*Minutes
of ISFLA Annual General Meeting
Date: 14th
July. 2006
Place: Pontificia
Universidade Católica de Sao Paulo
Attendance: Francis Lin, Geoff Thompson,
Louise Ravelli, Viviana Heberle,
Bradley Smith, Abhishek Kumar, Tania Sheperd, David Sheperd, Lachlan
Mackenzie,
Helen Jenkins, Thomas Hestabaek Andersen, Flemming Smedegaard, Mira
Kim,
Caroline Coffin, Kieran O’Halloran, Tammy Gales, Mariana Achugar,
Maurice
Warel, Rodney Williamson, Samiah Hassan, Griselda Bombelli, Lidia
Soler,
Solange Castro, Liliana Anglada, Ingrid Westhoff, Paola Parra, Gillian
Moss,
Carlos Gouveia, María Lirola, José Luis Meurer, Alexander Peng, Célia
Magalhaes, David Rose, Cristiane Tuzer, Luciano Ticks, Valeria
Bortoluzzi,
Roseli Goncalves do Nascimento, Márcia Assumpcao, Tom Bartlett, María
Paula
Salvador Wadt, Robin Fawcett, Frances Christie, Heloisa Collins, Estela
Moyano,
Liliana Poj, Leila Barbara and Cecilia Colombi.
Meeting declared open
(Cecilia Colombi, ISFLA
Chair) – 12:15 pm
1.
Apologies:
Wendy L. Bowcher,
Beverly Derewianka, Fang Yan, Bernard Mohan, Mick O’Donnell, Mary
Schleppegrell, Geoff Williams.
2.
Minutes of ISFLA Annual General Meeting
- University of Sydney, 2005.
Accepted.
3.
Chair’s report
Cecilia
Colombi thanked everyone for the support to the present Conference at
Sao
Paulo.
4.
Constitutional
Amendments
Proposer: Robin Fawcett
Proposal: That the
constitution be changed from:
“The elected Committee will
consist of SIX members of the Association
elected from different regions of the world.”
To read:
“The elected Committee will
consist of NINE members of the Association
elected from different regions of the world.”
Discussion: The motivation
behind the proposed change is to allow for
representatives from unrepresented regions with expanding ISFLA
membership, in
particular, Latin America, India and Africa.
Leila Barbara asked whether
the new three members will be chosen from
any region, or whether there were further specifications. She asked
which the
regions not represented were.
Frances Christie suggested
that they should be nominated by the
committee. She asked how representatives of associations would call for
a
representative.
Robin Fawcett proposed they
should be elected at each regional meeting.
There is a request that the
Motion is repeated .
Geoff Thompson asked to go
ahead with the agreed point asking three
regions to appoint representatives and ask the committee to come next
year with
a better idea as how the different regional representatives should be
elected.
Both Motions carried
b. Regarding
the Procedure for modification of the constitution.
Proposer: Mick O'Donnell
Rationale: “The current
clause regarding how the constitution can be
changed is somewhat vague. The proposal below hopes to make the
procedure
clearer.”
Proposal: That the
constitution be changed from:
MODIFICATION OF THE
CONSTITUTION OR DISSOLUTION:
Any proposal to modify
or dissolve the Constitution must come from the Committee
or from at least half of the current
members.
To read:
MODIFICATION OF THE
CONSTITUTION OR DISSOLUTION:
Any proposal to modify
or dissolve the Constitution can come from a Committee
member or ordinary members. The proposal will be voted on at the AGM
and accepted if at least two
thirds of those present vote for the change. .
Discussion: In place of a 2/3
majority, we could use either a simple
majority (>50%) or require unanimity.
Frances Christie spoke in
favour of the proposal. She proposes simple
majority, not two thirds. She claimed one could get too tied up as to
how many
people should vote. After some
discussion about it, the original motion was carried forward to the
participants for their vote.
Motion carried.
5. Report
on the Current Congress
Leila Barbara highlighted the
presence of the
international guests who attended the conference. There were about 265
papers
submitted to the conference. She
believed there were more than 250 attendants. There were many students
present.
People came from different parts of the world, including Australia,
England,
The United States, India, Spain, Denmark, China, Argentina, Brazil,
Colombia,
Mexico, Chile.
Tha organisation offered
three full grants and two half grants. Leila
Barbara said they were very willing to help as many scholars as
possible.
6. Treasurers’
Reports
Robin Fawcett (UK).
Balance: 3000 GBP
He said it is a good
cushion for future work
Bradley Smith (Australia).
Balance:
26000 AUD
He commented there was
a lot of money available in his account. He suggested that we should
consider
leaving some amount available for supporting different projects like
scholars
bursaries, supporting emerging associations to bring well-known
scholars, etc.
7. Future Congresses
7.1. Congress in Odense-2007
Cecilia Colombi pointed out
that during the closing ceremony there would
be an extensive presentation of the Congress at Odense, Denmark.
7.2. Change of dates;
2008-2009 Beijing – Sydney
Christian Matthiessen
proposed to switch dates for the congresses in
Beijing and Sydney. Beijing had been proposed for the year 2008, but
the
Olympic Games are going to be held that year. Unfortunately, the
Olympics did
not accept a change of site) C.
Matthiessen proposed to have the congress in
Proposal accepted
7.3. Congress in Vancouver
2010
Geoff Williams is not present
so he could not give the details of the
congress.
7.4. Congress in 2011: Bid
from Portugal
Carlos Gouveia offered
Portugal as the site for 2011 congress.
8.
Reports from
Regional and National Associations and Conference.
Gillian Moss comments on the
Latin American Association (LASFLA) and
said that it is already on the net.
China: They had the 8th
week of Chinese Functiona Systemic
Linguistics Meeting.
India: It is a very active
area. They have received visits of David
Rose, Robin Fawcett and Christian Matthiessen. On behalf of the
association he
commented that congresses had always been successful.
Meeting closed at 1:20 pm.
These minutes are submitted
by Samiah Hassan and
Paola Parra (August, 2006)