Walled Towns Friendship Circle

WALLED TOWNS FRIENDSHIP CIRCLE

17^th INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

Plasencia

Thursday 19^th April

9.00hrs

AGM Minutes

Attending: John Price, President WTFC (Chester) Medwyn Jones, Treasures WTFC (Denbigh), Maud Duthie – van der Venne, Secretary General WTFC (Chester), Howard Dickenson (Chester), Arnaldo Vecchietti, (Verona), John Sciberras, (GPD Malta), Eamonn McEneaway (Vice-chair Irish Walled Town Link), Peter van Roosmalen, Martin Nooijens (‘s-Hertogenbosch), John Beynon, (Tenby), William Pettit, (Canterbury), Frederico Paula, (Lagos), Aziz Elbas (Osmangazi), Ali Gulbay, (Osmangazi), David Bruce (UWE Bristol), Linda Thorp, (Conwy), Vicky McDonald (Conwy), José Luis Muńoz, (Plasencia), Colin Hughes (Denbigh), Peer Crommentuijn (NL), Renata Kaščáková (Trencin), Joe Spiteri (Valletta)

1. Apologies

John Manduca -Chairman Mdina Cultural Committee, Maud Arkestijn – Naarden, Luigi Rossetto – Soave, Ms Eleni Mavrou - Mayor of Nicosia, Charlie Seward – Chester, Peter Osborne – Tenby, Kate Bajoge – Dubrovnik, Francis Tabone – Malta, Representatives from Thessalonica, Anne Scicluna – Chichester, Linda Mavian – Veneto Region, Nada Zajc – Piran, Vojka Stular – Piran, Tomar Gantar - Mayor of Piran, Quim Queralt – Montblanc, Vlasta Ulrichova, International cooperation committee, Policka, Dragomir Misljenac and the Mayor Zivko Kolega and the Deputy Mr. Skarica – Zadar, Tanja Ostrman Renault –Ptuj, Birgu Local Council – Malta, John Osborne

2. President’s Welcome

The President Cllr John Price, MBE, welcomed all members, especially the new members

3. Minutes of previous AGM (Enc A)

It was agreed to approve the Minutes of the last Annual General Meeting held in Verona, Italy on 14 September 2006.

4. Matters Arising from these minutes

5. President’s Report

The President Cllr John Price, MBE, read out the Chair’s report for 2006-2007

6. Secretary General’s Report

Secretary General Report for 2006 – 2007 was written by the previous Secretary General, Mr Chris Lines and was read out by Mrs Maud Duthie – van der Venne

7. Financial Reports - Medwyn Jones

The Circle's Treasurer Medwyn Jones submitted his reports including the formally audited report of the Circle as at 31 December 2006. Financial year has been approved by the auditors. We have now more than 100 paying members, this includes associate members. WTFC is becoming more self sufficient. The healthy balance needs to be read with caution

because WTFC still needs to contribute to the Archway project. It is important to try to keep a healthy balance by seeking further sponsorship. For example the newsletter could be sponsored.

Members could help by speaking to non-paying members and try to re-connect them with the WTFC. Furthermore, let the WTFC secretariat know if there are any mistakes on the contact list and persons responsible for payment. Secretariat can look at how we can keep reminding members of payment.

8. Archway

The workshops are completed with the last workshop being held in Lucca in March this year. There are 3 comprehensive GPG produced and two guides are in development. These GPG’s will be presented at the legacy conference in Chester. The conference is 25 & 26 June 2007. Invites to all WTFC members will go out at the end of April or early May. Archway hopes that many WTFC members will attend the legacy conference on the 25 and 26^th of June 2007.

9. Future Symposia

The next symposium will take place in Canterbury (UK). The symposium will take place Friday 10 Oct till Tuesday 14 Oct 2008. Mr William Pettit gave a presentation on Canterbury at the Executive meeting.

Malta is not able to host the Symposium in 2009. The new WTFC member, Osmangazi-Bursa (Turkey) has offered to host the symposium instead. Due to logistical difficulties and financial issues, the Symposium in Xian is most likely not possible. Maybe Trencin (Slovakia) is able to host the symposium in 2010. Furthermore, Pécs is also struggling to commit to hosting the symposium in 2011. Therefore, it is necessary to look at alternatives and if cities are interested in hosting future symposiums can they please contact the WTFC secretariat.

10. Next Executive

The next executive will take place in Lagos (Portugal) instead of Ohrid has was planned. The meeting will be in the weekend of the 27^th of October 2007.

Carrickfergus (Northern Ireland) proposed to have the executive meeting in the weekend of 14 June 2008.

11. Minutes of Previous Executive Meeting (Enc B)

It was agreed to approve the minutes of the Executive Committee held on 16 April 2007 in Plasencia, Spain.

Arisen Thereon

The Circle is seeking agreement that Mrs Milica Maslo is to take forward the education programme. A letter to the Mayor in Piran has been written to thank Milica for her involvement and if she could be appointed as education co-ordinator.
If a major sponsor was found, it would have been possible to produce more copies of the book. At the moment there are 500 copies and you can order one for 10 euros + postage & package.
Mr Eamonn McEneaway suggested organising a photo competition for schools.
For the technical network meeting in Chester we can draw up a list of people that are interested joining this network. The network gives an opportunity to “wake up” the sleeping members and to start a database that contains the names and addresses of professionals, universities, etc.

12. Report on Nominations & Election of Vice- President

We had one nomination for Vice-President, Mr Luigi Rossetto from Soave. Since he was not opposed his nomination has been accepted. Due to Mr Luigi Rossetto’s vice-presidency there will be a vacant place on the executive board. Executive will look at to fill this position.

A letter to the mayor of Soave should be send, to congratulate Luigi Rossetto with being elected as Vice – President. Then a letter can be send to ask for support for Luigi Rossetto for fulfilling this role.

13. Business Development Plan

The plan was reviewed in Den Bosch and Verona. Currently no changes but the WTFC Secretariat will look at it and see if small changes are necessary. The Business Development plan needs to be updates when the renewal of the presidency takes place in 2009.

14. Constitutional Amendments

No constitutional amendments noted before the AGM

15. Correspondence

No correspondence received

16. World Walled Town of the Year Award – nominations

17. Academic Advisor’s Report

The Academic advisor, Mr David Bruce, read out his academic report for 2006-2007 (see encl). The president thanked him for his work and support in the last year, especially since this would be most likely the last academic report, due to the launch of the Technical network in the coming year.

18. Any Other Notified Business

Mr William Pettit noted that there was a proposal at the executive meeting from Mr Eamonn McEneaway, to try to organise a European Walled Town Day. The WTFC will look into this proposal.

The president John Price, MBE, reported back on the letter that was send to Europa Nostra in relation to them for sponsoring to initiate a Mediterranean based organisation with similar aims to the Circle. So far we haven’t received a reply even while we have contacted Europa Nostra directly. We are members of Europa Nostra and we should have a representative at their meetings. Suggested is that the Vice President, Mr Luigi Rossetto, can attend the Europa Nostra meetings. Before doing so we need to look at the cost for attending these meetings.

Mr Peter van Roosmalen (‘s-Hertogenbosch) asked to put on the agenda the future of the new presidency. The presidency is up for renewal in 2009. Mr van Roosmalen proposed that together with 6 people whom he had approached before the AGM, to write a profile for the new president. The presidency is not an easy task and the new president needs to have the right quality

According to the constitution a president can run for maximum of 3 terms. Any changes needs to amended in the constitution and also incorporated in the bus nines plan. It is a good suggestion to think about the future but this is something that should be discussed at the executive meeting. Therefore it is proposed to put this on the agenda for the next executive meeting in Lagos.