Dear Friends,
As we are in the second half of the year, the rule revision process is getting closer to another important target
date. By the end of this month, we need to revert to the FEI on the first proposal that was shared. I would like
to thank you for the valuable feedback we received which we will be reviewing with the board and bundle
towards the FEI. On top of that, I can also share with you that we have been invited to an FEI Stakeholder
Meeting in Lausanne during the month of October for which we will be discussing tack related topics.
Interesting discussions will be held and of course we will keep you also posted on these evolutions.
Besides these important aspects for the future of our sport, we would like to highlight a few other topics that
we recently worked on within the board.

Expanding the IJOC Payment Platforms
The main or sole income of IJOC are the membership fees we all pay on a yearly basis. These funds are used to
finance the standard costs of our organization with primary focus on the educational aspects like our webinars
but of course also the yearly General Assembly and related courses.
As you know, the IJOC has various platforms for which we receive your money transfers to our account. We
currently use bank transfer, PayPal and online payment platforms such as Revolut, Remitly, and Wise.
However, our credit card payment system (Stripe) was silent since 2022 which was due to our Swiss
Registration update requirement in Berne (SUI). Now that this step was over about 4 months ago, we were
then able to focus on the next stage. After numerous communications with Stripe as well as test sessions, I am
pleased to inform you that you can now use your credit card to pay the IJOC membership fee. To do this on
our website, you simply click in the following order “My Profile” / “My Membership” / “Subscriptions”
followed by “Renew”. On this screen you can select your payment method as “Stripe” with your credit card
details. Although it is your decision to select the platform for payment that best suits you, we still value PayPal
over Bank transfers and Stripe considering the fee and commission deductions from our receivables. As for
security of your account on PayPal or Stripe, it is the usual practice hence make sure that you do not keep the
same password for a long time and do not respond to potential phishing scams or emails.

Senior Membership Clarification
During the online IJOC General Assembly 2022, a new category of membership (Senior Member) was
introduced and approved to be integrated into our Statutes. Accordingly, those who have been an ordinary
and continuous member in good standing for twenty (20) or more years were going to be categorised as
“Senior Member” hence would not pay annual subscription fee. During the last year, we have received
significant number of requests for the clarification of this article whether the definition was to be exercised
retrospectively. Following extensive discussions at our board, we have concluded that the “Senior Member”
category application will officially start as of 1 January 2020. Unfortunately we have not clear and reliable
historical membership lists of some of the earlier years which forces us to take this date as a starting point.
Therefore, in years to come, we will for sure have senior members during the management of our future IJOC
Boards.

Membership Period versus Payment Confirmation
It is natural that all our members may not be able to pay their annual fees immediately in January each year
but sometimes later in the year. Similarly a new candidate may become a member towards the end of the
calendar year. However, our Statutes stipulate clear voting rights and other specific covenants in the path
leading up to the General Assembly date. Since all these timelines are linked to each other and following
certain questions from our members, we felt the need to clarify further the membership period and approved
a text at our Board meeting on June 24th this year. Therefore, please find below the clarifications under three
separate scenarios.

• New Members: If the membership payment of the candidate is received between 1 October and 31
December, the person becomes an IJOC member for the current year as well as the following year. These
persons will also be notified about the statutory limitation of voting rights for the next General Assembly as
per the IJOC Statutes.
• Current Members: Membership payments made between 1 January and 30 September are considered to
be payments for the current year. If the membership payment is received between 1 October and 31
December, from a member in good standing the membership period of the person (for this payment) starts
from 1 January of the following year. The member has the right to attend the next General Assembly. If the
membership payment is received between 1 October and 31 December, from a member who is not in good
standing with the current year membership payment, the member must state for which year the payment
is made. If it is for the current year the member is considered to have a continuous membership and the
member has the right to attend the next General Assembly. If it is for the next year the next paragraph
(Returning Members) applies.
• Returning (following an interrupted term) Members: Following an interrupted term, if the membership
payment is received between 1 October and 31 December, the membership period of the person starts
from 1 January of the following year. These persons will also be notified about the statutory limitation of
voting rights for the next General Assembly as per the IJOC Statutes.

More2Come:
We have the next three webinars in the pipeline: Veterinary, Media and the highly anticipated Case Studies
session. Please rest assured that this year, we have more stewarding and veterinary questions in the bag and
look forward to share them with you soon.

Kind regards

Glenn Maes, IJOC President