Introductory notes
In Arandjelovac (FR Yugoslavia), from May 29 till the June 3, First Conference on Medicinal and aromatic Plants of Southeast European Countries has took place. Initiativ to keep that Conference has been given by several colleagues from the Institute for Medicinal Plant Reasearch "Dr. Josif Pančić" (Belgrade) and supported on the V Meeting "Days of Medicinal Plants" that was kept from September 14-19, 1998 in Banja Koviljača from the side of all participants from FR Yugoslavia and abroad. In conclusions from that Meeting was stated that "...In Banja Koviljača (FR Yugoslavia), two meetings were held on September 15th, and 16th, 1998, organized by the Institute for Medicinal Plant Research "Dr Josif Pančić" (IMPR), Belgrade. These meetings were organized with regard to the initiative to organize the First Conference on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Southeast European Countries, postulated by several colleagues from the IMPR, Belgrade. At the meeting of the Initiative committee for the foundation of the First conference on medicinal plants of Southeast European countries, there were 33 participants in the whole, where 19 of them were from Yugoslavia...All participants of the meetings have reached consensus on following... The proposed idea to organize a Regional Association of the scientist and professionals working with aromatic and medicinal was accept too."
Starting from these conclusions Organizer of the First Conference anticipated to held on this meeting, among the others, two sessions dedicated exclusively to the foundation of the Association of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Southeast European Countries. Of course, to these meetings certain preparation have been precided, consisting of draft proposal of the Bylaws of the association (prepared by Organizer), harmonization of attitudes toward several controversial paragraphs and fixing details about the mode of meetings moderation. In that sense Organizer conducted questionnaire on whose base it would be possible to decide if inaugural meetings of AMAPSEEC' s foundation should be kept open for members of all working bodies of the first CMAPSEEC only (or for all participants in the first CMAPSEEC), if draft proposal of AMAPSEEC's Bylaws is quite acceptable (unacceptable, or partially acceptable), where headquarter of AMAPSEEC should be located, what could be better name for our association, on which level to estimate annual membership fees for regular and supporting members and how many such members could be expected from each of the countries interested in the formation of the AMAPSEEC.
The base of Bylaws draft proposal has extracted from the Society for Medicinal Plant Research (former GA). On this model, adapted to the conditions of our Region (SEE), our Bylaws has prepared, whose main characteristics are shortness (5 pages, 12 paragraphs) and that according to that Association would be multi-professional, non-governmental and non-profitable organization, having clearly defined goal and structure.
During the First Conference kept in Arandjelovac, the first initiative meeting dedicated to the formation of the AMAPSEEC has been kept on May 30. Meeting has been open for everyone interested in it and attended by lot of participants. In introductory address, Organizer summarized activities done about formation of AMAPSEEC, as well as results of questionnaire conducted among the members of all working bodies of the First CMAPSEEC. According to results of this questionnaire, draft proposal of the AMAPSEEC's Bylaws is completely acceptable, its headquarters should be situated in Belgrade, registration fees for regular members should be set to 30 DM and that for supporting members to 300 DM. Majority considered name Association of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Southeast European Countries (AMAPSEEC) appropriate, although there were other proposals too. After such one summary, discussion has been opened for all, but without any more significant result, simply because majority of present colleagues did not read the text of draft proposal of the Bylaws of AMAPSEEC. From this reason, it was decided to hang up a poster with appropriate text to inform everyone and to delay adoption for the second initiative meeting. One of the more interested questions opened at that meeting was that put from the side of professor Mathe, about geographical borders of the Region.
The second initiative meeting was kept on the June 2, and contrary to the first one did not attract particular attention of the participants of the First Conference. Nevertheless, very important conclusions have been accepted. The most important one is that draft proposal of the Bylaws of AMAPSEEC was fully accepted. Furthermore, it was decided to set up the headquarters of AMAPSEEC in Belgrade. This operation will be co-ordinated by IMPR "Dr. Josif Pančić" (Belgrade). Nomination of professionals from all countries interested in AMAPSEEC (from and out of SEE-region) has to be accomplished for Executive Council, Advisory Board, and Board of Directors, till the end of August. After that, formation of the AMAPSEEC could be expected until the end of the year.
For the well understanding of everything did till this time, as well as estimation what could be done to accomplish finally foundation of the AMAPSEEC. From this reason, in the continuation, complete text of the Bylaws of the AMAPSEEC has been given.
The Association for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of South-East European
Countries (AMAPSEEC) has its headquarters in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (Note
1). As the multi professional, non-governmental and non-profit organization,
AMAPSEEC conducts numerous activities through the network of its national
centers for medicinal and aromatic plants, located in countries belonging
to the region, and out of them.
The purpose of the Association is the advancement of research and science,
as well as promotion of production, processing and trade in the field of
medicinal and aromatic plants.
Specifically, this purpose is achieved by
The AMAPSEEC is not a commercial organization; it does not seek to earn a financial profit from its various activities.
The resources of the AMAPSEEC shall be used only for the purposes of the AMAPSEEC as established in the Bylaws. No resources of the AMAPSEEC are to be donated to members.
No person may receive funds for purposes not consistent with the purpose of the AMAPSEEC nor may they be granted any funds in unreasonable amounts.
Upon dissolution or termination of the AMAPSEEC or upon completion of its purpose, any remaining funds and assets shall be conveyed to a legally authorized organization which has been recognized by the competent financial authorities as being of public benefit, subject to the proviso that the assets are to be used to support science in the field of medicinal plant research. Such an organization shall be selected by the Members' Meeting prior to the dissolution of the Association.
In order to effect dissolution of the AMAPSEEC, the written agreement of two-thirds of the Association 's members is required.
The Association is composed of regular members, supporting members, and honorary members.
Regular members shall consist of all individuals interested in the aims of the Association.
Supporting members shall consist of all legal entities and associations desiring to promote the aims and interests of the Association.
Honorary members shall consist of individuals who have rendered special service either to medicinal and aromatic plant research or to the Association. Their nomination follows proposal by at least five members and approval by a two-thirds majority of the Board of Directors of the Association. A document shall be issued, signed by the President, certifying the appointment as an Honorary Member.
Regular members and supporting members are required to pay an annual membership fee; honorary members are exempt from the obligation to pay this fee.
The amount of the fee is determined by the Members' Meeting, following a recommendation of the Board of Directors. Members are obligated to pay a full year's dues even if their membership has existed for only a portion of that year. The Executive Council, upon receipt on an application, may grant fee reduction or exemption in justified cases.
The annual membership fee becomes due following receipt of a bill from the Association.
The Association's membership year shall coincide with the calendar year. Membership fees for the entire year are due on January 1 or upon notification of acceptance into membership.
The initiation of membership either as a regular or supporting member requires a written application to the Executive Council.
Any member is entitled to give notice of the termination of his/her membership in the Association via a written declaration addressed to the Executive Council. Such termination of membership becomes effective immediately. There is no refund of membership fees.
the member still owes his/her annual membership fee six weeks after the sending of a second reminder,
if the member has acted in a manner causing appreciable harm to the Association's public reputation.
The exclusion becomes valid as soon as a written declaration issued by the Executive Council has been received. The excluded member is entitled, following a request to the Board of Directors, to present an appeal at the next regular Members' Meeting. This matter shall be included as a regular item of business on the agenda of the Meeting. The exclusion is regarded as invalid if the Members' Meeting does not confirm it by majority vote conducted by secret ballot.
The Association shall consist of the following organizational units:
All regular, supporting, and honorary members shall be eligible to participate in the Members' Meeting. Each member present has one vote. The representation of an absent member is not permitted.
The Executive Council consists of five members as follows:
The Board of Directors consists of the Executive Council and the Advisory Board.
The number of members of the Advisory Board is not fixed. Advisory Board consists of representatives from national centers for medicinal and aromatic plants. Each national center is represented with one member in Advisory Board. Each country can have several national centers for medicinal and aromatic plants. The election of additional members to the Advisory Board may be conducted in order to represent adequately the regional as well as any other essential interests of the members.
The members of the Executive Council and the Advisory Board are each elected by the Members' Meeting for a period of two complete calendar years. The election is directly valid. Re-election is permissible. The period of office starts with the first day of the calendar year following the election.
In addition, corresponding members may be elected to the Board of Directors as consultants.
Regular business of the Association is conducted by the Executive Council. The President, or, if he is incapacitated, one of his representatives, serves as chairman. Three members of the Executive Council shall constiute a quorum, and decisions shall be made by a simple majority of those voting. In the event of a tie, the President casts the deciding ballot. If all members of the Executive Council agree to such a procedure, decisions may also be made by mail ballot.
The President shall convene the Board of Directors at least once annually. Notification of Board members shall take place at least two weeks prior to the scheduled meeting. A quorum shall consist of 50 % of the members, and decisions are made by a simple majority vote. In the event of a tie, the President shall cast the deciding ballot. In special cases, the President may conduct business of the Board of Directors by mail ballot. Such a ballot will be considered valid if participated in by all members of the Executive Council and at least one-half the members of the Advisory Board.
determination of location, date and duration of scientific meetings,
resolutions concerning the granting of financial support to scientific work and arranging details involved in such support and
constitution of AMAPSEEC' Sections, Commissions, Working groups or Committees for fulfillment aims of the Assiociation.
Minutes shall be kept on all decisions of the Executive Council and Board of Directors and shall be signed by the person recording them.
A regular Members' Meeting shall be convened annually by the President. It shall be combined with a scientific meeting of the Association.
Upon decision of the Board of Directors, additional extraordinary Members' Meetings may be convened.
An extraordinary Members' Meeting shall be convened upon written request of 10 % of the members. The request shall include details on the purpose(s) and reason(s) for such a meeting.
The invitation to such a meeting shall be issued in writing to all members by the Executive Council at least four weeks prior to the selected date. A preliminary agenda shall accompany each invitation.
At the Members' Meeting, each regular, supporting, or honorary member has one vote. The Members' Meeting makes a decision by simple majority of the votes cast, with the exception of changes to the Bylaws, for which a majority of two-thirds is required. Absent members may not be represented by proxy during the casting of ballots.
The Members' Meeting shall hear the yearly Treasurer's Report, which has previously been audited by two members authorized by the membership.
The decisions of the Members' Meeting shall be recorded and the minutes signed by the President or his representative and the Secretary.
These Bylaws become valid on the day after recording at the official Public Register of Societies.
Should any of the conditions stipulated in these Bylaws give rise to objections by the Court of Registrations, the Executive Council shall be authorized to make any necessary change(s), provided such change(s) are of a technical and not of a substantive nature. Substantive changes require subsequent confirmation by the Members' Meeting.
Note 1. Belgrade (FR Yugoslavia) has been given only as example. Decision of the location of AMAPSEEC' headquarter will be made by Board of Directors, depending upon conditions and conveniences offered by nominated institutions. Headquarter must be located in one of the countries belonging to the region of South-East Europe (i.e. Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, FYR Macedonia, Romania, Turkey, and FR Yugoslavia).
Note 2. FR Yugoslavia has been given only as an example. Actually, the President or one of his representatives, as well as Secretary and Treasurer, must be residents of the country in which Headquarter of AMAPSEEC is located.
What makes difficult foundation of the AMAPSEEC?
Bylaws of the Romanian Association of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Growers and Manufacturers - RAMAPGM (Proceedings of the First Conference on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Southeast European Countries, pp. 603-618), contained more then 30 paragraphs, instead of AMAPSEEC's 12, although AMAPSEEC should be Association of the Regional character. Because of its shortness Bylaws of the AMAPSEEC does not contain plenty of details, necessary for good understanding everything of interest for smooth functioning of such one Association. Everybody red this text must be curios why to become a member of the AMAPSEEC at all, because Bylaws does not offer clearly any benefit. From that is also not possible to see position of members in the managing bodies of the Association.
How to provide financial resources for the AMAPSEEC formation?
Since paragraph 1 of Bylaws, among others, defines AMAPSEEC as non-governmental and non-profit organization, obviously their members should provide funds for its foundation and functioning. On the basis of elements given by mentioned questionnaire, it is quite clear that main financial load should be directed to supporting members (whole spectrum of companies and institutions working in the field of medicinal and aromatic plants from every possible aspect) and not to regular members. Annual registration fees for supporting and regular members have been estimated (questionnaire) to 300 and 30 DM, respectively. In the conditions of our Region these relation (10:1) could extremely overload regular members, so it mast be corrected. Most probably annual registration fees for the supporting members should be set to 10 or 20 DM, and for supporting members to 500 or 600 DM.
What could AMAPSEEC offer to the members?
From the paragraph 1 of the Bylaws is stated, among others, that "... AMAPSEEC conducts numerous activities through the network of its national centers for medicinal and aromatic plants, located in countries belonging to the region, and out of them...", what certainly requires additional interpretation of the term "national center" in the context of efforts to create AMAPSEEC. That term should be in our conditions in the broadest sense, assuming that each of supporting members represents one national center. In the first moment, such interpretation could appear as extreme strange, but only that could guarantee participation of the supporting members in the managing bodies of the Association. Beside that, surely the biggest benefit (providing participation of the each of supporting members in the Advisory Board and Board of Directors of the Association (paragraph 9), other benefits could be (for example) the follows.
Participation in all the meetings organized by AMAPSEEC under most favored conditions.
Possibility of drawing funds from the AMAPSEEC, necessary for additional financing of the organization of national and other meetings, as well as own promotional activities, being in the scope of the work of AMAPSEEC.
Drawing of the written materials from all the meetings supported by AMAPSEEC under the most favourable conditions.
Free access to electronic and other databases of the AMAPSEEC.
Obtaining of consultative (scientific and professional) support, processing, analytical and other services from the side of other members of AMAPSEEC under the most favourable conditions.
Receiving of informative bulletin of the AMAPSEEC free of charge; purchase of electronic and other publications of the AMAPSEEC under the most favourable conditions.
List of all benefits which could belong to supporting and regular members should be carefully and seriously developed (details).
How to elect the members of Advisory Board?
Along with that said in point 5 of paragraph 9, membership in Advisory Board should be limited imposing an additional regulation as follows: nomination for the member of that Board could be valid only if nominated person is employed in the company/institution, which is the supporting member of AMAPSEEC. This regulation is highly connected with the mentioned interpretation of the term "national center", providing that nobody can participate in Advisory Board (without respect to the real significance in national proportions, or wider), without appropriate membership. Simply, only members will have access to managing bodies of AMAPSEEC.
Final considerations
On the basis of the facts mentioned above, it could be concluded that foundation of AMAPSEEC will be delayed, and that it would not be almost possible to finish that till the end of year. Actually, because of the summer holidays IMPR-Belgrade, as the main co-ordinator did not receive any nomination from abroad, and did not accomplish consultations at the national level at all. This job obviously requires much more efforts from co-ordinator (IMPR-Belgrade) and all those in countries belonging to the region (and wider), which could be interested in the foundation of AMAPSEEC.
Each of mentioned countries should determine one co-ordinator, which will co-ordinate activities about foundation of the AMAPSEEC at the national level.
At last but not least, it could not be forgotten that in the very start AMAPSEEC has been imagined as the multi-professional Association, where scientific approach could not be more important then other aspects (for example: educational, professional, commercial etc.).
All those interested in foundation of Association of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Southeast European Countries (AMAPSEEC) are asked to send their suggestions to the Institute for Medicinal Plant Research "Dr. Josif Pančić", Belgrade (IMPR-Belgrade), which was determined to be the main co-ordinator of these activities.
Co-ordinators recommendations should considered as follows. Try to inform colleagues from your country, which could be interested in the formation of the AMAPSEEC about the content of this message. Ask them for their proposal and try to schedule a meeting with them, aiming to reconsider all critical points in our activities on the AMAPSEEC foundation. Find (at the same meeting) appropriate person that will co-ordinate this job in your country (on the national level). Try to determine (or estimate) the number of potential regular and supporting members of AMAPSEEC from your country. Inform us about that and about your conclusions. Try to finish this job till the middle of November.
In our opinion you and your colleagues (which participated in the First Conference) should manage this activities, until the election of your national co-ordinator.
LOC Secretary
Mihailo S. Ristić, MSc