. world ski news : FIS Autumn Technical Committee Meetings underway - 30 September 2006 - 13:00
FIS. September 27th, 2006 - Some 300 members of the extended FIS family will again come together for the FIS Autumn Meetings from Wednesday 27th September until Sunday 1st October, 2006. Traditionally held at Hotel Hilton Zurich (SUI), over 200 hours of meetings will take place as the FIS Technical Committees convene to discuss the status of final season preparations, assess the summer season, and plan for the medium term.
The main discipline committees will largely be focusing on refining the World Cup calendars for 2007/2008 and discussing minor rules changes following the more significant agendas that were dealt with at the FIS Congress in Vilamoura (POR) in May.
In Alpine Skiing, the Autumn Meetings also traditionally present an opportunity for holding an Alpine Technical Delegate (TD) seminar where the lessons learnt from the past season are assessed in detail. The seminar participants, specifically the regional commissioners, will then stage further international TD education sessions in their respective geographical areas between mid-October and mid-November.
Similarly, a Cross-Country World Cup TD Seminar will be held in Zurich, with the aim of ensuring an even higher consistency in jury decisions in the future. The Cross-Country Committee, too, will finalize the World Cup rules for the upcoming season and discuss the calendar options for the following two seasons.
Unlike the other main committees meeting in Zurich, as a one-off gathering in association with celebrations recognizing the reunification of Germany, the Ski Jumping Committee will be convening at Schöneck near Klingenthal (GER) where also the second-to-last FIS Grand Prix Ski Jumping event will be held on Saturday, September 30th. The Committee meeting will focus on medium-term calendar planning as well as assessing the 2006 Grand Prix and Continental Cup summer seasons.
In Zurich, the Nordic Combined Executive Board will be mainly discussing preparation for the upcoming season, including hearing reports from the summer and autumn site inspections as well as planning the Summer Grand Prix 2007 and the overall schedule for the 2007/2008 season.
The FIS Freestyle Skiing Committee finds itself in the midst of a post-Olympic Winter Games analysis and is in the process of determining the goals for the discipline leading up to 2010. This includes a review of the performance evaluation system with the goal of refining the sports criteria to make it more measurement-based.
The main topics on the Snowboard Committee's agenda include the World Cup calendar for 2007-2008, the nomination of the FIS competition officials for this World Cup season and small refinements in the rules.
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