On Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd December the CIAM Bureau meeting was held in Lausanne, Switzerland. This was the first face-to-face gathering since 2019, as previous meetings had been conducted via Zoom due to Covid-19 restrictions. It highlighted the undeniable benefit of personal interaction compared to previous virtual meetings. While Zoom allowed for important discussions to continue to take place, the absence of personal interaction was keenly felt. Last week’s meeting provided an opportunity for participants to meet and talk freely, emphasising the value of in-person connections.

The agenda was published in advance and included 46 items for discussion.

The meeting was very fruitful and besides the standard topics, the following points were raised:

• Jury reports from the recent competitions in 2023: a year with a lot of events.
• Introduction to the current scheme of entry fees. The current horizontal system does not give all countries the same opportunity to organise World or Continental Championships, because the costs in each country are not the same. This means a lot of countries are not bidding because they know from the very beginning that the budget can’t be covered by the entry fees. A new system will be put forward during the next Plenary Meeting as a Bureau proposal.
• Officials for CAT2 events. The current rules are restrictive in some cases, especially in “force majeure”. The Bureau will evaluate the ideas exchanged in the meeting and will present the outcome as a Bureau proposal.
• The Bureau evaluated the CIAM Legends medal which was introduced this year. All comments received from the FAI Members and the awardees are all positive.
• All the existing CIAM forms will be revised and then will be available from the CIAM web page for download. The same applies for the Bulletin template.
• E-air sports. The success of the first E-Drone Racing Cup was discussed and the Bureau decided that this kind of sports activity is going to be very beneficial for us and an opportunity to attract young people to air sports.
• Meet with the Champions series. At the beginning of next year, CIAM will organise three or four online sessions with well-known CIAM champions. Details about the specific classes will be presented in addition to training or flying techniques. A detailed program will be announced well in advance to allow interested modelers from all the world to participate and gain from the champions’ experience. 
• The next Plenary is scheduled for April with tentative dates set for 12 and 13 April. The meeting will be an in-person meeting and the location will be decided by the end of 2023.
  • All the technical meetings will be held online via Zoom, as well as the first round of voting, since this proved to be more convenient for most of the people. In case the decision on a proposal is not unanimous, it will be discussed during the Plenary. This means only the Delegates will be required to attend the Plenary Sessions, and the presence of observers who were previously attending the Plenaries just for the Technical Meetings will no longer be necessary.
  • CIAM has received bids to host the meeting from Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom. In addition, the option to hold the Plenary in the home city of Lausanne is available, as always. The Bureau will evaluate the proposals and the location will be announced by the end of 2023.

Detailed minutes of the meeting will be published according to the rules.

Many discussions took place after the event, as meeting every four years is a lengthy interval.

On Friday night, a dinner was organised, which was also attended by the FAI office staff.

Photo credit: Antonis Papadopoulos