AGM 2009

Minutes

AGM 2009

Minutes 

Annual General Meeting AIVS

Jackson Hole

Wyoming USA

13th March 2009

1. Opening Comments 
   
   The President, Helge Fasting, welcomed members to the meeting and thanked the local organiser, Mark Adelman and his associate, Jodi Popofsky, for organising an outstanding meeting for the group. 
   
   
2. Report from Executive Committee 
   
   The Chairman of the Executive Committee, Peter Lamont, reported that three new members of the Executive had attended the meeting, Andrew McIrvine from the UK, Marcus Furrer from Switzerland and Marcin Geremek form Poland. Kris Michalowski was also in attendance as the new South African representative to take over from Peter Jeffery in 2010. 
   
   The Executive had unanimously elected Mehmet Kurtoglu to stand as President in 2011. 
   
   Juan Guilleuma and Alex Kantarovsky were appointed as local organisers for the 2011 meeting. Andorra had been proposed as a potential venue for this meeting but the hotel were currently requesting a €100,000 deposit to secure the venue and the AIVS did not have the resources to meet this deposit. Juan Guilleuma had undertaken to negotiate further with the hotel and possibly explore alternative venues. 
   
   Mehmet Kurtoglu had deposited €1390 in the AIVS account as profit from the 2008 Chamonix meeting, leaving a balance of €3506 in the account.
   
   
3. Report from Local Organiser 
   
   Mark Adelman reported that meeting had attracted 160 registrants, 85 delegates and 75 guests. The meeting had gone well and had benefited from the helpful and supportive approach of the Snow King Resort and from the trade sponsors of the meeting. He thanked Vascutek for sponsoring the Finlandia Prize. He hoped that the meeting would make a modest profit, to be deposited in the AIVS account.
   
   
4. 2010 Meeting Obergurgl 
   
   Peter Lamont gave a presentation on the proposed venue for 2010 in the absence through injury of the 2010 local organiser, Thomas Schmitz-Rixen. The original proposal of Obertauern had been abandoned because of difficulties with the only conference hotel in the resort. The hotel was likely to sign a contract with a Russian package tour operator which would prevent the group from booking the hotel. An alternative venue of Obergurgl had been explored and the hotel with a conference centre there looked promising, although negotiations on price had still to be agreed. Details of the resort and the hotel were presented to the approval of the members. The meeting would run from 13th to 20th March 2010.
   
   
5. Online publication of presentations 
   
   Mark Adelman suggested that, like some American meetings, the presentations from the meeting should be made available on the AIVS website. Members were in favour of the idea. It was agreed that this would need the signature of a suitable disclaimer, waiving copyright to the presentation, before the meeting. The Chairman agreed to look into the mechanism of this for the 2010 meeting.
   
   
6. Date of next meeting
   
   The next meeting would be on Friday 19th March in Obergurgl, Austria.