Romania and the General Assembly

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As the UK enjoys weather only matched by that experienced in Bucharest at the ICASM conference, it is time to write a blog. Sorry that this blog is a little overdue, not helped by a short stay in hospital, in fact it's written from my bed. I am on the mend!

The ICASM conference was informative and enjoyable, and I must congratulate our Romanian hosts for their excellent hospitality and organisation.
The ESAM General Assembly was held on Friday 16th and we took great care to ensure that it was quorate as we were voting on the changes to the statutes. Roland gave his President's report, and then Paulo presented both the Secretary General's and Treasurer's reports, as Carla was not able to attend. I then presented the strategy for ESAM, which in turn explains the need for changes to the statutes, which I also presented. The creation of a President Elect role was welcomed, and concern was raised about two issues, the proposed 2+2 term of office for EC members, and the appointment of the new Advisory Board Committee by the EC. After debate, it was agreed that the new statutes should be accepted with the sole change that the EC terms of office would revert to 2 years. With the election of President Elect in the interim year, it was felt that the objective of continuity was achieved. The new amended statutes will appear on the site once approved by the whole EC.
We were in a 'chicken and egg' situation, as there would be no election for President elect without the acceptance of the new statutes. As a result we did not notify the names of candidates four weeks before the GA, as required in the old and new statutes. The EC apologised for this, and it was agreed that the candidates will be published on the website, as well notification of Special GA, with eight weeks notice. As the sole business will be the election of a President Elect (and possibly auditors) the meeting will be a 'virtual' one and our excellent webmaster has produced a web-based voting system, which we can trial for this limited vote, and refine for voting in the future.

So to the lessons learned:

....Holding the ESAM GA at the same time as the ICASM in Europe is a good idea in principle, but depends on the location and we must be ever mindful of he increasing difficulties faced by members in getting travel expensed reimbursed.

....Members like the opportunity for face to face comment at the GA, and expecting responses to on-line documents is not necessarily a substitute for this.

....The EC should be diligent in complying with the requirements of the Statutes.mea culpa.

So, once I am released from my IV, and allowed home I can apply for a visa for my trip to the meeting of the Interstate Aviation Committee in Moscow later this month.

Kevin