Election of Suzanne Arnold as Female Vice President - Federation of Gay Games

Mon. November 17, 2003 12:00 AM

Chicago, IL - During the Annual Meeting of the Federation of Gay Games, which concluded in Chicago on Friday, November 14, Suzanne Arnold of Team Chicago was elected Female Vice President. Ms. Arnold will play an important leadership role in the operations of this all-volunteer organization, which oversees the selection of a host organization to put on the Gay Games every four years. Her duties will be to assist the Federation's Co-Presidents in the execution of their duties as they direct her to, to serve as liaison between the Executive Committee and all other committees, and to serve as Acting Female Co-President if the Female Co-President resigns or becomes unable to fulfill her duties.

Suzanne co-chaired the Federation's Outreach Committee and participated activity on the Sports Committee in the last year, functions that she will continue in moving forward.

Former Chicago resident, Eurika Otto, the delegate of International Front Runners, was elected Recorder of the Federation.

These new officers join Roberto Mantaci, Male Vice President Richard Hogan, Kathleen Webster, who was just re-elected Female Co-President, as well as Treasurer Jerry Lovell and Secretary Charlie Carson in making up the Federation's Executive Committee for the next year.

Team Chicago's other delegate, Paul Oostenbrug, was selected at this meeting to participate in the Federation's Strategic Planning Committee.

About The Federation of Gay Games:
The Federation of Gay Games is the international governing body that perpetuates the quadrennial Gay Games and promotes the event's founding principles of inclusion, participation and personal best. The Gay Games was conceived by Dr. Tom Waddell, an Olympic decathlete, and was first held in San Francisco in 1982 with 1,350 participants. Subsequent Gay Games were held in San Francisco (1986; 3,500 participants), Vancouver (1990; 7,300 participants), New York (1994; 12,500 participants), Amsterdam (1998; 13,000 participants), and Sydney (2002; 11,000 participants).

Location of Gay Games VII:
The Federation board approved a contingency plan for selecting a new Gay Games host city among candidates not chosen if, for any reason, the relationship ends between the Federation and the originally selected bidding organization.

Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles were the other candidate cities in 2001 when Montréal was chosen to host Gay Games VII. All three cities' bidding groups entered exploratory discussions with the Federation's Site Selection Committee after the Federation and Montréal 2006 ended their relationship early this week following a lengthy and ultimately unsuccessful license agreement negotiation.

"Gay Games supporters around the world can be assured that the Gay Games is going forward and its history will be respected," said Paris-based Federation co-president Roberto Mantaci. "I am personally proud that our board re-focused its work to ensure that the Gay Games event remains a strong statement to the world about matters of importance involving the GLBT community in sports and culture."
 

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