Notes of a General Assembly Meeting of EAHIL Members,
held 24^th June 2005 at 17.15 hrs. at Palazzo dei Normanni,
Palermo, Italy.  

Present:   35 EAHIL Members. 

President’s Introduction:   Arne Jakobsson welcomed members to the Meeting. He explained that as the meeting was not quorate, it would be necessary to hold over substantive business, such as the approval of the Minutes of the 2004 General Assembly, until the next G.A. meeting at the conference in Cluj in 2006, which was fully expected to be quorate.  Instead, he suggested that the present meeting took the form of an “Open Forum”, where members might like to discuss issues of interest.  He had two important topics that he would like to discuss with members, namely the new Membership Database and the idea of a Nominations Committee to find and encourage new potential Council and Board Members.  He stressed that the meeting would be both open and informal and therefore if anyone had any questions or points they wished to raise, they should not hesitate to do so. 

First, Arne explained that the idea of a Nominations Committee had been discussed and welcomed by the Board and Council members at their earlier meetings. The plan was to have members from North, South, East and West Europe, who would actively seek out and encourage active EAHIL members to stand in Council and Board elections.  Of course, this would not preclude any two “ordinary” members from nominating anyone, it was just an extra measure to try to encourage new people to come forward and to revitalise the process.  Members present agreed that it was a good idea.  Volunteers had been found from the North (Eva Alopaeus); the West (Bruce Madge) and the East (Sally Wood Lamont), so it just remained to seek a representative for Southern Europe. 

Second, Arne talked about the new EAHIL Membership Database.  He explained that the old membership database which was previously kept by the Secretariat in the Netherlands will be closed at the end of the year and the new online database will take over completely on 1^st January 2006.  All existing records had been transferred. He urged everyone to enter the new database now to check their personal record and also to let him know of any problems.  He had written an explanatory article about the new membership database in the Journal of EAHIL (February 2005, pages 6 – 8) and had sent out an email message to all members inviting them to check their own details online, although as yet many members had not done so.  Council members had viewed a demonstration of the new database at the Council Meeting and had been very impressed by the system. Council members would have an important role in vetting new membership applications from their national colleagues.  In answer to questions from the floor, Arne also explained that the new database would be based on individual membership status, and therefore the institutional membership category would cease to operate, although affiliated membership would be allowed for certain sponsors, etc., and of course membership fees would still be payable by those wishing to join EAHIL from outside Europe. It had also been agreed at the previous Council Meeting that it would be a good idea to put some details about EAHIL, its aims and objectives, and, importantly, an outline of the criteria necessary to join the association (e.g. an active interest and involvement in health care librarianship/information work) onto the website and the database.  There would also be a “welcome” message and fuller information on EAHIL given when new members are accepted.  It was planned that all members would receive the printed Journal of EAHIL, although there would be an option on the membership list to elect not to receive copies if, for instance, it meant that multiple copies would be sent to the same address. Arne stressed that the new database would continue to develop and he urged everyone to look at it and let him know of any problems or ideas for changes.  It was also agreed that it would be a good idea to advertise the new “Virtual EAHIL” on the various national list servers, etc., at the end of the year. 

There being no further discussion or questions, Arne thanked everyone for their participation in the General Assembly, and the meeting closed at 5.45pm.