Abstract Minutes Board Meeting, 13 February 2007 Present: Hotel A4, Schiphol, Hoofddorp The Netherlands Graham Avery Andy Chryssolor Henk van Bruggen Jeannie Bear José Ors Erik Smidt Kitty Aalbers Wim Aalbers President Secretary Treasurer Board Member Board Member Board Member Secretariat Executive Director 1. Opening by the President The President opens the meeting at 09:10 and welcomes all. 2. Minutes meetings The minutes of the Board meeting 060328 were signed by the President and the Secretary. The minutes of the AGM 2005 were already approved by the AGM and were now signed by the President and the Secretary. The minutes of the AGM 2006 were approved as draft and will be published at the website. Approval has to be done by the AGM in October 2007. 3. Financial reports The financial report of 2006 (calendar year) were discussed and approved by the Board. Before 1 July the audit by Henk Kiela and Mireille Nauwelaert will be done and the report will be published on the website. Their report will be presented on the website as well as during the AGM. Final approve from AGM in October 2007. The result of 2006 shows a profit of 25,132.48 Euro. The balance sheet shows a deposit account of 90,000 Euro per 31 December 2006. The treasurer, the secretariat and the EFCLIN accountant have met on 6 February and prepared the final change into the reporting period, equal to the calendar year. At the same time they fine tuned the set of the administration for the future. Out of 110 members, 31 did not pay their annual subscription on 13 February. This is a big concern for the Board. The Secretariat will contact all these members again to try to get the money in as soon as possible. On 29 January an e mail was sent to the people not paid. In February further action will be taken.
As soon as the treasurer will be able to forecast stationary, telephone, fax and other direct to EFCLIN related costs made by EPS, EPS will charge these to EFCLIN again. The Executive Director estimates these costs will be between 1000 and 2000 Euro per year. The costs have been charged to EFCLIN in the past, but when EPS had to increase their annual costs a few years ago, at a time the financial situation of EFCLIN was not great, EPS offered not to charge this costs for the time being then. The treasurer will indicate if and when those costs can be charged to EFCLIN again. The treasurer proposes to make the costs for the secretariat and the Executive Director inflation related. Every year the budgeted annual costs will be adapted accordingly to the Dutch inflation rates. The Board wishes to follow the forecast as closely as possible. Still there might be situations that ask for immediate action but will influence the budget dramatically. The Board will propose to the AGM to limit any extra expenses which are not in the forecast, to 10% of the total annual income of the subscription. A proposal to lay this down in the By Laws will be made (see also item 5). 4. Board elections 2007 Graham ends his second period and cannot be re elected after 6 years service. Jeannie finished the first period of 3 years and can be re elected for a second term of three years. A new Board member has to be elected to replace Graham and Jeannie is available for re election. A new procedure, proposed by Wim, was accepted by the Board. The Board will propose candidates. All members can also be candidates as long as the procedure of their candidacy will be following the rules in the Statues. For the AGM in 2007 that will result in a proposal from the Board for Jeannie Bear for re election and a new candidate. Members will be invited in time to ask them to send in alternative candidates. This procedure will be laid down in the By Laws. The democratic procedures of the elections will not be changed, since all members still can send in their own candidacy. But the Board makes a statement and gives an advice to the members of their preferred candidates. (See also item 5.) Since it is the responsibility of the Board to divide the different positions, the Board decided to ask Andy to take over the Presidency and Jeannie the secretariat and Vice Presidency in October 2007. Henk will stay in his position of Treasurer during his last year of his service till October 2008. Henk proposed to add to the By Laws that the composition of the Board should be a reasonable reflection of the members population. This to avoid over or under representation of regions or labs, suppliers and IOL industry. (See also item 5.) 5. By Law s Changes of the following items in the By Laws will be proposed at the AGM in October 2007: By Law 2, b. The reason a membership ends is described in detail in the By Laws. One of the reasons is when a member indicates before 1 December previous to a year that he want to end his membership. By Law 2 b however, indicates that when a members did not pay before the 15 th of February, he loses his membership. In that way it is very complicated to make a good forecast and planning. This should be brought in line. By Law 2 c has to be removed, since in practice it does not work at all.
To be added: members who cease their membership, cannot enter the organization within two years, by making use of any special welcome offers. To be added: the Board should be a reasonable reflection of the members population. To be added: The Board will be limited in any extra expenses which are not in the forecast, to 10% of the total annual income of the subscription. To be added: When Board members have to be (re )elected, the Board will make a proposal to the members during the AGM of candidates. Other candidates from the floor can be alternative candidates. The Board can decide to invite private members which do not fall under an existing category. The annual subscription for this individuals with no or almost non commercial interest in the industry, will be 25% of the lowest rate for suppliers. Those seven changes in the By Laws will be prepared by a lawyer. The final text will be send to the Board, which then will decide if this proposal will be presented to the AGM in October 2007. 6. New s letters and questions The new format of the ENF and the questions the secretariat introduced at the end of 2006 was accepted by the Board. The Board also wants to have a system by which the question service will be more promoted and the answers will be available for all members. (See also item 16.) 7. EUROMCONTACT The relationship with EUROMCONTACT has become perfect over the last few years. Although EFCLIN is an associate member of EUROMCONTACT, so there is no voting right, the Board decides not to change this situation (by becoming a full and paying member) and will, where possible, tie the relationship with EUROMCONTACT. 8. Reporting about ISO and CE The Board would like to see the reporting to the members intensified. Regular reports should be included in the news letters to the members. Anne Marie Wolters will be ask to make a plan for this approach. 9. Congress 2008 As the Board indicated last year, the secretariat gathered information on 15 locations and venues in the Northern part of Europe. During the meeting, the Board decided to change the plans and look for locations in the South, because of the weather in October might play an important role in the decision of members to attend or not. First choices will be Athens and Lisbon. For Athens Lefteris Karageorgiadis will be asked for some assistance in finding the right venues. 10. P reparations Málaga Wim and Kitty will have a meeting on 7 March in Málaga with the hotel staff, booth builders and travel organizations.
11. Membership developments and payments On 13 February there were 110 members. 31 had not paid there annual prescription yet. This is a returning problem every year and causing a lot of extra work to the secretariat. The companies who became a member during the congress through a special offer, do not fully realize that they have to give notice before 1 December if they want to resign as a member the next year. Therefore it was decided to make an agreement which has to be signed by the new member and a Board member in the future. During the exhibitors welcome reception the President will officially welcome the new members. 12. Evaluation Congress 2006 and future improvements Staff The event has been growing over the years and it will not be possible anymore to have all the work done by the present staff. Specially last year, with Renée being on maternity leave all summer, the whole show was run by two people. Therefore an extra staff member will be hired for assisting during the period right before and during the congress. In August and September that staff member will be trained in the office by the secretariat and assist in the preparations. Registration During registration hours there was no time for a proper welcome to new members at all. In the future there will be a Board member available to welcome new members and explain to them what EFCLIN can do for them. Non registered participants will pay an extra fee of 100 Euro in the future (in 2006 50). There will be a special desk for registered and non registered participants in 2007. Last year Lectures results evaluations The lecture program was very well accepted, looking at the evaluation sheets. It looks if the formula and timing are good and nothing has to be changed there, except the time scheme for the IOL lecture session. Exhibition In 2006 we had 25 exhibitors and there is a good chance that this number will increase in the future (because of the IOL participation). It is hard to get reactions after the congress from the exhibitors. Therefore it would be very valuable to re introduce an exhibitors meeting again. Problem is that with the tied program we have, it is hard to find a suitable time for such meeting. Dinners Although the entertainment dinner was wrong planned with a maximum of 120 people, (there were 150), the dinners went well. However, the larger the group gets, the harder it is to organize a special and intimate entertainment dinner. We have to follow the average more and more. The President s dinner also had more people than expected. Therefore the room was too small now. In future it must be taken into account that more people might attend than forecasted. Entertainment The golf attracts only a few people every year. But as long as it is no pressure on the budget, it will be offered. The partner program was fine, although there were some complaints about the long waiting times.
IOL program Following the evaluation forms, the IOL people appreciated the lecture program. There are many suggestions for items to be discussed next year and the program will be offered again. Number of participants With 270 people (including about 30 partners) this was the busiest congress ever. No doubt the location had also to do with that, so it would not be surprising if at the next congress, less people would show up, since Málaga might have a bit less attractive name than Venice. 13. Congress 2007 Theme of the Congress 2007 will be: Streamline Your Business More for less The (potential) exhibitors will be informed about this theme and will be asked to send in suggestions for lecturers. The IOL lecture program will be following as much as possible the suggestions the participants gave in 2006. (see also suggestions below.) Invitations for possible visitors needing visa will be send out in March by the secretariat. The program booklet (same set up as in 2006) has to be ready in June. It will be enclosed in Global CONTACT again and also sent out as a separate mailing in August to about 800 potential visitors. Jeannie will proofread the final version. (May) To be able to finalize the program in June, the Board will finalize the suggestions for lectures at the latest by 1 April. From there, Wim will take over. At the end of April all lecturers have to be approached and confirmed (See lecture suggestion below.) The Trivial Pursuit as final session was a great success. Although difficult to come up with something like that as fun and interesting, alternatives will be developed. Board members will be present during the registration times to welcome new members. Instead of each lecturer introduced by a different Board member, this year there will be moderators per time slot. Jeannie will be moderator at the Friday contact lens lecture sessions, José at the Friday IOL sessions and Andy for the Saturday general sessions. The secretariat s staff will take care of the evaluation forms. Guidelines lecturers. All lectures should be tightly linked to the theme. All lecturers must be informed about this. The moderators will control the time schedule. Speakers must be stopped at the scheduled time if they tend to run longer. If speakers will take less time than scheduled, the next lecture has to start on the scheduled time. Lecturers should send in their lecture a few weeks before the congress. However, experience learns that this will be very difficult, since nowadays with PowerPoint, most lecturers finalize their lecture only a few hours before the lecture is presented. Despite of that practical problem, lecturers must be told very clearly that the presentation must NOT be commercial. The Guideline for Lecturers as presented and used in 2006 will be evaluated by the Board and if necessary revisions will be added. Suggested lectures (The names behind the subjects in bold, Italic and underlined are to take action) o An organization specialist, that have been working for Contour, is specialized in Streamlining businesses. Because of an exclusivity contract they cannot be approached, but a kind of organization like them would be possible.
o Marc de Fre about Internet and ordering processes by IT. Marc was a lecturer in 2004 and was highly rated. o ISO CE, how it can streamline your business, by Helmer Schweitzer (CIBA) or Henk Smit (Ophtec Groningen). o Automation by Patrick Benz, or preferable a user of the system (Ophtec???) o Packaging, Alcan. o Order following by practitioners. Why and how. o Possible: a presentation by four machine suppliers (in full cooperation) about: lathing edges, oscillation, robots and auto loading. o As an alternative for the Trivial Pursuit session last year, a professor from Manchester University could be provided. He is specialized in Thinking out of the Box. And can do a very lively session. o E mail management, Robert Venstra. o Wavefront (Indo, Zeiss, Ken Payne) o Blocking José Ors o IOL ophthalmologist for (neutral, not supplier related) presentation. All that are mentioned behind the subjects above, should send their report to the secretariat before 15 March. The secretariat then will send the total proposal to the Board right after that date. All Board members will send in any other ideas and suggestions they can come up with to the secretariat before 15 March. 14. P romotion The idea of developing a presentation tool about contact lenses, was rejected by the Board. 15. Replacement Executive Director Since no longer any health problems seems to be causing problems, the exact time the Executive Director will resign has been more flexible. Nevertheless, the organization should prepare for the replacing of Wim (and EPS). The Board finds it necessary that before any decision will be taken, several aspects must be analyzed: The EFCLIN as an organization. What are the expectations of it in future. A solid organization plan for the future has to be produced, before a well describe profile of a new Executive Director can be made. The work of the Executive Director and the secretarial tasks EPS is doing, should be further analyzed. Finding a new Executive Director can be difficult if the same work is required what Wim is doing now, resulting in a part of the year almost fully dedicated to EFCLIN and the rest of the year only part time. EPS will start changing that by re organizing the EFCLIN work. Wim will report to the Board by the end of this year about the progress.
16. W ebsite In 2006 the EFCLIN website attracted 25,841 visitors (368,063 hits). This is an explosive growth. Obviously the website has become the most import communication vehicle for EFCLIN members. That is reason for the Board to decide on a few improvements to be executed asap and to follow further developments and further improvements to be done as soon they seem to be sensible to execute. The question and answer service to the members always works well, but members do not see the answers. An overview of the answers will be published on the members only pages. A form for asking questions will be developed by which the question service will be more accessible for members. A buy and sale (Eflin Bay) will be installed. The look and feel of the site will be upgraded. An extra page with links will be installed (on which the CLMA can advertise their congress). 17. CLMA It still seems to be difficult to get the cooperation between EFCLIN and CLMA to a next level. Both organizations expressed several times their willingness to develop further cooperation, but in practice not much is happening. CLMA asked Graham to take some action to activate EFCLIN members to attend the CLMA meetings. The upgrade of the website will make this possible and will be done in near future. 18. Aw ards The award selection procedures are published on the website. The secretariat will ask for nominations in the next news letter (ENF). The Award Committee then will start the appropriate action as from April. 19. W FT w orking group The Board would like to receive a report from the chairman of the committee (Ken Payne) on the progress made and expected. 20. Any other business The responsibilities of the individual Board members as published at the AGM will remain the same till the AGM 2007. The participation fees for non members to the congress will be increased. The full congress rates for that category for the first participant of a company will be 625. Other rates for non members will be calculated from this basic rate. The welcome offer for new members will apply again during the congress in 2007. But the discount must be less than 50%, to avoid that the membership and the members participation fee, will be lower than the participation fee for non members. This to avoid that people might become a member just for saving a few Euros. On Thursday, the opening hours for the exhibition will be from 11:00 19:00. Given that the booths will be built and ready at about noon on Wednesday. This will give the machine suppliers enough time to install their machinery. If possible, a Board meeting will be held on Wednesday late afternoon, the day before the congress starts.
21. End The President thanked all to attended this fruitful meeting. President: Andy Chryssolor Secretary: Jeannie Bear