The IMC Committee met in Hinterzarten, Germany during the 2007 IMC. The meeting was held on Saturday afternoon, March 3, 2007 at the Kurhaus in the center of Hinterzarten.

We are unhappy to report that with 15 teams competing in the 2007 IMC, only five were represented in the meeting. Present were four of the five members of the Board of Officers:

• Klaus Günther (GER, Chairman)
• Torbjorn Haugen (NOR, Vice Chmn.)
• Anton Zapf (GER, Culture and Communication)
• Åke Saloniemi (SWE, NC Chmn.)

Also present were representatives of nations:

• Per Ole Vik, Norway
• Pietro Nilsson, Sweden
• Erkki Ahtiainen, Finland
• Don West, USA

Also taking part were three non-voting guests, one each from FIN, NOR & SWE.

Missing: AUS AUT CAN CZE EST FRA GBR HUN ITA POL RUS SVK SWI UKR.

The meeting was called to order at 3:15 pm by Chairman Klaus Günther (GER) who welcomed the small group in attendance, and presented the following agenda:

1. Two questions on Nordic Combined
2. Venue for 2008 IMC
3. Masters Recruitment Group
4. IMC Summer Grand Prix
5. IMC Booklet
6. IMC Logo
7. IMC Election

1. Two questions on Nordic Combined The first question turned out to be a misunderstanding -- it was agreed that the hills to be used by various age groups is always a year-by-year question, depending on the hill sizes available.

Nordic Combined Team Competition: Erkki Ahtiainen (FIN) proposed to add an NC Team Competition to the IMC program. He hopes that it may attract more NC specialists if we offer two NC competitions rather than just one.
The suggestion is a four man team racing in sprint relay format, with race distances depending on age. Jump points would be taken from the special jumping competitions as is done in the present NC event, but as a sprint, the score would use just one jump. As usual, older skiers would be permitted to fill in younger places so, for example, the class 3-4 skier need not be 40 to 49, he could be any age over 40. Here is the suggested racing format:

• Class 7 and up (60 and over) 1 km
• Class 5 and up (50 and over) 2 km
• Class 3 and up (40 and over) 4 km
• Class 1 and up (30 and over) 4 km

2. Hosts for 2008 and beyond:
The bid from Ornskoldsvik, SWE to host the 2008 IMC was withdrawn in January because the new hills will not be ready in time. At that time, Chairman Klaus Günther asked by e-mail for representatives to find other potential hosts.

We have two formal bids to host IMC XIX in 2008: Harrachov, CZE and Taivalkoski, FIN.

Harrachov hosted a nice IMC in 2002, the only IMC in CZE. They have also hosted a separate annual Veterans event which pre-dates IMC, and 2008 will be the thirtieth event, as well as the one hundredth anniversary of the Harrachov ski club.
The Committee was told that Harrachov offers jumping on K-40, K-90 and a new K-70 hill.

Finland has hosted two previous IMC events: Kuopio in 1993 and Rovaniemi in 2001. The Committee was told that the new host, Taivalkoski, offers jumping on K-35, K-50 & K-74 hills, but they plan this summer to improve and slightly enlarge the two smaller jumps. The town is small and somewhat remote.

After more than an hour of discussion, four votes were taken:

1. To postpone the final decision on a host for 2008 -- passed (3-2)
2. To set April 3 (one month after the meeting) as the deadline for the selection.
3. That added bids will be accepted before April 2007 from all IMC nations -- passed (3-2). (Any further votes to select a 2008 host will be conducted by e-mail and will involve the representatives of all nations.)
4. That if further bids are not received before April, then Taivalkoski, FIN will be the 2008 host -- passed (3-2)

3. Masters Recruitment Group
This year in Hinterzarten, as an experiment, the IMC included a "Recruitment Group". This was a small class for jumper aged in the range 25-29 years. The hope was to excite some active or recently active jumpers to keep on jumping until they qualify for regular IMC competition. We welcomed seven jumpers from four nations in this age range. The Committee agreed to continue the Recruitment Group in 2008, restricting entries to up to four jumpers aged 25-29 from the host nation and up to two in this age range from each visiting nation. Competition for the Recruitment Group will be on the largest hill only.

4. IMC Summer Grand Prix
The IMC Committee has considered for several years organizing a summer event, and in 2006, this finally happened. The event was the first IMC Summer Grand Prix held in Villach, AUT. About 60 jumpers from five nations took part, and the event was considered a success.
The Committee agreed to repeat the Grand Prix event in the summer of 2007.

5. IMC Booklet
Chairman Klaus Günther presented a booklet intended to inform possible IMC hosts what we expect in the conduct of our annual IMC event, and he asked for comments on the booklet.
The booklet is written in English, and Don West (USA) agreed to continue working with Günther on the language.
The booklet mentions a required head tax of five (5) Euros per starting athlete per competition to be collected by the host and paid to the IMC Committee.

This is the first attempt by the IMC Committee to obtain funds to support its day-to-day work, and it bring up several new questions:

• Who will hold the funds? Until a different system is agreed upon, money will be held securely and responsibly by the Norwegian Ski Association.
• Who can approve expenditures? Any spending must be approved by the President (Chairman) and the Vice-President (Vice-Chairman). At present, these offices are held by are Klaus Günther and Torbjorn Haugen.

Because the warm weather during the 2007 IMC added considerable expense to the Hinterzarten host, it was agreed by the Committee to forgive half of the 2007 "head tax". The Ski Club Hinterzarten will be asked to pay only half of the five Euros per starting athlete per competition for IMC 2007.

6. IMC Logo
Chairman Klaus Günther presented a design which he developed for a logo (two versions below) for the IMC. It shows a modern ski jumper, viewed head-on, with the "M" of "IMC" making the jumpers body, while a bent "I" and a rather straight "C" form sweeping curves on the two sides of the body.
This design was accepted with the understanding that further logos may be adopted to replace or modify it in the future.

7. IMC Election
With time growing short, the Committee asked two questions:

• Does any officer request to be replaced?
• Does any member feel the need to change any officer?

Chairman Klaus Günther proposed to add the Webmaster, Don West, to the Board of Officers. This was accepted by the Committee.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:02 pm.

Respectfully submitted, Don West (USA)            [ See Minutes of 2005 meeting. ]