Xiamen-China On 20th Nov., the 9th AUSF General Assembly was inaugurated in Xiamen, China. 25 out of the 36 AUSF members were present in today’s meeting. Around 120 participants came from nearly 50 countries or regions, including the FISU President Oleg MATYTSIN, 1st Vice President Leonz EDER, Secretary General/CEO Eric SAINTROD, special guests from other Continental Federations and AUSF member federations.
Presided over by AUSF Secretary General Kenny CHOW, the Assembly began with the welcome speech by FUSC Executive Vice President and Secretary General Liguo YANG, who is also FISU Vice President. He warmly welcomed all the participants, saying that together with other counterparts, China would like to continue to strive for the development of Asian university sports federation and wished the meeting productive and successful. In the following, FISU President Oleg MATYTSIN delivered his congratulatory speech, highly praising the contribution Asia made toward world university sports movement by virtue of hosting 6 summer Universiades and 1 winter Universiade in 16 years and 9 out of 33 world university championships this year. In particular, he really appreciated China’s great efforts made to the Asian university sports development by hosting the 1st Climbing Championship, World University 3x3 League, ongoing World University 3x3 Basketball Championship, etc. He expected stronger working relations to be established after the new AUSF EC election. As the counterparts of AUSF, representatives of EUSA, FASU, FISU-AMERICA and FISU-OCEANIA also attended the meeting, wishing the Assembly smooth and fruitful.
Following the meeting Agenda, Kenny CHOW made his report by reviewing the achievements made in this term 2010-2016, with regard to a good number of competitions and events, educational programs and interactive activities. He highly acknowledged AUSF Secretariat’s and member federations’ dedication and contribution towards the Asian university sports prosperity. Treasurer Cheng Fave SEETOW reviewed the income and expenditure of the years 2014-2016 and critically analyzed the current situation of AUSF finance by pinpointing a few inadequacies, which was followed by Auditor Woong Yong Ha’s audit reports of 2014-2015.
One of the key items of the meeting was the approval of the proposed amendments to the AUSF constitution. AUSF Constitution was first approved in 2007 and it was the first time for AUSF to have numerous content amendments, regarding the recognition of NUSF, composition of Executive Committee, etc. Echoing a call for the contemporary situation, the revision of rules and regulations provide AUSF with better criteria for future actions, which will help AUSF board members and the Secretariat better serve member countries and regions, universities and student athletes. In addition, the affiliation of Afghanistan and Bhutan increased the number of AUSF members to 38, which made AUSF a bigger family.
The meeting ended with the presentation on Summer Universiade 2017 to be held in Chinese Taipei from August 19th to 30th, 2017. The Asian members were well updated with the progress of event preparation.
On the afternoon, all the delegates were invited to the Opening Ceremony of 2016 World University 3x3 Basketball Championship held in Huaqiao University. In the evening, a welcome banquet was hosted in the name of AUSF for all the delegates. During the banquet, FISU President Oleg presented plaques to AUSF Honorary President CHUNG Tong Gu, President ZHANG Xinsheng respectively in appreciation of their contribution towards the international university sports movement. Also a special plaque was presented Mr. YANG Liguo and the Federation of University Sports of China under his leadership for its continuous support for FISU events.
The new Board of AUSF Executive Committee will be elected to come into being tomorrow. For more exciting results, please keep updated on the AUSF website at www.ausf.org.
(Source: AUSF Secretariat)