AGM 2012

Minutes

AGM 2012

Annual General Meeting
Steigenberger Grandhotel Belvedere
Friday 16th March 2012 at 6.30pm
Chairman: Peter Lamont President: Mark Adelman

MINUTES

1. Apologies for Absence
   Mary Paula Colgan, Vladimir Sefranek Those assembled stood for one minute’s silence in remembrance of Jan Malina (Past President) and Andrew Michalski, who had both passed away since the last meeting.
2. Minutes of last meeting in Andorra 17th March 2011
   The minutes were accepted as a correct record of the meeting.
3. Matters arising from the minutes
   i) CME credits had proved difficult to obtain as the European organisation responsible require a final programme at least four months before the date of the meeting, whereas the AIVS programme is finalised only 6 weeks before the meeting. ii) Thomas Schmitz-Rixen has negotiated a settlement with the Congress Organiser for the Ischgl meeting in 2010 and the excess charges for the meeting have been accommodated within the Congress Organiser’s fee, so there is now no outstanding debt remaining for the Ischgl meeting. Professor Schmitz-Rixen was congratulated for bringing this matter to a close.
4. Report from the Executive Committee
   
   1. With much regret, the committee had accepted the proposal from Mehmet Kurtoğlu to stand down as National representative for Turkey. Mehmet was thanked for his huge contribution to the committee and to AIVS, particularly as a past-President. His replacement will be Murat Aksoy.
   2. Claire Campbell was endorsed as the new National Representative for Australasia, but unfortunately could not attend the meeting this year.
   3. Anders Albäck was proposed as a new National Representative for Finland and will be invited to the next meeting of the Executive.
   4. Likewise, Armando Manshila was proposed as a new National representative for Portugal and will be invited to attend the next meeting
   5. Professor Thomas Schmitz-Rixen was elected President for 2014.
5. Report on Andorra Meeting
   Juan Guilleuma and Alex Kantarovsky reported on the highly successful 2011 meeting in Andorra, which attracted 109 delegates and 52 accompanying persons. Juan and Alex were congratulated on the success of their meeting, which finished with a modest loss of €90 despite the lack of commercial sponsorship.
6. Report on 2012 meeting in Davos
   Markus Furrer reported on the current position regarding the meeting in Davos. All agreed that the meeting had been of a high standard and extremely well organised. Mark Adelman (President) thanked Marcus and his team for the success of the meeting.
7. Report on next meeting in Tignes, France, 2013
   Philippe Gutwirth reported his plans as local organiser for the 2013 meeting in Tignes. The venue would be the Village Montana Hotel (www.vmontana.com), which had excellent in house conference facilities. Rooms and studios would be available in the hotel on a half board basis. He hoped to keep the registration fees the same as, if not lower than, the fee for Davos. The meeting would run from 16th to 23rd March 2013, under the Presidency of Juan Guilleuma. The hotel is about 30 minutes by road from the main rail station at Bourg St Maurice and airports at Chambery, Lyon and Geneva were all close enough to provide access to the area.
8. Proposal for future meeting 2014 
   Andrew McIrvine, local organiser for 2014, opened a discussion regarding the possibility of a return to Gressoney as one of the options for 2014. The previous meeting there had been very reasonably priced, although some had been concerned at the standard of catering at the hotel. Following discussion, it was agreed by a majority present that a return to Gressoney would be welcomed. Andrew agreed to explore the possibilities. (Post meeting note: due to a lack of response from the hotel in Gressoney, Andrew has been forced to look elsewhere and will now organise the meeting in Kitzbühel, Austria)
9. Annual accounts
   The Chairman, Peter Lamont, reported that there had been no income or expenditure on the AIVS account in Liechtenstein, which currently stood at €4239 after deduction of bank charges.
10. Any other business
    No other business was raised, other than to thank Markus Furrer, Heidi van Straaten and the Swiss team for their wonderful organisation of the meeting.
11. Date of next meeting – 16th to 23rd March 2013, Tignes, France