NAVIGA Dear all,
I deliberatly say to all, because it affects us all not the Federations representatives alone:
Almost to the day 1 year ago our team won the elections and got installed as new Naviga Presidium, little did we know what 2020 had installed for all of us once this dreadfull pandemic hit the world we know. Our aim from the start was to make the Presidium work as an open book and reduce costs wherever we can, in such we lowered the memebrship fees immediately with the promise included we would lower even more when possible, but now we come to a situation where we feel it would be wrong to collect membership fees without giving anything in return. I do not have a glass ball and cannot forsee the future, nobody can, but we have to be realistic and think if we will have competions next year or not.
2020 was a year in which most family holidays were destroyed, so do we make our Championships more important than family, providing we can organize any event?
Naviga s aim is to promote and encourage boating in all aspects, stimulate every event that promotes this goal and provide assintance in all aspects but at this very moment our guidance is very limited due to the situation we are all in together.
Very soon we have to take a serious decision wether we put everything on hold or carry on with the plans we had for 2020? As per Rules a major Championship like a World Championship has to be anounced 9 months on beforehand to allow everyone to plan their holidays and trip well in advance. Seeing most big Championships are held in summer, that means they should be anounced by december of the previous year or januari at the latest. In my personal view i do not see januari 2021 as the date in which we will return to “normal” life, so i do not think that this period of 9 months can be met for 2021. But on the other hand, we cannot anounce and plan an event like a World Championship on a shorter time-frame either.
As alternative i would suggest, that in the case life returns to normal, meaning the restrictions we have now are lifted by summer of 2021, we would then resume our activities. At this moment in time i do not think we can plan any event yet, not knowing if it will even be possible to travel and stay let alone have an event of such magnitude even! We do not want to cancel the whole of 2021 just yet, so maybe half of it can still be saved?
I do not think we have any other option than to put everything on hold for the time being, and in that view i find it not fair to ask our members to contribute the full membership fee in 2021 and not give anything in return.
We are very sorry for not being able to do anything about that, but unfortunatelly we are all in this together, and we simply have no control over such things.
Even our comunitee has been struck by Covid 19, i think in every country we have lost people to this terrible pandemic. Our thoughts go out to those who were affected and those who lost dear ones to this terrible disease. Let s all stay safe and healthy so we can meet eachother again in the very near future. I sincerely wish that i could bring better news, but unfortunately we have to face reality here.
Yours truly
Geens Walter
Naviga President
Dear Mr. Walter,
I express my opinion, without engaging the Bulgarian Federation, on your address to all.
I believe that it is necessary to publish a sports calendar for 2021 and to start accepting applications for households for European and World competitions, bearing in mind:
1. Many competitors work on new models and improve existing ones with the hope of participating. If there is no calendar, many of them will stop or spend less time, ie. enthusiasm will give way to a more daily routine tasks. What the situation will be is difficult to predict, but the sports calendar gives hope for the existence of Naviga, whose vitality is maintained by the sports calendar.
2. This will allow the organizers of European and world competitions to prepare the conditions for holding, to provide sponsors. Your letter suggests that no one should do anything because there will be no competition.
3. Naviga, however, must inspire courage that it exists and that life must continue and we must get used to living in new realities.
4. It is your right, if many countries declare a lock down, to announce, as has been done for the current year, the suspension or postponement of certain races on the calendar. That is why I believe that household applications should be accepted and published for the formation of a sports calendar for 2021. And this should happen by the end of January 2021.
For your information, this year we held state competitions for all classes in strict compliance with the protection measures of Covid 19.
At the same time, at the invitation of the Section leader of Sections S, that there are no people willing to hold the World Championship for this class, I published my desire to organize one in Ruse, Bulgaria, but after receiving or publishing the rules for this class on the NAVIGA web page. They are missing there. Unfortunately, I still don’t have an answer.
I remain with respect to you
Ognyan Marinov
Chairman of a Ship modeling club “Ivan Marinov” – Ruse, Bulgaria