F.I.C.B. General Assembly 2020

Outcome

The General Assembly of F.I.C.B. met on Saturday 22 February 2020 at the Maison des Associations in the ^16th arrondissement of Paris. 36 members were present or represented.

After the unanimous approval of the President’s Report , the accounts and the balance sheet for 2019, the following points were addressed :

• Membership 55 members, from 20 countries, paid their membership fees in 2019. 6 new members were admitted in 2019 and 2020 (to date). The Vice-presidents and the F.I.C.B. team were invited to continue their actions to promote membership, particularly in France, Spain, Germany and Asia, especially with a view to increasing the number of international events organised under the aegis of the federation;
• Diploma of Honour : The F.I.C.B. Diploma of Honour was awarded to Paul COULON, outgoing Vice-President (France South) and to Michel ROSSI , outgoing Vice-President (Switzerland). Members are invited to propose, for the award of the Diploma of Honour, personalities from their country who are internationally recognised in the world of wine and who support the values of the wine brotherhoods;
• F.I.C.B. Practical Guide : Members are invited to use and widely disseminate the “F.I.C.B. Practical Guide for the creation and development of a wine brotherhood” available in 5 languages (DE, EN, ES, FR, IT). The Portuguese Federation of Wine Brotherhoods has committed to produce a Portuguese version before the 2022 Congress in Portugal ;
• Multilingual lexicon : A dynamic version of the F.I.C.B.’s multilingual lexicon will be put online in the spring of 2020 on our website. The tool, developed with the Junior Entreprise of the University of Burgundy in Dijon, could be inserted in an application on Smart Phone: members are invited to indicate possible partnerships for this purpose. The lexicon is currently available in 5 languages (DE, EN, ES, FR, IT). The Porto Wine Brotherhood has offered to develop a Portuguese version before the 2022 Congress in Portugal;
• Website www.winebrotherhoods.org : After the launch in 2019 of a “calendar of events” of interest to F.I.C.B. members, an online payment functionality will be developed in 2020;
• F.I.C.B. International Wine Tasting Challenge 2019 : The General Assembly welcomed the success of the first F.I.C.B. “International Wine Tasting Challenge” which took place in Finland in June 2019. It expressed its thanks to the Knights of the Vine of Finland who successfully organised this first edition. We were able to test the rules developed and approved for the individual blind tasting competition, the collective appreciation of the wines and the supply of wines for this appreciation ;
• F.I.C.B. 2021 International Wine Tasting Challenge : The General Assembly accepted the invitation of the Ladies of Pannonia to organise the 2^nd F.I.C.B. International Wine Tasting Challenge in Hungary from 3 to 9 June 2021 in the Eger and Tokai region with an optional extension to Budapest. Online registration will start on June ^1st, 2020. F.I.C.B. members are invited to promote the event to their members and encourage producers in their wine region or sponsors to provide wines for collective appreciation. F.I.C.B. will develop a pitch to support this promotion;
• F.I.C.B. 2020 International Congress in the Piedmont region : the General Assembly thanked the organisers and the F.I.C.B. team for implementing successfully the pre-selection process for participants. This pre-selection results in a participation of 200 delegates, which was the maximum possible, and the representation of 33 F.I.C.B. members among the participants, a record in the history of our federation;
• F.I.C.B. International Congress 2022 in Portugal: the Federation of Portuguese Wine Brotherhoods presented the state of preparation of the Congress to be held from 27th to 31st May 2022 in the region of Porto/Douro/Vinho Verde (in the north of Portugal) and its extension from 1^st to 3rd June 2022 in the regions of Lisbon and Alentejo (in the centre of Portugal). The detailed programme and registration fees shell be finalised by the end of 2020 and online registration shall be start on ¹ April 2021.
• Future Congresses and Challenges in 2023 and beyond : Candidatures for the organization of F.I.C.B. events in 2023 and beyond can already be submitted for consideration by the Executive Committee before the 2021 General Assembly;
• “F.I.C.B. sponsored wine discovery tours” : the General Assembly decided to launch this new type of event, the principle of which was the subject of an initial specification adopted in 2017. These are stays organised by a F.I.C.B. member in a wine-growing region for around fifty participants who are members of a F.I.C.B. member organisation. The Executive Committee has been asked to clarify certain points of the specification and a call for proposals will be launched in the spring of 2020. Initially, only one “wine discovery tour” will be organised per year, preferably in the autumn and in conjunction with a local wine-related event (e.g. chapter of the organising member, grape harvest festival);
• Budget 2020 : A budget for 2020 was presented to implement the above actions, and unanimously approved. It is based on a maintenance of the annual membership fees (150€ for active members and 100€ for associate members) and admission fees (50€) and takes into account the royalties expected from the 2020 Congress;
• Composition of the Board of administration and the Executive committee : in accordance with the Federation’s Statutes, the General Assembly proceeded with the renewal of one-third of the members of the Board of Directors and the replacement of resigning members. In particular, Jean-Pierre BOYER, Grand Master of the Illustrious Order of the Knights of Medusa (Provence), Michel DEVOT, President of the Ile-de-France Coordination Committee of Brotherhoods and Marc LESK (Conseil des Echansons de France/COCORICO- Confrérie du Clos de Clamart) joined the Board of administration. The Board then elected Jean-Piette BOYER as Vice-President for the South of France and Marc LESK as Secretary General. The position of Vice-President for Switzerland, vacant due to the resignation of Michel ROSSI, was put on hold pending a consensus proposal by the Swiss Federation of Bach and Gastronomic Brotherhoods ;
• The partnership of the federation with “Wine in moderation” and the “guide to responsible tasting”, which was developed jointly, were recalled. This guide is available on our website. F.I.C.B. members are invited to promote it and use it when organising stings;
• Next General Assembly : the 2021 General Assembly will be held in Paris on Saturday, January 30, 2021. It will be preceded on 29 January by meetings of the Executive committee and the Board of administration.

The General Assembly was followed by a lunch at the Paris Wine Museum during which wines brought by several members of the federation were tasted and appreciated.

In the evening, a gala dinner was organised in collaboration with the Comité de Coordination Ile-de-France des Confréries (COCORICO), which was celebrating its ^{20th anniversary}. It was held in the prestigious setting of the Town Hall of the ^16th arrondissement of Paris and brought together some 230 guests representing the Brotherhoods of Ile-de-France and the members of F.I.C.B. present at the General Assembly. A musical programme enhanced the dinner with a “serenade” of some ten songs about winegrowers and wine given by the “Souffle de Bacchus“, the choral of the Conseil des Echansons de France directed by Marie-Françoise BOURDOT. A tasting of wines from around the world brought by members of the F.I.C.B. present and wines from Ile-de-France awarded at the COCORICO competition had opened the event pleasantly.

click here for the agenda

click here for the slide show of the outcome of GA 2020

click here for the composition of the Board and Executive committee

click here for the draft minutes