INTERCOUNTRY COMMETTEES IN ENGLAND

Arthur Bowden, Serge Gouteyron e Tony Polsterer na mesa da presidência do restricted Intercountry Commettees june 2009 e ancoradouro de barcos num dos canais mais antigos de Birmingham

Restricted Meeting

1 Notes of the Annual Restricted Meeting of the Executive Board & National Coordinators held on Saturday June 20th 2009 at the Paragon Hotel Birmingham
President Serge Gouteyron was in the chair and welcomed those present, especially the *new Coordinators. We were holding this meeting having chosen to join with the RI Convention for, perhaps, the first time in some 20 years. Moreover, we were fortunate to have been allowed a unique ICC Breakout Session (A Road to Peace) under the Convention banner. This was a very important event in our history:

Present: Executive Council
President Serge Gouteyron, 2nd Vice President Tony Polsterer, General Secretary Arthur Bowden, Treasurer Herve Laurent, and the following National Coordinators
*Yaovi Tigoe (Africa – Central), George Richard (for *Marcel Tilkin) (Belux),Kalcho Hinov (Bulgaria), Augustin Cermak (Czech/Slovak Republics), Gwenael de Bergevin (France), Uwe Richardsen (Germany), *George Hatzakis(Greece), Sylvia Szaraz (for Pal Hamori) (Hungary), Gianni Jandolo (Italy),Andrzej Ludek (Poland), *Henrique Pinto (Portugal), Valentin Cismaru (Romania), *Pavle Bogetic (Serbia), Lassaad Mestiri (Tunisia/Maghreb), *Firet Biren (Turkey), Andriy Bahanych (Ukraine/Belarus), Jon Eiche (USA)and Cyril Noirtin (Re Website)
Absent:1st Vice President Antonio de Majo (ill), Past Presidents Onder Bilginer, Jose Carlos Esterninho, *Chris Matalya (Africa – East) (at dinner), *Hilaire Locoh-Donou (Africa – West) (at dinner), *Jurgen Auckenhalter (Austria), Ran Linn (Israel), *Farid Gebran (Lebanon), Gian Paolo Marello (Russia), Daniel Navarro (Spain – ill) and Hans-Ulrich Bartholet (Switzerland)

2 Valedictory – We stood in silence in memory of Past President Wolfgang Baschata.
The new Coordinators introduced themselves.
Henrique Pinto – Public Health Director, Governor 2002-03, Polio Volunteer professional in Africa and very interested in ICCs. He has formed ICCs with Mozambique and Brazil. He is keen to have Institutes
in Brazil.
Pavle Bogetic – Professor in Mech.Eng. He joined Rotary in 1992. He coordinates part of Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovinia: and was very pleased to attend this meeting.
Andrij Bahanych – D2230 Ukraine and Belarus – which has14 ICCs with 4 more being formed. There are many projects especially Youth and Health Care.He holds seminars in Kiev for all ICC Chairmen: there are some 50 attendees and he
organised a new initiative in North Carpathia in which 40 clubs participated.
Ferit Biren – He had a great respect for ICCs: it was important to remember Article 4 in the RI Constitution – create goodwill and worldwide understanding. He is happy to participate and brings the good wishes of PP Onder Bilginer.
George Hatzakis – D2470 – Governor in 1994-95. Some Greek ICCs are not too active. He feels strongly that if Institutes now publicise GSE, then ICCs must get l established on those programmes: we must continually state our case. There are close working relations with Italy.
Georges Richard – He is 30 years a Rotarian and was DG in 2002-03: now chairman of Belux Section of ICC with Morocco.
Yaovi Tigoe – D9150 and he has 10 countries in his District – quite a task.

President Serge reported that the details of the Cannes meeting at were on the Website. www.rotary-icc.org He mentioned that there were 960 registrations at Cannes: it was a really fine conference.
Vice-President Tony reported that a Conference at Bucharest in October 2008 was the first attempt to expand the meetings of the ICCs for Central Europe. Much interest was aroused and 10 members of ICC Coordinators’ Group attended, as well as some 100 more registrants. There were 17 speakers and this gave a good spread of ideas. There was much practical information available. It was decided to expand one of the national meetings every year in a different location. All details are on the website: www.rotary-icc.org
Gianni Jandolo said that we should renew coordinators but ensure continuity. ICC Chairs were increasing the role of ICCs to help Clubs and Districts obtain Matching Grants and facilitating their implementation. The knowledge of the local Section is vital for providing information of viable clubs to work with. We have repeat again and again that continuity is vital – DGNs should be the target to be trained in the ideals of the ICCs.
Andrzej Ludek told us that he runs training seminars in Poland and that there will be an Institute to include northern countries. There will still be conflicts in the future but ICCs can build bridges between Rotarians and with other people: through PETS and ICCs we can reach many nations.
Jon reported that many American Rotarians are showing a great interest of ICCs in the USA. He gave a formal explication to his District which covers about one-third of the States. California is setting up ICCs with Latin American countries. Interest is there but we must get an audience. A Presentation at the International Assembly must be the aim with the DGEs there our prime target. Jon will train DGNs next year in the new zone 21A.
President Serge said that we cannot present at San Diego: the programme at GETS is chosen by RI. Despite legislation at the Council on Legislation, we cannot be on the programme as - ‘ICCs work in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and a part of the USA. ICCs must be recognised a worldwide programme but we must publicise our good work to achieve our aim’. Therefore we cannot have a spot at the International Assembly. However the Coordinators of the Institutes can, if they wish, put an ICC Session on their Agenda. Not all of them do so. When we know where and when an Institute will take place, our task is to ask the Chairman to allow an ICC Session. Each time, it is struggle to achieve this aim – in Paris in December there will be a session on ‘Rotary and Peace through the ICCs’.
Uwe has much experience of Institutes. National Coordinators have the chance to speak to DGEs. He will go to Warsaw in 25/27 September 2009 with Andrzej to convince the Scandinavian countries of the value of ICCs. We must use the Institutes to proclaim our message: we are welcomed in Africa: we must educate the Governors of their responsibilities.
President Serge announced that an International ICC Conference will be in Tunis 23/24 October 2009 under the chairmanship of Lassaad Mestiri D9010. After all the meetings around the northern shores of the Mediterranean, we now turn to the Maghreb. The African Rotarians are very willing to meet Rotarians from other countries.. This will be an ideal occasion to propose, evaluate and discuss new ideas and concepts about how to deal with today’s great scourges. Varied speakers from many countries will demonstrate that friendship knows no borders. By attending, you will show your solidarity with the countries in the south.The theme will be ‘ICCs and the Culture of Peace’
Lassaad asked that we all take brochures and flyers to publicise this event. There will be Home Hospitality and a Partners’ Programme. Sessions on Friday (all day) Saturday (morning) Dinner (Saturday evening)
Uwe pointed out that Institute at Istanbul was one week after the Seychelles and one month before Paris.
Serge stated that Tunis is aimed primarily at the African countries of the Mediterranean and also the Middle East.We had asked for one hour on ICCs at the Istanbul Institute.
Tony asked how many might come from Lassaad’s district and neighbouring countriess?
Lassaad replied: perhaps over 150.

what National Coordinators did

3 Reports & Updates by the National Coordinators
Arthur reported that he had had difficulty in getting reports from the National Coordinators. He began asking in November 2008 that they should be sent to him by April 6th 2009. He received some reports just one week before this meeting. NCs have difficulty in getting reports from their ICCs, but they should send in brief reports which they can update at this meeting. Hard copies of reports sent by e mail a couple of weeks ago were then distributed. Anyone needing a copy – please contact General Secretary Arthur
Belux – A complete report with no updates
Hungary – Sylvia reported active ICCs with many contacts: everyone was enjoying the experience
Poland – Institute: Warsaw 25/27 September 2009 aimed at Scandinavian countries. President Serge will deliver a motivational speech for the DGs of Zones 15/16.Andrzej will distribute details about lower tariffs soon.
Russia – nothing further received
USA – Jon reported remarkable experiences in mi-Siberia: The AGM of ICC Russia-USA saw about 80 Russians and 12 Americans attending. It was proposed to make a feasibility study on how to develop ways of achieving a reduction in the rate of child mortality: it was intended to use international organisations, educational programmes and the latest research findings.He seeks an endorsement for this study.
Germany – Uwe, in addition to his detailed and informative report, stressed the links with Africa. Three years ago he had said he would concentrate on the Anglophone African countries. D9100 has 14 countries D9150 has 10: difficulty in managing this. In D9210 all the countries know each other making it easy for a DG to chair.
Bulgaria – Nothing further to report
Serbia – 1992 saw the restart of Rotary in Serbia. There was no knowledge of ICCs: Pavle gained information at the Conventions in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles: more details are coming in slowly. Clubs are learning and will form ICCs.
Turkey – All well
Central Africa – Yaovi is trying to get some concrete projects under way
Austria – VP Tony reported Finance problems – there are 2 districts in new D2011 Croatia and Slovenia - . Contacts are being made.
France – Gwenael said that the full report could be read on the Website. 21 out of 41 gave him reports of activities. Turkey, Togo and Tunisia need reactivating – the trouble is with the French sections. Financing is the great problem. He was thanked for producing 4,000 publicity sheets for the Booth in the House of Friendship.
USA – reminded us that there would be a charter signing ICC France-USA on Monday.
Greece – George posed the problem of DGEs and DGNs having no knowledge of ICCs. The ICCs can help clubs and districts and facilitate projects for obtaining Matching Grants.
Uwe responded by saying that in Germany, DGNs (2011-12) are on his distribution list for information – the 14 DGs know each other and work together.In Greece there are 2 Governors – one in the north, one is the south – they don’t meet!
Portugal – Henrique wants to increase and relaunch ICCs as not much has been done in the past few years: he appealed to other countries to help in this matter. He has 5 ICCs with Africa – in the west the needs are greater. He is working on MGs and 3H Programmes. He has had 85 attending ICC meetings lately.
VP Tony – urged that we read all the reports to get some ideas. Study the plans of Germany and Italy – look at their websites, Remember that there are many National Coordinators who are very experienced.
Ukraine/Belarus – Andriy held a meeting on the eve of the St Petersburg D2220 Conference. ICC Russia-Ukraine – about 80 participants. There is the possibility of an ICC with Romania. He would value some advice about possible Contact Points. He wants to organise short term Youth Exchanges and host the children in the Carpathian Mountains and Black Sea areas.
He will send children from Chernobyl to other countries.
President Serge interjected: NB - These reports are important to RI General Secretary Ed Futa to illustrate our activities – They answer the question ‘What do we do in ICCs?’ He also mentioned the ICC Ribbons, ordered by Cyril Noirtin and distributed to people like Cliff Dochterman, Frank Devlyn and other RI Board members. We at the Convention should wear ours to arouse interest in ICCs and to show that we are here ! Tell Lassaad if you are going to Tunis so that he can include your contribution at the meeting if you wish to speak.

Money, money...


4 Treasurer’s Report for 2008:
Herve asked to see the NCs of those countries which had not paid. It is easier to pay Herve personally and thus avoid paying tax for money transfers. The full accounts will be posted on the Website. We have a Balance of 10,460.12 Euros
Gianni said that we are restricted with funds for Printing, Publicity and Marketing. France has financed much of our Publicity and many
National Coordinators pay their countries’ dues themselves.
Herve said that generally 50% of Districts pay: Payments are requested in September.
Arthur advised that RIBI, like Scandinavian and Dutch districts, do not pay as they do not appreciate the value of ICCs.
Jon suggested a sliding-scale of charges.
VP Tony reminded us that we would tackle these problems in the next agenda item. It was proposed by Gianni and seconded by George that the Accounts be adopted. The motion was carried unanimously and thanks recorded to Treasurer Herve.

5 Future Financing of the Inter Country Committees
VP Tony led us through the discussion. He started by quoting the Code of Policies 37.030.7 Finances ICCs shall function without financial support. Modest fees may be collected from participating districts to cover operating costs of the ICC. Participating districts should find the costs of the national sections and ICC activities in their district (June 2007 Mtg.Bd. Dec.281). NCs costs could include travel to ICC related meetings: organisation of yearly meetings: website. Sometimes no expenses are being covered. The contribution to the Executive Council is not always paid. Amount of Funding- varied. Districts pay 50-60 cents per Rotarian in district for all ICC activities. Fixed sum per district Budgets approved each year, based on experience and guidelines These methods work if accepted guidelines exist on an ongoing basis Governors’ Council can commit all districts to guidelines.

6 Three Methods of Distribution of Funds
Districts make one payment to national budget and the NC allocates funds to the NC, to the ICCs and to the Executive Council National budget is covering NC expenses and contribution to Executive Council and the ICCs get direct funding from the districts Districts make 3 separate payments: NC, ICCs and 80 euros per district to the Executive Council. Approval of Budgets & Expenses. Governors’ Council and/or DG and/or NC. Depends on the sourcing of funds and the country structure. In the discussion which followed, it was clear that recommendations must be adaptable for small and large countries.
Jon wanted a matrix to be developed – to ascertain what is the most a country should have to pay? Try to get a scale of 4 or 5 levels.
VP Tony opined that this was beyond the scope of our discussion. A smaller country with fewer members would not finance the ICCs. Poland gets a total budget for ICCs based on the input of how much they get. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. A country should have a commitment to ICCs: within the funds available; you decide how and how much to finance ICCs. The commitment of the DGs on a long-term basis makes things work.
Uwe said that the DG is responsible for District Committees. Educate the DGN and get his commitment Remember that ICCs should not get involved with world-wide projects if no DG is involved.
VP Tony wondered about the guidelines for each ICC and whether they needed modification. There must be accountability for spending. RI en.Sec
Ed Futa wants DGs to be in charge of where we expand. You have to convince your DG.
Gen. Sec. Arthur said that even in 1997, Herve had difficulty in getting all
subscriptions. We have now grown enormously and need more money. The DGs have to be persuaded that ICC is money well spent.
Andrzej said that in Poland the DGs are members of the IC Committees. They and the DGEs understand the needs of the ICCs and they comprehend the benefits.
President Serge made a fundamental point – the obligation that RI finance the ICCs ended in 1996. We must try to get back to that former position. We must show that we have a useful role – and our rapid growth shows the need that we have for finance.
Gianni stated that, seeing the present situation of Rotary Foundation, we cannot apply for thousands of Matching Grants: but we can suggest to Districts and Clubs how to strengthen their networks mutually. He wants to take a brick away from this meeting and start building something. Tony’s work is useful to give us a window of reference using different models. It would be a step forward if we talked to our DG and told him which model we would prefer. The DG will know that we have terms of reference- this what we are doing, how we do it and with whom we are working. We can then discuss finance.
Arthur advised that we choose our preferred method, try to stimulate new projects and perhaps try a favourite project of the DG?
Jon wanted a budget to be set up to highlight the funds needed with the meetings selffunding. He proposed that President Serge appoint a committee to study these matters, It is beyond our remit.
Uwe explained the position and structure in Germany
Gianni countered that they have a different mentality and a different culture.
President Serge decided that we should follow Jon’s proposal to select a committee to study the question. Then we can make a new proposition to the RI Board and finance for ICCs. This action was approved by the meeting.

7 Website and Cyril Noirtin

Gianni asked if, for some meetings, we could use ‘webinar’ = web seminar.
To be examined.
Cyril gave a PowerPoint Presentation which he can supply if you contact him. With the limited visibility of ICCs, at the suggestion of President
Serge, he has set up www.rotary-icc.org (we still have www.rotacip.com).
This new site will reinforce our visibility world-wide, giving us a global site with information about ICCs and their guidelines, projects on national and international levels. It will be a resource centre for documents, news and updates of our activities..The structure – there is a page to satisfy the needs of the main user and quick access to information. 3 clicks and you are at your information. An international audience is the target. English is the language and translations will follow later.

8 Charter Germany West Africa
Technically, it is licence and software free; has portability (can be passed on freely), multi-platform - use it on Mac or whatever. You contact the management system programme to manage information, transforming automatically into a webpage. Content can be text, music, video – anything: it requires no technical skills, or knowledge, to manage the site. On-line, anywhere in the world, with internet access you can arrange and update this website. It has been built with a view to evolve and future options are inbuilt. There is log on/password protection and there can be more than one Webmaster. The software is JUMULA involving no cost
e.g. licence fee, development cost; there is a yearly limited cost depending upon the audience and amount of data being transferred: thousands of hits per day, then we shall need more expensive services – but I do not expect that: so if we stay at less than 1,000 hits per month, the price range will be
between 20 & 100 Euros. This will be cheaper than our current website.
Gianni wanted to know who would have control.Cyril replied that there is no need for a skilled person; if you can use the Internet, you can use this system. There is no time at this meeting to decide how you want to
organise this, but you should start to think about it now.
Uwe thought that this was too high a level of system for our needs: we already have our own websites.
Cyril replied that this is designed for the Executive Council. This is a website to promote ICCs on a world-wide level.
Herve said that our website (www.rotacip.com) has links to all countries
Cyril said that this new site is not updated because he has not received all the links. France is there because Gwenael had sent him all the details and addresses. www.rotary-icc.org shows front pages and 5 main sections – ICC, Executive Council, ICCs in Action, ICC News and RI news. In RI news this section is automatically updated by RI. There is a search function and search statistics. Articles can be read and one click sends them by e mail to anyone ! Syndication and management – the material can be syndicated (allowing you to subscribe to the content and put it automatically into your own website) and you can integrate material from other sources.
President Serge thanked Cyril for his explanation and for his excellent work on this project. After a long discussion when everyone had a chance to give their opinion about the length of the term of office for the president and vice presidents, the following resolution was adopted by a majority of votes:

Resolutions

9 Resolution of the Executive Board of ICCsThe President of the Executive Board of the ICCs serves a 3 year term of office. Taking into consideration the development of the iCCs and the growing number of National or Multicountry Coordinators, the executive council of the ICCs meeting in Birmingham on Saturday June 20th 2009 decided to reduce the President’s term of office from 3 to 2 years.
Likewise the term of office of the1st vice president and the 2nd vice president will be reduced from 3 to 2 years. However, the term of office for the National Coordinators will remain at 3 years.
The application of this decision will come into force on July 1st 2010.
Next Meeting at Strasbourg March 26/27 2010:
President Serge reported that the Restricted (?) and Plenary Meetings will be held in the European Council building. The probable key-note speaker will be M.Yann de Buyer .Herve and Gerard Caen will be working on the arrangements, for which they were thanked. He also thanked Gen.Sec. Arthur for his work, before and at the Meeting. He hoped to see us all at the dinner this evening. He reminded people to attend on Monday afternoon, at the Convention, an ICC ‘Break-out’ session: ‘A Road to Peace’. The meeting enthusiastically applauded the President for chairing this Restricted Meeting. They much appreciated his leadership which had led to the great progress made in ICC status during his term of office so far.
He further reminded the meeting not to forget the Institutes taking place in the coming months.
Arthur Bowden(secretary)

Note: we did the subtitles