November 2012 Meeting Report

 

 

1. Tom Dahlqvist opened the meeting at 14.00 hours.
He asked for contributions to the expenses of renting the conference room, since this was not free of charge.

2. Five visitors, Bob (15 year in Thailand), Paul Georgakis (native Greek from the US), Francesco (Italian), Natali (Swiss/Thai) and Mike (US) attended the meeting. They briefly introduced themselves.

3. There were 21 members and 5 visitors present. Paul Georgakis (originally from Greece) became a member after the meeting.

4. All Attendees approved the minutes of the meeting on October 28 without any remarks/corrections.

5. The new constitution was put to the vote. Dr. Bernard explained and ran the procedure assisted by
Richard and Jake.
There were 21 members present and 2 members had voted by e-mail. Total votes were 23
Of these 22 votes were „yes’ and 1 vote was „no’ – to adopt the new constitution.

6. Dr. Bernard requested the Constitution Committee to be discharged from their responsibilities, since the constitution had been accepted – Tom discharged the committee of their responsibilities, thanking them for the hard work, they have put into the new constitution.

7. There was no outcome report yet on the questionnaire that had been distributed at the previous meeting with the question:

                    “Who is willing to participate in the Club’s AC, LC or any other committee”.

This item was then deferred to the next meeting.

8. Herman presented the club’s financial report as of October 31, 2012, also in print.

He stated that this report was not final, as it still would have to be verified/checked by a controller and he asked for somebody to be willing to do that. – Nobody volunteered.

He pointed out that as of above date there were only Baht 3,676.50 available in cash, meaning that the club could face difficult times, bearing in mind cost for the meeting room alone, should the conference room at the Bangkok Hospital (free of charge) not be available in the future, since recovering the bank book (Baht 14,600.00) still with ex-presidents of the club seems to be rather dim (in February 2013, if at all) and since Egil’s loan should not be spent freely. Thus, these two items are listed as non-liquid assets.

Further assets are a printer @ Baht 3,090.00 and 39 club shirts @ Baht 11,505.00.

Furthermore, Herman stated that as of today (25^th November) there were only Baht 1,276.50 available, as one Gold Member had decided to become an ordinary member instead and Herman had to reimburse him Baht 2,400.00 and the cost for the meeting room to be paid today are Baht 4,100.00.

As to income, he pointed out that the Gold Membership total of Baht 9,750.00 with the fee at Baht 3,000.00 did not make sense at first sight, however, this was due to some members made installment payments – a controller would be able to verify the details.

As to money going out, there was only Baht 3,133.50 for the member meetings at the
Panjaved/Bangkok Hospital.

He pointed out that some committees’ members wanted to make it clear that their activities/work for the club were free of charge, i. e. did not incur any cost. He thanked them for this.

Bearing all this in mind, Herman reiterated that solutions were required to improve the cash situation.

Paying Baht 4,100.00 for a meeting room was too expensive for the club.

Any suggestion for a solution of the cash situation would be welcome, he pointed out.

It was suggested by a member to take the bank account (bank book being with ex-presidents @ Baht 14,600.00 off the statement as it seemed impossible to retrieve that amount.

On request by a member Herman stated that the period covered by this statement was 1st Dec.
2011 to 31st Oct. 2012.

Egil pointed out that the Baht 14,600.00 (blocked bankbook) should not be in the balance as it was money paid to the club by himself, he had given that money to the club.

Herman pointed out, that since the bankbook was the club‟s it should be entered as an asset of the club.

Furthermore, Egil was of the opinion that, since the printer (Baht 3,090.00) had not been in the balance before and thus should not be in this balance, either.

Herman replied that previous statements had been cash reports, reporting on money received and money spent, and not balances, because of which the printer did not show in the previous cash flow statement 2011, if it had been bought in 2010, however, was now in the balance as an asset.

Egil raised the issue of the Baht 14,600.00 again.

Herman reiterated that this should be looked into by a controller to decide what items should be entered in the balance and which ones should not, and that the current problem was that the club had Baht 3,676.50 cash in hand only.

A member wanted to know what the Baht 13,750.00 stood for.

Herman explained that this was the second bank account with Bangkok Bank as well.

Therefore, the member said, we had Baht 17,426.50 available.

However, Herman pointed out, that we had many expenses.

Another member pointed out, that, since Ray had gone back to the UK, it would be very difficult to retrieve the blocked bankbook (Baht 14,600.00) so the money should be considered as having been lost.

Herman noted that this was no surprise to him, however, there was to be found a solution and that he would not provide one all by himself. He needed the urgent assistance by a controller to work out a solution. He again asked for a volunteer – no one came forward.

Egil pointed out that the LC had been informed that they did not have the balance of the bankbook (blocked bankbook) that that amount had been pre-paid to the club and that you could forget about it. Herman pointed out again, that this would have to be decided in agreement with a controller.

Referring to the second bankbook (Baht 13.750.50) Herman stated that this represented a loan of Baht 11,000.00 made by Egil according to his information.

Egil pointed out that this was no loan, that he had given this money to the club (as a donation/contribution/gift).

If this were so, Herman replied, he could amend this entry accordingly. The other Baht 2,750.00 was a contribution by another member who had become a Gold Member, he continued.

Referring to the gift (by Egil) Herman again pointed out that, according to his information, it had been a loan.

If it were a gift, the entry could be amended in agreement with a controller.

Another member asked for clarification, whether the cost for today’s meeting were Baht 4,100.00 and that with the Baht 3,676.50 cash in hand contributions were required to meet today‟s cost as otherwise the club would be in the red.

Herman pointed out that this had been the status as of 31st Oct. 2012. Another member asked whether the Baht 13.750.00 were available.

Herman stated that the money was available, and asked Egil, who had the authority to sign for withdrawals.

Hans, Ecki.

On the blocked bank account, there were three names – Ross, Ray & Victor, with Victor the only one still in Udon, according to Tom.

Having received Egil’s gift in the second bankbook, Tom continued, for which we were very grateful, we would have to forget about the first bankbook.

The acting secretary requested confirmation, whether Egil‟s gift was a gift and not something else. It was confirmed being a gift since Egil had said so three times.

Egil was thanked again for his gift/donation of Baht 11,000.00.

A member asked, whether it could be agreed to never talk about the blocked bankbook again.

Some members agreed with this and Tom stated that the blocked bankbook was nowhere.

Jake noted that the money had been lost, to which Herman added that the sum had been guaranteed to be paid by Tim.

Egil then remarked that if the money came back to the Club, the Club would pay him back (his gift). To which Herman replied, that Egil could not change his mind all the time – a few moments ago Egil had said that it had been a gift, and now he said that it had been a loan.

No, Egil injected.

Herman continued that Egil wanted the gift back.

Egil continued, when I had given the money to the Club I had taken over Ray’s bank book, so if the Ray bank book money came back to the club it should be paid to him.

Jake then asked Egil that he had been told several times that the money had gone and why he asked for his gift back.

Herman repeated that according to his documents it had been a loan, however, this should be clarified with a controller, however he agreed with Jake, that the money belonged to the Club and that it had been guaranteed to be paid by Tim.

Another member asked whom Herman was talking about as the controller.

Herman replied that this were to be somebody to be appointed according to the constitution.

The member again – somebody to control Herman’s work.

Referring to his business experience, controllers would give advice as to interpretations/presentations of entries/data. Herman could proof everything that he had done.

However, so far, he had had many discussions as to the presentation of amounts, yet no checking of the amounts, and that this was very saddening to him.

The other member continued that everybody had to know, where money came from and where it had gone.

Herman pointed out that he had done the presentation according to Deloitte & Touch procedures, that there might be people who had never heard of them; however, as he had followed their guidelines, the presentation of the amounts should be correct.

Somebody enquired who Deloitte & Tough were. Herman just stated that they were one of the biggest chartered accountants worldwide and that there were others. However, he continued, we should not discuss the format/colours of the report, but the results.

There were no further questions.

Dr Bernard pointed out that the website needed updating, as there still was an entry as to a visit of the airport control tower on Nov. 19^th.

Christmas Dinner at the Napalai Hotel on 20th Dec. at 15:00 hrs. @ Baht 159/person incl. tax & service and soft drinks – public – also for members’ family members.

Herman presented a calendar of club events and other events for Dec, Jan, Feb. and March.
Club events were highlighted in yellow; events highlighted in pink were public holidays in Laos and events highlighted green were public holidays in Thailand.

9. Coffee break at the hotel’s coffee shop.

10. Learning Thai at UDRU, LC @ Baht 3,000.00 per person for 36 hrs. The acting secretary, who works at the LC made the reservation that one should not expect a communicative approach course to learn to listen, speak, read and write Thai, but rather a traditional grammar rules and translation course to learn to read, write, listen and speak.

Herman pointed out that bearing in mind what regular students paid the language course would be too Expensive.

11. Continuation of Jan Harms, the “Today’s Speaker”, with his presentation: The possible end of the world, as we know it, on 21-12-2012. The presentation took us first back in history, to the period of the Maya’s. Later on, we ended up in a dizzying explanation of the movements of our solar system inside the universe. Finally, there was a conclusion on why the Mayas predicted what they predicted from their point of view, which was a sudden climate change that had been experienced at the beginning of their era. However they could not have predicted what the global climate situation was today and that the Gulf-Stream might change course or strength due to more fresh water getting into oceans that could change heat storage capacity, since sea water has a higher capacity that fresh water and that the layer of fresh water on top of the sea water could become thicker. So some areas in the world could become cooler than they are now.

Melting glaciers, according to Jan, are not only man made, there were other factors too. In addition – the Pope said it was all nonsense

12. In between Jan’s presentation John Travon of the Bangkok Hospital made a short presentation as
to:

          The grand opening of the hospital will be on 12^th Dec. 2012 and that we would receive invitations for this event.

          As from 12^th Dec. 2012, the conference room will be available for the Club again.

          On 21^st Dec. at 09:00 hrs. there will be a Mary Pitak School lottery at the hospital 1^st price being a Fino motorcycle/scooter.

          One LC member has a ticket book for this lottery.

          Dr. Bernard asked Mr Travon to provide the following information on the hospital: List of doctors and their schedule.

          Basic fees for consulting a doctor.

          Mr Travon promised to provide this information.

The meeting closed at 16:10 hrs.

Wulf Dieter Krüger
Acting secretary

(the minutes are based on a recording of the meeting I made)

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