These are the minutes of the General Assembly of the EDBU. The General Assembly was hosted by Croatian Association of Deafblind People (DODIR). It was held at "Panorama" hotel in Zagreb. The overall responsibility was that of Sanja Tarczay, president of DODIR. The organizing secretary was Tajana Tarczay. 23 European countries were represented. There where 139 participants, i.e. 43 persons with deafblindness (representatives and observers) together with 72 sign language interpreters and guides, and 24 professionals. For more information about persons present, please refer to Appendix 1.
28 April 2008 -EDBU General Assembly -first day
Sergey Sirotkin, a Vice-President of EDBU opened the 2nd EDBU General Assembly and chaired session 1 of the meeting.
The General Assembly began with an address by Sanja Tarczay, the President of Croatian Association of the Deafblind Dodir.
Lex Grandia, the President of WFDB addressed the General Assembly. Here are some extracts from his address: "Deafblind people really need to stand up for themselves. This must happen on a national level, European, and international level. I would like to see a deafblind person speaking directly to the EU. It is good to note that recently a deafblind person addressed the European Council. There is a new deafblind organization of the deafblind in Romania, but where are the deafblind people in Greece? Surprisingly, the Netherlands is not represented here today..."
Seppo Jurvanen of Finland, Dimitar Parapanov of Bulgaria and Kirsten Malmbak of Denmark greeted the General Assembly and spoke a little of their own experiences.
Sergey Sirotkin emphasised that the voting procedure had to be clarified. Lex Grandia said that each delegation present had to nominate a spokesman for the delegation and that person would vote. Sergey Sirotkin pointed out that the ballot was secret and was conducted by representatives raising their voting card. There were three choices in voting: for, against, and abstention. Only simple majorities were needed and voting was counted by elected scrutineers.
Jan Jakes, Acting Secretary General, informed GA of the countries participating today and their national representatives:
Belgium: Leo Cleyman
Bulgaria: Dimitar Parapanov
Croatia: Sanja Tarczay
Czech Republic: Jan Jakes
Denmark: Kirsten Malmbak
Finland: Seppo Jurvanen
France: Annie van Espen
Hungary: Tamas Gangl
Iceland: there were no participants from Iceland
Italy: Francesco Arfizzino
Norway: Geir Jensen
Poland: there were no participants from Poland
Russia: Sergey Sirotkin
Spain: Daniel Alvarez Reyes
Sweden: Lena Kun
Switzerland: Catherine Hutter
The attendee national representatives received voting cards.
The EDBU has 16 national members, and 14 were present. The General Assembly was thus quorate.
Coffee break (10:30 - 11:00)
Jan Jakes now chaired session 2 of the meeting.
a) Chairperson of the General Assembly
Sergey Sirotkin (Russia) was suggested and elected. The voting was 10 for, nobody against with 3 abstentions.
b) Two scrutineers (Vote counters)
Jiri Langer (Czech Republic) and Tajana Tarczay (Croatia) were proposed and elected as scrutineers for the GA. Result of the voting: 14 for, nobody against and no abstention.
c) Person responsible for the minutes
After discussion about who would be responsible for compiling the minutes, Colin Bennett (UK) offered to edit the minutes if he was given a month to complete the job. Voting took place and it was agreed that Colin Bennett would do this task with 8 in favour, 2 against and 4 abstentions. Colin Bennett would have at his disposal the information typed by the 4 DODIR volunteer recorders/typists.
d) Two witnesses to check and sign the minutes /verifiers of the minutes
Lex Grandia (Denmark) and Geir Jensen (Norway) were proposed and elected as witnesses to the minutes by 14 votes.
The GA was informed of the agenda for the next few days.
Sergey Sirotkin proposed to combine the Editorial Committee - Resolutions with Guidelines Committee. This proposal was carried by twelve votes to one against with no abstentions.
Kirsten Malmbak's proposal to discuss an EDBU logo was carried by 10 votes with 3 against and no abstentions. It was decided that the question of the logo will be the point 26a on the agenda with 10 in favour, none against and 2 abstentions.
The agenda was agreed with 13 votes in favour, none against and 1 abstention.
Jan Jakes informed the GA that there were three new applications for national membership of the EDBU. These are:
Germany (Dieter Zelle)
Kazakhstan (Galina Frolova)
Slovenia (Metka Knez)
Uwe Zelle explained that he was representing his brother Dieter who could not be present. Galina Frolova and Metka Knez introduced themselves and told us that they represented the only deafblind associations in their respective countries.
Jan Jakes explained that besides national membership there was associate membership. An application for associate membership had been received from the Landsforbundet for kombinert Syns og Hørselshemmede/ Døvblinde - LSHDB, in English The Norwegian Association for combined visual and hearing impairment/deafblind (Asild Johansen).
Julie Brown from the UK requested personal associate membership.
Carol Pollington, from the UK, addressed the GA. She sought clarification of her status. There had been some misunderstanding but the upshot was that there had been no valid application for membership by the UK in the EDBU. Jan Jakes emphasised that according to the current EDBU constitution, Sensed UK, of which Carol is a member, is not eligible to be a member of the EDBU because it is seen as an organization FOR rather than OF deafblind people. Jan Jakes clearly explained the situation. It was not the time to debate the issue; he was merely stating the fact.
There was an intervention by Matijas Juhart from Slovenia, a representative for Franci Mule, DB president of deafblind board that operates within deaf and blind organisation of Slovenia. He told the GA that his association had applied for membership of EDBU. Jan Jakes explained that he had received no such application and, anyway, the EDBU seeks to support unity of deafblind people in each European country. Metka Knez made the point that her organisation is the only one in Slovenia led by deafblind people themselves.
Voting now took place on the new candidate members of EDBU. The results were:
Germany - 13 in favour with no votes against and no abstentions
Kazakhstan - 13 for, no votes against with one abstention
Slovenia (Dlan) - 14 for, none against and no abstentions
There was now voting on the question of associate membership of the Norwegian Association for combined visual and hearing impairment/deafblind (LSHDB). The voting was 12 in favour, no one against and one abstention.
Julie Brown of the UK was voted in as an individual associate member of EDBU by 12 votes with no objections and no abstentions.
The amendments to EDBU membership list of national members and electoral register according to the previous item was approved by 14 votes with no objections and no abstentions.
The amended list of associate members was agreed by 13 votes in favour, none against and 1 abstention.
Jan Jakes announced, after voting confirmed this, that the EDBU now consist of 19 national members and three associate members.
The three above named national representatives of the newly admitted National Members received voting cards.
Lunch (12:30 - 14:00)
Sanja Tarczay chaired session 3 of the meeting.
a) Editorial committee - EDBU Constitution
Voting took place on whether Jan Jakes and Lex Grandia should be leading members of the Constitution Committee. They were 14 in favour, none against and 1 abstention.
b) Editorial committee - resolution
This committee was newly combined with the Guidelines Committee in accordance with the decision made within item 6 of the Agenda.
c) Guidelines committee
There was now voting for the newly combined Editorial Committee - Resolutions and Guidelines Committee now called the Guidelines Committee. Sergey Sirotkin, Dimitar Parapanov and Daniel Alvarez Reyes were proposed and elected with 15 votes for, none against and no abstentions.
a) Vice-president's report
Sergey Sirotkin gave a report on the beginnings of the EDBU and the problems it incurred in its early years which involved his taking emergency steps to keep the EDBU in good order. Sergey Sirotkin described the various meetings and actions taken by EC up until the present day. The EDBU had been registered in the Czech Republic by Jan Jakes; Mona Britt Broberg opened an EDBU bank account in Sweden. The EC had established a Committee on Sports and Culture which had held several meetings leading up to the 1st European deafblind festival to be held in Bulgaria in September 2008. For the vice-president's reports, please refer to Appendix 2.
b) Treasurer's report
Mona-Britt Broberg gave her Treasurer's Report. Mona-Britt Broberg urged all EDBU members to bring up to date their fees and she was making herself available at this GA for them to do that. For the treasurer's reports, please refer to Appendix 3.
c) Information about EDBU Newsletter
Jan jakes referred to previous Sergey Sirotkin's report and described the situation with regard to the EDBU newsletter. It had not been easy to find a continuing editor and someone who could manage the EDBU computer home page.
Geir Jensen and Dimitar Parapanov, as Auditors, gave a short report and suggested that GA accept the financial report. For the auditors' reports, please refer to Appendix 4.
All the Reports presented in above items 10 and 11 were voted upon and each was accepted by 16 votes with no objections, with no votes against and no abstentions.
Coffee break (15:30 - 16:00)
Lex Grandia now chaired session 4 of the meeting.
Lex Grandia informed The GA about the procedures in secret ballot.
Lex Grandia introduced the candidates:
President: Sergey Sirotkin (Russia)
Vice-president: Sanja Tarczay (Croatia)
Secretary General: Geir Jensen (Norway)
Treasurer: Mona Brit Broberg (Sweden)
EC members: Daniel Alvarez Reyes (Spain), Tamas Gangl (Hungary), Dimitar Parapanov (Bulgaria), Uwe Zelle (Germany).
Voting took place for the EDBU offices.
There was only one candidate for President and Sergey Sirotkin was elected with 15 votes and two blank.
There was only one candidate for Vice-President and Sanja Tarczay was elected with 16 votes with one blank.
There was one candidate for Secretary General and Geir Jensen was elected with 17 votes.
There was one candidate for the Treasurer and Mona-Britt Broberg was elected with 16 votes and one blank.
There were four candidates for the two positions on the EC: Uwe Zelle (Germany), Dimitar Parapanov (Bulgaria), Tamas Gangl (Hungary) and Daniel Alvarez Reyes (Spain).
Daniel Alvarez Reyes was elected with 14 votes and Tamas Gangl with eight.
Uwe Zelle and Dimitar Parapanov both received six votes and were not elected.
The newly elected EC consists of President Sergey Sirotkin, Vice-President Mona-Brit Broberg, Secretary General Geir Jensen, Treasurer Mona-Britt Broberg, and two officials Daniel Alvarez Reyees and Tamas Gangl.
Sergey Sirotkin gave a short acceptance speech as did Sanja Tarczay. Geir Jensen and Mona-Britt Broberg also made short speeches of acceptance and thanks. Daniel Alvarez Reyes also spoke and he stressed how important international links were seen in Spain. In his speech Tamas Gangl pointed out that this position would be a new task for him but he was sure he could learn much from others.
Lex Grandia adjourned the meeting until the next morning at 17:50.
29 April 2008 -EDBU General Assembly -second day
Ari Suutarla from Finland began the second day's proceedings by drawing attention to an interesting development in Finland. There is a body called ABILIS which is an organisation which had the sole aim of distributing funds to assist disabled people in developing countries. He asked those present to take not of that and perhaps to think of deafblind projects. He also mentioned to academic advances in Finland.
Lex Grandia chaired the session 5 of the GA and decided to introduce item 23 from the Agenda.
Confirmation of the existing membership fees (15 Euros per annum) was voted with 11 votes with none against.
There were only two candidates for the two positions of Auditors. Dimitar Parapanov (Bulgaria) received 14 out of the possible 15 votes; and Ari Suutarla (Finland) received 12.
There were three candidates for the three positions on the Election Committee and Francesco Ardizzino (Italy) received 15 votes, Nadezda Golovan (Russia) also 15; Kari Engan (Norway) received 13 votes.
Jan Jakes now chaired the session 6
Jan Jakes, an Acting Secretary General opened a session discussing amendment to the Constitution. He proposed a series of amendments. For more information about proposed amendment for the approval, please refer to Appendix 5.
The first matter to be dealt with was a registered address of EDBU. Jan Jakes proposed the wording "registered office". There was a long discussion about the difficulties involved in registering EDBU, especially if the Secretary-General did not live in the same country.
Coffee break (10:30 - 11:00)
Jan Jakes chaired the session 6
The discussion on the matter of registering EDBU address continued. It was agreed that a solution should be that the amended article refer to the registered ADDRESS, not registered OFFICE. The office could be in any country. Voting on this matter took place, and this solution was agreed by 16 votes, with none against and no abstentions.
It was decided by a vote of 13 in favour with none against but with one abstention to move the definition of deafblindness, unaltered, from Article 1 to Article 2.
Jan Jakes proposed a new Article 3 Membership section 3.1 Types of members and types of organizations of the deafblind. GA discussed a possible membership status of non-deafblind organisations that provide services to people with deafblindness (e.g. organisations for the deafblind, foundations etc.).
Lunch (12:30 - 14:00)
Jan Jakes chaired the session 7
The debate about the status of the organisations for the deafblind related to the amendment of section 3.1 continued. After long discussion in which Jan Jakes and Lex Grandia asked many questions from the floor, it was agreed that the following words should be added to the end of the penultimate sentence: "and any other organization that is in agreement with the aims of EDBU". Thus any organisation for the deafblind could apply for an associate membership. Jan Jakes's proposed Section 1 of the new Article 3 as amended by the GA after discussion, was voted upon and carried by 16 votes with no opposition or abstentions.
There was also a long discussion on Jan Jakes's proposed Section 2 of the amended Article 3 that relates to the national membership of EDBU. Jan Jakes's proposal of the Section 2 of the new Article 3 was carried by 15 votes with none against and no abstentions.
Now Jan Jakes introduced his proposed Section 3 of the amended Article 3. After discussions Jan Jakes accepted some alterations to his proposed Section 3. Accordingly he suggested that the paragraph begging: "Representative of associate members have the right...within the EDBU." be changed to read "Representatives of associate members have the right to participate and make proposals in EDBU General Assemblies, but may not vote or nominate candidates for any elected position within the EDBU." Section 3 of Article 3, as amended by the GA after discussion, was carried by 16 votes for, none against, and no abstentions.
Jan Jakes introduced a further amendment. He proposed that Section 5.1 under Article 5 be: "Article 5: 5.1. Any admission of national members and all expulsion of any members shall be decided by the General Assembly on the basis of recommendations by the Executive Committee.", this was carried by 15 votes, none opposed and no abstentions.
Coffee break (15:30 - 16:00)
Jan Jakes chaired the section 8
Continuing his proposal for amendments, Jan Jakes put before the GA alteration to Article 6. Before voting could take place on this matter, a preliminary vote had to take place, after proposal by Tamas Gangl concerning the paragraph 6.2.1, on whether to change the wording "ten of the national members" in the text above to a percentage figure. The GA voted for 60% by 12 votes; two people voted for 2/3; and one person voted for 50%. The approved alteration is thus: "An extraordinary general assembly maybe convened either by the executive committee or if requested by at least 60% of the national members".
After incorporating this minor amendment, Jan Jakes's proposal was carried with 13 votes for, none opposed, no abstentions.
Jan Jakes then introduced Article 12 which reads: "The General Assembly approves amendments to the constitution. Approval of amendments of this constitution requires two-thirds (2/3) majority of all votes cast in the General Assembly." Sergey Sirotkin remarked confusion between article 11 of the last Constitution from Fredericia and this new article 12. Lex Grandia explained that article 11 only says something about the approval of this constitution not about amendments to the constitution. A permission to make amendments is necessary. Jan Jakes thus accepted that the proposed article 12 replaces the old article 11 and takes on its number. Then the proposed article 12 was carried with 13 votes for none opposed, and no abstentions.
Lex Grandia then made a proposal that at the existing Article 2 Section 2 third paragraph "The further aims of the EDBU" sixth entry the following words be inserted: "The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities". He proposed that the said entry be changed to read thus: "- to seek full recognition of people with deafblindness in all aspects of society in accordance with The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and The United Nations Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities". Lex Grandia's proposal was eagerly accepted by the GA by 14 votes.
The GA voted 11 for, none against with four abstentions for Francesco Ardizzino's proposal that a phrase: "deafblind people" to be changed throughout the Constitution to "people with deafblindness".
The GA then voted to incorporate all the amendments agreed today into the Constitution. There were 14 nations represented and they all voted yes, thus securing the two-thirds majority required. For the full wording of the revised Constitution, please refer to Appendix 6 - Constitution.
Jan Jakes adjourned the meeting until the next morning at 17:05.
30 April 2008 -EDBU General Assembly -last day
Geir Jensen chaired Wednesday's session 9 which began with item 24 from the agenda.
a) Editorial committee - Constitution
Jan Jakes read a report from the Editorial Committee concerning the Constitution. The GA approved this Report by 14 votes for. For the report of Editorial Committee - Constitution, please refer to Appendix 7.
b) Editorial Committee - resolution
This committee was combined with the Guidelines Committee in accordance with the decision of GA made within item 6 of the Agenda.
c) Guidelines committee
Daniel Alvarez Reyes read a report from the Guidelines Committee and this report was approved with 14 votes for, nobody against or abstained. For the report of the Guidelines Committee, please refer to Appendix 8.
A proposal was to have a Secretariat in Norway according to the office of the Secretary General. This was carried with the following results: 15 votes for secretariat shall be in Norway, nobody against or abstained.
Dimitar Parapanov (Bulgaria) invited the next GA to convene in Bulgaria. There were many contributions from the floor and from offices on this proposal. The worry was in some quarters that due to circumstances Bulgaria might not be able to fulfil this hope. It was pointed out that in 2005 South Africa had offered to host the 2009 meeting of the WFDB, and only recently had the South Africans informed us that they can not do this because of financial problems. That is why in 2008 the venue was chosen to be Kampala, Uganda, for 2009. It was hoped that this kind of thing would not happen again.
Coffee break (10:30 - 11:00)
The discussion about the venue of the next GA of the item 26 from the agenda continued after the coffee break. There has been no other offer to host the GA; Bulgaria's proposal was put to the vote. It was carried with ten representatives, with none against and no abstentions (some representatives had already left by that time).
Sergey Sirotkin chaired the final session 10 of the GA.
26a. EDBU logo
Because of lack of time, we could not discuss a possible logo. The meeting decided by eight votes to refer this to the Executive Committee.
Several people spoke of the high quality of the conference and expressed appreciation to everyone including the volunteers. There were several speeches, such as is the practice at the end of such conferences, thanking all the contributors and expressing good hope for the future. Appreciation was voiced about the help of sign language interpreters. Particular tribute was paid to Sanja Tarczay and the Croatian association of deafblind people DODIR for the outstanding quality of all the arrangements. There were gifts for those most active in securing the success of this GA.
In his concluding speech, Sergey Sirotkin expressed satisfaction at the growing strength of the deafblind movement and the EDBU. He extended his thanks to all those who play the part in making this second GA such a success.
The chairperson of the GA, Sergey Sirotkin closed the General Assembly.
Keeper of the minutes: Colin Bennett
Approved by the elected witnesses:
Geir Jensen
Lex Grandia
(2008-11-14)