11/07: November 2007
EGLSF Newsletter: News & Information from European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation
Internal affairs & Intl. sports organizations Tolerance and acceptance On November 16 we celebrate the International Day for Tolerance. What is it? Tolerance is respect, acceptance of others and enjoying people’s differences - the diversity of people in a community. We at EGLSF invite everyone to celebrate tolerance and acceptance.
Contents INTERNAL AFFAIRS & INTL. SPORTS ORG. ADVOCACY SPORTS OUTREACH AGA 2008 NEWS SECTION SPORTS EVENTS COMING UP...
Board Meetings In this newsletter, you will be able to read a synopsis of discussions and decisions taken at the board meetings in Barcelona in September and Milan in November. Beside that, you will also be able to read the latest news and see what’s coming up. The Board of the European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF) met from November 2 to 4 2007 in the fashion capital Milan, Italy. Six members attended the meeting; unfortunately due to job obligations, Juha Meronen and Lou Manders were not able to join us in Milan. The board expresses its big gratitude to the Milan clubs for a very splendid organizing of the board meeting, including a very constructive meeting with Italian clubs, at which the board gained insight in the activities of those clubs.
“Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself.” Robert G. Ingersoll Soldier/writer/politician
Next board meeting is scheduled for January 2008 in Budapest, Hungary; with a teleconference inbetween.
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EGLSF Newsletter: News & Information from European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation
Code of conduct According to a motion passed at AGA 2007, the board is responsible for working out a code of conduct for the members’ list. Please look at the board’s proposal below, and please send comments to Anne, anne@eglsf.info, so that these comments may be taken into consideration before the motion is to be discussed at AGA 2008. Code of conduct for the use of the members’ list “Show respect to others, be relevant, and be nice and polite to others! - Please do post only message concerning LGBT sports or topics related to sports to the list - If you consider a message dealing with other LGBT issues of importance and relevance to the members, please wait overnight and reconsider it before you post it - Please treat each other with mutual respect. Do not use any communication on this list to threaten, harass, or stalk other members - Please do not use all UPPER CASE, since it might look as if you are shouting, and please wait overnight to send emotional messages - Please do not send large amounts of unsolicited information to people - Be brief without being overly terse. When replying to a message, include enough original material to be understood but no more. Please don’t include all the previous messages - If you forward or re-post a message you’ve received, do not change the wording. If the message was a personal message to you and you re-post it to the list, you should ask for permission first - Please do not continue to include the members’ list, if the messages/exchanges have become a 2-way conversation - Without prior notice, the list manager may unsubscribe a person who does not adhere to the code of conduct. Such an
unsubscription will be published by the list manager”
EGLSF receives FGG Legacy Award At the occassion of the 25th Anniversary Celebration of The Gay Games which took place on October 27&28 in San Francisco, USA, Joanie Evans, former FGG VP Diversity, member of Out for Sport (UK) and EGLSF, presented the Fedetarion of Gay Games (FGG) Legacy Award award to European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF). With the words “I am able to give an award to an organization I admire while representing an organization I truly love. ... The Federation of Gay Games is proud to honor the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation tonight in awarding them the first FGG Legacy Award.” the award was accepted on behalf of EGLSF by Emy Ritt, FGG Board Member and EGLSF member. Emy thanked FGG for the award, and has read the Acceptance speech from both EGLSF Co-presidents, Anne Jensen and Pepe García Vázquez. Please visit www.eglsf.info for complete transcript of presentation text and acceptance speech. We are very honored
and proud of receiving the prize, and consider the award a high recognition of EGLSF’s work and a consolidation of the future co-operation between FGG and EGLSF. We also send our congratulations to Emy Ritt on her election as Co-president! Furthermore, we encourage you to take a look at the FGG website at www.gaygames.com for further information and also check out the website of Gay Games VIII in Cologne, organized by our member club Janus, Cologne (www.games-cologne.com). The pre-registration has already started.
Update from GLISA The organization is busy with the preparations for Outgames Pacific in Australia next year. For further information on GLISA, please see their website at www.glisa.org. As mentioned previously, EGLSF is co-operating with the organizers of World Outgames 2009 in Copenhagen. Our female Copresident, Anne Jensen, has participated in meetings about outreach, and the board discussed the criteria for outreach funding proposed by the organizers of Outgames. In the beginning of 2009, EGLSF will be responsible for selecting among the European applicants for sports, while GLISA will do the selection
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EGLSF Newsletter: News & Information from European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation
among applicants for sports from Africa, Asia and South/Central America, and ILGA will do it among applicants for the conference on human rights. We encourage our membership to take a look at the website of World Outgames 2009 in Copenhagen, where our member club Pan Idraet actively participates in the preparations: www.copenhagen2009.org. The registration will start in the beginning of 2008.
Committees tasks and work Financial/Sponsorship Committee A mandate for the committee is being drafted by our General Secretary Lou Mander, and EGLSF Board member Alia Katsikis. We have also been meeting with potential supporters and funders. The results will be announced in future newsletters. Outreach: Regional outreach The Outreach Committee mandate, drafted by EGLSF Board member Gabriela Körmendi was discussed and approved. For the text of the mandate, please contact Gabriella at gabriella@ eglsf.info. Outreach: Social outreach As we have informed you, the result of Anne’s inquiry as to reaching out for ethnic minorities was very unpromising. Anne and Gabriella will set up some landmarks for the work on reaching out for that group and furthermore for youth, elder people and HIV-positive people, which will be posted in a newsletter Concerning equal representation of women, EGLSF Board member Gisela Weil has set up the agenda for the gender conference prior to the AGA in Rome (please read detailed information below). Furthermore, input and advice were given to the organizers of EuroGames 2008 regarding transsexual issues.
Structural and Strategic Committee The mandate prepared by Anne was accepted by the board and the members of the committee. The working title is “How do we want EGLSF to look in 10 years?” Please contact Anne (anne@ eglsf.info) for complete text. The committee met in Antwerp and has held its first telecon in October, in which it was agreed to work on two issues: a. the internal organization of comparable international federations, and b. the needs and requirements of old, new, Western and Eastern European etc. clubs to EGLSF. The committee will prepare one of the plenary sessions at AGA 2008. General: Committees The board discussed whether board members responsible for three committees agreed on at the AGA 2007 are also responsible for carrying out the work of the committees, and the result of the discussion is the following: The board members involved are responsible for a. working out mandates for the committees, and b. facilitating the work of the committees, e.g. writing minutes of telecons and the like, but the board members are not expected to carry out all the work of the committees themselves. However, this does not exclude that the board as such may take initiatives.
Advocacy EU White Paper on sport The Whitebook, published by the European Comission in July 2007 puts sports on the EU agenda with more strength than ever before. New workgroups will be established on EU level to support amateur sports, and we
will try to be part of them. As soon as we know more about what to expect from it, we will inform you. White paper is available in several languages at http://ec.europa.eu/sport/.
Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) Two workshops ran by Tanja Walther of EGLSF; one during the EuroGames in Antwerp and one on October 12, 2007 in Berlin, were the kick off to put homophobia and sexism on the agenda of clubs and national FA’s. The new EGLSF campaign “Football is everything” supported by FARE hopes to bring at least anti-discrimination provisions including anti-sexist passages to stadiums, clubs and FA regulations and statutes as a first step within the antidiscrimination work. For more detailed information about the workshops, please take a look at http://www.eglsf.info/eglsfactivities.php.
ILGA Europe EGLSF was present at the ILGA Europe’s annual conference, which took place in Vilnius, Lithuania from October 25-28. The theme of this year’s conference was “LGBT Rights are Human Rights – Respect, Recognition and Responsibilities”. The conference was successful, 5 plenary sessions were held, 2 discussion panels and over 20 workshops. Pepe ran a successful workshop on sports and EGLSF’s work. However, the city was marked by a very homophobic as well as an anti-Semitic attitude displayed by some citizens. On a more positive note, our cooperation with ILGA Europe is strenghtening, and we are negotiating partnership to include sport on the LGBTIQ agenda. For more information about ILGA Europe, see http://www.ilga-europe.org.
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EGLSF Newsletter: News & Information from European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation
Sports EuroGames 2008 The new website of the 12th EuroGames, which will take place from July 24 to 27, 2008 in Barcelona, Spain; is being tested, and should be available soon- It will include detailed information on sports offered, and also allow registration.
Tolerance and Safety in sports
2007 to enable the board to discuss these at its next board meeting.
The words tolerance and safety form part of EGLSF’s motto. In order to make the motto part of our everyday practice, the board strongly encourages our membership to work for the antidiscrimination of people who are HIV+ or suffer from AIDS within LGBT sports. One occasion to manifest the tolerance would be the 1st of December, the World Aids Day.
You can email these to gabriella@eglsf. info or to the members’ list.
So stay tuned, and bookmark the link if you haven’t done so already: http://2008.eurogames.info.
Bidding for future EuroGames We encourage all members to consider bidding for EuroGames 2011 and 2012! There will be plenty of time for the preparations, so contact us as soon as possible so we can provide you with some guidelines, and answer questions you might have. The bid book for EuroGames has been revised, and the board is obtaining minimum requirements for the execution of tournaments in all/many sports; and this will form part of the bid book as well. For more information, please email Lou Manders at lou@eglsf.info.
WinterGames As informed about earlier, Juha Meronen has set up a bid book for WinterGames on the basis of the work Johan van de Ven has carried out. We strongly encourage member clubs to take this option into consideration, also for small WinterGames, according to the discussions and motion passed at AGA 2007. For more information, please email Juha at juha@eglsf.info.
Outreach As you all know, an Outreach Committee – besides others – was formed in Antwerp during Eurogames 2007. At the Committee’s first meeting, a heated discussion took place regarding the role, the mandate and the function of the Outreach Committee and the outreach work of EGLSF as such. A discussion group was set up where all the referring documents are posted. As you may read in the newsletter, it is the responsible board members’ duty to facilitate the committee’s work – and its actual operation in this case. Therefore, the board first of all formulated a mandate, which is available for all members to read and review. Secondly, the board would like to initiate the actual work of the committee by asking all member clubs to post or email “best practices” if available, from both sides – and experiences in providing and receiving outreach, as well. Also, if member clubs have proposals for the future, the board would be pleased to receive them in a short form. The deadline for sending us proposals, best practices and ideas is December 24,
AGA 2008 Annual General Assembly 2008: Rome, Italye The board had a very constructive meeting with the organizers of AGA, Agensport Regione Lazio, Arcigay Sport, and Grupo Pesce Roma, and we want to show our gratitude for thorough preparations for the AGA. Conference A conference on gender issues will be held on Friday the 29th of February. The board strongly encourages and recommends all member clubs to participate in the conference. We also strongly encourage mixed club to send female delegates to the AGA. Accomodation There will be free accommodation for 58 people in 29 double rooms in a 4-star hotel, in which the AGA and the conference will take place. Apart from this, there will be hosted housing for up to 60 people. Both the free hotel rooms and hosted housing will be distributed according to the principle of “first registered, first served”. Additionally, 35 double rooms can be booked for EUR 50 per person per night (for 3 nights) at the same hotel. The deadline for application is the 20th of January via the AGA registration form. We will, of course, inform you, when the registration form is put on the website. Outreach According to the motion passed at AGA 2007, an amount of EUR 1,000 for travel
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EGLSF Newsletter: News & Information from European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation
expenses is at the disposal for delegates from outreach countries with EUR 500 for women and EUR 500 for men. 1 member per club will be funded, and applications should be sent no later than January 8, 2008 to Juha at juha@eglsf.info. Workshops The board has decided that there will two plenary sessions with discussions in groups in stead of the traditional parallel workshop, i.e. one on sports and one on the future of EGLSF. There will also be two smaller parallel workshops/sessions on Saturday, one of which will be on Youth and EGLSF. The other workshop/session is open, and we invite the membership to post proposals of a workshop or a presentation. The time limit is 1 hour, and the club/person is her-/himself responsible for running the workshop, including preparation of handouts etc. The deadline for applying for a workshop/ presentation is January 8, 2008. Please send your application to Anne at anne@ eglsf.info. Immediately after, the board decides which proposals will be accepted and will inform the applicants.
EGLSF Gender Conference For the first time in EGLSF history, a full-day-seminar will be held on gender issues on Friday the 29th of February 2008. Like AGA, it will be organized in cooperation with the hosting organizations of Agensport Lazio with Arcigay Sport and Gruppo Pesce Roma. According to last AGA’s mandate, our superior objective is to rebuild EGLSF as an organisation for both gays and lesbians, by working towards gender equality & gender justice. We will have professionally conducted, interactive workshops and a high ranking speaker and hopefully a lot of fun, as we’re planning active + reflective ways to approach our common goal.
So, here is your chance, girls and boys, to take a step ahead and equip yourself with gender competence. Mixed and singlegender clubs are both welcome to send your delegates –ask your club’s contact person and watch our media closely for further info on this event.
to build their skills in the water. This is a key part of our team’s goal to ensure that Out to Swim is open and accessible to as many people as possible.”
News Section
http://www.outtoswim.org
News submitted by our members
Adult swimming lessons offered in 2008 12 November 2007 At the start of the New Year Out to Swim will expand its existing swim and water polo programmes to offer swimming lessons for adults. Beginning 6 January 2008 lessons will be held at the Queen Mother Sports Centre, providing a unique opportunity for beginners to discover the benefits of team swimming. The lessons will run on a six-week cycle, consisting of a one-hour session every Sunday. Participants will not only gain confidence in the water, but will also be able to participate in all OTS social activities, providing the perfect opportunity to meet other club members. “This programme offers participants a no-pressure atmosphere to develop their swimming skills while meeting new people,” says David Jeffrey, Chair of Out to Swim. “The lessons provide a great opportunity for people who have thought about joining Out to Swim, but still need
With close instruction by qualified staff and personalised feedback, the lessons will allow every swimmer to advance at their own pace. Each session aims to provide members with the confidence and skills to access club swimming.
New Leadership in FGG and Record growth 7 November 2007 The Federation of Gay Games general assembly elected a new female copresident and seven new board members on 27 October at its annual meeting in San Francisco, capping a year of record growth in organisations associated with the Federation. This year’s annual meeting was the first for the new general assembly following the Federation’s November 2006 restructuring in Lyon, France. The 2007 meeting concluded just days before the 1000-day countdown to Gay Games VIII in Cologne, Germany, which runs from 31 July through 7 August 2010. The annual meeting included a variety of workshops facilitating productive working relationships among the assembly’s international members. A meeting highlight was the enthusiastically received presentation by the 2010 host organisers from Cologne. Emy Ritt was elected the Federation’s new female co-president after Kathleen Webster announced her retirement. Webster served in the position since 2001. Sion O’Connor continues as the male co-president. Each co-president is elected in alternating years. Ritt will also continue to hold the vice president of host relations position, permissible under board rules. Among the seven new board members are residents of Sydney and
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EGLSF Newsletter: News & Information from European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation
Paris. They joined another six re-elected to this year’s thirteen open positions. Both assembly and board members vote in board elections. The annual meeting was held 24-29 October in San Francisco in conjunction with the 25th anniversary celebration of the first Gay Games. San Francisco hosted several social events including a well-received legacy dinner and community day. Attendees also toured the exhibit featuring 25 years of Gay Games memorabilia in the James C. Hormel Center of the San Francisco Public Library.
Three years countdown 2 November 2007 Exactly three years before the Opening Ceremony of Gay Games VIII in Cologne, you can now pre-register. Be one of the first to register and guarantee your place in the 2010 Gay Games. Be among the 12,000 participants and 34,000 spectators at the Opening Ceremony of the Gay Games in Cologne. Only 1,096 days to go – be part of it! http://www.games-cologne.com
Be An Ally & A Friend 31 October 2007 To mark the beginning of the 2007-08 professional basketball season, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) today premiered a 20-second public service announcement (PSA) featuring retired NBA player John Amaechi. This is the fifth installment of GLAAD’s new public education campaign that encourages viewers to “Be an Ally & a Friend”. Amaechi made history in February 2007 when he became the first former NBA player to come out publicly. Over a six-year period, Amaechi played for
the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic and Utah Jazz. In his New York Times bestselling autobiography, Man in the Middle, he describes his journey from being an overweight kid in England to a revered Penn State Basketball player to his years playing professional basketball - all while discovering his sexuality and being a closeted gay man. “John has experienced firsthand how homophobia in the sports world can prevent athletes from living their lives honestly and openly,” says GLAAD Director of Sports Media Ted Rybka. “John’s message has the power to awaken people to the realities of what it’s like to be a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender athlete.” GLAAD’s “Be an Ally & a Friend” PSA campaign features 22 public figures from television, film and sports. The spots encourage people to be allies to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and to help combat homophobia, directing viewers to resources at GLAAD.org. http://www.glaad.org/ally
Erotic sports calendars published 18 October 2007 Abseitz Stuttgart e.V., the sports club for gays, lesbians, and their friends, has produced two erotic sports calendars for the third time. You can have a look at all models at our website. The models are all simply members of the club, who all have both feet on the ground and who carry out normal jobs. 24 men and women of various ages present the erotic side of their sports. The variety of the club is demonstrated, going from the ice skater, the dancer, and the volleyball girl to the marksman. If you are expecting supermodels, you may be disappointed. Also those who are expecting sex and
pornography are starting from the wrong standpoint. But here there is a crosssection of a vibrant club with gay and lesbian athletes like you and me, who present themselves to a wide public with lots of courage and skin. This is the first time that a women’s calendar has also been produced. This is surely unique, since it must certainly be the first lesbian calendar of this sort in Germany. The calendar is in DIN A4 size (29.7 cm x 21 cm, 11.8 in. x 8.5 in). http://www.abseitz.de
Sports Events Coming up...
Events submitted by our members
Ballroom Dancing
Queer Dance Classic Vancouver, Canada 17 Nov – 17 Nov 2007
This is an open invitation to join us in beautiful Vancouver British Columbia in
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EGLSF Newsletter: News & Information from European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation
November of this year (2007) to compete - or be a supporting spectator - at the first “QUEER DANCE CLASSIC” hosted by Not So Strictly Ballroom, Vancouver’s only same-sex dance organization. This is a day/evening event, all levels welcome, from beginners to Championship level, international and one-dances. Electronic registration and payment is available on line, or can be done by mail.
4-Mile Run/Walk, a shorter Health Walk option and a Kids Fun Run with special distances for all age groups.
The organizing team have worked very hard on this,Western Canada’s first samesex dance competition (Canada’s 1st SS competition was Outgames Montreal 2006), and are so looking forward to it truly being representative of the many same-sex dance organizations on this continent, Europe and beyond. So please plan to come and put your name/city/ country on Canada’s Same-Sex Dance map!
Brussels, Belgium 23 Nov – 25 Nov 2007
http://www.vancouverqueerdanceclassic. citymax.com info@vancouverqueerdanceclassic. citymax.com
Running
http://www.racetodeliver.org charrell@glwd.org
Swimming
Swim for Life
Please support our 12th edition of the swimming marathon against AIDS. Visit www.swimforlife.be and choose a team. http://www.swimforlife.be info@swimforlife.be
Volleyball
Netzo Sinterklaastoernooi 2007 Amsterdam, the Netherlands 23 Nov – 25 Nov 2007
http:// www.tanzart-hannover.de info@tanzart-hannover.de
Badminton
Auricula Open 14 Ghent, Belgium 30 Nov – 2 Dec 2007 Badminton for life: Yearly Badminton Tournament in Auricula - Ghent. http://www.auricula.be/auriculaopen auriculaopen@auricula.be
Badminton
Christkindles Tournament
14th Annual Race to Deliver
Nürnberg, Germany 1 Dec – 1 Dec 2007
New York, USA 18 Nov – 18 Nov 2007
Entering its fourteenth year, the Race to Deliver is God’s Love We Deliver’s largest annual fundraiser. Since its inception, over 50,000 New Yorkers have joined us in Central Park to raise over $7 million, providing more than three million meals for men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses. The Race to Deliver is an event for the whole family, featuring a
We invite you to the 6th same sex ballroom event in Hannover.
Women- and Men doubles Level C and B
The Famous Annual Amsterdam Volleyball Tournament! With allmost 400 participants, and equal participation of Men and Women. http://www.netzo-amsterdam.nl sinterklaas@netzo-amsterdam.nl
Ballroom Dancing
Rainbow Trophy 2007 Hannover, Germany 24 Nov – 24 Nov 2007
http://www.rosapanther.de badminton@rosapanther.de
Multisports
Frankfurt XmasTournament Frankfurt, Germany 7 Dec – 9 Dec 2007 XIX. Frankfurt Xmas Tournament Traditional LGBT tournament with expected 1200 participants.
EGLSF Newsletter: News & Information from European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation
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11/07: November 2007
sale € 2,50 members, € 5,00 gests At the door € 5,00 members, € 7,50 gests. Pre sale address: - By every representative of Kouros. - COC, Pand 54. Prins Hendrikstraat 54. - Giro: 4261280 t.n.v. P. Jacobs te Eindhoven.
Since last year we offer additionally to the usual gay-competitions exclusive women’s competitions in Badminton and Volleyball and a mixed competition in Table Tennis. Registration of Eastern European participants may be supported by our Outreach-Program. Registration starts 01.Aug.2007.
http://www.kouroseindhoven.nl dansen@kouroseindhoven.nl
Ballroom Dancing
3rd Nordic Open 2007 Copenhagen, Denmark 30 Dec – 31 Dec 2007
flowing robes and glamourous hairdos. Amongst the competing couples this year will be champions of the Eurogames 2007 in Antwerp. The Copenhagen same sex dance association, PanDans, organisers of the event, have been working harder than ever to attract even more dancers, spectators and internationally acclaimed judges to Copenhagen in December. This year’s event promises to be the most exciting and competitive yet. Nordic Open 2007 is to be held December 30. & 31. in DGI-byen, Copenhagen. http://www.pandans.dk/NordicOpen.htm pandans_styrer@groupcare.dk
http://www.fvv.org fvv-xmas@fvv.org
International Campaigns Ballroom Dancing
Dance evening ballroom & latin in Christmas celestial Eindhoven, the Netherlands 21 Dec – 21 Dec 2007 Friday 21 December Kourosdansavond Ballroom & Latin, Christmas celestial Dance location ‘De Harmonie’, Hoogstraat 310, Eindhoven In the longest night of the year Kouros organize a special dance evening. At 20.00 hour starts a dance workshop Argentine Tango At 22.00 till 1.30 hour the time to Dance Ballroom & Latin in a Christmas celestial. Entree: workshop € 10, - (inclusive the dance evening) members, € 12.50 gests. Pre
For the third year in a row, Copenhagen will be hosting the Nordic Open, making the city December’s hottest gay spot once again. What began as an exciting novelty in 2005 is turning into a unique New Years’ tradition in the gay community, attracting hundreds of same sex dancers from all over Europe – and cheering dance-crazed fans filling the spectators’ seats. Dancers from countries such as Germany, Sweden, the UK and the Netherlands will get together on the 30th December to compete for medals in Latin and ballroom dancing. Naturally with glittering spangles,
There are several major international HR campaigns taking place before the year finishes. We just briefly remind you of some of them: Tolerance Day: Nov 16 Transgender Day: Nov 20 Elimination of Violence Against Women: Nov 25 World AIDS Day: Dec 1 Disabled Persons Day: Dec 3 Volunteer Day: Dec 5 Human Rights Day: Dec 10 Migrants Day: Dec 18
Photos: Page 1: Andrej Pisl, Page 2: FGG Others: public non-copyrighted
Contact Us European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF) c/o NCS Meeuwenlaan 41 NL-1021 HS Amsterdam The Netherlands eglsf@eglsf.info www.eglsf.info This newsletter is published by the EGLSF. EGLSF is registered as non-profit sports organisation with the Chamber of Commerce in The Hague under number V40413152. EGLSF enjoys the participatory status with the Council of Europe.