12. Guidelines for Termination of WACS Membership

The Chairman asked the meeting for views on when the termination of membership of WACS should be activated. At present a reasonable amount of time was allowed for payment but there are some countries who have not paid for more than two years.
Letters have been written and three reminders have been sent out this year. If the Direct Debit system was used, this would not be a problem.

The Chairman had spoken to various countries privately regarding non-payment. After discussion the following suggestions were made:

Ø Reminders may not have been received because Associations' details not up-todate
Ø If a country has not paid up, they cannot enter competitions
Ø If they cannot afford the membership, they cannot be a member, especially if not paid up by Congress

The Guidelines now stipulate that payment should be made before 31 March 2002. Portugal stated that they always pay in October, but can make arrangements to alter accordingly. The Chairman stated that Belgium had not been heard of for a very long time in spite of much communication. There were good chefs in Belgium and he asked if anyone could give him a contact name to pursue with a view to bringing Belgium back into WACS as a paid-up member.

At the next Board Meeting it would be suggested that membership would discontinue after two years of non-payment, or at least find a happy medium.

13. Any Other Business

Germany	Copies of a book entitled 'KochKunst in Bildern 6' were offered for sale at a cost of £50 each. This book had cost £80 in Ireland. Siegfried Schaber thanked Brian Cotterill for his hospitality and all the countries who had participated. This meeting was a yearly event and he questioned whether it was too much for the Continental Director to host each time. He asked whether anyone was interested in hosting the next meeting and re-iterated that communication was very important.
Austria	Suggested they could hold a European meeting before their forthcoming celebration. They requested WACS Guidelines for any Salon Culinaire and felt it was better the country knew of the request for judges (not just individually). It was confirmed that if it is a WACS approved show, their guidelines must be used. Thanked the Chairman for the invitation to attend this meeting in London and felt they now know more about the financial situation of other associations.
Cyprus	Yiannakis Agiapiou thanked Brian Cotterill for inviting them and felt it was a good meeting with everyone always working for the benefit of WACS. He asked that anyone visiting Cyprus should let him know so that he could welcome them as individuals.
Slovakia	Their culinary team is only in their second year. They will try and entereach competition for the experience, their first time being in Germany last year. They had CDs for their Culinary School. They were hoping to go to Luxembourg next year and hoping to win, although they had difficulty with sponsors. The Chairman was thanked for his hospitality.
Iceland	Requested guidelines be given at the next meeting on dress code as he was the only one in a chef's Jacket, and the photo would have looked far better with everyone dressed the same.
Denmark	Thanked everyone for a very good and positive meeting, which was important.
Norway	Thanked the Chairman for the invitation. Norway would like to hold a Congress in 2006 or 2008 and hoped to get the vote. They are going to do a promotion in Japan in 2002. Explained about Norway's Association which included 22 Guilds, 1400 Members and a National Culinary Team. The Chairman thanked Gunnar Nagel Dahl for coming over and congratulated him on doing a great job for the Association.
Luxembourg	Thanked the Chairman for the organisation of a very positive meeting.
Sweden	Outlined project over four years and showed book 'Around the World – Culinary Experience' in three languages – Swedish, English and German – showing nine countries and four continents. 35 million people have seen their press – Sweden has 8 million people.
Scotland	Joe Queen thanked the Chairman for the invitation which he was pleased to accept in the absence of Tony Jackson. He felt it had been a very productive and informative meeting.
Portugal	Thanked the Chairman for the invitation and, after nine years in the Association, was very pleased to be present amongst top people. He was pleased to see the observing Spanish delegates interested in joining WACS as an Associate Member.
Catalonia	Thanked the meeting for allowing them to come over as observers to find out about WACS. They outlined their situation in Catalonia and stated they wished to share the experience nternationally. They had one of the oldest guilds' seats in Parliament and sponsors for courses. They were funded by the Government who were always willing to push culture forward. They had an amount of money to spend on culinary arts and hoped to hold an international meeting. The Chairman stated that it was wonderful that they wished to put forward an application to host a meeting and expressed his appreciation of their enthusiasm.