|  | Member's News | No.55 January 2009 |
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5th EAS Network Conference The 5th EAS Network Conference in Limerick, Ireland was a great success. 54 delegates from 14 nations arrived in the legendary city in Western Ireland. The organizing committee, with David Mahedy, Neasa O´Donnell, Ita Canning and Ger Cunningham had prepared everything excellently. The conference had its base at the Castletroy Park Hotel, adjacent to the University of Limerick, where part of the conference took place and from where everything was organised. After an official opening by the Vice President of the University of Limerick, Paul McCutcheon, the proceedings started with a key-note from Andrzej Rogulski of the European Commission, who gave a presentation on the White Paper on Sport, which was accepted by the EU Parliament in 2007 and so gave the basis for the discussions during the following days. Then Guy Taylor and Jane Mawdsley of the Talented Athletes´ Support Scheme (TASS) in the UK, gave an inspiring presentation of the British method of mentoring athletes in further and higher education. On the following day, Rene Haantjes of ROC Aventus in Apeldoorn, Holland organised a workshop on coaching. Accompanied by Lucas van Nielen, who had brought material for the workhop from the Netherlands, the participants had a very vivid and exciting morning. A parallel workshop was held at this time on criteria for admission into athlete/student projects. This was well prepared by our colleagues from Oulu, Finland. After lunch, Prof. Laura Capranica from IUSM Rome gave a very interesting presentation on Italian Students´ motivation toward sport and academic careers. The Limerick University Arena is world famous for its high standards and the tour through the arena and the university buildings confirmed that there is good reason for this reputation. A special Irish experience was a demonstration of the game of Hurling, where the former EAS chairman Risto Keskitalo of Oulu showed great talent. Not surprising since he has been an elite player in related Finnish baseball. Friday evening was another thrilling Irish experience. The conference guests were invited to a medieval feast at a castle in neighbouring County Clare. The evening was absolutely unforgettable, espescially for the King and Queen of Munster, recruited from the EAS-Network. Saturday morning was the last highlight of the conference. Drew Harrison, athletics coach of the University of Limerick, gave his view of the Irish experience of coaching high performance athlete/students. Drew Harrison´s presentation and all others presentations in Limerick can be found on the EAS –Network website, www.eas-network.eu/archives. The 6th EAS-conference will be in September 2009 in Aarhus, Denmark. The exact date will be announced soon. EAS visited the European Non-Governmental Sports Organisation (ENGSO) Forum in Stockholm. The ENGSO Forum was held 24-25 October, 2008 in Stockholm, Sweden. President Birgitta Kervinen, from Finland, kindly allowed the EAS Network chairman to give a short presentation of the Network to the Forum, which including several directors of the European Sports Confederation. The EAS Network is grateful for the support it has had from ENGSO to date. Cooperation agreement between EAS Network and European Network of Academic Sport Services (ENAS) At the ENAS annual conference in Basel, Switzerland during 5 - 9 November, 2008, ENAS President Peter Lynen and EAS Network Chairman Bengt Nybelius signed an agreement of partnership to share good practice in the management of sport in universities. This means that at the university level, the two organisations cover the whole spectrum: EAS, high performance sport and ENAS Sport for all. EAS Network Executive Committee member Ebba Koglin also visited the conference. EAS Network at the European Sport Forum The first European Sport Forum was organised by the European Commission in connection with the EU Sports Minister meeting in Biarritz, France from 26-27 November, 2008. About 170 delegates from different European umbrella organisations for sport, including representation from the EAS Network, participated in the very intensive meeting. Much of the focus was on the problems of European football, but also the necessity of developing the ”dual career”. The combination of high performance sport and higher education/vocational training was stressed by several speakers, showing that the EAS Network initiative will certainly be of growing importance in the future. Commissioner Jan Figel announced that next years meeting will probably be given more time, since there are so many issues to discuss after the adoption by the EU Parliament of the White Paper on Sport. Contact EAS Network, Coordination Office, Dalarna University BORLÄNGE, Sweden Email: bny@du.se Web: www.eas-network.eu http://www.icsspe.org/portal/index.php?w=1&z=5 European Athlete as Student Network