posted 24 November 1999 12:29            

First Meeting - Monday, 13th September 1999, 17:30 hrs. at room 8/15, Vancouver Trade and Exhibition Centre

Agenda:

1. Adoption of the Agenda.

2. Adoption of the minutes and report on the resolutions of the General Assembly held in Antwerp, Belgium, on the occasion of the 35th International Beekeeping Congress in 1997.

3. Report of the Executive Council for the period 1997-99.

4. Report of the Auditing Commission and approval of the financial report for the period 1997 and 1998.

5. Approval of the budget for the period 2000-01.

6. Apimondia working plan for the period 2000-01.

7. Plan of the symposia and other international meetings for the period 2000-01.

8. Admission of new members.

9. Proposal for the loss of the quality of Apimondia members for non-paying associations.

10. Discussion and voting of the proposed amendments of the Apimondia Statutes.

11. Election of two members of the Executive Council:

- President (incumbent: Mr. R. Borneck);
- Elected Member (incumbent: Mr. E. Lear, South Africa).

12. Election of four Presidents of the Standing Commissions:

- Apitherapy (incumbent: Dr. T. Cherbuliez, Switzerland)
- Beekeeping Biology (incumbent: Prof. Dr. O. Van Laere, Belgium);
- Beekeeping Pathology (incumbent: Dr. W. Ritter, Germany);
- Beekeeping Technology and Equipment (incumbent ad interim: Mr. G. Ratia, France);

13. Election of one member of the Auditing Commission:

- Auditor (incumbent: Mr. K. Gladines, Belgium).

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The appointed delegates and deputies of the following Apimondia member associations were present: Australia, Austria, Belgium (2), Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, Cuba, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom and Vietnam.

The Secretary-General checked the credentials and ascertained the presence of 25 representatives out of 45 member associations. The constitution of the Assembly being considered valid, the President of Apimondia undertook the presidency of the Assembly and the Secretary-General acted as secretary of the meeting which was therefore declared officially open.

1. The agenda was approved unanimously.

2. The report of the Apimondia General Assembly sessions held in Antwerp, Belgium, on 2nd and 6th September 1997 was cleared.

3. The President, the Vice-President and the Secretary-General gave an account of the activities carried out over the period 1997-1999 which had also been reported in the previous minutes and annual report. During the said period three meetings of the Executive Council and of the IITEA Managing Committee have been held (in Rome in June 1998 and May 1999 and in Vancouver in September 1999).

4. The Auditing Commission reported to the Executive Council on the verifications carried out on the Federation's accounts and made recommendations to the General Assembly to give the Secretary-General discharge for the accounts for the period July 1993 - December 1998 having found the documentation to be in proper order and consistent with Apimondia bank statements. The General Assembly then approved the accounts as presented and audited for the period covering the years 1997 and 1998 audited in August 1999 as well as those for the period July 1993 - December 1996 which had been audited in May 1998 and the relevant report delivered to the member associations in November 1998.

5. The Secretary-General illustrated the proposed budgets for the next two years to come pointing out that the figures reported were extremely conservative in view of the fact that the revenue from the 36th Apimondia congress was still to be defined in detail and therefore this item had a significant impact on the rest of the budget especially for the year 2000. The General Assembly reviewed and approved both budgets after discussing some details concerning the level of expected membership fees contributions and the foreseen staff and collaborators costs.

6. The working plan for the next two years would focus primarily on the organisation of the 37th Apimondia congress as well as on other symposia and meetings in close collaboration with the standing commissions, the revision of the statutes and the expansion of the Internet website.

7. The Executive Council discussed on the most relevant events coming up under Apimondia aegis and in particular reported on the organisation of the meeting on control methods of varroa in Belgium on 13 and 14 November 1999, the 2nd Caribbean congress to be held in Nevis from 14 to 18 August 2000 and on the practical training course on pollination to be held in South Africa from 28 to 30 September 2000.

8. The Secretary-General reported on the applications for admission to become full members of Apimondia submitted by the Irish Federation of Beekeepers' Associations and the Comisión Nacional Apícola of El Salvador.

Furthermore, other applications have been filed by the Development Foundation of Turkey, the Wadi Al-Nahel Establishment of Jordan and Vape S.A. of El Salvador for the status of associate members and that of Mr. A.S. Ashraf Shah from Saudi Arabia, Mr. A. Mihajlov from Russia and Mr. Y.I. Ndoinyo from Kenya to be recognized as individual correspondents.

9. The member associations in arrears of their membership fees for more than four years, namely the Savez Pcelara of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Melissokomiki of Greece, the Israel Beekeepers' Association and the North Korean Beekeepers' Association, would be issued a letter from Apimondia Rome informing them of their status of non-paid-up members and inviting them to settle their dues within the next six months or their membership would be terminated.

10. The proposed amendments to the Statutes were circulated to the member associations two months prior to the congress to enable them to evaluate the provisions contained therein and to provide their comments and inputs. One proposal from the German member association covered a completely new version of the statutes and the other from the Dutch member association suggested the introduction of an external auditor to undertake the review of the Federation's accounts. After some discussions on these two proposals concerning the phasing, implementation and technical aspects it was agreed that an ad hoc committee would co-ordinate this exercise for its finalisation by the next congress in 2001.

11. The renewal of the Federation's management offices led to the following results:

- Mr. A.S. Jørgensen (Denmark) was appointed President by acclamation;

- Dr. E. Schieferstein (Germany) was elected Vice-President by acclamation and

- Mr. E. Lear (South Africa) was re-appointed elected member by acclamation.
As a result of Mr. Jørgensen's nomination to President, his previous position as Vice-President became vacant and this accounted for the need to proceed to the election of a new incumbent to fill this position.

12. The chairmanships of the Apimondia Standing Commissions due to expire were assigned as follows:

- Dr. T. Cherbuliez (Switzerland) for Apitherapy was re-appointed with 12 votes

- Prof. Dr. O. Van Laere (Belgium) for Bee Biology was re-appointed by acclamation

- Dr. W. Ritter (Germany) for Bee Pathology was re-appointed by acclamation and

- Mr. G. Ratia (France) for Beekeeping Equipment and Technology was elected by acclamation.

13. For the Auditing Commission the delegates proceeded to the renewal of the vacant position as follows:

- Mr. K. Gladines (Belgium) was re-elected by acclamation.

Following these elections, the Apimondia Executive Council's composition for the next two years is as follows:

Dean of the Honorary Members R. Borneck (France)

President A.S. Jørgensen (Denmark)

Vice-President E. Schieferstein (Germany)

Secretary-General R. Jannoni-Sebastianini (Italy)

Elected Members M. Peroutka (Czechia) & E.N. Lear (South Africa)

- Presidents of Standing Commissions

Beekeeping Economy H. Watanabe (Japan)

Bee Biology O. Van Laere (Belgium)

Bee Pathology W. Ritter (Germany)

Melliferous Flora and Pollination M. Sommeijer (Netherlands)

Beekeeping Technology and Equipment G. Ratia (France)

Apitherapy T. Cherbuliez (Switzerland)

Beekeeping for Rural Development N. Bradbear (United Kingdom)

- Auditing Commission

Auditors K. Wyder (Switzerland)
K. Gladines (Belgium)

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Second Meeting - Friday, 17th September 1999, 16:30 hrs. at main hall, Vancouver Trade and Exhibition Centre

1. Report on the first meeting of the General Assembly

2. Report of the resolutions of the 36th International Beekeeping Congress

3. Election of the new Honorary Members of Apimondia

4. Contest results and prizes awarding

5. Addresses of the delegates of the member associations attending the congress

6. Address of the President of the 36th International Beekeeping Congress

7. Formal closing of the 36th International Beekeeping Congress.

The congress speaker opened the plenary session, in the presence of the participants of the 36th International Apicultural congress and referred the floor to the Secretary-General to address point one of the agenda.

* The Secretary-General reported on the first meeting of the General Assembly.

* The President read the resolutions of the 36th Apimondia congress which had been prepared in collaboration with the Presidents of the various Standing Commissions.

* The ceremony for the distribution of the awards and prizes was introduced and the winners were invited to the podium to receive the acknowledgement from the jury and the audience.

* The President presented the list of the Honorary Members proposed for nomination:

Mr. D. Dixon (Canada), President of the 36th Apimondia congress;
Prof. R. Morse (USA);
Mr. H. Spitznagel (Canada) and
Ms. E. Dumitrascu (Romania).

* The President of Apimondia took the floor to deliver his farewell speech upon termination of his mandate and was followed by the new President who addressed to audience to thank his predecessor and illustrate the traits of his new mandate.

* The delegates of the various member associations were invited to take the floor to address short speeches to the audience and deliver symbolic presents to the authorities on the podium.

* Mr. Dixon, President of the 36th Apimondia congress, was then invited to hand over the Apimondia flag to Mr. Langenhoven in representation of the South African Congress Organising Committee to simbolically mark the continuity of the Apimondia international congresses.