Minutes from, the GA meeting in Grenoble 25 April 2009 Present: see attached list.
1.
Opening of the GA meeting
The Chairman of ASF-Int Jordi Balari greeted everybody welcome and opened the meeting. Especially he greeted Mr Losalajome of ASF-Congo and the new members from Denmark, India and Switzerland welcome.
2.
Election of Chair and Secretary of the General Assembly
It was decided to elect Peter Newton; ASF-UK, as chairman and Dick Urban Vestbro, ARC-PEACE as secretary of the meeting. It was decided to elect Peter Burk, AUGGermany to verify the minutes. 3.
Approval of the agenda by the General Assembly
It was decided to approve the proposed agenda.
4.
A statement and a vote on whether the General Assembly was properly convened in accordance with the statutes
The Secretary explained that the invitation to the GA meeting had been sent out in January and again with appropriate documents at the end of February – in accordance with the Constitution. It was decided that the General Assembly had been properly convened.
5.
A statement on the representation of members and voting rights
A list of presence was circulated with information of voting rights. It was decided to regard the list as the valid one for voting, noting that three persons have voting rights by proxy, besides the voting right of their own organisation (see attached list).
6.
Approval of new members of ASF-Int
ASF Denmark was granted membership by the Board in September 2008. It was decided to confirm the decision and welcome ASF-Denmark to ASF-Int. The Secretary explained the procedure for granting membership according to the Constitution and presented the applications from ASF-Suisse and the Habitat Technology Group of India, concluding that both organisations fulfil the requirements for membership. It was decided to grant membership to ASF-Suisse and to the Habitat Technology Group of India.
7.
Approval of the proposed Constitution of ASF-Int
The Constitution was approved by the GA meeting 2008 with the intention to register the Constitution according to Belgian law. During the year it turned out to be unsuitable to register ASF-Int in Belgium, for various reasons explained by the Secretary. Instead the Board decided to register the Constitution according to Spanish law. After discussion it was decided to accept the proposal to register the Constitution in Spain.
8.
Approval of the Annual Report drawn up by the “Conseil d’Administration”
The Secretary presented the Annual Report of the Board, which was also circulated to the participants. It was decided to approve the Annual Report.
9.
The audit report
The Secretary explained that the GA meeting 2008 forgot to appoint an auditor. Therefore the Board later asked members by email to elect Jenny Andersson as the auditor. The auditor later travelled to Hasselt to go through the accounts with Treasurer Eric Selis, to write the financial report and to retrieve the verifications, original minutes and other documents to be transferred to the future Secretariat of ASF-Int. The Secretary read the auditor’s report, stating that the financial situation has been handled correctly. It was decided to approve the Auditor’s report, and to thank Jenny Andersson for her efforts to solve the problem of finances and access to ASF-Int documents.
10. Approval of the verified financial statements The financial statement is attached to the auditor’s report. The Secretary explained that after contributing to travel costs of Jenny Andersson, Richard Anthony Losalajome and Pawan Shrestha there remains 565 Euros as the current assets of ASF-Int. It was decided to approve the financial statement. Representatives of member organisations were urged to pay their membership fees during the GA meeting.
11. Granting discharge to the outgoing “Conseil d’Administration” It was decided unanimously to grant discharge to the outgoing Board.
12. Election of members of the “Conseil d’Administration” for the next period Jonas Jernberg of the Election Preparatory Committee explained the work of the committee and presented its proposal. Candidates with continuing mandates are: Beatrice de Carli (ASF Italia), Melissa Kinnear (ASF UK) and Pawan Shestra (ASF Nepal). The following are proposed for the coming two year period: Jordi Balari (ASF-Espana); Ludovic Jonard (Architecture & Développement); Stéphane Plisson (ASF-France); Per Kraft (ASF-Sweden); Dick Urban Vestbro (ARC●PEACE). It was proposed to add Richard Anthony Losalajome to the candidates for the Board. Dick asked to be a candidate for only one year, which was accepted. It was decided unanimously to elect all the proposed candidates.
13. Election of auditors for the next period It was decided to re-elect Jenny Andersson as auditor for the coming year. It was decided to elect Benoit Clavieras as deputy auditor.
14. Appointing the preparatory committee for elections in the next period Aline Saeger, Ligia Nunes, Sara Peny, Peter Newton were proposed to form the Election Preparatory Committee for the coming year. It was decided to elect the four proposed persons to the committee and to appoint Peter Newton as coordinator.
15. Decision on membership and the budget for the next period The Board proposes to maintain the membership fee of Euro 100. It was decided according to the proposal, with the addition that waiving of fees may be possible upon request to the Board stating reasons for a waiver. It was decided to commission to the Board to find smooth ways of payment of membership fees. The Board has not been able to make a budget proposal. It was decided to ask the Board to prepare a budget proposal to be sent out by email for approval by members.
16. Decision on planned activities for the next period Melissa Kinnear presented the proposed Activity Plan for 2009-2010. In the discussion it was proposed to commission the Board to appoint a working group to prepare ASF-Int participation in the World Urban Forum to take place in Brazil in 2010. This participation could be ideally in two parts, a workshop with a local community and partner NGO working in Rio, and a presentation to the forum itself. Ludovic proposed a field activity at two levels and to investigate the agenda of other international organisations related to ASF-Int. It was furthermore proposed that a PowerPoint presentation be made for members to use when presenting our organisation. The question was raised as how the exhibition made by ASF-France on the basis of the portfolio could be used among members and how to update and complement the project portfolio to be used more actively, including inputs from new members. The issue was raised of how to spread the information from yesterday’s seminar. ASF-France has recorded the seminar and may be able to produce a document for distribution within ASF-Int. Dick proposed that the Board should consider the proposal of Ana Surgranyes of Habitat International Coalition for concrete cooperation between our two organisations. There were request for information of how member organisations work and how to disseminate information to new members. It was proposed that if members of ASF-Int are going to attend international conferences they should consider whether they can appear under the umbrella of ASF-Int. It was proposed to have a more focused and concrete action plan in the future; and that certain tasks be delegated to member organisations. It was decided according to the proposal on participation in World Urban Forum and to commission to the Board to take the other proposals into consideration. With these additions it was decided to approve the proposed Activity Plan.
17. Topics and other proposals for the next period The motion of ASF-Sweden about an open letter to the Israeli Association of United Architects was presented by members of ASF-Sweden. Dick referred to proposals made by him concerning a letter and a press release to be disseminated by ASF-Int. During the discussion it was proposed to contact the Israeli and Palestinian associations and individual Israeli and Palestinian architects to explore the grounds for common action. Another proposal was to express support for the architects working in support of the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee. After discussion it was decided not to support the motion as formulated, but to approve the two former proposals.
18. Any other points There were no other points to discuss.
19. Closing of the meeting The GA meeting expressed a warm thanks to the Grenoble organising team. On behalf of the GA Jordi Balari expressed thanks to the resigning Board members Eric Selis, Sara Peny and Ligia Nunes. After that Jordi closed the meeting.
Secretary
Verification of minutes