Minutes of the Quadrennial Meeting of the International Society of Olympic Historians held in Piraeus on 15th August 2004

Present

President: Karl Lennartz

Vice-President: David Wallechinsky

Secretary General: Anthony Bijkerk

Treasurer: John Grasso

Members of the Executive Committee: Kostas Georgiadis, Robert Barney

and the following members: Oleg Milsthein, Georgios Dolianitis, Jean Durry, Klaus Fink, Jürgen Buschmann, Christian Buschmann, Thomas Zawadzki, Ion Livas, Stephan Wassong, Tony O'Donoghue, André Drevon, Athanassios Tarassouleas, Pim Huurman, Elisabeth Hanley, Ray Olsen, David Young, Carlos Hernández Schäfler, Manfred Lämmer, Peter Schollmeier, J. Brian Carberry.

- Ioannis Papaspyrou as host from the Hellenic Rowing Club Omilos Ereton, his son Nikos, Lazaros Alexandridis as representative of Piraeus Prefecture and Takis Ktenidis as representative of the S.O.F.I.A. Foundation also attended the meeting.

- Several members were accompanied by guests.

Minutes

Roula Vathi

Opening

The meeting commenced at 10.50 a.m.

Because of Bill Mallon's absence, Karl Lennartz, the newly elected president of the ISOH, presided at the meeting. Karl Lennartz started by thanking Ioannis Papaspyrou, President of the Hellenic Rowing Club Omilos Ereton, for his kindness to offer the Club's building for the meeting. Ioannis Papaspyrou welcomed the ISOH members at the Rowing Club, he wished great success to the meeting and he said that that meeting was very important for the Club because it was the first conducted after the renovation of the historic building of the Rowing Club, which was the oldest athletic club of Greece, founded in 1885.

After having read the meeting's agenda to the members (see document attached), Karl Lennartz gave the floor to Takis Ktenidis from the S.O.F.I.A. Foundation Archives. Takis Ktenidis spoke on the aims and the work of the S.O.F.I.A Foundation which works on the archive domain collecting documents and he distributed to the members books that included an important document saving the rules of the Games that the municipality of Piraeus tried to establish in 1856. Karl Lennartz thanked Ioannis Ktenidis for his kind gifts.

Apologies

Anthony Bijkerk stated that he had received apologies for the meeting from Peter Lovesey, Alexander Driega, Rusty Wilson, Séamus Ware, Ove Karlsson and Wolf Lyberg.

Approval of the previous meeting's minutes

The members approved of the minutes of the previous quadrennial meeting of the ISOH held in Sydney on 26th September 2000, which had been published in the Journal of the Olympic History, volume 9, no 1, winter 2001.

Secretary General's Report on the election of the Executive Committee 2004-2008: The complete results of the election were distributed to all members present at the meeting (see document attached). Anthony Bijkerk also informed the members that Elisabeth Hanley had to be dropped out from the list and to be replaced by the member with the next highest number of votes, Bruce Kidd, because according to the ISOH Constitution Òno more than two representatives from the same country should be eligible to serve simultaneouslyÓ and David Wallechinsky from U.S.A. had already been elected as Vice-President.

Acknowledgements-Announcements-Suggestions

Stephan Wassong thanked Karl Lennartz, the new President, for offering him to share the position of the Editor Chief of the ISOH Journal. He said that in the editing team also belonged Thomas Zawadzki, Anthony Bijkerk, Philip Barker and maybe in the future Robert Barney and he also thanked the members for providing them with articles. He ended by saying that they all should try to keep the standard of the Journal high.

Afterwards, Jean Durry took the floor and spoke on the exhibition that the International Pierre de Coubertin Committee had organized in Technopolis Ð Gazi in collaboration with the International Olympic Committee, the city of Athens and the French Institute in Athens under the title: Pierre de Coubertin and the Greek Miracle. It included various exhibits like manuscripts, programs, diplomas, prizes etc from the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, the French National Sport Museum of France, the collection of Georgios Dolianitis etc.. Jean Durry also presented the poster of the exhibition, the painting of Pierre de Coubertin's father, Charles, ÒAllegory in SportsÓ and asked all ISOH members to visit the exhibition. He also narrated a short story about his effort to include the silver cup of Spyros Louis in the exhibition. He finally managed to persuade Spyros Louis's grandson to be present at the opening of the exhibition who had brought the silver cup with him. Anthony Bijkerk suggested that they could visit the exhibition as a group.

Karl Lennartz then also welcomed Lazaros Alexandridis, the Vice-Prefect of Piraeus who was attending the meeting.

Secretary General's Report

The report was distributed to the members (see document attached). Anthony Bijkerk stated that ISOH was not strongly represented in Asia and especially in China which was Olympics future host and asked everybody to help in that direction. He also mentioned that among the new members there was an old member who had rejoined the ISOH.

Treasurer's Report

David Wallechinsky said that every year things went better and better and that IOC continued subsidize ISOH. Then, he handed over his duties to John Grasso. In his turn, John Grasso informed the members that they ISOH continued to have accounts to four different countries and to five different cities.

Proposed Changes in the ISOH Constitution

Anthony Bijkerk referred to the proposed changes in the ISOH Constitution, while the relevant document had already been distributed to the members (see document attached). He said that article 5 had already been published in the Journal and that article 7 had been added to the ISOH Constitution on his request in order to make sure that ISOH would have the possibility to get a new member in the Executive Committee any moment in case that someone from the E.C. couldn't fulfill his duties. The members approved of the proposed changes unanimously.

Handing over of the presidency

The handing over of the presidency to Karl Lennartz took place typically, because the former President, Bill Mallon was not there to do that so in person.

Announcements

Elisabeth Hanley took the floor and on behalf of an ISOH member from Australia, Kristine Toohey, kindly asked the members to fill out some questionnaires on guests at the Olympic Games and to send them to her or to Kristine Tooney.

John Grasso announced to the members that he would like to distribute some copies from what he had managed to put together during his research in the field of basketball to anyone who would be interested in.

Anthony Bijkerk informed the members that on his proposal the Executive Committee had decided unanimously to appoint Bill Mallon member of honor.

New President's speech

Karl Lennartz took the floor as the new President and he addressed his deepest thanks to all those who had voted for him. He stated that he was very pleased that David Wallechinsky was elected Vice-President and that Robert Barney was also a member of the council. He thanked Anthony Bijkerk who had done a great job as Secretary General, the dean of the International Olympic Academy Kostas Georgiadis, Dick Pound for his constant support as the representative of the IOC, Ove Karlsson and Bruce Kidd. He welcomed John Grasso as ISOH's Treasurer and he expressed his sorrow that Elisabeth Hanley couldn't be a member of the Executive Committee because of the regulations. He also thanked Ioannis Papaspyros for sharing the Rowing Club and Georgios Dolianitis who had organized the meeting.

Karl Lennartz expressed his certitude that the foundation of this Society of Historians of the Olympic Games was absolutely necessary. He remarked that there was a great interest in Olympic History in many countries and he suggested that they should put their effort into convincing university teachers to join their work. He also expressed his hope to fulfill the members' expectations as ISOH President.

Afterwards, Karl Lennartz referred to the two ex-Presidents, Ian Buchanan and Bill Mallon, two extraordinary personalities with whom he had worked on the writing of the History of the early Olympic Games. Seven volumes covering 1896 until 1920 have already been published by Bill Mallon, with several co-authors and he expressed his hope that the next volumes covering 1924 until 1936 would be published soon. All together should continue the work started by the predecessors.

According to Karl Lennartz they should put a priority over the Journal of Olympic History. He remarked that the quality has become better and better issue by issue and that should also be the case the next four years. All ISOH members should concentrate on their Olympic research.

He also expressed his special thanks to Stephan Wassong and to Thomas Zawadzki for their work in the Journal. Due to the fact that it would not be suitable for the ISOH President to be the chief editor of the Journal, Karl Lennartz announced that from that moment Stephan Wassong would be the editor in chief and Karl Lennartz his associate.

Regarding the ISOH membership Karl Lennartz informed the members that there were more than 300 members from more than 50 countries. In his opinion that was not enough. It should be their target to increase the number of members by 10% each year. He made special reference to the problem of high average age of the Society. He pointed out they needed more young people to join them and he suggested each one member to look for, find, encourage and support young people under 40 years old to join ISOH. He also presented to the audience a new member of their Society, a young student, Christian Buschmann who was 23 years old, probably the youngest member and he welcomed him there.

Then, Karl Lennartz referred to an information flier that he together with Anthony Bijkerk, Thomas Zadawzski and Stephan Wassong will create for future use as application form for membership in ISOH.

The new President suggested that they should try to work together with other organisations that were concerned with the history of sport, physical education and Olympic Movement and that they should continue the important and steady cooperation with the IOC for the support of which he expressed his thanks.

According to Karl Lennartz, one of ISOH's goals was also to have a meeting of their Board with the Executive Committee and the President every year during which they could discuss their research projects.

He also referred to the ISOH scholarships:

• 5.000$ for young scholars
• 500$ for the best academic article on the Olympic Games of the previous year
• 250$ for the best article in the Journal of Olympic History

Then, Karl Lennartz presented and commented on the honorary diplomas designed by Thomas Zawadzki, which were addressed to the honorary members: FŽkrou Kidane, Wolf Lyberg, Karel Wendl, Ian Buchanan and Bill Mallon.

Karl Lennartz had brought two presents for Bill Mallon, an official tie from his university and a book for the 105 years of the German NOC. He also offered a tie to Ioannis Papaspyrou in order to express his gratitude for offering the building for the meeting. Ioannis Papaspyrou thanked Karl Lennartz for his present and he said that the Rowing Club installations would always be at their disposal and that he appreciated IOSH's work.

Karl Lennartz closed the meeting by exclaiming in greek ZITO I ELLAS. ZITO I ISOH, which means Viva Greece, Viva ISOH.

Finally, George Dolianitis took the floor and thanked the President of Omilos Ereton, ex-minister, ex-mayor of Piraeus, Ioannis Papaspyrou, the Club's Secretary General Ms Demetra Kouvati. In his capacity as President of the last National Conference on the Olympic Games of 1896, he said that he would like to offer to their ex-president Bill Mallon a commemorative medal for his contribution to the Olympic Movement. He apolozised for not being able to give the reception that had been programmed because of personal reasons and he ended by thanking the Prefect of Piraeus Mr Michas and the Vice-Prefect for offering the reception after the meeting.

Closure

The meeting closed at 11.55 a.m..

Documents attached

• Agenda of the meeting
• Report on the election of the Executive Committee 2004-2008
• Report of the Secretary-General on the ISOH membership over the period 2002-2004
• Proposed changes in the ISOH Constitution (August 2004)

Books-Booklets distributed

• Books on the "unknown Olympic Games" of 1856 edited by the S.O.F.I.A. Foundation
• Copies of research results on basketball by John Grasso
• Questionnaires by Kristine Toohey
• Booklets on the history of the Hellenic Rowing Club Omilos Ereton

The meeting was being taped by Steacute;phane Nicolopoulos, journalist of the French TV channel TV5, who interviewed some of the ISOH members as well.