Minutes
taken by Tina Coldham, UK

Part 1 (Sunday, July 18, 2004)

Chair – Gábor Gombos
Secretary – Peter Lehmann
(Co-opted Board member) – Mary Nettle
Eastern Countries representative – Piotr Iwaneyko

Gábor Gombos opened the meeting explaining the agenda for the General Assembly over today – part 1, and July 20, 2004 – part 2.

Peter Lehmann made sure that all eligible members had voting cards.

Mary Nettle gave her report. There has only been one face-to-face Board meeting due to a lack of money. Therefore, other meetings have taken place over the Internet.

Mary Nettle is on the Disabled Women's Committee of the European Disabled Forum. Through this, Mary Nettle has represented a user/survivor women's perspective at various disability conferences.

Gábor Gombos gave his Chairs report. The last General Assembly was held in 1999. Gábor Gombos was elected chair at that meeting. The next assembly was planed for Slovenia, and Slovenian organisations put a lot of work in, but as travel expenses could not be paid for everybody the meeting was cancelled. This meeting is going ahead even though we have not been able to pay everybody's travel, and this was a difficult decision that had to be made.

Ever since the last board assembly strenuous efforts have been made to find funding to hold an ENUSP conference and assembly, which pays for users/survivors to attend. General Assembly's should take place every 2 years, but lack of money has meant this has not happened. WNUSP invited ENUSP to this joint conference and it was felt an appropriate way to enable the ENUSP conference and assembly to happen.

Gábor Gombos has been recognised as a Human Rights leader for the user/survivor movement from his ENUSP activities. This reflects the work that everyone is doing in this area, and is good for promoting the movement in general.

Piotr Iwaneyko (Eastern Countries representative) comes from Poland, and fed back his thoughts from being in a Eastern European country, the changes happening there particularly as they are now part of the EU.

Being in ENUSP has enabled him to travel to many European meetings and conferences. He went to a meeting in Greece and had fruitful discussions with them. He also came to England to present at a conference with people from all over the UK. He also had inspiring conversations there. Thus he has used this experience and gone back to his region of Europe to encourage user involvement, and also furthering the aims of ENUSP.

Marinka's (Mediterranean Countries Representative) report was read out by Mary Nettle. See separate letter

Peter Lehmann gave his report. See separate report

A question from the floor was taken by Peter Lehmann on why the EU has not funded ENUSP further. Two previous applications have been rejected and the feedback from the EU was not helpful. ENUSP has another application in at present and is awaiting a decision.

Mary Nettle presented the proposal for new regions (See separate paper). The reasons for these proposals were firstly, the former Eastern European countries were previously considered as one 'block'. The changing face of Europe and accession to the EU for some of these countries challenges this perception. Secondly Israel consider themselves to be part of Europe and want to be part of the network due to their cultural background and World Health Organisation definition.

A discussion took place across the floor around the definition of 'Europe' generally, and in particular where Israel fit into this. Gábor Gombos stated that ENUSP is a federation of (ex)users/survivors of psychiatry and we should focus our energies on the oppression that we all have in common. The discussion continued and Peter Lehmann proposed a members vote on the inclusion of Israel from the floor.

There was a vote across the floor for the proposal for Israel's inclusion to be adjourned until Tuesday (20/7). This was carried.

Hedinn Unnsteinsson spoke. He is a Technical Officer, Conference Coordinator – Mental Health programme in the WHO, but attends this conference as an individual. In Helsinki in 2005 there will be a closed conference of the 52 European Health Ministers held by WHO and Council of Europe. He asked that those present make contact with him to form a network. He wants to include the views of users and carers through WHO so that any declaration and action plan coming out of this meeting include these views.

More discussion took place on the floor about the role of ENUSP and WNUSP. There was a proposal that members read the document "The Zandvoort Declaration on Common Interests" for reaffirmation on Tuesday if members feel this document is appropriate.

There was an adjournment for afternoon coffee.

After the break, the committee decided to delay the sub regional meetings to later in the day.

Part 2 (Tuesday, July 20, 2004)

Gábor Gombos and Mary Nettle decided to co-chair this meeting. Gábor Gombos outlined the agenda for the meeting. Everyone agreed to Gábor Gombos and Mary Nettle, and that this is a valid general assembly.

It should be noted that voting members came and went from the room so the number of votes counted in subsequent voting changed from time to time.

FINANCE

Gábor Gombos spoke briefly about ENUSP's financial position in that copies of accounts for year-end 2002 and 2003 were available (see separate sheets) and were in order. Together with ENUSP board member and treasurer Virpi Vesterinen, present at the General Assembly, he had controlled the book-keeping, done by Peter Lehmann & Kerstin Kempker, at the evening of July 19, 2004. Gábor Gombos proposed the financial reports to be adopted, and the floor agreed.

BOARD

There was a vote to "discharge" the board and the Treasurer of ENUSP. The voting was: 50 YES, 0 NO, 0 Abstentions

DESK

A new person had to be appointed to run the ENUSP 'desk'. Proposals were received from the floor for Jasna Russo (Yug), and Tina Coldham (Eng). Jasna Russo was happy to stand; TC was not and declined graciously. Therefore Jasna Russo was appointed.

MEMBERSHIP FEE

There was a proposal from BPE – Germany that a fee structure based on 0.10 Euros per individual member of each member organisation be instituted. The fee should be paid annually. Exceptions for members that do not have enough money to pay are possible and can be agreed by the ENUSP board.

After a comment from the floor Gábor Gombos explained that the fee is needed for ENUSP's funds and also that we need to keep the fee structure simple to administer. The voting was: 44 YES, 0 NO, 6 Abstentions

Peter Lehmann encouraged that those present recruit other individuals and organisations to join ENUSP to build a flourishing organisation and encourage allies to become support members. Forms available.

STATUTES

Gábor Gombos explained that ENUSP is a non-profit organisation under Dutch tax law. The statutes are originally written in Dutch law. As the Desk is now placed in Germany, and administered by Jasna Russo, Gábor Gombos proposes that the statutes are changed, as proposed by the German tax administration, to ensure that ENUSP additionally is compliant under German tax law as a non-profit organisation. Gábor Gombos also proposed that the board is given the power in minor issues the board has the right to make small changes.

The voting was: 44 YES, 0 NO, 3 Abstentions

According to the ENUSP statutes 75% of the membership have to agree to proposed changes. As there was not 75% present Peter Lehmann said that August 5, 2004, in Germany was therefore the requested second membership assembly, as officially announced already, see separate paper (page 4), where a quorum is not required and the agreed statutes' changes can be decided finally according to the ENUSP statutes.

There was a comment from the floor that the board should investigate having universal statutes to stop this problem in the future. This was accepted.

BOARD ELECTIONS

Gábor Gombos explained that regions need to make proposals for members to be elected to the board.

In an earlier regional meeting the North East region decided that they be divided into 2 regions. The first to be known as the "Nordic Region" and made up of Nordic countries. Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Greenland, & Faroe Islands.

The remaining countries will be the new North East region consisting of Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland & Russia There was a comment from the Austrian contingent that the split could be based on language division. The former proposal would change the number of regions in ENUSP. Gábor Gombos asked for a vote on accepting this.

Regions to be split into 6. The voting was: 46 YES, 4 NO, 4 Abstentions. It is therefore up to the board to finally decide who are the members of these regions. There was a challenge from the floor and discussion continued. There was a vote to accept that these 6 regions are eligible to vote for the board. The voting was: 52 YES, 0 NO, 1 Abstentions

BOARD ELECTIONS

CHAIR: NE Region nominated Mary Nettle. Central Region nominated Mary Nettle. NW Region nominated Mary Nettle. There was a self-nomination from Austria – Stephanus Binder as chair. Voting for Chair. The voting was: 51 votes for Mary Nettle / 3 votes for Stephanus Binder / 1 abstention. Mary Nettle accepted being elected as Chair.

REGIONAL BOARD MEMBERS

Main member and deputy. Gábor Gombos explained that if a region cannot elect a representative, then another region co-represents but that they assertively seek representation from the country without as soon as possible.

Gábor Gombos then said there would be a meeting of the new board – with deputies soon after the general assembly.

A vote of thanks was given to the old board for all the hard work they have done.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

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