March 11, 2011
Minutes of the biennial IAVE Members Meeting on Thurs April 3, 2008 in the El Panama Hotel, Panama
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR VOLUNTEER EFFORT
Members Meeting - 2008
1. Welcome and apologies for absence.
Kang Hyun Lee opened the meeting.
2. Minutes of the meeting of 2006:
The minutes of the Members Meeting in New Delhi, India on 11 November 2008 were received and approved as a correct record. There were no matters arising from the minutes.
3. Report of Elections and introduction of Board Members.
As chairperson of the nominations committee, Tan Chee Koon reported on the elections of Rose as Vice President and Milo as Arab regional representative in 2006. In 2007 there were elections for the regions of Africa, Europe, Latin America and N. America. The existing representatives in N. and Latin America and Europe were re-elected without opposition. For Africa, Honore was the only candidate that qualified, so he was elected automatically. In the Asia-Pacific there were four candidates. The two selected were Dr. Lee and Amelita. Later, Dr. Lee was appointed president, so Kylee Bates took his vacant position.
The president was elected by the board after changes approved by the membership to the by-laws, extending the qualification period of having served on the board in the last three years to the last five years. The changes opened up the position to people like Kenn Allen and Dr. Lee. Dr. Lee was the only candidate who chose to run, and was elected unanimously by the board.
IAVE has two youth representatives. Carlos has just finished his second term, so there is a vacancy for one youth representative alongside Mark Malloy.
The national volunteer centre representative position also fell vacant after Sha Cordingley resigned last year. With the recommendation of the board that position has been filled by Chee Koon, who is CEO of the Singapore national volunteer centre and also the host of the next world volunteer conference in 2011.
Chee Koon finished by thanking Kathi Dennis and the other members of the nominating committee, and Kenn Allen who assisted the process.
The new chairperson of the nominating committee is Dr. Amelita Goh, who already started work with the election of the representative for national representatives yesterday. In that election Debbie Huang was re-elected.
Galina from Russia was also elected as an honorary member last year.
4. President’s Report.
Liz reported that it had been another good year for IAVE, although there were challenges. There were only 18 months between world conferences, so we had a short time to tackle issues that could have taken 2 years. However the work went well. This year, we have made advances in each of the strategic plans. The partnership with CIVICUS on volunteering and activism is going well. Membership continues to grow, E-IAVE and administration of membership is first class and we have a new Y-IAVE. The executive committee has met by telephone conference. We now have a small staff team in place - or in many places! We have Anthony at the IRC, Lluc at the Youth Office, Kenn who runs the membership service, and Sarah who runs GCVC. Later you will hear about other by-law changes. Funding is stable. We have three sources of funds. The organization is in a good position to take advantage of the opportunities. Our other partners are going through leadership changes.
Joyce from Korea was introduced as Dr. Lee’s new staff.
5. Treasurer’s Report
Kathi Dennis introduced the treasurer’s report, which is only for funds in the US. Kathi apologized for not having a full statement on all IAVE’s offices around the world. She is working on collecting information from the Youth Office,
Money comes in for the world conference but also goes out. US$150,000 was raised for the India and Panama world conferences thanks to GCVC support. The host countries also contributed. Since the last meeting over $300,0000 has come in. But board travel, GCVC expenses (which is self funding), world conferences and membership management left a final balance of $98,000, which is misleading because we still have expenses to pay from the Panama conference.
6. By-Laws:
As the chair of the by-laws committee, Kathi said the notice for changes to the by-laws on the qualifications and election of the world president went out at the end of last year, and were passed in January. In this meeting, members are asked to approve other changes, which are highlighted in bold. Most are minor and grammar changes, some are adjustments to update the language to match the language of the strategic plan. On p.3 section D we are trying to express the fact that in some countries there are associations that people join, but that does not mean they have joined IAVE, for example members of IAVE-Nigeria are not part of IAVE worldwide.
Leo noted on p.2 we have a small change consistent with the change above. Article III Membership Section C change to “… may become a member of IAVE” consistent with the same change in Section B.
Susan Danish proposed p.4 (3.) Secretary - shall perform all duties incident to the office - change to “shall perform all duties that are related to the office” and the same change for Vice President, Treasurer “incident’ is changed to “related”.
Vitalis proposed p.6 (1.4) Youth Representatives “…. held in conjunction with the World Conference.”
Daniel from Cuba made the point that a change in the by-laws is a very serious matter, so the membership should be fully informed. Also, the by-laws should be translated into Spanish.
Kathi said the membership were informed of all the changes in E-IAVE two months in advance.
Tim Burns from New Zealand suggested a separate email should be sent on by-law changes so members don’t miss important matters in a newsletter.
Dacil Riquelme said there should be an official translation of IAVE’s legal documents.
Kathi agreed but pointed out that IAVE is registered in the US, so a translation would not necessarily be a legal document.
Amelita said the by-laws committee followed the process set out in IAVE’s constitution.
The above changes to the by-laws were passed.
7. Any other business.
As board member for communications, Leo introduced standard IAVE logos to keep a consistent look and inspire members to get more involved. The message we want to get across is “I can change the world”. IAVE is an international organization. We have offices around the world and growing membership. The action is to develop a communications plan and retool the website. Leo introduced the acceptable usage of the logo, including the standard, short/square, and red background logos. Other identities such as the IRC, the GCVC, and the Youth Office have consistent logos. The goals are to build a shared and inspiring image, empower members and make the world a better place! The steps to take are to go online and fill out the survey, stay connected afterwards, contribute to the website and newsletter with your stories, and stay connected with each other. If you have any questions email leo@iave.org.
Luz Stella requested that all documents be translated into Spanish to help the 25% of members who are Spanish speakers.
Anthony welcomed people to help translate, and asked volunteers to send documents to him to put on the website.
A member from Germany repeated the same call.
7. Any other business
On behalf of the membership, Tan Chee Koon thanked Liz Burns for her efforts as IAVE world president. The members gave Liz a standing ovation. Mr. J.P. Lee from Hong Kong expressed his appreciation for Liz’s stewardship and gave her a gift. Chee Koon gave Liz a scarf.
Liz said as she has travelled around the world, everywhere she has been she has met kindness and generosity and a level of hospitality that would do anyone proud. Those are the memories she will carry with her whatever she does next. In terms of learning, developing skills, and somehow just holding on with all the travel it has been hard not to become very tired, but she inevitably came back encouraged, excited and energized by what she saw. That’s what IAVE does. So she has much more to thank the members. Putting a stop to all the farewells, Liz said it is time to say “welcome, welcome, welcome” to Dr. Lee. If she could speak Gaelic, she would say “ceud mile fàilte” which means, “a thousand welcomes”.
Dr. Lee said Liz and Kylee Bates would draft a statement from the conference. The board will meet at 1:30pm lunchtime to approve the draft. If it is approved, we will be announced to the plenary session.
8. Next meeting.
The next meeting will be in 2011, at the 21st IAVE World Conference. The venue is secret! But you will find out the venue tomorrow.
The meeting closed at 7:50pm.
Submitted by: IAVE IRC