Council Meeting: GEN-Europe,
11th February 1999, Lebensgarten, Germany

Present were the following members of the Council:
Christina de Wilde, President
Declan Kennedy, Secretary (partly)
Agnieszka Komoch, Treasurer
Demet Irkli, member
Lucilla Borio, member
Excused: Silke Hagmeier.

Agenda:

1. Acceptance of the minutes from the meeting at Terre d´Enneille
2. Composition of GEN-Europe Council
3. Relationship to Gaia Trust
4. Questionnaire to European EV
5. GEN-Europe´s representatives in the GEN Board meeting in Mexico
6. Decision-making process
7. Transition to Torri Superiore
8. New associate members
9. Christina de Wilde resignation from President.
10. Next meeting.

Decisions:

1. Acceptance of the minutes from the meeting at Terre d´Enneille from the 19. Nov. 1998: the following point was added:
- the council members share the participation in the GEN International meetings;
The following were changed:
-the exhibition and slide show stays in Lebensgarten and will be taken care of by Declan;
- News-Letter/magazine: the project with Leila Dregger and Wolfram Nolte has been cancelled. GEN-Europe is looking into the partnership with the English magazine Living Lightly. Declan, Lla and Agnieszka will follow up on this. Co-operation with other magazines in Europe is also possible; Lucilla is going to contact the Italian magazine AAM Terra Nuova.
- the budget was revised and looked at in the light of the co-operation with Living Lightly. Additional funds will be allocated to fund-raising, taken from the newsletter, Council meeting minutes, Africa (see n°4) and possibly co-ordination with GEN Intl.
- follow up on the decision 15: get in contact with Emmy Baker, Nadia and other fund-raisers and get a feedback before the 30.06.

2. The next GEN-Europe Council should be more balanced between the different countries in Europe.

3. Relationship to Gaia Trust: the strategy of GEN-Europe is to become more and more independent from G.T.´s financial support as soon as possible; other funders will be contacted in order to stand on our own feet. Fund-raising is not on the shoulders of the server node, as decided on the previous meeting, but the office will co-ordinate all the efforts. Other ways of self-financing can include income generation (sale of EV products through the internet and eco-tourism, see n°4).

4. The server will send out a questionnaire to all the European eco-villages about their needs, wishes and demands related to the network. The aim is to let all EV know what GEN-E can offer and improve our services. The server node will take this feedback into account in its work and expand the existing data bank with new resources.

5. GEN-Europe´s representatives in the GEN Board meeting in Mexico in March: Declan and Lucilla will go in order to secure a good transition and introduce Lucilla to the work. The issue of African representatives is on the agenda of the Board meeting. The GEN-Europe Council suggests that Patti Ovenstone from Kuthumba becomes interim African representative until the Africans create their own network. We encourages the Africans to that. In that case Christina is ready to release her responsibility.
We also suggest to the GEN Board two more nodes: Africa, Middle East and Turkic Republics.
The GEN-E representative will inform the other Council members of the decisions taken at the Board. The server node will screen the messages from the Board and pass them on to the Council.

6. Decision making: decisions discussed on the e-mail are summed up by the server node and put in the reports to the Council and the members, and will be ratified by the next Council meeting (see § IV article 8).
Every urgent decision should be taken in no more than 10 day; ordinary decisions will not be taken in less than 7 days.

7. Transition to Torri Superiore: Lucilla Borio, member of the council of GEN-Europe, has the power of attorney to open a new bank account in a bank at her discretion, preferably in an ethical bank. Lucilla and Susanne Keinonen from Torri Superiore are hereby entitled to sign checks separately. A third person will be appointed with the power of attorney by the Council to operate on the bank account.
Lucilla Borio can sign contracts on behalf of GEN-Europe.
The Council agrees that Lucilla Borio runs the server node in Torri Superiore for the next three years. The contract is renewable by decision of the Council. She will work on a free-lance basis and invoice her honorary every three months.
For all major expenses the Council agreement will be asked on the Council list.

8. Two new associate members joined GEN-E, Nyt Forum (Christiania, Denmark) and the Sustainable Communities Network Scotland.

9. Christina de Wilde resigns from the post of the President of the Association. She feels too uncomfortable with GEN-Europe receiving financial support from Gaia Trust.
According to § IV article 8. the Secretary, at present Declan Kennedy, will fill the functions of the President until the next elections, if possible for him.

10. The next meeting of the Council will be held in Autumn 1999.

Signatures:

Lucilla Borio
Demet Irkli
Declan Kennedy
Agnieszka Komoch
Christina de Wilde


Lebensgarten, February 11th 1999.