Present: Abstract of the Minutes of the Board Meeting, 8 March 2010, 09:00 17:00 h. Hotel A4, Schiphol, Hoofddorp The Netherlands Jeannie Bear President Andy Chryssolor Secretary/Vice President Erik Smidt Treasurer Lefteris Karageorgiadis Board Member Ashley Pepper Board Member Steve Wheeler Board Member Kitty Aalbers Secretariat Wim Aalbers Executive Director MCI (for a presentation on association management from 12:00 12:30) Marc Slenema Project manager EFCLIN Huguette Andreoli Manager Dutch operation Idoia Rodés Torrontegui Regional Managing Director General items 1. Opening by the President at 09:15 2. Minutes June 2009 The minutes of the Board meeting in June 2009 had been approved already and are signed now. 3. Other documents and already approved minutes to be signed Minutes that have been approved before and a document for the Chamber of Commerce were signed. 4. Andy (representing a supplier member) will leave the Board in May. An announcement of a vacancy has been sent in February, three months before the AGM. In this letter to the members Marcel Kopito was mentioned as the candidate proposed by the Board. Other candidacies from the members can be sent in until 15 April 2010. Then the Board has to send a final list of candidates to the members. (See by Laws) The Board will come up with a decision for the appointment of who will become the new Secretary and Vice President after 15 May, when Andy has left. 5. Candidates Executive Director There are two candidates for this position. The Board discussed about the procedure of hiring the new Director and the timing. Wim Aalbers (EPS) announced that he is willing to reduce the costs for EFCLIN with 50%, starting from 1 July 2010 and ending 30 June 2011. The new Director will be asked to start his job on 1 January 2011. He will be in charge of the congress 2011 in Barcelona, together with MCI. The new Director will be offered a contract for 2 years. For practical reasons, EFCLIN will stay a Dutch organization in 2011. A majority of the Board members voted for one of the candidates. This candidate will receive a proposal contract from the Board before the AGM on 15 May. If the candidate accepts this proposal, the candidate will be introduced to the AGM. After the approval of the AGM, the candidate will sign the agreement and will start the job on 1 January 2011.
6. MCI was invited to give a presentation about their association management services. Mrs. Idoia Rodés Torrontegui gave this presentation and many interesting options were mentioned. At this moment EFCLIN might be too small to make use of these services, but for the future it certainly gives opportunities. During the cooperation with MCI in the organizational work for the congresses, further possibilities will be considered. The Board received the PowerPoint presentation as given during the meeting. 7. Finances 1. Report 2009 The treasurer presented a draft P&L statement for 2009. The results were more negative than the forecast showed, but the deviations were all well explained and acceptable by the Board. The P&L shows a loss of 22.580,65. After the explanations of the Treasurer, the Board accepted the P&L. The audit committee will check the books on 8 April at the secretariat and the P&L will be published as a draft on the website after the audit. Because the servere deviations, the P&L will also be available to the members as hard copies at the AGM. 2. Forecast 2011 A final forecast could not be made before this board meeting, because there are too many uncertainties on which a decision has to be taken during this meeting. The Treasurer will produce three versions, based on three scenarios as discussed in the Board meeting. Those will be presented after the board meeting and based on those decisions, the final version will be selected to be presented at the AGM. One of the issues will be the continuation of the free entrance to the exhibition. The Treasurer strongly advices not to continue this system. The Treasurer will send a forecast after the board meeting to be accepted by the board. Board members can vote by e mail to accept one of the versions. 3. Members and payments There are 80 members on 1 March 2010. Six members have not paid their membership subscription for 2010 yet: I Kare, Pakistan J.D.Pro Optical, Taiwan (New member) Interojo, South Korea Enterprise Invers, Russia The Lagado Corporation, USA W. Gfeller, Switserland (New member) There are 4 new members registered in 2010: W. Gfeller, Switserland J.D.Pro Optical, Taiwan NKQ, Germany LCS, France In 2009 12 members cancelled their membership, or did not pay. The reasons for the cancellations were various, and all known. The Excutive Director explained the reasoning. It is frustrating that 5 out of those 12, cancelled during the year 2009, despite the rules of cancellations are clearly laid down in the By Laws. Four others just did not pay, one deceased and two are not active in the contact lens industry anymore. 4. Congress 2010 The congress 2010 has no income from participants, other than the limited number of participants which registered for the lectures. All income and expenses have been forecasted by the secretariat and it looks like that the congress 2010 will result in a loss of about 10.000.
8. Outstanding invoices Apex cancelled their booth for very good (health) reasons. The secretariat will keep chasing the 6 members who has not paid their dues for 2010 yet. The names of the companies who did not pay will be published on the website, after the companies involved will be informed about this publication in advance. 9. Five year business plan In a hectic period EFCLIN is going through, it is the right time to produce a five year business plan. A committee, in which one Board member and the new Director will be present, will produce such plan. It is essential to give such committee a strict time schedule and some clear guidelines. The Board will come up with some names to be asked to be part of this committee, before the AGM in May 2010. The initiative will be announced at the AGM in May 2010. Essential items to be included in the assignment of the committee are: 1. More value for members 2. Two or three concrete initiatives and goals 3. A new mission statement based on the listed items at page 35 of the program booklet for the congress 2010. 10. Steve will prepare a proposal to make more use of the latest social networking possibilities like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Squido, ezine, Wkipedia etc. 11. EUROMCONTACT cooperation A further and much closer cooperation with EUROMCONTACT in the future was discussed. All possibilities should be considered in this planning. 12. CLMA A plan to hold one year a CLMA exhibition in the US and the next year an EFCLIN meeting in Europe has been discussed many times. Although most Board members don t see any realistic possibilities for such a plan for the next few years, the plan should be discussed with CLMA. 13. Exchange address databases Steve proposed to start an address pool amongst the members. Several members showed interest. Steve will prepare a form to be hand out at the AGM to see if members will be interested. 14. Polymer took the initiative to start an EFCLIN Support System (first called Levy system). On 15 January there was a meeting with five material suppliers. The report of the meeting was sent to the board. The Board will facilitate a second meeting during the congress, but this time all supplier members will be invited. Marcel Kopito will be asked to chair this meeting and to make an agenda. 15. Website The website has a networking section which is not finished but will be designated to the new social networking facilities. The security level of the members section will be increased. At this moment there is a relative easy way to get around the login procedure. That will be solved. Some pages cannot be found in every detail by searching engines. Some technical additions are needed to improve that, but probably the new Director will change the system in such way that this will improved.
16. Use of code of conduct The code of conduct will be optional for the members. They will receive the concept at the AGM, with a short explanation. If there is a need for a compulsory version in the future, a new approach will be re considered. 17. Timing annual Board meeting The annual Board meeting has always been in February/March, because that was 3 or 4 months after the congress and about 8 months before the next one. By this timing an evaluation was useful and new plans for the next congress could be made. With the congress in May, this reasoning for the timing of the Board meeting became not valid anymore. The Board will plan a meeting in the period July/August/September to be able evaluate the last congress and plan the next one again. 18. Any other business arising No other items were raised in this part of the meeting with general issues. The second part concentrates on the Congress and Exhibition.
Congress 2010 1. EFCLIN Awards. Proposals from the Award committee were accepted by the Board 2. Format AGM in Riga The format of the AGM has to be compact, since there is no time slot available for a comprehensive meeting. The AGM will be held in the Sigma room, from 13:15 14:00. The lunch will be served from 13:00 14:30, so all visitors can have lunch, whether they come to the AGM or not. 3. Promotion Congress The promotion has been intensive (as far as the limited budget allows). A detailed overview of all activities was presented to the Board. 4. Use of Global Contact publication and web site to promote EFCLIN Congress Review The magazine global contact will be issued in the first week of April. That is (for several countries) too late to reach all potential participants in time. Nevertheless, a two page article about the congress will be published as well as an advertisement. The flyer will be enclosed in the complete issue as well. The EFCLIN website is updated almost daily, so all relevant information is available for visitors and exhibitors. 5. All plans for Congress, including Entertainment arranged. The program as printed was evaluated and the relevant details were discussed and explained by the Executive Director. 6. Russian delegates The intensive promotional campaign to the Russian speaking potential delegates was explained. 7. Lecture committee The lecture committee produced a list with possible lecturers in October. The secretariat however expected a complete lecture program. The differences in expectations and assignment must be avoided in the future. The assignment to a lecture committee must be clear and their results must fit in the timing to organizing the event. 8. Support from Exhibitors in promoting the congress It is very disappointing to see that only a few exhibitors actively support the promotion of the congress. Very few ordered extra flyers and stickers and only 6 did placed the banner on their website. 9. Any other business arising At 16:45 several Board members had to leave and there was no time left to discuss any possible other items. President Jeannie Bear Secretary Andy Chryssolor