General Assembly-CIFEJ
Amsterdam, October 15th- 19th, 2007
MINUTES
Monday, 15.10.2007
1.Arrival and Registration of Participants
The Registration is done throughout the day, at the Novatel in Amsterdam.
Tuesday, 16.10.2007
2. Opening the General Assembly and President's Report
Mrs. Athina Rikaki, CIFEJ President, opens the GA at 9 a.m.
Jo-Anne Blouin, Executive Director, welcomes the delegates and introduces Robert Roy (Canada) who will act as a replacement for Rene Malo, Secretary General, who couldn't attend.
Jo-Anne Blouin (Canada) asks each delegate to introduce themselves very briefly. Mrs. Athina Rikaki asks Robert Roy to read her report.
3.Verification of Proxies
Jo-Anne explains the procedure for the proxies and verifies the list of proxies received by each participant.
4.Designation of the Scrutineers
Robert Roy (Canada) and Corinna Downing (UK) are designated to act as scrutineers.
5.Approval of the Agenda
Jo-Anne asks to add 7c Situation of the secretariat in Canada and 8b Memberships fees increase for 2008.
Approval of the Agenda: Proposed by Eli Stangeland (Norway) and seconded by Gunther Kinstler (Germany).
6.Approval of the Minutes of the 2005 GA (Tehran)
A short period was allowed for participants to read the minutes.
Approval of the Minutes of the 2005 GA in Tehran: proposed by Thomas Hailer (Germany) and seconded by Kathleen Aubry (Canada).
7. Report from the Secretariat: 2005-2007
Jo-Anne reads the report from the Secretariat.
A. General Operations
The secretariat's report gives an overview of the on-going activities undertaken by the Secretariat and the state of new projects to be discussed further on the situation of the Secretariat in Montreal will bring mandatory changes and a need to establish priorities.
B. Projects
Jo-Anne suggests that this item be reported to point 13.
Ongoing projects.
C.Situation of the Secretariat in Canada
Jo-Anne explains that after months of effort from the Montreal team, the situation is now clear and the Head office of CIFEJ cannot remain in Montreal: after 17 years, the Canadian government has ceased its financial support.
The Secretariat has to be transferred to another country.
According to our Statutes, the decision to transfer the secretariat to another country has to be taken by the board of directors, and ratified by the GA. Following the letter sent October 5th by CIFEJ president to all members, CIFEJ received 2 proposals: one from CBFA (South Africa) and one from the FUBON Cultural and ducational Foundation (Taiwan). Other members expressed interest but didn't have enough time to officially present a proposal. Jo-Anne explains that the board of directors, at their meeting the night before, has decided in favor of the south African proposal, and offers the delegates from Taiwan her sincere gratitude for their pro-active attitude in presenting their candidacy on such a short notice.
Firdoze Bulbulia, from CBFA and CIFEJ Vice-President, explains the possibilities for South Africa to welcome CIFEJ Secretariat for the next two years. The fact that having the secretariat in Africa could help raise the membership from that continent was significant in the decision of the board.
A long discussion follows and many members express their interest in keeping Jo-Anne Blouin involved. Firdoze confirms that Jo-Anne should be part of the team and she is confident that a solution will be found with the next board of directors.
Jo-Anne explains that CIFEJ needs an office to secure CIFEJ operations as soon as possible, and if we move to South Africa for two years, CIFEJ should immediately initiate negotiations for the future after South Africa and not wait till the next GA in two years. Jo-Anne is ready to work with the new team to offer a mooth transition and continuity in CIFEJ work and in CIFEJ services to its members.
The delegates ratify the board's decision to move the Secretariat to South Africa for the next two years.
8.Membership
A. New members, Lapsed Members, Honorary Members
Jo-Anne has made a detailed report in the Secretariat's report about how many lapsed or new members CIFEJ had in the last two years, but basically, the membership is increasing steadily, and at a rate never seen before. 10 years ago, we were happy to welcome 5 new members per year. For the last two years, almost 30new members were accepted, from each continent, and with various expertises.
She reminds everyone that in order to be able to vote tomorrow, participants have to pay their 2007 membership fees to her by the end of the day.
B. Membership Fees Increase
Jo-Anne explains that membership fees can only be modified during a GA, and that they represent the only autonomous financial resources of CIFEJ. The last increase in membership fees was voted during the 2000 GA in Montreal, and it was a mistake not to raise the amount since then. To give an example, Jo-Anne has prepared a document to show the impact on the budget if each membership category was to get a 100$ CAD increase for 2008. She also reminds that the fees are usually charged in the currency of the hosting country; since the last 17 years, the fees were charged in Canadian dollars.
9.Financial Reports: 2004-2005, 2005-2006
Jo-Anne explains that the Audited financial report for 2004-2005, and 2005-2006 were accepted by the board of directors last year.
10.Approval of the Operating Budget: 2006-2007, 2007-2008
Because Jo-Anne knew that a decision was to be taken at this GA regarding the transfer of the head office, it also meant that a final financial report for 2006-2007 would have to be made only when the actual office in Montreal would be closed. So there was no point in spending money on an audited financial report yet. As for the 2007-2008 budgets, it will have to be voted by the future board of directors, taking in consideration the transfer of the office and its operational budget.
11.Nomination of Auditors
Jo-Anne Blouin (Canada) proposes Barbault and Cousineau as Auditors for the final financial report of CIFEJ, as the auditors have been from this firm since CIFEJ moved to Canada in 1990. Seconded by Eli Stangeland (Norway).
12.Election of Board Members: Preparation for Tomorrow's Election
Jo-Anne reads out the Statutes regarding the election of board members: nine members are to be elected by secret ballot for a two year mandate; eight of them are members and one will be the president of the organization. Some members can be re-elected for a second consecutive mandate and only the president can be re-elected for a third consecutive mandate. Each candidate had to send his nomination in writing to the Secretariat 2 months before the GA.
The candidates are:
Athina Rikaki (Greece) 3rd mandate as president
Firdoze Bulbulia (South Africa) 2nd mandate
Andrezj R. Jasiewicz (Poland) 2nd mandate
Maikki Kantola (Finland) 2nd mandate
Miomir Rajcevic (Serbia) 2nd mandate
Mohsen Chiniforoushan (Iran) 1st mandate
Jan Erik Host (Norway) 1st mandate
Vinod Ganatra (India) 1st mandate
Pablo Ramos (Cuba) 1st mandate
Gunther Kinstler (Germany) 1st mandate
Wang tae Lim (South Korea) 1st mandate
Katarina Minichova (Slovakia) 1st mandate
Jo- Anne invites each candidate to briefly introduce him/herself. Some candidates were absent. Eli Stangeland introduces the Norwegian candidate, and Jo-Anne introduces the candidate from Cuba. Jo-Anne also reminds all delegates that it's important that CIFEJ board has a balanced representation eographically and a balance in terms of individual area of expertise and interest.
The vote will be take place on Wednesday, October 17 during the Extraordinary General Assembly, thus permitting the delegates and nominees to get better acquainted.
End of the first day.
Wednesday 17.10.2007
Jo-Anne welcomes everyone and we start at 9 a.m.
13.Extraordinary General Assembly: Approval of Modification in Statutes
Jo-Anne explains that no modifications were requested by CIFEJ members.
14. Election of Board members
Election of the President
Jo-Anne Blouin (Canada) proposes for a third mandate the candidacy of Athina Rikaki from Greece, seconded by Robert Roy (Canada).
Athina Rikaki (Greece) is elected unanimously as president of CIFEJ.
Election of the Board Members
Robert Roy (Canada) and Corinna Downing (UK) have been chosen as scrutineers for the election of the Board Members.
Robert Roy (Canada) explains the voting procedure according to our Statutes, article 8.3, the principle of "One country, One vote". Each country has the same number of votes. The value of the vote depends on the number of members in each country.
For Example, in Albania, there is only one member so its vote counts for 1.
Jo-Anne mentions that because the head office will move to South Africa, Firdoze Bulbulia automatically becomes Secretary General. Athina Rikaki has already been elected as president, so the two first names from the list on the voting bulletin are not available for election.
Robert Roy mentions that because we have only ten nominees, all the people are being elected. The eight names that will get more points will be elected and the two names with less points will be elected as substitutes.
Jo-Anne Blouin, The Executive Director, gives each voting member his/her envelop containing also the bulletin for the proxies, given by non-attending members.
The candidates are:
Andrezj R. Jasiewicz (Poland) 2nd mandate
Maikki Kantola (Finland) 2nd mandate
Miomir Rajecevic (Serbia) 2nd mandate
Mohsen Chiniforoushan (Iran) 1st mandate
Jan Erik Host (Norway) 1st mandate
Vinod Ganatra (India) 1st mandate
Pablo Ramos (Cuba) 1st mandate
Gunther Kinstler (Germany) 1st mandate
Wang Tea Lim (South Korea) 1st mandate
Katarina Minichova (Slovakia) 1st mandate
The extraordinary General Assembly is over. The scrutineers leave the room to count the votes. The delegates move on with the next item on the agenda.
15.Ongoing Projects
Kids for Kids Festival
Jo-Anne gives an account on the on-going KFKF events around the world, the ones existing already: KFKF Sweden, Poland, Belgium, Africa, and the ones planned for the future: KFKF Americas, France, and Brazil. The global KFKF 2007 will be held in Naples, November 29th to December 2nd.
Nordic Kids for Kids Festival
Maikki Kantola (Finland): Plan is to add KFK Nordic to be a part of the Videotivoli festival. The first one will be 2008, if the Nordic ministry gives the money and CIFEJ gives her the green light to develop the project.
Kids for Kids Festival-Balkans
Miomir Rajcevic (Serbia): confirms his intention to continue to organize this Regional Kids for Kids Festival, for its 3rd edition in 2008.
Proposals for Projects (Voices from the Floor):
.Vinod Ganatra (India): Collection of films winners of the CIFEJ prize.
It's good tohave a pack of information of the winners every year.
. Jean-Luk Slock (Belgium): What's the news about kids for Kids in Ethiopia?
Jo-Anne explains what has been done and that she hopes the next executive team will continue this "training of trainers" project.
.Fereshteh Taerpour (Iran): What is the system to invite people to be a Jury member?
.Pouran Derakhshandeh (Iran): We need connections to international organizations which produce films; to make international links.
.Eli Stangeland (Norway): CIFEJ is about connecting people.
.Vinod Ganatra (India): Hoping to have a compilation of films and a book.
.Xiao Juan Zhou (Canada): There should be a link to supervise Kids for Kids and commercial films and broadcasters.
. Guido Covents (Belgium): What happens to archives?.Faith Isiakpere (South-Africa): CIFEJ has done a lot of work around the world. He suggests that we work with broadcasters-they might be interested by CIFEJ productions.
.Maikki Kantola (Finland): Can we split up and discuss in smaller groups,because here are people who are interested in different topics, and in a smaller groups they could plan something new.
.Jo-Anne Blouin: We have heard similar proposals and ideas about UNESCOand UNICEFfor example, and we did research about them. It's easier to start by defining a project and then applying for money.
.Guido Cohuents (Belgium): Then we need to find these projects. We need to find our strengths.
.Jo-Anne Blouin: This is the time to say all these. Our new board of directors needs to hear all about your wishes; what you want them to work on for the next wo years.
.Firdoze Bulbulia (South–Africa): 1) What is this organization? I need to understand what members are expecting from us. Some people think that members need to be more active, but at the same time, some might think that we are paying our fees and that is enough. Some members perhaps hope that the office takes care of the rest.
2) One thing is that, for example, Asia and Africa need support. How we are taking care of these continents? We need to bring some activities to these areas.
3) How are we making sure that our members are paying the fee on time?
4) Lots of members are not active, how to activate them.
5) We need to brainstorm all of these together.
.Katarina Minichova (Slovakia): Festivals are important.CIFEJ plays a role of moral support. Broadcasters should also be part of this.
.Firdaus Kharas (Canada): If the organization does not transform soon, there will be less and less members.
Transformation has to be started from projects. UNESCO, for example, do fund projects.
We really need to find a role for the organization. Big money will be found from the area of education. If you make quality programming, you will get funding money.
And the last thing, don't underestimate the personal contacts, because the reason I joined CIFEJ was that I met Jo-Anne.
.Jo-Anne Blouin: If you want to know about CIFEJ, you have to do something.
There is a lot of information on the web page. CIFEJ is different now than 50 years ago.
.Faith Isiakpere (South-Africa): I totally agree with what you were saying. CIFEJ has grown to a new level. I want to talk about the fact that some of the continents are not here. We need to increase members in Africa. We are going to have a new channel, ABC (African Best Channel). It will be starting at the beginning of 2008 in Nigeria. It is going to be a window to the world. Work of CIFEJ could be promoted through the TV Channel.
.Fereshteh Taerpour (Iran): Festivals should pay attention to the fact that the number and the quality of children films has decreased. We should write a strong letter to all of the governments. We can havedifferent centers and branches, different committees: festivals, quality film…
.Andrzej Roman Jasiewicz (Poland): Nowadays you need to be a specialist. It's good that in this room there are so many professionals from different children and media fields. We need to increase the membership. My opinion is that UNESCO and UNICEFare looking for projects.
.Eli Stangeland (Norway): I think the richness is when you meet many people from different fields. That's the way to get inspiration. You meet many kinds of people and it will give you so much.
.Jan Eric Holst (Norway): We have a specific production: Children's film. CIFEJ must be a meeting place for filmmakers, distributors, and scriptwriters, etc; eveloping the language.
.Denis Boivin (Canada): We need to remember the most important word: children. Best communication is when you meet people face to face, and CIFEJ is this.
.Katarina Minichova (Slovakia): All the different fields are coming together. For me it is very important to know what is happening in a different field on children's and media world.
.Thomas Hayle(Germany): There is a small amount of people who are interested in children films. If we want to get new and young members, we need to think what we have to offer them.
.Firdoze Bulbulia (South-Africa): Coming together; we start to learn from eachother. The most important is children and young people. We need to be happy about that. Yes, we are getting older, but hopefully wiser, as well. All of the new people come with the new, positive baggage.
Please, festivals, do not always invite the same people to be jury members.
Would it be possible to get a little fee from the workshops to the CIFEJ's office?
This is networking. We need positive energy to go to the next level. I know that CIFEJ is an amazing organization. Money is not the only way to support it.
Result from the Vote for the Election of the Board of CIFEJ
The scrutineers have returned and Robert Roy announces the result of the vote:
The new members of the board of CIFEJ (2008-2010) are:
Mohsen Chiniforoushan (Iran) 1st mandate
Vinod Ganatra (India) 1st mandate
Jan Erik Hoslt (Norway)1st mandate
Maikki Kantola (Finland) 2nd mandate
Gunther Kinsler (Germany) 1st mandate
Wang Tea Lim (South Korea) 1st mandate
Miomir Rajcevic (Serbia) 2nd mandate
Pablo Ramos (Cuba) 1st mandate
Substitutes: Andrzej Roman Jasiewski (Poland) and Katarina Minichova (Slovakia)
Athina Rikaki (Greece) President 3rd mandate
Firdoze Bulbulia (South-Africa) Secretary General
Jo-Anne thanks the scrutineers for the good job, and pictures are taken
of the new board of directors of CIFEJ.
Friday 19.10.2007
Jo-Anne explains that this day is dedicated to CIFEJ members working in the field ofmedia education and children making films. But before we start with the presentations, she reminds every one that if they have ideas to share, please send proposals and information before 10th of January 2008, because the new board will then held its first meeting.
Each presentation is followed by a Q & A session .
Belgium & Taiwan:
- My 24 hours: a series of documentaries by young people from 5 different continents
.Serbia:
- Balkan Kids for Kids Festival
- International Summer Media Workshop 2007
.Mexico:
- La Matatena
.Italy:
- Arci Movies: Work with young people out of schools
.Germany:
- Media competition
.Albania:
- TV series for children about literacy
- New project: Europe thought children's eyes
Jo-Anne suggests that new projects like this one should be prepared in a one-page written proposal to be circulate through CIFEJ network.
Final Words and Comments:
.Israel: Hoping that CIFEJ would help break barriers between political states.
.Jo-Anne: Remember that this is a network. If you don't tell us about yourprojects, we can't inform the others.
.Firdoze: peace-multicultural movement, we ordinary people are gathering together-please, write to us a concrete thing before the next board meeting.
.Athina: please, I am asking all of us, write about your projects and experiences. And think about your capacity to host the Head office in your country in two years.
Prepared in Montreal, Canada, 2007
