GDANSK - During the 15th WCF World Congress held in Gdansk (Poland), hosted by the Polskie Stowarzyszenie Carillonowe, the Committee of Delegates met three times. On the agenda were the reports of the committees and the reports of the secretary and treasurer. The Committee of Delegates also took a vote on the location for the World Congress 2011.

Hylke Banning   _____________________________________________

FREQUENCY OF CONGRESSES
In 2004, during the congress in Oslo, the Committee of Delegates discussed thoroughly the frequency of congresses. Although a WCF World Congress had been organised every two years since 1994, some delegates believed that a congress every three or four years would be preferable. In Oslo it was decided that the board of every member organization should have a say about this topic after discussing the frequency of congresses among themselves.

All member organizations were asked to vote by correspondence before July 31, 2005. The outcome was that the majority opted for a three-yearly interval between congresses. Since the 16th World Congress was already scheduled for 2008, this decision implied that the 17th World Congress will take place in 2011.

CONGRESS 2011
In Gdansk both the Carillon Society of Australia, represented by Timothy Hurd, and The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, represented by Dennis Curry, offered to host the WCF World Congress in 2011.

Timothy Hurd proposed the cities of Sydney and Canberra as congress locations, with a pre-congress and improvisation contest in Wellington. As there is a a six-month difference between the summers in the northern hemisphere and the southern one, the Committee of Delegates had the option to choose between a post-Christmas summer congress, an autumn congress (mid-March) or a winter congress (early June).

Dennis Curry presented the three carillons in the Bloomfield Hills area in the state of Michigan. He told the delegates that within a travelling distance of just two hours a total of 627 bells can be found. A congress of four days was proposed in late June or in early July 2011 and the possibility for carillonneurs to go on a concert tour in the States before and after the congress to help to recover some of their travel expenses.

Both parties were convincing in the presentation of their proposals. It was clear that every site had its advantages and disadvantages. In the end the Committee of Delegates chose, by secret ballot, Bloomfield Hills as the city where the WCF World Congress 2011 will be held.

COMPOSITION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
This year three EC-members were at the end of their terms: Wylie Crawford (treasurer), Adrian Gebruers (president) and Alfred Lesecq (member-at-large). Also Liesbeth Janssens announced that she wished to resign. Since Gebruers had served as president for the last 8 years and Lesecq was a member of the EC for 12 years, both decided not to run again.

As always, members of the Committee of Delegates were given the opportunity to nominate new candidates. From eight candidates, Frank Deleu, Serge Joris and Dennis Curry were elected as new members of the EC. Since Crawford was the only candidate for the presidency, he was elected by acclamation. Curry will serve as the new treasurer.

The next meetings of the Executive Committee are scheduled for Saturday June 30, 2007 at Groningen. The first meeting of the Committee of Delegates in Groningen will be in the late afternoon of July 11, 2008 at 17:00-21:00 hours. The Executive Committee will meet earlier that day.

KEYBOARD COMMITTEE
In Oslo it was also decided to revive the Keyboard Committee. The Committee of Delegates than adopted a motion stating that the committee should try to reach consensus about a world standard with certain variables for the keyboard of new instruments. This new standard should act as a third standard next to the existing 1983 North European standard and the 1981 North American standard.

The work of the committee in the last two years resulted in a proposal that was presented for adoption to the Committee of Delegates during its meetings in Gdansk. The proposal consisted of a number of technical norms for new carillon keyboards. These new norms were derived from the so-called 'Keyboard 2000' and should be considered as an alternative to these two existing standards.

Members of the committee were Liesbeth Janssens, Patrick Macoska, Timothy Hurd, Bob van Wely, John Courter, and Gert Oldenbeuving. Each of them participated actively in the discussions about the dimensions of the new standard and collected data from a dozen recently-built hybrid keyboards. For the final documents Patrick Macoska made the drawings. Liesbeth Janssens coordinated the activities of the committee.

After elucidating the work of the Keyboard Committee, the Committee of Delegates took a vote and adopted the final report of the Keyboard Committee. The result of this decision was that the World Carillon Federation reached agreement on the measurements of a world standard for carillon keyboards.

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
In July 2005 the WCF Bulletin 2004 was published in three languages. The new issue contained once again a 'From the president', a section 'News from the world' (12 news items published earlier on the website), and 'News from member organizations', consisting of short national news items of 10 of the 12 WCF member organizations.

The number of bulletins produced was the same as the previous edition: 500 Dutch, 1000 English and 300 French. As the bulletin was printed again (and not just photocopied), it also contained several small pictures in black and white.

All member organisations received by surface mail a number of copies and were asked to distribute the WCF Bulletin themselves.