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Agenda 1. Presidential address 2. Approval of new members 3. Approval of Budget 4. Proposals from the Board 5. Proposals from the members 6. EFITA Conference 1999 - Bonn 7. Election of Officers: - President Elect - Secretary General - Three Executive members (from 3 different countries) 8. Any Other Business 9. Transfer of Presidency

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Item 1: Presidential address

Professor Gerhard Schiefer, President of EFITA and Chairman of the meeting, delivered the Presidential address. He described the development of EFITA and the relationships of its National Member Organisations (NMOs) and associated IT and other organisations (Europe and International). EFITA had been founded by seven NMOs (from Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, France, Italy and the UK) in 1996 and three additional NMOs (from Greece,

Spain and Georgia) had applied to the Copenhagen GA for membership (Item 2). The challenge facing the incoming Board was to increase membership of EFITA to include representation from the remaining European countries and to increase affiliation with eligible international organisations. An additional major task was to raise sufficient revenue to cover the activities necessary to achieve the foregoing aims.

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Item 2: Approval of new members

Three new NMOs applied for membership of EFITA and were accepted unanimously by the GA: HAICTA: Hellenic Association for Information and Communications Technology in Agriculture; SETIAM: Spanish Information Technology in Agriculture Association; GAIAFE: Georgian Association for Informatics in Agriculture, Food and the Environment. In order to reduce the time required to qualify for membership of EFITA - through the current procedure of federating applicants at a physical meeting of the GA every two years - a new mechanism of determining the eligibility of bodies to join EFITA on demand by convening a GA electronically was described; this conforms to Article 3,1 of the EFITA Statutes.

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Item 3: Approval of Budget

The EFITA budget, prepared by the Board, was presented to the GA: Expenditure: This is composed of three major elements: Revenue: The proposed NMO contribution is 2.50 ECU per individual member (subject to acceptance by the NMO). The proposed NMO contribution would cover approximately 25% of the total costs; it was further proposed that collection of contributions would be initiated late in 1997 for funding activities in 1998. The Operational Costs are the first priority. Sponsorship is required to cover the remainder of the costs; the priority is WWW services followed by Journal activities. Voting There were two votes: 1. to accept the budget - accepted unanimously by the delegates. 2. to accept the 2.5 ECU level of contribution (subject to NMO approval) - accepted unanimously by the delegates.

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Item 4: Proposals from the Board

- Integrate news from the NMOs into the EFITA web site - Exchange information with other agricultural associations - Promote European workshops under the EFITA umbrella - Establish affiliation agreements with other (non-European) IT associations - Engage in the establishment of an Electronic Journal (with printed copies for libraries) These proposals were accepted unanimously by the delegates.

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Item 5: Proposals from the members

The question of ICT in agricultural education was raised, with a view to establishing a working group; joint effort with DEMETER and EUCEN was suggested. A complimentary proposal focused on the delivery of agricultural education in Europe. An ad hoc meeting to discuss these topics was arranged for 17 June in Copenhagen. For the outcome of this meeting and future developments, contact: Thomas Norrby. e-mail: Thomas.Norrby@kontakt.slu.se Simon B Heath. e-mail: Clues@aberdeen.ac.uk

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Item 6: EFITA Conference 1999 - Bonn, Germany

The second European Conference will take place in Bonn (Germany), September 27-30, 1999, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the German Association of Informatics in Agriculture (GIL). The First Announcement and Pre-Registration details are displayed on the EFITA web site.

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Item 7: Election of Officers

The voting procedures for the election of the officers of EFITA were explained. The members of the outgoing EFITA Board and nominated members standing for election were enumerated. All the officers - with the exception of the President Elect who is appointed President automatically - needed to be elected by the delegates of the NMOs at the GA. The nominated members standing for election were elected unanimously and constitute the new EFITA Board for the period 1997-1999.

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Item 8: Any Other Business

The President proposed that the GA should award its highest award, Honorary Life Membership of EFITA (awarded to a person of outstanding merits in agricultural informatics and contribution to EFITA), to

Mr Valentine Reilly, Commission of the European Communities, DGXIII/C-2. Mr Reilly, who in his previous position as consultant to the Commission, and subsequently as Programme Manager in charge of the Agricultural Informatics Research Sector, had by his vision, motivation and commitment set in motion the events which led to the formation of EFITA and brought together a network of agricultural practitioners from a wide spectrum of disciplines to co-operate and work towards shared aims.

The award was unanimously endorsed by the GA.

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Item 9: Transfer of Presidency

Prof. Schiefer, in handing over the Presidency to Dr. Iver Thysen, re-emphasised that the major challenge facing the new Board would be to increase membership of EFITA to include representation from the remaining European countries.

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The GA, which was attended by 60 people, concluded at 18.00 hours.

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NMO Delegates to the General Assembly

The NMOs, membership numbers, voting entitlements and delegates to the GA are shown below. Of the maximum of 16 votes available, only 15 were eligible due to the absence of the Georgian delegate or a proxy instruction concerning this vote. 1. GIL: The German Society for Informatics in Agriculture

Membership: 500 (approx) Voting entitlement: 3 Delegates: Christian Noell, Gerhard Schiefer, Karl-Otto Wenkel

2. VIAS: The Dutch Society for Informatics in Agriculture

Membership: 450 (approx) Voting entitlement: 3 Delegates: Frans Kampers, Alexander Udink ten Cate, Mary Schilder

3. ISITA: The Irish Society for Information Technology in Agriculture

Membership: 110 Voting entitlement: 2 Delegate: Mick Harkin

4. DSIJ: The Danish Society for Informatics in Agriculture

Membership: 101 Voting entitlement: 2 Delegates: Iver Thysen, Hans Henrik Pedersen

5. AITICA: The Italian Society for Information and Communications Technology in Agriculture

Membership: 80 Voting entitlement: 1 Delegate: Giorgio Manenti.

6. AFIA: The French Society for Informatics in Agriculture

Membership: 47 Voting entitlement: 1 Delegate: Jerome Steffe

7. BAITA: The British Society for Information Technology in Agriculture

Membership: 24 Voting entitlement: 1 Delegate: Andy Offer

New members 8. GSIA: Georgian Association for Informatics in Agriculture, Food and the Environment

Membership: 53. Voting entitlement: 1 Delegate: none present

9. HAICTA: Hellenic Association for Information and Communications Technology in Agriculture

Membership: 21 Voting entitlement: 1 Delegate: Alexander Sideridis

10. SETIAM: Spanish Information Technology in Agriculture Association

Membership: 20 Voting entitlement: 1 Delegate: Jose Maria Caridad