IHEYO’s General Assemby for this year was to be held in the town of Ronse in Belgium from July 28 to August 4. It proved to be an exciting event, where (relative) progress has been made on important issues.
After last years amendments of the by-laws, this was the first time a quorum at the General Assembly was required. 10 out of 20 full members had to be present or represented for the meeting to be held. Unfortunately, this quorum was not reached during the sessions of the General Assembly itself, which consequentially took on the character of a Members’ Meeting to allow the discussions to go through, without formal decision-making. As the General Assambly failed to meet the quorum, IHEYO will organise an extraordinary General Assembly, without the requirement of a quorum (as described in our By-Laws). This extraordinary General Assembly will probably be held in November. More information will be supplied to members soon.
The Executive Committee had prepared an extensive agenda for the General Assembly (GA). The delegates were asked to debate the minutes from the 2006 GA, the Annual Report and accountings of 2006. In addition, an Action Plan and Budget for 2008, new amendments to the By-Laws – among which this quorum question – and the Standing Orders, and finally membership applications were discussed by the necessitated Members’ meeting. The minutes of this meeting will be communicated to all members, who will be invited to comment during the preparation of the extraordinary GA.
There would also be held elections, but these could not go through either. However, the Members’ Meeting was presented with candidates for the following offices: 1st and 2nd Vice President, Secretary-General, Deputy Treasurer and up to two Board Members. The final decisions have been postponed to the extraordinary GA.
All documents prepared for the General Assembly are available at our website http://iheyo.org/iheyo/assembly2007.htm
Lars-Petter Helgestad, President of IHEYO, [email protected]