2007 ANNUAL MEETING was held
on June 5, 2007 at the Axia offices, Rue Thalberg #2 in Geneva.
The minutes from last year’s Annual Meeting were read and unanimously
approved.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
The Executive Director’s report
was read and it was acknowledged that there were continuing areas of
concern with various American overseas issues such as:
Tax issues for overseas Americans
Banking issues/problems due to the Patriot Act restrictions
Citizenship laws
Voting
Medicare
Social Security (WEP)
Congressional caucus
An update of the ACA activities
since the previous annual meeting was given:
Washington OAW in June, 2006
Tax Seminar in the fall of 2006 (September)
Expat Expo held in the fall of 2006
Thomas Jefferson Award, awarded during Washington week, June 2006
Auction held in March, 2006
Expat
Expo, October, 2006
These activities were all well
received and had positive results for ACA. It was agreed that
ACA will continue to pursue similar events for 2007. Mention was
made of ACA’s participation in the St. Die celebration of the 500th
anniversary of the naming of America (Spring, 2007), the Annual Fundraiser
Auction (April, 2007), the hosting of the Town Hall Meeting in conjunction
with US Embassy Staff (May, 2007), upcoming award ceremony for the Thomas
Jefferson Award, the June 18th -29th Overseas
Americans Week in Washington D.C. and the planned Gala Fundraiser scheduled
for October of 2007 as well as the Geneva Expat Expo (fall, 2007)
Throughout the past year there
were also decisions were made and preparations begun for updating the
database and the website. Although much of the preparation work
was done during 2006, the actual installation of the database and the
update of the website have taken or will take place in 2007.
TREASURER’S REPORT
The treasurer’s report was
presented and it was acknowledged that the financial health of ACA at
the end of 2006 was considerably stronger than end of year 2005.
Reasons for the improved financial conditions were identified as:
Additional co-renter
Book sales
Membership drive (moving to annual drive)
Auction results
Donations (indirectly and also
through membership drive)
The aforementioned all had a
positive effect on finances and ACA should continue to look to revenue
drivers like the Auction, donations and book sales as vehicles for income
generation. To that end, it was stressed that ACA should do all
it can to promote book sales as all direct costs had now been written
off and sales result in 100% direct profit from here on out.
Budget figures for 2007 were
presented. They are conservative in nature, taking into consideration
no major gains in membership, auction results consistent with 2006,
marginal book sales and donations. It was unanimously agreed that
ACA should do more to direct people to click through the ACA website
whenever ordering items from Amazon.com as ACA receives commissions
from sales if the order is received via a click through from the ACA
website.
AUDITORS’ REPORT
The auditors’ report, which
approved the methods in which the financial reports had been compiled,
was read and approved.
QUITUS OF DIRECTORS
The quitus of the Directors
was unanimously approved by all present.
ELECTION OF DIRECTORS
All current members of the Board
were approved; however, some members will be contacted directed to see
if they wish to continue participation on the Board given their lack
of involvement with ACA in recent years. Two new members were
voted onto the Board of Directors:
SHIFTING GEARS AT ACA FOR
FUTURE CHANGE
“Shifting Gears at ACA for
Future Challenges: A Base for Discussion” was presented. The
presentation suggests that ACA focus its efforts on key issues, identify
individuals who are willing to head up certain issues (Taxation, Caucus,
Medicare), and create teams. These individuals and task forces
would be responsible for managing all aspects of a key “issue” and
would be responsible to report back on progress on a quarterly or annual
basis.
It was agreed that individuals
must be identified and assignment of goals and strategies for individual
issues identified so that concrete progress can be made. This
approach is essential for ACA to adopt if the organization is to continue
into the future and beyond the current group of volunteers.
Everyone present agreed that
ACA needs to move forward and that identifying crucial issues and recruiting
new members and volunteers are key. It was agreed that the
Board’s highest priority in the coming year should be to establish
a clear plan aimed at ensuring the continued existence and growth of
ACA, and to outline and implement concrete steps for achieving these
goals. It was agreed moreover, that ACA should immediately add
to its website an “I want to volunteer” button so that people visiting
the site can immediately react. It was also agreed that volunteers
must be ACA members.
ALLIANCES
It was agreed that ACA would
join the OVF (Overseas Vote Foundation) lobbying alliance, and to consider
any other alliances which the Executive Committee might deem useful
to the organization..
A partnership with the Pan American
Historical Foundation (PAHF) was discussed. Via a News Update
or website exchange ACA would receive exposure to their members in exchange
for ACA giving exposure to PAHF .
MEMBERSHIP/DATABASE
New database software has been
installed. Although there is still some clean-up work to be accomplished,
the database is available and ready for use for both hard copy (post)
and electronic mailings. Member information can also now be sorted
by various criteria as required by ACA. The database installed
is a clear step forward and has already demonstrated itself in facilitating
mailings.
It was noted that now that ACA
can email directly from the database, the email addresses currently
stored in the “NU address” banks need to be integrated into the
new database. Discusses on how best to integrate these addresses
will be addressed at the next EC (Executive Committee) meeting.
MEMBERSHIP RATES
A new membership form with bank
transfer information included was presented. Membership rates have
been adjusted to better reflect exchange rate translations from a base
rate in Swiss francs, as ACA’s operating expenses are primarily in
that currency. It was agreed that, for the time being, rates
would not be raised and would only be adjusted to reflect correct
exchange rate values however, the student membership category and contributing
membership category would be eliminated due to lack of interest.
The new membership form will be put into use as soon as the banking
information section requests all necessary information (i.e. bank name,
address, etc).
WEBSITE
A volunteer has been identified
to work on the website redesign. Currently, a small sub-group
has been charged with managing the website redesign. Initial meetings
have been held and a preliminary website prototype should be ready for
review shortly.
The importance of using the
website not only as a tool for membership generation and volunteer recruitment
but also as a revenue generator for ACA was discussed. Once the
look and feel of the website has been enhanced new advertising rates
would be developed and a program for soliciting advertisers put into
place.
BOOK
Outside of a reading at Payot
in the fall of 2005, little had been done during 2006 to promote the
book. A second book reading at the US Mission scheduled for 2006
has been postponed until the fall of 2007 due to scheduling problems.
More time and effort will be put behind the book promotion in 2007-2008.
A task force needs to be identified to head this project and to develop
a promotional strategy.
OVERSEAS AMERICANS WEEK
The fifth annual Overseas Americans
Week was held June 19th to 24th of 2006. OAW
2006 brought together more than 20 delegates from five organizations
- the Association of Americans Resident Overseas (AARO), Americans Citizens
Abroad (ACA), Alliance of American Organizations – Iberia (ALLAMO),
Federation of American Women’s Clubs Overseas (FAWCO) and Overseas
Vote Foundation (OVF). ACA’s participation in last year’s Overseas
Americans Week focused primarily on taxation and representation.
Roger Conklin, John Serrato and Jackie Bugnion attended meetings held
with various representatives. ACA had drafted a position paper,
Stop Killing the Goose that Lays the Golden Egg, calling
for repeal of the 2006 tax hike and supporting the Working American
Competitiveness Act Bill introduced in Congress by Senator DeMint.
The ACA paper was well received by various Washington representatives
and again will be the springboard for discussions at the 2007 OAW.
ACA also gave its support to Senator DeMint’s legislation by launching
a letter-writing campaign in support of the legislation throughout 2006.
Based on meetings
and discussions from the 2006 OAW, ACA also launched a discussion paper
in September 2006 proposing that overseas Americans be granted the right
to elect directly two delegates in the Senate and four delegates in
the House, a representation for the 4.1 million Americans overseas comparable
to that of Kentucky with the same population. Such Delegates would
have the same rights as those of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands
and American Samoa. ACA’s proposal has the support of the American
Business Council of the Gulf Countries (ABCGC), the American Chamber
of Commerce in Malaysia, the Association of American Clubs in Spain
and Portugal (ALLAMO), the American Clubs of Rome, Panama, Madrid and
Sweden, the U.S. Navy League (Madrid Council) and Republicans Abroad.
Planning for
the upcoming OAW, to be held June 18th -29th,
is in progress. Several ACA representatives will be attending
and meetings with key government representatives have been scheduled.
This year’s events and results will be posted on the OAW website post-June
2007.
COUNTRY CONTACTS
and NEWS UPDATE
The ACA Country
Contact network currently includes 50 to 55 country contacts and is
maintained by an ACA volunteer who keeps in contact with the CC’s
on a regular basis. In 2007 ACA recruited new contact for Israel and
the Czech Republic. ACA continues to publish the electronic News Update
approximately 10 times a year. The NU contains topical information
on ACA events and issues of concern to overseas Americans.
It was mentioned that one the ACA website redesign was completed, some
aesthetic aspects could also be integrated into the News Update.
An ACA member
present at the meeting, who lives in Ethiopia, expressed the importance
of the ACA News Updates, in particular to Americans living in areas
such as Africa and Asia.
NEWS REPORT
Due to financial
constraints, a decision was taken in 2006 to no longer print hard copy
versions of the News Report. The News Report, whose purpose is
to provide a more “static” view of ACA and serve as an annual report
of activities, is produced and distributed in the fall of each calendar
year and will be distributed electronically. Members can receive a hard
copy version if requested. Last year’s News Report was produced
and mailed in September, 2006 and will be the last printed version on
record.
It was noted
that it would be importance of occasional mailings to the hard copy
mailing list in order to maintain its integrity. Discussion ensued
on how valuable this was given the cost for doing a test mailing (average
$5000) in particular that the primary purpose of the list was for bulk
postal mailing which ACA will no longer be doing. It was agreed
that wherever possible, email addresses should be identified for the
physical addresses on the mailing list so that address confirmations
can be done via electronic email (no cost) as opposed to hard mailings.
It was noted that return mail from the Auction and Town Hall Event this
year already cleared out the mailing list of some 200 addresses.
Many addresses can probably be deleted or updated by simply reviewing
them manually. The type and nature of eventual mailings (post
cards) to test the list would be up for discussion at a later time.
Work on database address corrections will take place during the summer
months.
AUCTION
The 2006 financial
report indicated that the March, 2006 auction was more profitable
than the 2005 auction. Results for the April 2007 auction, although
not yet presented as 2007 accounts will not be closed until end of year
2007, showed an increase over the 2006 results. It was noted that
prize donations are becoming harder and harder to procure. By
updating the website and offering sponsors and donors more concrete
publicity, ACA could potentially attract better prize donors which would
result in more auction profits.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
AWARD
Last year’s
Thomas Jefferson Award recipients, David Abell and Rena Bitter have
been notified and contacted with regards to potential presentation dates.
David Abell will be in Washington and will be receiving the award on
June 12, 2007. Rena Bitter has not informed ACA as
to her availability for receiving the award. Rena’s award will
be kept at the ACA Washington offices until such time as it can be delivered
to her.
TAX SEMINAR/AMERICAN
TOWN HALL MEETING
It was reported
that the tax seminar event held at Webster University in September of
2006 was a great success. Attendance figures were between 80 to
100 attendees and the presentations by ACA representatives and representatives
from Deloitte were well received. Similar presentations were subsequently
held in Paris (AARO) and in Madrid (ALLAMO). This event lead ACA
into the development of a similar event for 2007, the ACA American Town
Hall Meeting which was held this past May, 2007 in conjunction
with both consular staff from both Bern and Geneva. The Overseas
Vote Foundation also made a presentation on the overseas voting process
and presented the results of the OVF voting survey. This event was successful
and attendance figures were in the range of 50 to 70 attendees.
It was noted that these types of events are important for ACA in terms
of increasing visibility and membership and that ACA should continue
to host such events.
LEMAN EXPAT
EXPO
Participation
in the 2007 Leman Expat Expo to be held in Morges on September 23, 2007
was approved by the group.
LEGISLATION
A brief update
on legislation was presented.
The meeting concluded at 10:00pm.