THE 1996 FIAT/IFTA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The scope of FIAT/IFTA has now been extended to cover those radio archives belonging to broadcasters which also transmit television, thus acknowledging the recent trend towards the merger of these archives in many of our members.

The membership structure has also been changed, so that the Corresponding Membership category has been replaced by an Individual Associate category. Those organisations which qualify as Full Members must now be such, while other organisations will be Associate Members. A two year moratorium will allow those members who need to change the category of their membership to do so without financial implications.

One of the extra benefits of Full Membership will be the distribution of FIAT/IFTA communications to up to five people within the member organisation. Our new Administrative Secretary, Gùsta Johansson, will contact all members to update our membership records and gather the information necessary to implement this change. A copy of the amended statutes is enclosed with this Newsletter.

The most important decision of the General Assembly was to approve a rise in subscription rates of 50% to pay for the improvements to the organisation proposed by the Executive Council in its draft budget for the years 1996/98. This matter was discussed in great detail, though the decision was almost unanimous.

A new Executive Council was elected consisting of Tedd Johansen as President, plus Steve Bryant, Luis da Costa, Wolfgang Dehn, Peter Dusek, Karl Maier, Sue Malden, Lasse Nilsson, Serge Roth, Dominique Saintville, Jyrki Stolt and Lise-Lotte Westh. Denis Frambourt and Annemieke Westenbrink will continue to be co-opted as Commission Chairs. The first meeting of the new Council re-elected Steve Bryant as General Secretary and Peter Dusek and Dominique Saintville as Vice Presidents. Wolfgang Dehn was elected as the new Treasurer, in place of the retiring Jean-Sylvestre Cosandey.

The General Assembly was concluded with a tribute to two retiring members, whose contributions over the years have been enormous: Anne Hanford and Jean-Sylvestre Cosandey. Both were made Honorary members and given an appropriate standing ovation by the whole Assembly.

Steve Bryant
General Secretary