Oh dear Ian,"Willy Van der Linden" <vanderlindenhig@telenet.be> wrote:
I've been a chairman for almost 20 years ! We need young energetic
and hardworking people to save our film clubs. Perhaps also in Britain.
Let's talk about it in our film club next time.
Cheers.
Willy
That`s one of the reasons that in our film club, the Chairman`s reign lasts
for only two years. Our government lasts for about 4 years. Maybe were more
democratic! Other reasons would include that if it was a forever post then
the club would indeed become stale and boreing! If the Chairman and his
committee
get it wrong, then the problem will only last a maximum of two years, or
he resigns before. I don`t know about other clubs in England.
The secretary`s job (on the otherhand) can last as long as you want it
to,
maybe because it`s a harder job with more paperwork, the same as the Treasurer.
There are some people that we get on better with then others, may be it`s
a personality clash or everytime they open there mouths, `me, me, me,` comes
out of it all the time. If the Chairmans job was for life, and you didn`t
like the person, then it could be a problem.
We choose our Chairman by putting names forward, and then we do a public
members vote at the AGM.
Putting names forward ! Nobody wants to be Chairman of our club. I've given
my members two years to find a new Chairman.To keep my club alive I also
have to do all the paperwork. It's a full-time job. Luckily I still have
a good Treasurer. I have a very good team you know. We help each other making
films, etc... We also have some very good technicians ... But paperwork and
organizing activities ... ! We're not the only club with that problem.
Some months ago a Belgian club with about 15 very good filmmakers had to
be dissolved. One of their filmmakers even won a BIAFF international medaillon
in Norwich some years ago. His name is De Wulf. He worked on that film together
with André Lemahieu. The Chairman and secretary resigned. The film makers
had to join other clubs. That's something I would like to avoid. I myself
would like to save my club. It was founded in 1960 !
May be your club could change the rules and have a 2 year rule instead.
Ian (IWVCC Secretary for 10 months) Gardner