minsk, Belarus.
Congress began on the Thursday with over seventy countries attending. Thursday was mostly made up of discussion to due with changes to the statutes and bylaws of the IIHF and changes to the playing rules. The IIHF did an exceptional job of thoroughly explaining all the proposed changes involved.
At Congress on Friday the day began with the presentations and voting for the World Championships for the year 2018. Upon voting the Championships were awarded to Denmark. I am sure I can speak for everyone in congratulating Denmark on this achievement. The rest of the morning consisted of allocating the rest of the World Championships for all levels.
The afternoon session was the presentation of the IIHF annual budget. IIHF Treasurer Luc Tardif did an exceptional job on this. He gave a clear and frank view of the state of the IIHF finances. We can make these available to anyone if they are interested in reviewing them.
Saturday session began with the ratification of the proposed rule changes. Congress then closed later that afternoon. I would like to personally say that Mr. Fasel, the IIHF executive and staff ran a very efficient and thorough Congress.
As for the IIHA at the 2014 Congress. I must say I feel that we had a very productive five days. It was hard work for all involved but we are satisfied with the results.
For the immediate future our status at the IIHF will remain as is. That is not to say that we can rest on out laurels. We still have quite a bit of hard work ahead of us.
I also had very productive talks with Jim Anderson, President of IHUK, and Andy French, Secretary General of IHUK, about the past, present and future of our two countries. I found both these two men to be honest in their sincerity on all issues. I walked away from these meetings feeling that we have turned a corner and have a bright working relationship with IHUK.
Over the course of Congress Mark Bowes, Jim Pepper and myself had great conversations with Hockey Canada, USA Hockey, Belgium, Iceland, Sweden, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Australia to name a few. There were quite a few ideas exchanged and the working relationships have been forged.
I can say that we all left Belarus feeling that we had accomplished what we had set out to and more.
I would like to thank Mark and Jim for their hard work and professionalism throughout Congress. They certainly represented the IIHA members well.
If any members of the IIHA have questions or comments about our time at Congress please do not hesitate to contact me and I will be happy to answer them for you.
Sincerely,
Aaron Guli
President
IIHA