Minutes of the Delegates' Meeting, Wednesday, July 15, 2009, Helsinki, Finland

Call to Order Dr. Lon Olsen, President, called the 29th meeting of the World Medical Tennis Society to order.

Introduction of New Members Dr. Olsen welcomed Dr. Oleg Seutsuk of Estonia, Dr. Martin Wronski of Poland, Dr. Eva Duray of Hungary, Dr. Grace Szczerbowski of Canada, Dr. Earl O'Brien of the UK, and Dr. Petter Stromme of Norway.

Countries and Delegates in Attendance This Year Dr. Miguel Angel Plana, Argentina; Dr. Grace Szczerbowski, Canada; Dr. Zdravko Milkovic, Croatia; Dr. Jan Kirchner, Czech Republic; Dr. Oleg Seutsuk, Estonia; Dr. Micaela Hernberg, Finland; Dr.Gerhard Groell, Germany; Dr. Eva Duray, Hungary; Dr. Eric Gultom, Indonesia; Dr. Hugh Harrington, Ireland; Dr. Yosef Davidovitch, Israel; Dr. Bartolo Bresciano, Italy; Dr. Toru Higashi, Japan; Dr. Egils Valeinis, Latvia; Dr. Jonas Girskis, Lithuania; Dr. Willy Halim, Netherlands; Dr. Petter Stromme, Norway; Dr. Martin Wronski, Poland; Dr. John Muresan, Romania; Dr. Miroslav Ondrej, Slovakia; Dr. Lars Hagberg, Sweden; Dr. Chi Pang Wen, Taiwan; Dr. Earl O'Brien, UK; Dr. Jan Voda, USA.

Executive Committee Members in Attendance Drs. Olsen, Ondrej, Valeinis, Hernberg, and Manion.

Presenters and Guests in Attendance Dr. Schaechter, Dr Sninsky, Dr. Kratochvil, Dr. Aho, Dr. Rosenthal, Dr. Hallowell, Mrs. Zuzana Ondrejova, Mrs. Bartolo Bresciano.

Minutes of Meeting in Croatia, 2008 The Minutes were approved without additions or corrections.

President's Report Dr. Olsen spoke of his enjoyable experience on the governing board. He is pleased that WMTS is moving well in the electronic age with website information and the use of the TDS system, described below, for scheduling tennis matches.

Passing of the Gavel to Dr. Ondrej Dr Miroslav Ondrej, Slovakia, well-known participant of WMTS events becomes the next President. He's attended 11 meetings and is very familiar with WMTS. He thanked Dr. Olsen for his service and also the Executive Committee for the past 2 years' work. He thanked his wife for "teaching me English."

Vice-Presidential Successor During the year the Nominating Committee nominated two doctors, Lars Hagberg, Sweden, and Jan Kirchner, Czech Republic. These two each spoke of their interest in WMTS. Then a vote of the delegates determined Dr. Hagberg becomes the new VP. The vote was close, 13-12, in favor of Dr. Hagberg.

Report of 39th Meeting in Finland, Dr. Hernberg Altogether 300 participants joined the meeting in Helsinki. A total of 192 delegates (10 young doctors), as well as 38 tennis playing accompanying persons, 57 non-playing accompanying persons and 13 children attended. The WMTS2009 Organizing Committee was founded 3 years ago. Contract with Event Manager Congreszon Oy was done in December 2006. The Organizing team consisted of 14 colleagues. On top of that 3 colleagues assisted during the last six months. The Tournament Management Team was made up of 14 persons, 2 persons worked with preparations of the meeting at Congreszon and 17 volunteer car drivers helped out. Reservations of hotels, restaurants and tennis courts were done in early 2007. More detailed planning of the Scientific programme was initiated in September 2008. Several WMTS participants and Finnish physicians contributed and an abstract book with all presentations was done. Estimation on tax assessment (VAT) was received from the Finnish Tax Department in November 2008, and the organizers were relieved from VAT duty. Sponsor contacts were searched for from the beginning of 2008 onwards. Due to the financial crisis major sponsoring was very hard to get. However, due to personal contacts, the Organizing Committee managed to get some very important support for the meeting, the most important one being the car driver volunteers. At the time of the meeting the budget showed a plus of +577Euro's.

Report of Executive Secretary Dr. Manion had earlier submitted a written report that was accepted. There were no additions or corrections or questions.

Constitutional and By-Laws Changes Two constitutional issues were passed after the mandatory 2 year waiting period. The first is that the name of the scientific arm of WMTS should be "The Sports and Preventive Medicine Society." The second is Article VI, that defines WMTS' important Privacy Policy. The By-Laws changes relate to objective seeding of players. Also there are some new guidelines for tournament directors to follow in case of small draws and inclement weather.

Nations' Cup for Women Doctors Dr. Hernberg said Finland was asked to have a "dry run" for a women's Nations' Cup. They came up with the format that if countries could field a 55 year old player for singles and another player, then the countries could proceed in the competition-a 55 singles and an Open singles. If the matches were split, then the same two players could participate in the 45 doubles. The numbers of players needed are two because at this point there still are not enough women doctors who play tennis who come to our meetings. Next year in Slovakia this format will be played again.

We were happy to get the opportunity and felt honoured! The format we used: Women's NC was played on experimental basis with the same events as the men's ones. Women's NC Events: 1 Single Women's MD Open, 1 Single Women's MD 55+, 1 Double Women's MD 45+. Each team has to have at least one player age 55+ and one player age 45+, i.e. minimum of players are two - if the previous mentioned age criteria are fulfilled!

A Proposal for Establishing a Transparent WMTS Fund, Dr. Hernberg At the Presidents' meeting in Croatia Dr Anne Bauwens and Dr Micaela Hernberg were assigned the task to do recommendations for establishing management of WMTS financial funds. Dr Hernberg presented the proposal since Dr Bauwens was unable to attend the Helsinki meeting. However, they had met to discuss the matter in June as well as had correspondence via email. Several years ago it was decided to have a 5 Euro's/$ WMTS fee/participant charged by the host country to finance WMTS common business. So far, no WMTS account has been founded so no systematical collection of these funds has been possible. No practical system is in use and no financial reports have been presented at the Presidents' meetings. Furthermore, WMTS costs have been taken care of by private means (Web site, etc). As an example the income from the last 4 years would be approx. 7300Euro's/$. Therefore, the recommendation is that a WMTS account is established for online use. The WMTS account should be taken care of by the ES (or other EC member or other person nominated by the Presidents' Meeting)*. Yearly financial reports with balance and budget should be presented at the Presidents' meeting. WMTS funds shall be used to improve the WMTS society: Maintenance of the web page, coverage of WMTS expences of the ES, TDM sofware for Tournament management, TDM support for host country (WMTS representative to help out) as well as other things of common interest. The final decisions on how the common funds are used should be made at the Presidents' meeting based on a suggestion from the EC. Preliminary, an account is available for this purpose in Finland. There is also a statement from the Finnish tax authority that since the WMTS activity is of non-profit nature WMTS is not liable to VAT. Dr Hernberg promised the ES to help out getting started.

*Remark: If the person taking care of the finances is netiher the ES nor a member of the EC, a position should be founded, i.e. a Treasurer. The Treasurer should then be part of the EC. The issue about finances should be anchored in the WMTS constitution. An amendment regarding this should be done at the next Presidents' meeting (MH).

"TDM" as a Future Option for WMTS Meetings Dr. Schaechter, Dr. & Mrs. Olsen worked to get the TDM system in Finland. (This is software from the U.S.Tennis Association that costs just $39 / year.) Dr. S. learned the system and taught it to the tournament director. It worked quite well in getting matches started on time. This will be used in Slovakia, and Dr. S. will travel there beforehand in order to help with the installation. It is important that the adoption of the TDM system be consistent with WMTS' privacy policy. It is recommended to set up a TDM group of experts within WMTS to assist host countries before and during events. TDM was used successfully in San Diego two years ago.

Dr. S is willing to travel beforehand to Slovakia but the conditions should be agreed upon in advance (costs, timetable, etc).

Report of Meeting in Slovakia, 2010 Mrs. Zuzana Ondrejova presented information. The mtg will be in Banska Bystrica., August 28-September 4. Airports rather close-by are Vienna, Budapest, Bratislava, Prague. Vienna's airport is recommended because there will be free transportation to Banska Bystrica from Vienna. The main hotel will be Hotel Dixon where there are 12 clay courts; within 800 meters there are 6 more courts. There are also 5 indoor courts in the area. The website is toppromoagency@dixon.sk . Dr Juraj Sninsky and his wife are the owners of the hotel.

Report of Meeting in Czech Republic, 2011 Dr. Jan Kirchner and the Czech Medical Tennis Association have kindly offered us a return to the beautiful resort area, Karlovy Vary. The dates will be August 20-26, 2011. Many of us attended the first time and remember a great time.

Report of Meeting in Italy, 2012 Dr. Bresciano says we will again be at Milano Maritima Cervia,wherewe were some years ago. He wondered if membership would want an early summer meeting-May-or a late summer meeting-September. (I voted for September.) "The Garden City of the Adriatic."

New Business At this time, the meeting was 2.5 hours, but it was encouraging to hear that 3 countries, Holland, Hungary, and Indonesia (Bali) are interested in hosting in the future. I write "heartening" because only a few years ago we were worried that countries were not so willing to host a meeting. (After the meeting, Dr. Plana, Argentina, mentioned that he would like to host a meeting in Argentina.)

The Meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
James L. Manion, MD, Executive Secretary, WMTS

To delegates of Holland, Hungary, Indonesia, and Argentina ---Article III of the By-Laws, A) says "To secure the privilege of hosting an annual meeting...a member nation shall submit a written proposal to the Board.... The proposal shall spell out the capability of the petitioner to supply an adequate number of courts, housing, and other necessary items to conduct a successful meeting."

Minutes of the Delegates' Meeting, Wednesday, July 15, 2009, Helsinki, Finland

Call to Order Dr. Lon Olsen, President, called the 29th meeting of the World Medical Tennis Society to order.

Introduction of New Members Dr. Olsen welcomed Dr. Oleg Seutsuk of Estonia, Dr. Martin Wronski of Poland, Dr. Eva Duray of Hungary, Dr. Grace Szczerbowski of Canada, Dr. Earl O'Brien of the UK, and Dr. Petter Stromme of Norway.

Countries and Delegates in Attendance This Year Dr. Miguel Angel Plana, Argentina; Dr. Grace Szczerbowski, Canada; Dr. Zdravko Milkovic, Croatia; Dr. Jan Kirchner, Czech Republic; Dr. Oleg Seutsuk, Estonia; Dr. Micaela Hernberg, Finland; Dr.Gerhard Groell, Germany; Dr. Eva Duray, Hungary; Dr. Eric Gultom, Indonesia; Dr. Hugh Harrington, Ireland; Dr. Yosef Davidovitch, Israel; Dr. Bartolo Bresciano, Italy; Dr. Toru Higashi, Japan; Dr. Egils Valeinis, Latvia; Dr. Jonas Girskis, Lithuania; Dr. Willy Halim, Netherlands; Dr. Petter Stromme, Norway; Dr. Martin Wronski, Poland; Dr. John Muresan, Romania; Dr. Miroslav Ondrej, Slovakia; Dr. Lars Hagberg, Sweden; Dr. Chi Pang Wen, Taiwan; Dr. Earl O'Brien, UK; Dr. Jan Voda, USA.

Executive Committee Members in Attendance Drs. Olsen, Ondrej, Valeinis, Hernberg, and Manion.

Presenters and Guests in Attendance Dr. Schaechter, Dr Sninsky, Dr. Kratochvil, Dr. Aho, Dr. Rosenthal, Dr. Hallowell, Mrs. Zuzana Ondrejova, Mrs. Bartolo Bresciano.

Minutes of Meeting in Croatia, 2008 The Minutes were approved without additions or corrections.

President's Report Dr. Olsen spoke of his enjoyable experience on the governing board. He is pleased that WMTS is moving well in the electronic age with website information and the use of the TDS system, described below, for scheduling tennis matches.

Passing of the Gavel to Dr. Ondrej Dr Miroslav Ondrej, Slovakia, well-known participant of WMTS events becomes the next President. He's attended 11 meetings and is very familiar with WMTS. He thanked Dr. Olsen for his service and also the Executive Committee for the past 2 years' work. He thanked his wife for "teaching me English."

Vice-Presidential Successor During the year the Nominating Committee nominated two doctors, Lars Hagberg, Sweden, and Jan Kirchner, Czech Republic. These two each spoke of their interest in WMTS. Then a vote of the delegates determined Dr. Hagberg becomes the new VP. The vote was close, 13-12, in favor of Dr. Hagberg.

Report of 39th Meeting in Finland, Dr. Hernberg Altogether 300 participants joined the meeting in Helsinki. A total of 192 delegates (10 young doctors), as well as 38 tennis playing accompanying persons, 57 non-playing accompanying persons and 13 children attended. The WMTS2009 Organizing Committee was founded 3 years ago. Contract with Event Manager Congreszon Oy was done in December 2006. The Organizing team consisted of 14 colleagues. On top of that 3 colleagues assisted during the last six months. The Tournament Management Team was made up of 14 persons, 2 persons worked with preparations of the meeting at Congreszon and 17 volunteer car drivers helped out. Reservations of hotels, restaurants and tennis courts were done in early 2007. More detailed planning of the Scientific programme was initiated in September 2008. Several WMTS participants and Finnish physicians contributed and an abstract book with all presentations was done. Estimation on tax assessment (VAT) was received from the Finnish Tax Department in November 2008, and the organizers were relieved from VAT duty. Sponsor contacts were searched for from the beginning of 2008 onwards. Due to the financial crisis major sponsoring was very hard to get. However, due to personal contacts, the Organizing Committee managed to get some very important support for the meeting, the most important one being the car driver volunteers. At the time of the meeting the budget showed a plus of +577Euro's.

Report of Executive Secretary Dr. Manion had earlier submitted a written report that was accepted. There were no additions or corrections or questions.

Constitutional and By-Laws Changes Two constitutional issues were passed after the mandatory 2 year waiting period. The first is that the name of the scientific arm of WMTS should be "The Sports and Preventive Medicine Society." The second is Article VI, that defines WMTS' important Privacy Policy. The By-Laws changes relate to objective seeding of players. Also there are some new guidelines for tournament directors to follow in case of small draws and inclement weather.

Nations' Cup for Women Doctors Dr. Hernberg said Finland was asked to have a "dry run" for a women's Nations' Cup. They came up with the format that if countries could field a 55 year old player for singles and another player, then the countries could proceed in the competition-a 55 singles and an Open singles. If the matches were split, then the same two players could participate in the 45 doubles. The numbers of players needed are two because at this point there still are not enough women doctors who play tennis who come to our meetings. Next year in Slovakia this format will be played again.

We were happy to get the opportunity and felt honoured! The format we used: Women's NC was played on experimental basis with the same events as the men's ones. Women's NC Events: 1 Single Women's MD Open, 1 Single Women's MD 55+, 1 Double Women's MD 45+. Each team has to have at least one player age 55+ and one player age 45+, i.e. minimum of players are two - if the previous mentioned age criteria are fulfilled!

A Proposal for Establishing a Transparent WMTS Fund, Dr. Hernberg At the Presidents' meeting in Croatia Dr Anne Bauwens and Dr Micaela Hernberg were assigned the task to do recommendations for establishing management of WMTS financial funds. Dr Hernberg presented the proposal since Dr Bauwens was unable to attend the Helsinki meeting. However, they had met to discuss the matter in June as well as had correspondence via email. Several years ago it was decided to have a 5 Euro's/$ WMTS fee/participant charged by the host country to finance WMTS common business. So far, no WMTS account has been founded so no systematical collection of these funds has been possible. No practical system is in use and no financial reports have been presented at the Presidents' meetings. Furthermore, WMTS costs have been taken care of by private means (Web site, etc). As an example the income from the last 4 years would be approx. 7300Euro's/$. Therefore, the recommendation is that a WMTS account is established for online use. The WMTS account should be taken care of by the ES (or other EC member or other person nominated by the Presidents' Meeting)*. Yearly financial reports with balance and budget should be presented at the Presidents' meeting. WMTS funds shall be used to improve the WMTS society: Maintenance of the web page, coverage of WMTS expences of the ES, TDM sofware for Tournament management, TDM support for host country (WMTS representative to help out) as well as other things of common interest. The final decisions on how the common funds are used should be made at the Presidents' meeting based on a suggestion from the EC. Preliminary, an account is available for this purpose in Finland. There is also a statement from the Finnish tax authority that since the WMTS activity is of non-profit nature WMTS is not liable to VAT. Dr Hernberg promised the ES to help out getting started.

*Remark: If the person taking care of the finances is netiher the ES nor a member of the EC, a position should be founded, i.e. a Treasurer. The Treasurer should then be part of the EC. The issue about finances should be anchored in the WMTS constitution. An amendment regarding this should be done at the next Presidents' meeting (MH).

"TDM" as a Future Option for WMTS Meetings Dr. Schaechter, Dr. & Mrs. Olsen worked to get the TDM system in Finland. (This is software from the U.S.Tennis Association that costs just $39 / year.) Dr. S. learned the system and taught it to the tournament director. It worked quite well in getting matches started on time. This will be used in Slovakia, and Dr. S. will travel there beforehand in order to help with the installation. It is important that the adoption of the TDM system be consistent with WMTS' privacy policy. It is recommended to set up a TDM group of experts within WMTS to assist host countries before and during events. TDM was used successfully in San Diego two years ago.

Dr. S is willing to travel beforehand to Slovakia but the conditions should be agreed upon in advance (costs, timetable, etc).

Report of Meeting in Slovakia, 2010 Mrs. Zuzana Ondrejova presented information. The mtg will be in Banska Bystrica., August 28-September 4. Airports rather close-by are Vienna, Budapest, Bratislava, Prague. Vienna's airport is recommended because there will be free transportation to Banska Bystrica from Vienna. The main hotel will be Hotel Dixon where there are 12 clay courts; within 800 meters there are 6 more courts. There are also 5 indoor courts in the area. The website is toppromoagency@dixon.sk . Dr Juraj Sninsky and his wife are the owners of the hotel.

Report of Meeting in Czech Republic, 2011 Dr. Jan Kirchner and the Czech Medical Tennis Association have kindly offered us a return to the beautiful resort area, Karlovy Vary. The dates will be August 20-26, 2011. Many of us attended the first time and remember a great time.

Report of Meeting in Italy, 2012 Dr. Bresciano says we will again be at Milano Maritima Cervia,wherewe were some years ago. He wondered if membership would want an early summer meeting-May-or a late summer meeting-September. (I voted for September.) "The Garden City of the Adriatic."

New Business At this time, the meeting was 2.5 hours, but it was encouraging to hear that 3 countries, Holland, Hungary, and Indonesia (Bali) are interested in hosting in the future. I write "heartening" because only a few years ago we were worried that countries were not so willing to host a meeting. (After the meeting, Dr. Plana, Argentina, mentioned that he would like to host a meeting in Argentina.)

The Meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
James L. Manion, MD, Executive Secretary, WMTS

To delegates of Holland, Hungary, Indonesia, and Argentina ---Article III of the By-Laws, A) says "To secure the privilege of hosting an annual meeting...a member nation shall submit a written proposal to the Board.... The proposal shall spell out the capability of the petitioner to supply an adequate number of courts, housing, and other necessary items to conduct a successful meeting."

Excerpts from Dr. Stanley McCampbell's, "My Memoirs of The World Medical Tennis Society," written in 1991.

"To me it has been a great honor to know and enjoy the friendship of doctors from around the world. It has been the most exciting experience of my life. Doctors... can be assured that if they travel thousands of miles to meetings, they will be certain of a warm welcome, well-organized tournaments and scientific sessions, and a grand, good time. It is an opportunity, unequalled, as far as I know, of enjoying the friendship of interesting, fun loving, sportsman-like doctors who will be friends for life. I would certainly like to do it all over again."