President: The statutes and other provisions (By-laws) have not been updated for years. For Group One, which change the Statutes, we need a majority of 2/3.

GROUP ONE: translations and consistency

• Statute 3.1 passim (everywhere) :
  Membres actifs > membres ordinaires
• Statute 4.4.1 passim (everywhere) :
  membres-assesseurs > conseiller/ conseillères
  & Beisitzenden > Berater
• Statute 6.2:
  réviseurs aux comptes > commissaire(s) aux comptes
  & Revisoren > Kassenprüfer
• Competition Rules passim (everywhere) : federations > nationale Gremien / national organisations / organismes nationaux

The Netherlands and Macedonia propose the amendments.

For: 21
Against: Liechtenstein
Abstention: 0

GROUP TWO: minor updates and amendments

• Statute 4.4.9 - Delete: “by fax, standard mail or email.”

Austria / Hungary: How should the members be invited to a meeting in the future? President: That does not need to be specified.

Liechtenstein: One wonders whether any of the items in Group Two are really necessary.

The changes are proposed by Spain and Britain:

For: 19
Against: Liechtenstein
Abstention: Austria, Hungary

• UNICA Regulations 2.2: Agenda of the ordinary General Assembly. Add “The following items must appear in the Agenda of the ordinary General Assembly and may be supplemented by other items on the decision of the Committee.”

President: The agenda this year strictly followed the pattern given in the regulations. That does not allow for the CICT/IFTC Report or the Patronage Report for example. Some countries permit the committee to change the agenda. Other countries do not. This measure confirms that the committee may make changes.

For: 21
Against: 0
Vote abstention: Switzerland

• UNICA Regulations 2.2.5 - Delete: “reading aloud of the proceedings only on request.”

The Netherlands suggests that since this clause has not caused problems for decades, it is not necessary to amend it.

NO CHANGE

• UNICA Regulations 2.2.8 - Change the sequence, to keep all financial matters together:
• 2.2.8 - report of the treasurer
• 2.2.9 - report of the auditor
• 2.2.12 – discharge of the committee
• 2.2.15 - election of the auditors
• 2.2.19 – contributions
• 2.2.20 - confirm budget

Liechtenstein: Why should one change anything at all if the committee can adjust the agenda anyway?

For: 18
Against: Liechtenstein, Slovak Republic
Vote abstention: Austria, Hungary

Group Two (continued)

• UNICA Regulations 2.2.10 - Remove the report of the film librarian.

President: We have had no film archivist for some years. No films have been borrowed in recent years. Any activity can be included the Secretary’s report

Liechtenstein: Today it has been decided that the CICT will be asked how the CICT can help UNICA (e.g. archive). Therefore, the report should remain.

For: 11
Against: 11
Vote abstention: 0
NO CHANGE

• Competition Rules 4.2 - Replace with: “Films must reach the Organising Committee at the latest two weeks before the event. The arrival of the films must be confirmed by the organiser”

Austria / Hungary: We must also require the organisers to report the arrival of the films. In St. Petersburg, I learned only two days beforehand, that the Austrian films never arrived. This was supported by Vice-President Lindner and the motion was amended by unanimous vote.

Romania: We asked for films on USB sticks only, but we received them in many forms. USB sticks were more reliable.

Liechtenstein: It must be said: (the films) can also be transmitted electronically”.

For: 22
Against: 0
Abstention: 0

• Competition Rules 4.3 - Replace with: “Films on physical media, such as discs or USB sticks, must bear a label with the title and author. The file-name of films sent via internet must include the film title. The title may be shortened for this purpose.”

For: 22
Against: 0
Vote abstention: 0

• Competition Rules 4.5 - Replace with: “Awards will be handed to the authors or a representative of their national organisation. Films on physical media will be returned to the representative of the national organisations at the end of the competition. If awards or physical media are not collected, national organisations may request the Organising Committee to send them by post, but at the expense of the requesting organisation. All films will go into the UNICA archive. Selected films will be added to the collection, which is circulated to national organisations after the event.”

For: 22
Against: 0
Vote abstention: 0

GROUP THREE: Major Changes

FIRST

• One of the auditors has to be replaced by somebody else every year during the election. > One of the auditors has to be replaced by somebody else every second year during the election.

For: 22
Against: 0
Abstention: 0

SECOND

• Statute 7.1 states that changes to the Statutes require a 2/3 majority of the General Assembly. Add a new clause: “The Committee has the right to amend and update all the other UNICA rules and regulations as necessary and to specify when they take effect. The General Assembly may review and amend decisions subsequently.”

Netherlands: That's a good idea. Changes take a long time and we trust the committee. But the countries should be informed as soon as possible.

Vice President Lindner: Consider, for example, that within half a year we need to prepare a UNICA handbook and list of regulations. If we do not fix this properly, many things can go wrong. We also need the mandate, because four sets of regulations are involved. In the last few years this has been managed irresponsibly.

For: 22
Against: 0
Abstention: 0

Group Three (continued)

THIRD

• Competition Regulations 3.1 - Replace with:

1. Films by JEUNESSE (up to and including 19 years of age.)
2. Films by YOUNG PEOPLE (in any kind of full time education from 19 up to and including 25 years of age.)
3. Non-commercial films. That is films:

• made for the joy of filmmaking
• made for non-commercial purposes
• not subject to any prior sales or rental agreements

The President made a passionate speech about the importance of amateur film and read a statement from Estonia.

There followed a long, discursive discussion of the annual competition. Several delegates suggested the matter was too complex and too complicated to decide at the General Assembly.

The President asks for a "test vote" on whether we should include "Young Professionals" in our contest:
For: 7
Against: 7
Abstentions: 8

Referred to the committee.

FOURTH

• Competition Regulations 6.1 - Change 7 jurors to 5. (If this is approved various other clauses need to be changed.)

For: 17
Against: United Kingdom, Sweden, Slovak Republic, Belgium
Abstention: 1

• Annexe to the Competition Rules 6.3 “a majority vote of 5:2 or above” > “a majority vote of 4:1”

For: 5
Against: 17
Abstention: 0

Vice-President Lindner: Regulation 3: 2 is not bad for earlier stages, but GOLD should have 4: 1, otherwise we risk giving too many gold medals. He asked for a new vote.

The amendment was accepted:
For: 20
Against: 0
Abstention: 2
Amended proposal adopted

FIFTH

• Annexe to the Competition Regulations: Chapter 2 Replace with:
  YOUNG UNICA (workshops) It is strongly recommended that each organising committee arranges film making workshops, which will be open to anyone up to and including the age of 25, who has a film in their national programme. UNICA pays half the cost of a Congress Card for one eligible author up to and including 25 years old per country.

President: Until the competition rules have been agreed, there is no purpose in considering this matter.

Proposal withdrawn