Committee Members Attending

Georges Fondeur (President)
Jeanne Glass (Vice-President)
Jan Essing (Secretary General)
Thomas Kräuchi (Treasurer)

Advisers:

Also Present

Max Hänsli (Honorary President)
Fred Graber (Friends of UNICA)
Wolfgang Freier (UNICA Patronage)
Claire Auda (Translations)
Alois Urbanek (Congress President)
Serge Michel (IFTC Liaison)
Wolfgang Schweiger (Executive Director)

Not Present

Zeljko Balog (Adviser)
Arie de Jong (Webmaster)

Federations Represented

Armenia
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Switzerland
Czech Republic
Germany
Spain
Estonia
Finland
France
United Kingdom
Croatia
Italy
Republic Of Korea
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Netherlands
Poland
Romania
Russia
Slovakia
Ukraine

11. Report of "Friends of UNICA"

Fred Graber (Amis): We had a wonderful meeting with 50 friends of UNICA. (Read the report here.)

Georg Schörner (AUT): The balance sheet of Friends shows a good reserve. This, to my knowledge, is used for two purposes: informing people who donated and to support UNICA. Can the assembly be informed what form the support is taking? The reserve now is about 15 times the annual contribution.

Thomas Kräuchi (treasurer) replies that the money is used for supporting countries that occasionally fail to pay their contributions. We could suggest that the Friends support UNICA 2013 in case of a deficit, or donate money for digitising the celluloid films. But let’s not forget that historically many people donated €1,000 for lifetime membership. UNICA Friends’ balance sheet is somewhat distorted by that.

The report is accepted with unanimous approval, with thanks and applause to Fred and Ursula Graber.

12. Report on UNICA Patronages

The report had been prepared by Wolfgang Freier and dispatched to the federations. (Read it here.)

Alois Urbanek (AUT) reports that it is due to the efforts of  Wolfgang Freier (patronages) that so many festivals request patronage.

Wolfgang Freier (patronages): The number of patronages is shrinking though. He calls upon the assembly to support any request for UNICA Patronage like Austria does. The result is obvious. In Austria the amount of Patronage Festivals is larger than anywhere else.

The report is approved unanimously, with thanks and applause to Wolfgang Freier.

13. Report of the delegate to I.F.T.C.

The author of this report is Serge Michel. The report had been sent in three languages to the federations. (Read the report here.)

Serge Michel (IFTC Liaison) wishes to add something. Last year the Director-General of UNESCO attended the UNICA Congress by means of a video message. In all publications since then IFTC stressed that participation. It’s obvious that IFTC esteems UNICA and its position within IFTC strongly.  UNICA has the opportunity to return that respect in compiling a DVD containing all films that have won the UNESCO award during UNICA contests. Just one or two films are still missing. With the UNESCO Prize winner of UNICA 2013 there will be 15 films compiled in the DVD.  Furthermore Serge Michel underlines that UNICA is an organization based on the work of not-for-profit staff, organizing a Festival for not-for-profit film makers. UNICA is the only organization with that unique basis within IFTC and it’s being appreciated highly. And the work and films show experience far from amateurism. Organizations have to change and renew. That’s obvious. But Serge Michel stresses the need to maintain the old and unique values in UNICA.

Georges Fondeur (president) thanks Serge Michel for his work as vice-president of IFTC and keeping UNICA connected as former vice-president of UNICA. It opens doors in the world and we should cherish it.

The report is approved unanimously, with thanks and applause to Serge Michel.

Part 1

• Opening address by the President of the Congress
• Federations / Representative / Deputies
• AGM Organisation
• Confirmation of the agenda
• Address by the President of UNICA
• Vote on the proceedings of the General Assembly UNICA 2012 in Russe (BGR)
• Report of the Committee by the Secretary General
• Report of the Treasurer
• Report of the Auditors
• Report of the Film Librarian

Part 3

• Discussion and vote about proposals submitted by members
• Determination of next year's contribution
• Confirmation of the budget
• Selection of the place and dates of the congress in future years
• Miscellaneous, without vote

Links

Friends report

Patronage Report

Report of CICT/IFTC Liaison

Report of the Webmaster

14. Report regarding UNICA Web

Georges Fondeur (president) reports that Arie de Jong (Webmaster) is absent because of his health. (Read the report here.)

A lot of information about UNICA may be found in the website of UNICA.  Adjoining the UNICA website the report discusses the special website for the film library. We archive over 1.500 films and this site offers information about the content of these films in various sortings.

Jan Essing (s-g.) adds that there is another website http://unica-news.com but the information is not authorised by the committee. We’re happy though that there is a website publishing unofficial news about UNICA.

André Lion (BEL) requests incorporating a link in the UNICA Website to the French speaking Film authors’ organization in Belgium next to the Dutch speaking.

The report is approved unanimously, with thanks and applause to Arie de Jong.

15. Discharge of the Committee

The auditors already proposed to discharge the Committee in the report, read by Louis Schmitz (LUX). This proposal is accepted unanimously. Georges Fondeur (president) thanks his fellow members of the committee.

16. Election of a new auditor

Georges Fondeur (President) and Thomas Kräuchi (Treasurer explain that Ralf Klossner (LIE) is supposed to withdraw as auditor according to rules. Louis Schmitz (LUX) becomes the first auditor and Wolfgang Allin (AUT) is second. A new auditor as substitute has to be found and Bernhard Lindner (DEU) is nominated. As a rule we nominate someone living not too far from Zürich due to travel costs.

His nomination is welcomed with unanimous applause.

17. Admission and resignation of members

Georges Fondeur (President) reports the membership application from the Norsk Selskap for Fotografi (NSFF) in Oslo, Norway. We’re glad that another Nordic country joins the UNICA family. The application for membership from January 1st 2014 for NSFF is approved unanimously.

18. Discussion and vote about proposals of the Committee

Georges Fondeur (pres.) reports a proposal for a minor change in UNICA Statutes in order to be able to pass on future costs of postage for lending films from the UNICA Film Library. The Committee is negotiating with an Institution in Switzerland to host the films from the Library. They don’t dispatch films for free.

Georg Schörner (AUT): If other costs than postage are necessary, then UNICA Cashier should cover that. Members have no influence on the cost of digitisation.

Thomas Kräuchi (Treasurer): negotiations have just started. So we don’t really know what amounts we’re talking about. We should waive from not passing on expenditures.

Max Hänsli (Honorary president): thinks that the problem is in the UNICA films (about 1,365 of them) that aren’t in too good condition.

Rolf Leuenberger (committee): is confident that UNICA Library only contains copies and no originals.

Max Hänsli (Honorary president): proposes to further start negations and report on the results to the Assembly. But the committee needs a certain mandate to be able to negotiate.

Georges Fondeur(president) brings into voting the advice given by Max. Everyone is in favour.

Georges Fondeur (president): the reform plans have been distributed to the Federations. Before end of November the General Secretary expects to receive the members’ answers and proposals. Kees Tervoort (NLD) will assist the committee in processing them. There are no further questions.