Highlights of the IFAJ business meeting Jan. 20, 2007 - Berlin, Germany By Mike Wilson The business meeting began at 9 a.m. with President David Markey ( Ireland ) opening the meeting with an overview of the day's agenda. He thanked the executive committee for support in renominating and re-electing the Presidium for years 2006-2008, which is: David Markey , president; Mike Wilson, vice president; Ulla-Mari Sundelin-Ryytty, general-secretary; and Markus Rediger, Treasurer. New members present included Daniel Raffo representing Argentina , Goran Djakovic , Serbia , Jose Luis Murcia representing Spain, Yuriy Mckyaylov, Ukraine, Chuck Zimmerman representing United States, Ulrike Raser representing Austria, and Charl van Rooyen representing South Africa. David gave a report and congratulated the Norwegians on an outstanding 2006 Congress. He also thanked the Japanese representatives for the excellent lunch on Friday and presentation regarding the Japanese Congress, to be held Sept 17-23, 2007 . David also proposed that the IFAJ would produce a 4-page color brochure with GreenWeek-related articles that had been written by IFAJ execs, and then present this brochure to key Messe Berlin executives, as we did last year. The articles should be sent to Mike Wilson ( United States ) by Feb. 14. The format will be PDF and presented to Messe Berlin at a later date. Secretary General Ulla-Mari Sundelin-Ryytty ( Finland ) reported on membership status for specific countries, and that a new system would be developed to handle the press cards. Markus Rediger, treasuurer ( Switzerland) handed out current accounts for IFAJ and noted that all accounts are not final yet. He also explained the procedures for transferring funds to and from IFAJ. He urged the execs to pay press cards and membership fees promptly. Markus will present the completed 2007 budget at the delegate assembly in Japan in September. Mike Wilson spoke briefly about arrangements for an IFAJ meeting in Lexington, Kentucky, sponsored by Alltech, a multinational feed and animal nutrition company. It will be held May 20-23 in conjunction with Alltech’s international feed symposium. IFAJ executive committee members are to give Mike Wilson travel details and passport numbers by Jan. 31 so that Alltech can begin arranging for airfares. Mr. Markey opened discussion on the constitional amendments, which were first discussed at the 2006 Berlin business meeting. Former President Paul Queck made the recommended changes and copies of the proposals have been distributed in English. The amendments were not voted on in Norway because it was decided that the changes needed to be made available in German. Markus Rediger arranged to have the amendments translated into German and every member has a chance now to look at these changes in two languages. Execs who have any concerns about the proposals should let the Presidium know (specifically Ulla Mari) before the Kentucky meeting in may, 2007. Plans are to recommend approval of the changes and ask the delegates to vote on the changes at the 2007 Congress in Japan. There was a proposal to discontinue individual membership, because it takes too much administrative energy and the members’ applications are too difficult to prove. Instead, individual member applications will be encouraged to establish their own guild. This was approved. That section of the constitution will be modified in the changes going forward for approval in Japan. Following are the committee reports, which can be read at these links: Finance/sponsorship committee Membership committee Host country Liasion committee Professional development committee Communications committee