EGCC for Dummies

By Peter Zandveld

The object of this article is to explain in simple words who is responsible for what regarding the EGCC.

1 The Building

The building is owned by the Nihon Kiin (= japanese organization of professionals)
The building is leased at zero cost to the foundation: "Nihon Kiin stichting European Go Cultural Centre".
The lease in on the condition that the foundation takes care of the maintenance, and that any profits from this building are used to stimulate go in Europe.
The building serves also as a cultural centre for the Japanese people living in the Netherlands.
The building was bought by the Nihon Kiin with the support from the Amsterdam and Amstelveen city councel. Local Japanese business contributed substantially to the rehabilitation of the building. Without their help the founding of the centre would not have been possible.

2 The Foundation

A foundation is a legal entity. It is a non-profit company.
The full constitution officially called "articles of association" is also avaialable.
The Board of the foundation is the “boss” of the “company”. In the case of the EGCC the board consists of volunteers.
The Board has delegated most of the work, authority and responsibilty to the staff.
The General Manager will in most cases represent the EGCC to the outside world.
The Foundation aims to support Go in Europe.

3 The Money

The main source of income of the Foundation is renting rooms to mindsport clubs.
In the first place this money has to be used for maintenance and hiring staff to run the building.
Any extra money has to be used for the promotion of go in Europe.
In the past this extra money has been spend on employing more staff. The two most important things the staff have accomplished are the production of booklets for beginners in 17 languages and playing a pivotal role in making the IGF member of the GAISF.

4 Formal relation with the EGF

Read the EGF for dummies to understand the context
The Foundation is not a subsidiary of the EGF. The EGCC is an independent organization.
The founding members of the EGCC wanted to make sure the surplus money is being used properly. Therefore the Supervisory Board was set up.
The task of the Supervisory Board is controlling the board and staff. They can decide how the money available for go has to be spend.
From the constitution: The Supervisory Board will consist of at least five and at most seven members, of which at most two persons on behalf of the European Go Federation; at most three persons on behalf of the National Go Associations in Europe, of which two persons in accordance with an appointment system to be developed by the European Go Federation, and one person on behalf of the Dutch Go association; one person on behalf of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industries in Amsterdam; one person on behalf of the Japanese Embassy

5 What can the EGCC do? How are projects financed?

The EGCC can do what ever service is needed for the go community in Europe.
If the current staff cannot do the job, additional staff can be hired for a project. Of course the cost of such work has to paid by the person or organization who wants the job done (=client). The EGCC can also pay part of the cost from its surplus. According to the constitution the supervisory board has to allot this money. In practice this alloting has been done by the staff. The supervisory board approved these allotments implicitly or explicitly.
Examples of such projects are: Storage and handling of equipment (client EGF), Office function (client NGoB), OZA tournament (client Nihon Kiin), Instruction movie (client NGoB + Dutch Olympic committee) and IFG membership of GAISF + founding of IMSA (client IGF). In all these cases the EGCC's income has subsidized the projects in part.
Everybody can come to the EGCC with suggestions for projects. The EGCC has no obligation to carry them out. Even if a project comes fully funded it has to fit within the consitutional task of the EGCC and must make sense.

6 Stake holders

The board and supervisory board have to take care of many different stake holders:
The Go community: Nihon Kiin, EGF, NGoB, Clubs, Players
The Japanese community
The tenants (clubs and others renting space)
The local community
The staff

7 Why in the Netherlands?

The discussion about the location of the Go Centre started in May 1986. At that time the Netherlands was in the centre of European go. Germany, France, England and the Netherlands had by far the biggest associations. The best European player was Ronald Schlemper, the Amsterdam tournament had 200 participants, in 1985 the Go Congress in the Netherlands had the most participants ever. The Nihon Kiin and Iwamoto Sensei decided the location.