Presidential Report 2002-2003

Firstly may I apologise for being a bad president. When I was
 sent away from home to work from September to January, many 
of the developmental issues were neglected and I had to use 
what time was available to try and keep up with the many 
administrative jobs (helped by Marc and the rest of Exec). 
Even worse was that I was in a town without a Go Club! 
After January I was able to catch up a little, but in April 
my father died and my mother was ill for several months 
causing even more pressures on me and a reluctance to be 
away from the UK, not helped by some illness of my own. 
Moreover there were various work changes involving company 
reorganisations and an office move; now new work means I 
still cannot spend time away, even if I could arrange travel 
and visa in time to be with you in St. Petersburg. I am really 
sad about not being with you. 

Nevertheless in between times I have managed to keep the 
administrative issues under control, such as Ing Fund admin, 
sponsor relations, contact with members, tournament and AGM 
matters. 

The Ing Chang-Ki Foundation continues to support and allow 
promotion of European Go as seen from the annual report. 
The Toyota Tour continues with the support of PandaNet. Thanks 
to a tip from Kai Naoyuki and Alan Held, 8000 euro of 
sponsorship was obtained for the congress from the Toshiba 
International Foundation. Unfortunately Fujitsu have had to 
stop their regional qualifiers, but sufficient funds have 
been saved from earlier events to enable the Training and 
some form of small qualifier to continue, the new proposed 
Masters. I am pleased to announce that the Toyota-Denso Oza 
is to continue, with the European qualifier planned for the 
EGCC next February again. 

Thanks go to Christoph Gerlach and his committee for developing 
the Pair Go Motion. Unfortunately not enough countries voted by 
email, so this item is on the agenda for the AGM. Thanks also 
to other commissions, associations and individuals who worked 
on EGF projects. It is thanks to these that every year 
successful events are run such as the Pair Go and Youth 
Championships. Of course thanks also go to the staff at the 
EGCC for their continued support through their EGF Office 
function, and to all EGF Officers who have toiled, often 
unseen, throughout the year. 

Erik Puyt has continued to work with the IGF on our behalf. 
Because of the cancellation of the World Amateur, we were 
unable to have planned meetings with various sponsors and 
organisations, which we hope to re-plan for November. I 
hope the new exciting championship planned for Korea in 
September is a worthy one year replacement.

I guess as there are no other candidates for president, I 
will continue in this role and hopefully continue to serve 
the EGF to the best of my abilities.

Best Go wishes for 2003-2004,

AJAx
Tony Atkins EGF President