NAVIGA Dear fellow ship modellers,
As stipulated per Naviga Statutes there is an Assembly General Meeting every 2 years. 2023 is such a year where we should have an AGM, and since the last Presidium election were held in 2019 our term of presiding comes to an end in 2023. Therefore, each and every country received an invitation for that AGM to be held on November 4th in Galati, Roumania in due time. In the mail that was sent out, the Secretary General asked for confirmation on who would physically attend this meeting and after waiting for considerable time, he sent the e mail once more to get an overview on who would actually attend and who would not since virtually no country answered apart from very few. To my great surprise only 4!!!!!! countries announced their presence at this AGM, 1 country gave the power of attorney to an individual to speak on their behalf at this meeting and many countries stated that they would not be present at his meeting. Several countries never even bothered to reply even after being asked a second time.
Needless to say i am deeply disappointed by the sheer lack of interest shown by many of you in this matter. The Naviga statutes clearly say that “every member country has the right to attend, speak and if required vote at the AGM” yet the way it seems to me is that there is very little that shows any interest in the daily work of our Organisation.
In these difficult times of high inflation and rising cost of travel and accommodation, it is totally understandable that budgets for travel and trips abroad are tight, but such a Meeting also only takes place every 2 years and does not break the bank in my opinion.
Several matters need to be discussed and possibly voted upon to assure a good continuation towards the future of our ship modeling sport. For one the (dated from 2007) Statutes need to be updated to the current times. For this purpose the Naviga statutes are at this moment being translated into English by a certified translator for ease of working, the financial situation needs to be discussed and approved for that matter as well. The full agenda of the Assembly General will show more in detail those things that the Presidium feels need to be discussed. And since the 4 year period of our Presidium work comes to an end, elections for the new Presidium must be held as well.
This Presidium strongly believes in dealing with things in a democratic way, so instead of holding the AGM with a small limited group of present people and totally ignoring those who are not present we decided to hold an online video conference where every member country can attend from the comfort of their own house or office. The Naviga statutes state nowhere what quorum is needed to have a valid AGM, but it seems unfair to exclude those who cannot or will not attend this meeting.
This online video conference will take place on the same date (november 4,2023) at the same time as the AGM was planned. The Secretary General will take the necessary steps to set up such a video conference and further details will be provided in due time. One last remark in this, even in being a strong believer of hearing as many voices as possible, those who do not attend this online Meeting forfait the right to claim any wrong doing afterwards. Twice the question to attend was raised and in this 3rd attempt i count on all of you to show Naviga is still alive!
Yours sincerely
Geens Walter
Naviga President