IVU INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES

Note: these are draft minutes only

IVU Council meeting, Brazil, Friday, November 12, 2004

Present: John Davis, Tina Fox, Mitsuru Kakimoto, Francisco Martin, David
Pye, Hildegund Scholvien, Jashu Shah, Stephen Walsh, Marly Winckler

Apologies: Gerry Coffey

1. Tina Fox welcomed the new Council.

2. Allocation of responsibilities and cooptions.

The responsibilities to be allocated under this item were: Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, Deputy Chair and Membership Secretary. Regional representatives and Magazine editor would be discussed under specific items later on the agenda. Other roles would be allocated later by email discussion.

Chair: Tina Fox was proposed by Stephen Walsh, seconded by David Pye and elected with one abstention and none against.

Treasurer: David Pye was proposed by Tina Fox, seconded by Francisco Martin and elected with one abstention and none against.

Secretary: Stephen Walsh was proposed by Saurabh Dalal, seconded by Tina Fox and elected with one abstention and none against.

Deputy Chair: Saurabh Dalal was proposed by Tina Fox, seconded by Stephen Walsh and elected with two abstentions and none against.

Membership Secretary: Tina Fox indicated she was prepared to continue for the next year but that a replacement may then be needed. Tina's offer to continue was accepted without dissent. It was further agreed that while the membership secretary would continue to monitor receipt of money and the updating of the membership database, she would look for appropriate opportunities to delegate the "meet and greet" role to regional or local representatives. For example, Francisco Martin might carry out this role for Spanish speakers.

Council had power to coopt up to five additional Councillors. Council agreed unanimously to coopt D M Popat from India (organiser for the 2006 Congress in Goa) and David Roman from Spain (deputy webmaster). It was also agreed unanimously to invite other individuals who were interested in the possibility of cooption to submit position papers to be considered by Council online.

3. Regional representatives

Four regional representatives were reappointed:

Gerry Coffey - North America (as proposed by VUNA)
Hildegund Scholvein - Europe
Jashu Shah - Asia
Marly Winckler - Latin America

Each of these appointments was unanimous (with the nominee abstaining if present).

Two other appointments were felt to need further review and consultation. Tina Fox and Saurabh Dalal were delegated to explore options for Africa and Tina was also delegated to explore possibilities for Australasia.

4 Charitable Status

David Pye reported on progress. IVU has been registered in the UK as a not for profit company with Tina Fox, David Pye, Gerry Coffey and Saurabh Dalal as directors. To get charitable status it was required that there be more directors from the UK than from any other single country. It was agreed that Stephen Walsh and Francisco Martin be added to the list of directors, bringing the company board to 3 from the UK, 2 from the USA and 1 from Spain.

The main advantage of being a UK charity would be the ability to reclaim tax on donations from UK tax payers. It would also alter liability to UK tax but, as legacies were not subject to tax, IVU had not paid tax in recent years in any case. Charity law imposed some restrictions on acceptable activities but it was not felt that this would constrain IVU's activities.

David Pye had registered several UK companies as UK charities and would seek to progress this process for IVU as soon as possible. The process took a minimum of three months. There was no dissent to seeking charitable status in the UK.

5 Mehta and Mankar funds

David Pye reported that £40,000 of the funds held by IVU were in the Mankar and Mehta funds and were therefore subject to a requirement that only the income from investment of the funds should be used to cover IVU expenditure. He suggested that the two funds be consolidated into one and that future accounts include a clear note that this capital could not itself be used to fund IVU activities. This would give members, supporters and potential
donors a clearer picture of IVU's financial position. There was no dissent.

6 Magazine

There was strong support for producing between one and two magazines per year which would incorporate an annual report to members. Several councillors stated that the magazines produced when Francisco had been general secretary, which included many reports on the activities of IVU and its members, were a good model for the future. The absence of a magazine for the past three years was noted to be highly undesirable.

Francisco Martin was proposed as magazine editor by Stephen Walsh, seconded by Tina Fox and elected unanimously (nominee abstaining). It was unanimously agreed to aim to get the next magazine out in early Spring 2005 with Council members assisting Francisco by providing suitable material, including a report on the Brazil Congress and plans for future
congresses. IVU would cover the costs of producing and distributing the magazine.

The meeting was then closed.