CCRSM - AGM 2007

AGM 2007 - report.

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The Mayor of Saint-Pantaléon kindly placed at our disposal the “meeting room” of his city. The meals were prepared and served by members of the association “Coopé”, founded with his initiative to reintegrate people experiencing various kinds of difficulty into the world of work. The participants at the AGM paid him homage for this social action.

This year, a third of the members were represented, that is to say 166 present members and 65 voting by proxy. This 15th AGM was opened at 9.15 a.m., in the meeting room of Saint-Pantaléon. Some members sent apologies, due to illness, travel or other commitments. Some members will never be able to come to meetings again… amongst them Leon Humm, Roger Gastaud and Paul Gouwy.

Jacques Mahaut, retiring president, invited Jean-Pierre Pillot, general secretary, to chair the discussions of the assembly.

The committee of the AGM was supplemented by the president, the vice-president, the treasurer of the association and four scrutineers:
Louis Vuille for Switzerland, Carlos Ibañez for Spain, Peter Milner for England and Georges Frere for Belgium.

The secretariat of AGM was implemented by Simone Lahaye.

President Jacques Mahaut read out moral report (published in the N°152 bulletin) where he confirmed his transfer of power, and of which follows an extract:

“We are not old, certainly, simply we’ve been young for a long time and the moment has finally come to pass the continuation of the “Silk Route” saga to our colleagues, people who’ve been younger for a shorter time and who are ready to absorb the new techniques of communication”.

The moral report was approved unanimously.

Estimated Budget. Contribution

Marie-Odile Pillot, treasurer, announced financial standing at August 31 2007 as follows:

receipts	amount	expenses	amount
subscriptions	11261
Various sales	250	Bulletin	5816
		Supplies, materials, maintenance	379
		communications members	1997
		Admin of the club and administration committee espenses	716
Gironde balade 2006	9471	Gironde balade 2006	9273
Bretagne balade 2007	5290	Bretagne balade 2007	5270
AGM 2006	6875	AGM 2006	8142
Capital surplus			1554

As of August 10^th 2007, the stockholders' equity amounted to 10978€ (Surplus on 30/08/06: 9424 € + surplus of the exercise1554 €). On suggestion of a member, the post of treasurer will be remunerated. In addition it was suggested to use the stockholders' equity partially for purchases or investments to the profit of the members. Proposals will be made later on, but suggestions from members are welcome.

Approval was given to the treasurer, unanimously, by a show of hands.

Our association is in a good financial standing, which makes it possible to consider projects at leisure.

The estimated budget is proposed as well as the amount of the subscriptions which remains unchanged compared to last year: 36 € for the first member and 16 € for the second. That is to say 52,00 € for a crew made up of two members.

This was accepted by a show of hands, unanimously of the present members.

For new members joining after the start of the year, it was decided that subscriptions will be on a pro rata basis for the remaining months to the end of the membership year (August 31). That is to say a contribution per month of:
• 4,50€ for a crew of two people.
• 3,00€ for a crew of a person until 31/08/2008.

It would be appreciated if you would pay your subscriptions as soon as you receive the renewal letter.

Jean-Pierre Pillot, General Secretary, summarised the last twelve months’ activity.

The bulletin

Since the first bulletin, 150 issues have appeared thanks to Jacques for this achievement!
This year again they were published every month.
Our bulletin is and will remain the main means of communication between the members of our association.

Internet site: Camping-Car Monde.fr:

Thanks to Gaby Rambault for his excellent work.
During this year, the association website was enriched by accounts of trips which some of you forwarded to us.
Thank you for your contributions.

Other actions completed were:

• Installation of membership list with “trombinoscope”(photos of the members).
• Launch of pages protected by password and reserved for the members (technical information from various trips, “trombinoscope”, editorial articles). Please make sure that these pages are not made available to the general public.
• NB: access codes for the protected pages are personal. If you are unsure of your code, please ask jean-pierre.pillot@cario.fr
• Setting up the file of the projects that each one can add to.
• Setting up country-specific files.
• Editing of the monthly bulletin on the site.

Yahoo Forum

To date, Denis Lahaye and Jean-Marie Lamandé administer this forum composed of 158 participants.

Among those there are 65 CCRSM club members (154 CCRSM club members have an email address) and 93 non members (including 58 unidentified).
These unidentified participants are as a majority participants registered before the date when we asked applicants to reveal their identity before confirmation of their registration on the forum.

Renewal of the Administration Committee

Jean-Pierre Pillot invited nominations from the AGM participants. The following are candidates:

Bertrand Ginette, Brook Les (GB), Farjounel Gillian, Kovach Lynda (GB), Lahaye Denis, Lahaye Simone, Lathuilère Christian, Lamandé Jean-Marie, Mahaut Jacques, Mulaton Gerard, Malot Thierry, Pillot Jean-Pierre, Pillot Marie-Odile, Rambault Gaby, Sommer Michele, Stewart Stephen (GB)

The candidates were unanimously elected by a show of hands of the attending members.

Setting up of trip working parties

Members planning trips made themselves known and met in groups according to destination. The elected members of the Administration Committee withdrew to carry out various elections and administrative functions.

Presentation of the new team by the elected President:

The following were unanimously elected by the Administration Committee:

1-Staff

President: Jean-Pierre Pillot
Vice-presidents: Les Brook, Gaby Rambault
Secretary: Christian Lathuilère
Treasurer: Marie-Odile Pillot

Secretary of the English-speaking section :

Lynda Kovach

2 - Voluntary organizers of the next meetings and balades

Balade Spring 2008 (Ardeche) : Michel Méjean
Balade Autumn 2008 (Pampelona - Spain) : Carlos Ibañez
AGM 2008: (Pampelona - Spain) : Carlos Ibañez

3 - Logistics :

Functional secretary : Simone Lahaye
In charge of Logistics : Gerard Mulaton

4 - Bulletin

In charge of publication : Jean-Pierre Pillot
Editorial team : >Thierry Malot, Jean-Marie Lamandé, Simone Lahaye
Typewriting : Ginette Bertrand
Proofreading : Jacques Berlivet

5 - WebSite

Webmaster : Gaby Rambault

6 - Translation and page-setting : (for bulletin and website)

English/French Translation : Michele Sommer
French/English Translation : Gillian Farjounel
Typing : Ginette Bertrand
Proofreading : Jacques Berlivet

7 - Forum

In charge : Denis Lahaye
Assistant : Jean-Marie Lamandé

8 – English-speaking members section

President : Les Brook
Secretary : Lynda Kovach
Webmaster : Stephen Stewart

For ethical reasons the president Jean Pierre Pillot, husband of the secretary Marie-Odile proposed that a post of account controller would be created. Christiane Rambault accepted this post.

Thanks to the Retiring President

On behalf of all the members of the association, Jean-Pierre Pillot thanked Jacques Mahaut for his action during his 15 years of presidency (150 bulletins due to his activity!)

Jacques, Lucette,

The mission which falls to me to honour to you is not easy; it is so difficult to address a legend.
Within the motorhome world and even further afield, “the Silk Route” is Jacques, Jacques Mahaut, or Mahaut according to who’s speaking.
You are “the Silk Route” for everyone!
You have been superimposed on it, confused with it, indissociable from it for 15 years.
The oldest among us remember your jokes, your retorts, your forgetfulness. People mention
“mahauterie”, your “formidable nature” with which you dealt with the “mahauteries”, its breakdowns and you were well-served on this side.
Everyone admires your devotion to association: your fifteen years of daily parental care - from infant
to this superb teenager who is the association today.
We must not forget your commitment, your sensitivity, your capacity for listening, your humanitarian attitude to people of other nations: I seem to remember you wanting to make trips to China as relief convoys?
I also pay homage to those who do that discreetly without blowing their own trumpet. Perhaps this is something the association can look at it in the future.

This dream of crossing Eurasia with a team made up of a mechanic, a cameraman, a doctor, you not only accomplished it, but you did so much more.

You, first of all, sought your travelling companions among your colleagues of “Imprimerie Nationale”: Gerard Desfaucheux, who is among us, came forward.
Then, you extended your search…
From the first meeting on January 15, 1992, in a cafe close to your home, followed by others in various places (Parisian hotel, SACEM, salon du Bourget…), from a TV
programme “May the best man win” to publicise our association, so many roads followed (and I am not referring to the kilometres of our motor homes!). Ask the oldest members here for more details...

You sought sponsors, but these were difficult to find.

You created, developed, brought to life this association which enables us to meet, and make our dreams, your dreams come true.
Thus, CCRSM currently includes almost 300 crews. The most recent member was allocated membership number 1138. Our members live in France, in Great Britain, in Belgium, in Spain, in Switzerland, in Norway, in Canada, the United States, in Australia, in Ireland, in New Caledonia, in Andorra…
Oh yes, they are everywhere, even in the very smallest countries!
You thus encouraged crews to visit almost all the countries of the world: Europe, of course, but also North and South America, Africa, Australia, Asia, and 42 crews in four groups even made the voyage in China !

Your dream was thus accomplished !

Thank you Jacques, thank you Lucette, thank to those who were at your side.

To recognise your contribution to the association, the association proposes:
• To bring up to date your computer equipment, it offers to you this cheque of 1650,00 €
• For your action as a president, it offers to you this diploma of the most creative president
• For your dream on the Roads of China, it offers to you this medal of UNESCO.

You will see on the reverse of the medal the first roads symbolized by the intertwined letters: R for “Roads”, and S for “Silk”, surrounded by a laurel wreath. The circle formed by the letters evokes the terrestrial sphere and the human brain.
On the edge of the medal, one can read the French inscription “Silk Roads – Dialogue Roads”.

This being said, Jacques, the association still needs you.

Plans for the Future

The bulletin :

It will envolve by :

• The creation of a data-processing letter-box, dedicated to reports, news, documents which you wish to publish in the bulletin
• The establishment of an editorial team responsible for the selection, formatting and proof-reading of these documents

The website

What will be done depends mainly on you, especially :
• It is important for you to contribute to the site.
• We need someone who can fulfil Gaby’s webmaster role during Gaby’s absences.
Call your articles what you will: but almost all of you keep a travel diary or blog! And you take lots of photographs!
However, it is a pity: the majority of these interesting documents are never sent to the club.
A data-processing “letterbox” will be created so that you can download your articles and photographs into it. Handwritten documents, CD, photographs on paper… can be posted to me.
Everything, unless censored for ethical reasons, will be added to the site.
We do not promise the Pulitzer prize. But perhaps we can display some beautiful documents.
With reference to the format of your reports, just one request: please submit your article in two sections:
• Section 1: a descriptive article that will attract interest and which will appear on the public part of the site, and, for the best articles, in the bulletin.
• Section 2: practical information, for example: overnight stops, useful addresses, good contacts, hints and tips for crossing borders… These are intended for the private pages of the site (simply click on a link in the narrative text) and for the bulletin.
Do not hesitate to add to information already on the website: planned trips and the country index for example.

We need to create a team around Gaby :
You do not have to be an IT expert. You need to be interested in IT and Gaby will teach you the rest little by little. With the tools which he’s installing, it will be soon easy for a member to insert text or a photograph into the correct place on the site. For some members of this IT team, it will simply be a question of formatting text to a standard which we’ll give you guidelines for. That will save us a lot of time before we add these articles to the website. At the very least, you could do it for your own articles
If you are interested, contact Gaby Rambault or Jean-Pierre Pillot

Yahoo Forum :

It’s important that all the members of CCRSM who use the internet are members of the forum and that they are correctly identified and not by a pseudonym. Please contact Denis Lahaye or Jean-Marie Lamandé if you need help with this.
Please contribute to the forum by initiating discussions and responding to the various requests.

Miscellaneous points:

- The constitution, the rules of procedure, the memorandum will be examined and a revision will be presented at the next AGM.
- The membership list will have to be deposited with the CNIL. (Jean-Pierre Pillot)
- Gerard Mulaton has undertaken to conduct an inventory of CCRSM material (and will try to locate the megaphone).
- The administration committee will continue to hold two committee meetings per year. The next one will take place on the 17 and 18/11/2007 in Saint-Raphaël.
- A monthly telephone meeting of the administration committee members will take place on the Internet (using Skype software), in theory, first Tuesday of every month at 8.30 p.m, except for the initial meeting which will be held on Tuesday 09/10/2007.
- New badges will be produced soon.
- An A4 publicity flyer will be created, with membership contact details, in French, English, and Spanish, to be distributed by members while travelling when appropriate.
- Business cards will be printed – personalised for principal members of the committee and blank for the other members.
- A working party will be established to consider assistance to charitable organisations.
- During the 2008 AGM two stands will be established, “administrative formalities at borders” and “motorhome boot sale (surplus equipment)” will be organized. Suggestions for other stands are welcome.
- Certain articles and in particular the report of the AGM will be translated into English, and into Spanish where possible.
- We will try to correct the many incorrect e-mail addresses by asking, via the bulletin, members who have received a message transmitted by Jean-Pierre Pillot to address an email to him at jean-pierre.pillot@cario.fr which will make it possible for him to copy the correct address.
- The English-speaking section has found a new strength and dynamism thanks to the work of Les Brook and Lynda Kovach. We thank them for it. We plan to reinforce these links by translations of English texts, by visiting them, by facilitating their administrative tasks, in particular with regard to the administration of membership renewals and payments with payments being made directly to France.

Future events

- The spring balade will be organized by Michel MeJean in Ardeche. The date remains to be agreed.
- The next AGM will be organized by Carlos Ibañez in Pampelune (Spain), on 20 and 21 Sep tember 2008. Autumn balades will be organized around this date (before or afterwards, before and afterwards).
Thanks to our friends for their suggestions.

Introduction of and welcome to new and future members present at the AGM :

Astiz (Spain), Bérenguer Andre and Malere Helene, Jean-Pierre Cailloux and Gisele, Castan Pierre, Couteaud Louis and Anne, Demarchi Pierre and Alice, Fleury Jean and Danièle, Gay Serge and Ghislaine, Isambert Claude and Alain, Méjean Michel and Solange, Palat Jean and Odette, Tatangelo Gerard and Martine.

Presentation of travel projects

Canada (from 15/04/2008 to 15/08/2008)
Louis and Rose-Marie Vuille - Pierre and Alice Demarchi - Claude and Irene Pairault - Roland Perrin

South America
Jacques and Marie-Paule Berlivet (departure at the end of 2007).
Jean-Paul and Jacqueline Auffray, Michel and Micheline BonJean, Pierre and Lucette Michel, Gerard and Gisele Mulaton (departure September 2008.)
Alain and Claude Isambert (departure in 2008).

Russia, Ring of Gold (July-August 2008)
Joseph and Brigitte Aubry, Louis and Elizabeth Bonnard, Jean-Claude and Monique Marcel, Jean and Odette Palat, Jean-Claude and Micheline Pauchard, Louis and Anne Couteaud

Syria-Jordan (March-April 2008)
Michel and Monique Boulvard (absent from the 8/10 to the 15/11 in Southern Africa), Louis-Henry and Anne Couteaud, Jean-Claude and Monique Marcel, Gerard and Martine Tatangelo

Egypt (Oct. Nov. Dec. 2008)
Andre and Francine Helmbacher, Joseph Lanau, Pierre and Alice Demarchi, Gerard and Marthe Desfaucheux, Jean and Danièle Fleury, Claude and Arlette Peltier, Serge and Ghislaine Gay, Lucien Schroeter

Ouzbekistan (June, juil. August 2008)
Andre and Francine Helmbacher, Claude and Arlette Peltier, Lucien Schroeter, Gerard and Marthe Desfaucheux, Joseph Lanau.

India (2008/2009)
Eric and Jelila Pollet, Jean-Pierre and Marie-Odile Pillot, Claude and Arlette Peltier

Tour of Africa and Scotland (2008)
Claude and Elisabeth D' Amato

Central Asia and Mongolia (2008)
Jean-Marie and Liliane Lamandé (in solo)

Mongolia and Gobi Desert (2008)
Nicole et Michel Wehrle …

Closing statement of the AGM 2007

The general assembly concluded with a visit to the town of Autun led by the Mayor of Saint-Pantaléon which was made very interesting by his very thorough knowledge of the two millenia history of the city.

Many thanks
to Simone Lahaye,
secretary of this AGM,
and Lynda Kovach,
translator.