Summary minutes – 2013 EPFU General Assembly

BERLIN – Mercure hotel, Febuary 23rd , 2013.

The President Wolfgang Drexel opens the 2013 EPFU General Assembly and introduces M. Carsten LINDEMAN, Vice-President of the Berlin Air Sports Association. In the name of his Association, M. Lindeman welcomes all participants to the 2013 EPFU General Assembly in Berlin and wishes to the Assembly good discussions and a productive meeting. He made a short presentation of the Berlin Air Sports Association. Wolfgang Drexel thanks M. Lindeman for this friendly welcome.

Then the President welcomes all EPFU members attending the General Assembly, including René Meier as Switzerland delegate and, as observer, Rudy Schuegraf, Europe Air Sports senior vice-president. He thanks everybody for coming to Berlin.

The President Wolfgang Drexel then asks the General Secretary to start the General Assembly with item 1 of the proposed agenda sent some weeks ago to all EPFU members.

Agenda, item 1

Discussion and approval of the proposed agenda :

As no remarks were made, the General Secretary asked the audience to approve the proposed agenda. The agenda was approved.

Agenda item 2

Discussion and approval of 2011’s General Assembly minutes :

No comment was presented on the last year General Assembly minutes sent to members some month ago. The General Secretary proposes to the Assembly to approve the EPFU 2011 General Assembly minutes. The minutes were approved.

Agenda item 3

EPFU Board activity during the year 2012 : The President listed all different activities of the EPFU Board during the year 2012 (in addition to frequent Board contacts by e-mail and phone) :

Board meetings in Luxembourg (January 21st), Cologne (March 23rd), Paris (April 19), Istanbul (May 19), Vienna (November 27).

Board delegates attended different meeting : European Regional Aerodrome Community in Mannheim (January 30), EAS General Meeting in Cologne (March 24-25), “Tri-party” LSA meeting in Friedrichshafen (April 20-21), EASA Part M in Cologne (June 27-28 and November 6).

Agenda item 4

Presentation of the EPFU financial situation (Treasurer). Manfred Kunschitz presented and commented the different financial slides :

Membership fees for 2012 : The treasurer reminded that 2012 EPFU fees were reduced by the 2012 General Assembly to 10 Euros per vote.

Membership fees for 2013 : 2013 fees resume to the normal value of 15 Euros per vote.

Treasurer report for 2012 and proposed budget for 2013 and 2014 : EPFU expenses for 2012 are 19.636 Euros. The proposed budget for 2013 and 2014 is 20.980 Euros. As no objections are made, the treasurer report for 2012, the budget for 2013 and 2014 were adopted.

Agenda item 5

Presentation and discussion of EPFU past and present actions :

  • EAS, EMF, EFLEVA, EPFU meeting on LSA concept (Paris 8 February 2013) : Max de Richemond, EPFU General Secretary, attended the meeting. During the meeting, all organisations involved were present and all opinions were presented. Minutes of the meeting are still to be finalized. Item is not close.
  • EASA General Aviation strategy document implementation : It can be interesting to look at the possibilities offered by this very important strategic document throughout Europe to obtain some adaptation or exemption to the rules already published. In some countries new rules published will be implemented next April without “opt-out” in their country. As information, the Austrian Aero-club is the approved “Competent Authority” in Austria to implement and deliver the new LAPL.
  • Main EASA regulation texts in progress : Present situation was presented by René Meier.
  • EPFU Website status : Marc André Heurtevant, EPFU webmaster, presented the different projects already decided by the Board to improve the EPFU communication. This includes the website and the publication of an “EPFU newsletter” (monthly ?).
  • EPFU membership actualisation : As said before, we need more members to be more powerful to defend and develop the powered flying within Europe.

Agenda item 6

EPFU Board elections :

According to our statutes, the EPFU General Assembly have, this year 2013, to elect for two years the EPFU President and General Secretary. As already announced, present President Wolfgang Drexel, and present General Secretary Max de Richemond, do not stand for re-election. As no other candidates were proposed, the EPFU Board approved, during its last meeting in Paris, the candidacy of René Meier (Switzerland) as President and Xavier Barral (France) as General Secretary.

For those elections, Jean Birgen, EPFU Vice-President, take the Presidency of our Assembly and open the votes :

Election of the EPFU President : After a short self introduction of the candidate, and as nobody was against, and nobody wanted to abstain, René Meier was unanimously elected as EPFU President for two years.

Election of the EPFU General Secretary : Because of previous commitments, Xavier Barral was unable to attend the General Assembly, so he recorded a video self introduction presented to the Assembly. After this video presentation, as nobody was against the proposal and nobody wanted to abstain, Xavier Barral was unanimously elected as EPFU General Secretary for two years.

Election to the Board of an EPFU communication expert : In order to improve EPFU’s communication, the Board proposes to elect Marc André Heurtevant (France), our present “Webmaster”, as member of the Board. As a Board member, he shall be in charge of EPFU’s Website and Newsletter. As nobody was against the proposal and nobody wanted to abstain, Marc André Heurtevant was unanimously elected for two years as Communication expert in the EPFU Board.

After those elections, Jean Birgen gave the Assembly presidential seat to René Meier, the new EPFU President. René Meier thanks the audience for their confidence and thanks Wolfgang Drexel and Max de Richemond for all works and efforts done during the past years within the EPFU Board. He, then, presented the methods and main goals he wanted to implement to ensure the EPFU future.

Agenda item 7

Any other business :

The President asked members to make proposals for the next year General Assembly location.

Then, the President asked participants if they have some comments to add :

Lars Holmström, from Sweden, drew the attention of the participants on the overload of the “1030–2090 Mhz radio band” in Europe and the consequences on the ADS-B implementation.

Knud Nielsen, from Denmark, reminded the Assembly on the problem of European requirement of “8.33 Mhz” radio equipment.

Before the end of the meeting, Rudy Shuegraf wanted to confirm that EAS considers EPFU as an important and necessary member of its European organisation. EAS will continue to supports EPFU efforts to defend and promote powered flying.

As the agenda was completed, the President closed the 2013 EPFU General Assembly and thanks again all participants for attending the meeting.

 

The EPFU Executive Board.