Minutes of the 2017 FEPA Congress, Tampere May 28th 2017
Right: José Ramón Moreno, welcoming the attendees.
Agenda
1. Welcome
2. Roll Call
3. Minutes of the 2016 FEPA Congress in Viana do Castelo
4. Reports of the Board members
5. Financial Statements
6. Report of the Auditor
7. Awards
8. Proposed Literature SREV
9. Motion of the Swedish Philatelic Federation about the Open Philately
10. Accepted Motion of the ABPS at the FIP Congress
11. Amendments of the FIP Statutes and Grex approved at the FIP Congress
12. Relationship with the FEPA Representatives at the FIP Board
13. FIP Commissions
14. Review of the 2017 FEPA events and those planned for the next years
15. Request for the FEPA Recognition from Member Federations
16. Presentation of the FEPA Awards
17. FEPA News Magazine
18. Website www.fepanews.com
19. Request of the Association of Philatelists, Maximaphilists and Cartophilists from the Republic of Moldova to become a FEPA member
20. Election of the FEPA Board
21. Next FEPA Congress
22. Any other matters
1. Welcome
FEPA President José Ramón Moreno welcomed all participants and thanked to the Finnish Philatelic Federation “Suomen Filatelistiliitto” and to the Organizing Committee of FINLANDIA 2017, for the excellent facilities given for the celebration of the FEPA Congress and for the generous invitation to have it in Tampere. Then he read a message from Vice-President Giancarlo Morolli who was not able to be present due to health reasons within his family.
Mr Klaus Juvas, President of Finnish Philatelic Federation welcomed the attendants and wished a successful work to the Congress and a pleasant stay to all present in Tampere and in Finland.
2. Roll Call
The secretary Bojan Bračič made the roll call as follows:
| ALBANIA | Kozma Dashi | LIECHTENSTEIN | Proxy to Austria |
| ARMENIA | Not present | LITHUANIA | Eugenijus Ušpuras |
| AUSTRIA | Alfred Kunz | LUXEMBOURG | Hannes Westendorf |
| BELARUS | Leonid Turyn | FYRO MACEDONIA | Proxy to Spain |
| BELGIUM | Ivan Van Damme | MONACO | Proxy to UK |
| BULGARIA | Spas Panchev | MONTENEGRO | Tomo Katurić |
| CROATIA | Nenad Rogina | NETHERLANDS | Jan Cees van Duin |
| CYPRUS | Nicos Rangos | NORWAY | Tore Berg |
| CZECH Republic | Vit Vaniček | POLAND | Jacek Kosmala |
| DENMARK | Niels Kristian Hansen | PORTUGAL | Pedro Vaz Pereira |
| EGYPT | Not present | ROMANIA | Calin Marinescu |
| ESTONIA | Not present | RUSSIA | Alexey Borodin |
| FINLAND | Klaus Juvas | SERBIA | Proxy to Slovenia |
| FRANCE | Claude Desarménien | SLOVAKIA | Vojtech Jankovič |
| GERMANY | Uwe Decker | SLOVENIA | Peter Suhadolc |
| GREECE | Andreas Nicolaidis | SPAIN | José Pedro Gómez-Agüero |
| HUNGARY | György Lövei | SWEDEN | Peter Nordin |
| ICELAND | Gisli Geir Hardarson | SWITZERLAND | Gerhard Kraner |
| IRELAND | Heloise Mitchell | TURKEY | Mehmet Akan |
| ISRAEL | Eliahu Weber | UK | Chris King |
| ITALY | Paolo Guglielminetti | UKRAINE | Dmitry Frenkel |
| LATVIA | Not present |
Were present 39 out of the 43 National FEPA Members, which means 90,7 % presence. So, all decisions of the Congress were valid. Also attended the Congress 14 Observers nominated by their respective FEPA National Federations, Associations or Unions.
3. Minutes of the 2016 FEPA Congress in Viana do Castelo
The Minutes of the 2016 FEPA Congress were sent to all FEPA members by e-mail in advance. Nobody made any comment and the minutes were accepted unanimously.
4. Reports of the Board members
All reports were sent by e-mail in advance. Were approved with no questions or remarks.
5. Financial Statements
The Treasurer Alfred Kunz explained some of the most important incomes and cost of the financial report which had been sent previously to all members. Because the strict control of the costs and the increase of the incomes from our advertisers in the FEPA News magazine and in the Website and the increasingly number of events with FEPA Patronage, Support or Recognition, we are growing our modest reserves. The FEPA President expressed his gratitude to Mr. Kunz for such efficient work. There were no other questions and the report was accepted unanimously. Mr. Kunz thanked to all FEPA Members for paying the membership fee for 2016 and 2017, which remains in 150 Euros per year.
Left: The Treasurer Mr Alfred Kunz explained the main financial points.
Right: The Auditor Mr. Gerhard Kraner with his report which confirms that FEPA accountancy is fully accurate.
6. Report of the Auditor
The Auditor Mr Gerhard Kraner explained that he checked the whole treasurer’s operations and found everything in good order. He congratulated the Treasurer for his good work.
7. Awards
Mr Moreno reminded, in the name of Mr Giancarlo Morolli, member of the FEPA Board responsible for the Awards, that it is time for every Federation, Association or Union member of FEPA to begin to “look around” and thinking in possible candidates for the FEPA Awards 2017. The applications can be sent anytime with the deadline of the 15th of December.
8. Proposed Literature SREV
The proposed new Literature SREV had been send to all FEPA Members with the other documents for the Congress. José Ramón Moreno explained that the main need for the change was the “Electronic or Digital Literature” that was not taken into account in the previous SREV. Mr Chris King supported his comments. Mr Uwe Decker remarked that points for technical part should be different in the electronic literature than in the printed one, as the technical details are different. Mr Moreno explained the essence of the evaluation of the technical matters. Mr Pedro Vaz Pereira added that in reality there are no differences when marking the points for technical matters of printing or electronic literature.
Mr Moreno also explained that the new Literature SREV is a result of a wide group of literature specialist including several FEPA Federations and the, until recently President of the FIP Literature Commission, Mr Tony Virvilis, all of them coordinated by the FEPA Vice-President Giancarlo Morolli.
After the discussion, the proposed Literature SREV were accepted unanimously.
9. Motion of the Swedish Philatelic Federation about the Open Philately
Mr Peter Nordin explained the motion and reasons for it. They have found in Sweden problems with the evaluation of exhibits in Open Philately using the FIP regulations. So, they proposed to change back to the previously used FEPA regulations. In this case the medals and results would not be recognized by the FIP. There were many speeches about the subject: Heloise Mitchel, Pedro Vaz Pereira, Jose Ramon Moreno, Birthe King, Nicos Rangos. It was expressed that in most countries the scores of evaluation of Open Philately were very similar when using both scoring systems. Then Mr Jan Cees Van Duin proposed that we should continue with the existing FIP regulations but take the Swedish motion into account in the way of trying to harmonise the concepts when evaluating. This comment from Mr Van Duin was accepted unanimously.
Mr Bernard Jimenez explained that the FIP Board is accepting proposals for new things and changes and they already work on accepting the Picture Postcard Class as FIP Class. He expect this be done in two years time.
Left: Mrs. Birthe King
Middle: Mr. Bo Dahlner, President of the Swedish Federation, Mr. Peter Nordin, Delegate from Sweden
Right: Mr. Cees Van Duin, President and Delegate of the Federation of the Netherlands.
10. Accepted Motion of the ABPS at the FIP Congress
The FEPA President told that the motion of the ABPS was accepted at the FIP Congress. It demonstrates that reasonable and positive measures can be approved for the Federations of any part of the world. It was also important the very good presentation of the motion by Mr Chris King. He could be an excellent candidate for the next FIP President.
Mr Chris King reminded some essential points of the mentioned motion. Then he told that he sent a letter with his ideas to many addresses but received only a few answers.
He intends to works in benefit of the all European and non European philately. He intend to be a candidate for next FIP President with one condition: if he will have full support from all FEPA members. It will be opportunity for all of those who seriously think that some changes must be done to the benefit of philately.
Mr Pedro Vaz Pereira expressed that “the system” is ruling the FIP Board from 2010 and offered his support to solve the problems.
11. Amendments of the FIP Statutes and GREX approved at the FIP Congress.
José Ramón Moreno explained that at the last FIP Congress in Taipei the amendments presented took into account the wishes expressed at the FEPA Congress 2016 in Portugal. To take the FEPA wishes into account by the FIP was essential the unity of the FEPA members. Then, the proposed amendments of the FIP Statutes and GREX were approved by unanimity.
12. Relationship with the FEPA Representatives at the FIP Board
The FEPA President commented the agreement on the Annual Meeting of the FEPA Board in Milan 11th 2017 of asking the two FEPA representatives at the FIP Board to inform FEPA about all the decisions of the FIP Board meetings. We will ask them also for the agenda of the FIP Board meetings before they occurred so we can make proposals in advance. On the other hand FEPA will inform them about our work. According to this, prior to today’s FIP meeting, Mr. Bernard Jimenez asked the FEPA Board for points to be discussed. Also was positive the presence of the two FEPA representatives in our Congress.
13. FIP Commissions
It has been evident a reduction of interest from the FEPA members for the FIP Commissions to the point that for some positions there were no candidates at all. These vacancies has been filled by cooption. It seems that the decision of the FIP of not supporting anymore the travel expenses of the Chairmen of the Commissions is one reason amongst others. It is necessary to study in deep this matter and to try to give it the relevance that they had in the past.
14. Review of the 2017 FEPA events and those planned for the next years
2017 is a year plenty of FEPA events. Was commented that from the beginning of the year were celebrated: Spring Stampex 2017 in London, U.K. ; ECTP 2017 in Essen, Germany; MAXIESPAÑA2017 in Aviles, Spain with FEPA Seminars of Maximaphily and Modern Philately; JUVENIA 2017 also in Aviles, Spain; all of them with FEPA Recognition and the just finished FINLANDIA 2017 with FEPA Patronage.
From now to the end of the year are still coming: GMUNDEN 2017, in Austria. Gmunden will be the first European city to host a FEPA event for three consecutive years; ÖVEBRIA 2017 in Hirtenberg, also in Austria; EXFILNA 2017 in Portugalete, Spain, and NORDIA 2017 in Vejle, Denmark. For 2018 are scheduled ESTEX 2018 in Tallinn, Estonia, with FEPA Recognition and PRAGA 2018 in the Czech Republic, with FIP Patronage and FEPA Recognition.
Mr. Vit Vaniček made a comprehensive presentation of the Specialized world exhibition PRAGA 2018 with detailed information of the venue, the official hotel in the same complex and giving news as the inclusion of the Open Philately and the Revenues as competition Classes.
15. Request for the FEPA Recognition from Members Federations
Mr Paolo Guglielminetti presented two exhibitions in Italy, which will take place in 2018. Italia 2018 National literature exhibition with international participation (March 23rd and 24th 2018). Alongside with investigative research also educative and literature for promotion of philately are welcome. Only one copy is requested. Other information can be found on www.italia2018.eu
“The Great War” is the name of second exhibition with Traditional Philately, Postal History and Thematic Philately all about WWI theme that will be held in November in the city of Verona. The countries involved in the war will be invited. The organizers asked for the FEPA Recognition for both exhibitions which were unanimously granted.
Mr. Koray Ӧzalp introduced the exhibition which will held in Ankara from October 7th to 10th 2020 celebrating the 100 Anniversary of Turkish Assembly.
In his presentation Mr Koray Özalp gave interesting details of the exhibition. They are working with a budget that involves moderate frame fees, to allow a big presence of exhibitors. He asked for the FEPA Patronage for this exhibition which provisional name is ANKARA 2020. The Patronage was unanimously granted.
Mr. Spas Panchev informed of the preparations of the full European exhibition BULGARIA 2019 with FEPA Patronage. It would be in the city of Plovdiv, European Capital of Culture 2019. They are considering asking also for the FIP Recognition. The Congress granted the requested FEPA Patronage by unanimity.
16. Presentation of the FEPA Awards
The FEPA President handed out the FEPA Medals and Certificates of Appreciation 2016 to:
- Mr. Spas Panchev who received the Medal awarded to Mr Christo Nikolchev, Bulgaria, for Exceptional Service to Organized Philately.
- The FEPA Medal for Exceptional Philatelic Study was received for Mr Ari Muhonen as main author of the book “Suomen Postitaksat, Finnish Postage Rates 1875-2001”.
- Was awarded with the FEPA Certificate as runner up of Exceptional Philatelic Study, Mr Thimi Nika for “Stamps and Postal History of Albania”, receiving the Certificate in his name Mr Kozma Dashi
- Was also awarded with the FEPA Certificate as runner up of Exceptional Philatelic Study Horst Diederichs, author of “The Reshaping of the German Postal System Between the French Revolution (1792) and the Vienna Congress (1814/15)”. Received the award in his name the Presiden of the German Federation Mr Uwe Decker
- Mr Julian Auleytner, received his award as runner up of Exceptional Philatelic Study for his book “Poland Post Office in the Greater Poland (1919-1920)”.
- Was awarded with the FEPA Certificate as runner up of Exceptional Philatelic Study, Mr Vasile Braia, Romania, for his book “Five Centuries of Postal History in Wallahia and Moldavia”. Mr. Calin Marinescu received the Certificate in the name of Mr. Braia.
The Awards of the FEPA Certificates of Appreciation 2016 for Outstanding Activities for the Promotion of Philately were presented to:
- Mr Jussi Murtosaari as Chairman of the Keski-Suomen Filatelistiseura, Jyväskylä (Finland)
- Mr Károly Szücs received the FEPA Certificate granted to the MAFITT, Hungarian Scientific Society for Philatelic Research, as Secretary of the Society.
- The FEPA Certificate of the Filatelistično društvo Lovrenc Košir, Škofja Loka (Slovenia) was presented last week in Slovenia by the FEPA Secretary General Bojan Bračič.
- The Briefmarken-Sammlerverein Heidelberg und Rorbach 1891 e.V. (Germany) will receive the FEPA Certificate of Appreciation on occassion of ÖVEBRIA 2017 next October.
- The Certificate of Appreciation granted to Philcolux – Association Luxembourgeoise de Philatélie Constructive. Luxembourg , will be presented in May 2018 in Mondorf.
Left photo: Mr. Rui Matos Alves, Observer from Portugal, Mr Bo Dahlner, President of the Swedish Federation, Mr. Peter Nordin, Delegate of Sweden, Mr Nenad Rogina, Delegate of Croatia, Mr. Károly Szücs, Observer of Hungary, Mr. Gerhard Kraner, Delegate of Switzerland, Mr. Klaus Juvas, Delegate of Finland, Mr. Tore Berg, Delegate of Norway, and Mehmet Akan, Delegate of Turkey, amonst others.
Right photo: Mr. Rui Matos Alves, Mr Vincent Schouberecht, Mr. Ivan Van Damme, Mr. Gerhard Kraner, Mr. István Glatz, Mr. Jacek Kosmala, Mr. Mehmet Akan and Mr. Gisli Geir Hardarson, amongst others.
17. FEPA News
Mr Moreno asked all to send informations about activities in their countries to be published in the FEPA News magazine. Only such information will make the magazine interesting to the readers and will get the picture of the philatelic activities in Europe.
Mr Bračič, responsible for delivery the magazine asked all attendants to send him all changes in the addresses to which FEPA News will be send in time and control the P. O. Boxes at the end of June and the end of January when the magazine is delivered. Too often parcels and other mail come back because nobody draws them.
18. Website www.fepanews.com
Mr Ari Muhonen, FEPA Webmaster, explained that the Website provider has moved to Finland and the new look of the site will be done within the next two month. He asked to send him different philatelic news, so he can post them on the site, keeping it alive and interesting.
19. Request of the Association of Philatelists, Maximaphilists and Cartophilists from the Republic of Moldova to become a FEPA member.
Mr José Ramón Moreno presented the request of the Moldovan Association to become member of FEPA. He explained that the documents submitted by Mr Constantin Ciobanu, President of the Association, met all requisites requested by the FEPA Statutes. The whole Congress elected and warmly welcomed as new FEPA member the Association of the Republic of Moldova. FEPA has now 44 members.
20. Election of the FEPA Board
For the positions in the FEPA board came in due time the following candidacies:
| Positions | Term | Candidates |
| President | 2 years | José Ramón Moreno |
| Vice-President | 4 years | Giancarlo Morolli |
| Secretary General | 2 years | Bojan Bračič |
| Treasurer | 4 years | Alfred Kunz |
| Director | 2 years | Birthe King |
| Director | 4 years | Nicos Rangos |
| Director | 4 years | Ari Muhonen |
Only one candidate for every position.
As decided by the 2013 FEPA Congress, only for the present election part of the Board (President, Secretary General and 1 Director) would be elected for half term (2 years), while the other part (Vice-President, Treasurer and 2 Directors) would be elected for a whole term of 4 years. This will allow to elect in the future every 2 years half of the Board always for full terms of 4 years.
The whole new Board was unanimously elected with loud applause.
The new elected FEPA Board, from left to right: Nicos Rangos, Director; Alfred Kunz, Treasurer; Bojan Bračič, Secretary General; José Ramón Moreno, President; Birthe King, Director and Ari Muhonen, Director. Not in the photo Giancarlo Morolli, Vice-President.
21. Next FEPA Congress
Mr Vit Vaniček on behalf of Organizing Committee of PRAGA 2018 exhibition, invited the Delegates to have the next FEPA Congress in Prague on Sunday, August 19th 2018, the day after closing the exhibition. The kind invitation was unanimously accepted with thanks.
22. Any other matters
Nobody asked for the word, so the Congress was closed in a friendly and harmonic atmosphere where the Delegates of the FEPA members demonstrated interest for the matters discussed.
Bojan Bračič, FEPA Secretary
