AIA Continental Europe Board Meeting Minutes
14 January 2010
The meeting was called to order Thursday, 14 January at 11:30 am at the offices of Charles Croigny in Enghien, Belgium. The minutes were recorded by Vincent Marani, Chapter Secretary.
Voting members:
- Charles Croigny AIA, President
- Gregg Brodarick Assoc. AIA, First Vice-President
- Lester Korzilius AIA, Vice Presedent
- Vincent Marani AIA, Secretary
- Gerry Meagher AIA, Northern Europe Section Director
- Suzanne Marhefka AIA, Switzerland Section Director
- Sandra Zettersen AIA, Germany Section Director, part time conference call
- Thomas Bitnar AIA, Eastern Europe Section Director, part time conference call
- Marc DiDomenico AIA, Italian Section Director, part time conference call
Non-voting members:
- Elizabeth Heudebourg AIA, Administrative Assistant, part time conference call
- Tom Vonier FAIA, Director AIA International, part time conference call
1. Welcome:
President Charles Croigny called the board meeting to order at 11:30. Six Board members eligible to vote were present, as well as one representative by proxy from Marc Didomenico. The minimum quorum was reached.
2. Minutes Approval:
A motion was made by Charles Croigny to approve the minutes from the October 5th Board Meeting in Dubai with the exception of the employment of Dominique Tomasov to be discussed separately. The Minutes were reviewed and a motion was made to approve the meeting notes with the exception.
Vote: Unanimously approved.
3. Treasurer’s Report:
Elizabeth Heudebourg made a report on the financial status of the chapter. [Details redacted from this online version are available by writing directly to Vincent Marani.]
It has been discussed in previous board meetings that some of the funds be deposited in an interest bearing term account.
A motion was made by Gregg Brodarick to deposit a sum in a SunTrust term account at an interest rate of 2.0% for a term of 25 months. The motion was seconded and a vote was taken.
Vote: Unanimously approved.
Charles Croigny will transfer the funds at the SunTrust Bank in Washington D.C. while he is at the Grassroots event.
There was a discussion about the employment of Dominique Tomasov to report the continuing education credits for the chapter’s conferences. It was stated that her services were very helpful to the conference organizers in doing the tedious administrative work involved. It was noted that more AIACE members are trained to do this work and are willing to volunteer so this position may not be needed in the future.
A motion was made by Charles Croigny to approve Dominique Tomasov’s fees for continuing education credits for the Istanbul conference for the 2010 budget with the notion that this position may not be needed in 2011. The motion was seconded and a vote was taken.
Vote: Unanimously approved.
Note: Marc DiDomenico has offered to record the continuing education credits for the Belgrade conference
There was a discussion to create a marketing budget 2010. The budget is to include printed hand outs for conferences like Grassroots. The budget will also allocate for wed based advertisements as well as refreshing the web page. Printed advertisements are cost prohibitive. For example, Architectural Record charges $17.000,00 per page and would give AIACE a special deal at $4.000,00 per page.
A motion was made by Charles Croigny to approve an initial marketing budget of 2.000,00 Euro for 2010. The motion was seconded and a vote was taken.
Vote: Unanimously approved.
There was discussion to buy a credit card machine for payments for dues and conferences. It was decided not to buy one but explore an internet based system.
It was discussed to incorporate direct deposit instructions on the 2011 membership dues form.
A motion was made by Charles Croigny to approve spending the unused balance of the President’s and Vice President’s travel budgets on official AIACE travel. The motion was seconded and a vote was taken.
Vote: Unanimously approved.
A motion was made by Gregg Brodarick to approve reimbursement to board members for travel to board meetings limited to 100 Euro and that the Administrative Assistant, Elizabeth Heudebourg, be reimbursed for travel expenses to board meetings as her input is invaluable to the board. The motion was tabled for discussion at the Istanbul conference.
The AIA national has given the AIACE an award for high membership renewal. The award is that two members will have their 2010 dues reimbursed. The AIACE board is to decide how to find two members to honor.
A motion was made by Charles Croigny to approve a lottery at the Istanbul conference to be picked from the membership who will be present at the conference and select the two members to have their 2010 dues reimbursed. The motion was seconded and a vote was taken.
Vote: Unanimously approved.
The Dubai conference had a loss of 1.200,00 Euro due to the fact that a sponsor Solatube did not pay for a dinner that was arranged. Sandra Zettersen is going to look into the situation.
4. Future conferences:
It was discussed that Prague and Barcelona would be good locations for conferences in 2011. Vincent Marani would volunteer to lead the Prague conference. This will be discussed in Istanbul.
The Belgrade conference is being organized by Vladimir Macura with the help of Marc DiDomenico and Charles Croigny. The budget will be voted upon at the Istanbul conference Board meeting.
5. Section Director’s Reports:
The Italian Section will have a conference in Rome in June. Details will be public after the Istanbul conference.
Sections like Eastern, Northern and Southern Europe need direction on how to draw together their membership over the vast areas of their sections. An effort to plan small informal meetings in some of the cities where there are more than one member. There should be a section on the web site to communicate these meetings for example; local exhibitions, lectures and project openings.
6. Sponsorships
The Following were the sponsors for the Dubai Conference:
- Grace
- Solatube
The following have committed to the Istanbul Conference:
- Marvin Windows
- Grace
- Solatube
7. AIA International
Tom Vonier, AIA International Director reported that he will attend the Grassroots conference to continue to draw support for International chapters like AIACE in the National AIA organization. He is also trying to get support to have a motion to change the National by-laws. One change amongst others will be that the “Assoc. AIA” title could be replaced with “International AIA” and that these members will be able to hold office in their local Chapters.
8. New Business
It was discussed that it would give the chapter visibility if it held an annual design awards. Lester Korzilius stated that AIAUK has an annual design awards for projects completed in the UK. It gets a lot of attention and there are high level architects that apply each year. The AIACE could have two awards: one which is open to any project completed in CE and one for AIACE members to help promote the members. Some belive that the AIACE member only award would cheapen the open award and not receive quality entries. There was once an AIACE design award but it died out, the reason is unknown to the board. More discussion in Istanbul.
A motion was made by Charles Croigny to approve a new marketing committee. The motion was seconded and a vote was taken.
Vote: Unanimously approved.
Gregg Brodarick, Richard Anderson and Suzanne Marhefka volunteered to be on this committee.
9. Meeting Adjourned at 15:30 pm
10. Addendum:
A website report was received from Richard Anderson, Web Administrator, too late for the meeting. Richard writes:
While I find time to be in much shorter supply than when I started as webmaster, updates to content rarely slow me down. A website redesign is in the pipeline. I continue to look at new media/social networking tools to increase the reach of aiaeurope.org. I have registered for Grassroots and look forward to seeing Gregg, Charles, Tom and others of the “international” gang who might be there.
