CIME/ICEM Board of Directors and General Assembly
Denton TX USA, 3 and 4 October 2014
On 3rd of October, the General Assembly of CIME/ICEM met for the first day
Marek Choloniewski, CIME/ICEM President and President of the Polish federation opened the meeting of the Board of Directors and thanked the representatives for their attendance. He also thanked to Jon Nelson for hosting the CIME/ICEM Festival and Conference 2014 in Denton.
The following members of CIME/ICEM met in Denton:
James Andean (Äänen Lumo / Charm of Sound, Finland)
Elizabeth Anderson (FeBeMe-Belgium)
Françoise Barrière (MISAME and Founder Member)
Marek Choloniewski (PSeME, Poland)
Francisco Colasanto (CMMAS, Morelia/ Mexico)
Jaroslaw Kapuscinski (PSeME, Poland)
Panayiotis Kokoras (HELMCA, Greece)
Jon Christopher Nelson (CEMI, University of North Texas, Denton, USA)
Krzysztof Wolek (PSeME, Poland)
Konstantin Zenkin (CEAMMC Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Russia)
The quorum was completed with the proxies sent by:
Miguel Azguime (Miso Music, Portugal)
José Manuel Berenguer (Orquesta del Caos, Spain)
Gregorio Jimenez (AMEE, Spain)
Manuel Rocha Iturbide (AARSOM, Mexico)
Andrea Szigetvári (HCMF, Hungary)
German Toro-Perez (ICST, Switzerland)
Alla Zagaykevych (Ukraine)
The agenda of the General Assembly 2014 was approved.
Marek Choloniewki read the minutes of the 2013 Board of Directors and General Assembly in Krakow/Poland. It was approved by the Board of Directors.
In his moral report, 2014 President Marek Choloniewki reminded that CIME/ICEM is working towards the expansion of its members with new Organizations International Members especially in countries were the National Federations are inactive, or not present. He proposed institutes like ZKM from Germany, Radio Acoustica from Czech Republic, Fylkingen from Sweden. Françoise Barrière updated on the progress made by Suk-Jun Kim to constitute a Korean national federation. Kim asks one year in add to do it.
The President noted the necessity to give new dynamism to CIME/ICEM by a much stronger online presence where the CIME/ICEM site could function as a hub of information for all of the members.
In addition, he described the benefits of the integration of existing links and references on the history of electroacoustic music of the CIME/ICEM federations in addition to the already submitted documents by CIME/ICEM members. This way the visitor can have a better idea on the subject and CIME/ICEM will be able to take advantage of existing great resources especially for a member who didn’t contribute so far.
The Treasurer Françoise Barrière presented the financial report for the year 2014. As of September 2014 the total budget was 6.360 euros. The expenses were 1.630 euros with contributions towards the IMC – International Music Council Fee 310 euros, partial reimbursement of the board of directors travel cost, domain name and postal expenses. The balance until the General Assembly was 4.730 euros. The treasurer reported that the financial situation is healthy. More membership fees are expected to be paid soon after the General Assembly. Consequently, the final balance will be determined by the end of 2014. Both Treasurer and President noted that the reduction of the fee helped several federations to pay their fee. To the suggestion made by the president for taking a CIME/ICEM credit card, Françoise Barrière answers that the transactions are happening online or by bank transfer. We all agreed this is not necessary.
In the activities’ report, the President noted the absence of improvement for the ongoing projects of the Confederation, with the exception of the CIME/ICEM Festival and the concerts organized mostly by the Spanish, Polish, Greek federations. Françoise Barrière referred to the inertia, the temporary disappearance or the lack of news from several federations. It appears that besides the federations, some centers, institutions, publishers and festival organizers are very active and could join CIME/ICEM as Organizations International Members (OIM).
The Board of Directors unanimously approved the moral report, the activities and financial reports.
Then the Board of Directors discussed the project of activities for 2015. An intense debate took place on the suggestions from Jon Nelson about email communication among members, visibility of the website, and the possibility to have direct contact with the composers who participate in the CIME/ICEM Festival instead of their federations. Francisco Colasanto from Morelia made a point about the CIME/ICEM website presence; the design of the webpage and the way its content is updated. Françoise Barrière made a retrospective of CIME/ICEM and its statute explaining that the CIME/ICEM statute is based on the IMC statute and by definition there are certain limitations. The existence of an email list seemed to be the most valid option. Finally, the president concluded this discussion by setting the priorities for the next months such as increase web visibility and update the site with activities from the members. He also reminded of several PSeME projects, such IterEter, Audiomat, and Ear Near, with a wide promotion of eletroacoustic music and the activity of the organization. The possibility of producing a next CIME/ICEM CD has been discussed without a definite plan.
On the agenda, the following point was the approval of new members. James Andean president of The Äänen Lumo / Charm of Sound based in Helsinki / Finland presented their application to be a new member of CIME/ICEM and was unanimously accepted as a Finnish National Federation member.
The last topic of the first meeting of the Board of Directors was the discussion about inactive members and how to exclude some of them. Françoise Barrière reported the most problematic members like Cuba, Chile, France, Romania, Russia, and Norway among others. She also reminded that following the statute, registered letter should be first sent by the CIME/ICEM office to the non-active members and specific deadline should be assigned for an answer before any action is taken. Without answer, the member would be excluded. As an extension to it, the possibility of having more OIMs was discussed. All members of the meeting were positive in this perspective. However, potential problems were identified like, the acceptance of several new IOM Members could eventually balance the lack of activity from these countries, however an increase of the members could create problem to have quorum and be correct with certain rules of the statute. A careful planning for the new OIM could keep CIME/ICEM in balance with the statute.
Then the General Assembly met and approved the Minutes 2013 in Krakow / Poland.
The GA discussed the proposal of the Board of Directors with main points of the strategies for influence as inactive federations, rejecting non-active members, website presence and update, and addition of links from texts and books related to the history of CIME/ICEM members.
The items on the agenda of the Board of Directors were all considered. All the proposals were approved. The GA votes unanimously on the reports and activities 2014 and 2015. The first day of General Assembly concluded with the final discharge of the Board of Directors.
On 4th of October, the General Assembly met for the second day.
The first item on the second GA meeting was the reports from the National Federations and OIM. In turn, each Federation or OIM made a report on their activities and the situation of electroacoustic music in their country. The reports were presented with the following order: Greece, Poland, Russia, Finland, CEMI/USA, MISAME and Belgium.
The Board of Directors unanimously voted to accept as Honorary Members the prominent composers Francis Dhomont and Beatriz Ferreyra. Françoise Barrière proposed to join them by phone first. The president will send an official letter announcing the honor to these composers.
The last part of the GA all members discussed the advantages and disadvantages of being an CIME/ICEM member. Francesco Colosando added one more question asking about CIME/ICEM’s strategy for the promotion and its mission. It was a long and intense debate, which gave us the opportunity to discuss these important issues. Panayiotis Kokoras and Françoise Barrière recognized the importance of these issues and made an effort to explain to the GA that the main objective of CIME/ICEM is to create community, integrate all members of the confederation, coordinate activities, promote diversity, disseminate the music and the work of its members through different initiatives, among others. At the end of this debate, Marek Choloniewski proposed to initiate and be in charge of an CIME/ICEM Radio that will loop lists of works from the members. We all agreed with this proposal. The discussion made once more evident that an CIME/ICEM email list is going to be for the benefit of all.
So the General Assembly was closed and the final Board of Directors was opened.
Then the GA examined on the proposed places for the General Assembly of 2015 and 2016. The location of 2015 General Assembly was chosen to be held in Kiev organized by the Ukrainian federation. In case when the federation is unable to hold the CIME/ICEM Festival and Conference 2015, due to the current unstable political situation, it was decided that Polish Federation will organize it in Krakow. For the year 2016 Russia and Belgium Federations expressed their interest, and the final decision will be taken during the next GA 2015.
The next item in the agenda was the election of the new CIME/ICEM Board of Directors and Advisors for three years. Françoise Barrière agreed to continue as Treasurer and proposed Marek Choloniewski to be a President. They suggested Panayiotis Kokoras as a new Secretary after Gregorio Jiménez resigned from this position.
The proposal for the new Board of Directors was voted unanimously.
The new Board of Director is:
Marek Choloniewski – President
Françoise Barrière – Treasurer
Panayiotis Kokoras – Secretary
The following CIME/ICEM advisors for the next three years were accepted unanimously:
Gonzalo Biffarella (Argentina)
Jon Christopher Nelson (CEMI)
Annette Vande Gorne (Belgium)
German Toro-Perez (Zurich)
Xiaofu Zhang (China)
The board of directors discussed the possibilities for fund raising. They discussed the idea to apply conference fee for the CIME/ICEM Conference paper participants who are not represented by the National Federation or IOM. Another possibility was the well-planned increase of the number of Organizations International Members where National Federation is not active, or do not exist.
The last item of the Board of Directors was the proposal from Françoise Barrière to initiate an international electroacoustic music competition. The proposal was accepted with great enthusiasm. Some of the points discussed were that the competition should not have a participation fee, and the prize could be Studio Residencies (such as in Cracow and Denton) and CD release with the winning works. The Board of directors decided to prepare a concrete idea and present it during the next GA 2015.
Finally, the President thanked the CEMI/UNT organizer, especially to Jon Nelson, the Board of Directors and closed the meeting.