13th General Assembly 2009

Year
2009

13th GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FORUM

Washington, D.C. USA, 14 August 2009

Report

The IEF General Assembly, held during the 13th Conference of the International Environment Forum, opened at 18:15 on August 14th with a welcome from Arthur Dahl, president. Those in attendance also introduced themselves (16 members; 12 guests = 28 total). Officers of the General Assembly were then elected: Arthur Dahl (chair); Peter Adriance (secretary). The agenda (Annex 1) was reviewed and approved.

Annual report
The annual report (Annual Report 2008-2009) was then presented by Dahl and Adriance and approved by the members.

Election of the Governing Board
The election of the Governing Board for 2009-2010 then took place with Tahirih Naylor and Emily Firth serving as tellers. There were 7 absentee ballots by e-mail and 16 voting in person for a total of 23 voting. The election results were as follows: Peter Adriance, Arthur Dahl, Duncan Hanks, Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen, Victoria Thoresen, Diana Cartwright, Emily Firth.

Emily Firth and Diana Cartwright New board members Emily Firth and Diana Cartwright

Consultation on activities and priorities for the coming year
Consultation on activities and priorities for the coming year then took place. General points discussed:
• The website is a most valuable resource, but it would be helpful to have the means to be able to discuss with others ideas for projects, etc. (Perhaps a Wiki?) Board meetings would benefit from such a format as well. New members don’t have much of a sense of what members are doing. Could we have an email discussion list for members working in Africa, for instance? Something should be done to spur communications.
• The Wilmette Institute Course on sustainable development is a great contribution by IEF members. Could more be done to hold courses at Baha’i schools and perhaps a curriculum made available?
• The effort to legally register the organization is praiseworthy. Unfortunately it’s often expensive to do so. To be legally registered somewhere (rather than strictly virtual, which has worked for 13 years) would be helpful for accreditation purposes at some events, but BIC is willing to include IEF members on its delegations for now.
• Opportunities to integrate environment into local activities would be a helpful theme for a future meeting. The IEF aims to serve as a resource but doesn’t drive community agendas. We can try to provide tools to the grassroots. PERL information should be made available through the IEF website to increase educational resources of the community. We could hold a reflection gathering on local efforts, learn from each other, gain tools or skills. IEF needs materials from local communities as well, to share with others.

Other business
• An Interfaith Study Course on climate change was made available to IEF by Christine Mueller. It will be posted on the website after review and approval by the board.
• Member Julie Christ, Cedar Hills, UT (USA) volunteered to write the newsletter.

The General Assembly was adjourned at 19:30.


ANNEX 1

AGENDA

13th General Assembly of the International Environment Forum
Washington D.C., USA, 14 August 2009

 1. Opening of the General Assembly
 2. Introduction of members present
 3. Election of officers of the General Assembly
 4. Approval of the agenda
 5. Presentation, consultation and approval of the annual report (Annual Report 2008-2009)
 6. Election of the Governing Board
 7. Consultation on activities and priorities for the coming year
such as: educational activities, how to engage members, activities on climate change, engaging with sustainable consumption (as the upcoming theme of the Commission on Sustainable Development and membership in PERL), collaboration with various partner organisations and networks, and future IEF conferences.
 8.  Other business
 9. Closing of the General Assembly


See the Annual Report 2008-2009 of the IEF