The General Assembly (GA) was held after the London conferences on 8 and 9 June at Conway Hall, London. There was a good attendance of delegates from Member Organisations (MOs) as well as individual members of IHEU. Six prize-winners from Romania were also present.

President, Sonja Eggerickx took the Chair and welcomed everyone. She thanked the excellent hosts, the British Humanist Association, and the South Place Ethical Society for the use of the hall for the GA and the Conferences. Everyone present introduced themselves.

After the minutes of the previous GA had been approved and matters arising from them had been dealt with, the President made her opening address to the GA. She then presented the activity reports from the Heads of IHEU's International Delegations to the UN, UNESCO, the Human Rights Council, the Council of Europe and the Africa Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the GA were able to question them on their important work for International Humanism. The President thanked all the volunteer International Representatives who had worked so hard and also the Webmaster, Jeremy Gibbs.

Financial business
The Treasurer, Roger Lepeix, presented the 2008 annual report and financial statements, which were adopted unanimously by the GA. A resolution to re- appoint the Auditors, Knox Cropper, for 2009 was passed unanimously.

New Members
The General Assembly unanimously approved the recommendation from the Executive Committee (EC) to admit the Romanian Humanist Association as an Associate Member.

The President said that there were several other organisations that wished to become members and the meeting agreed that the EC could seek approval for these from MOs by email.

Strategic Plan for 2009–2013

The Strategic Plan had been amended at a planning meeting of the EC in October 2008. This amended plan was presented to the GA by the First Vice President, Jack Jeffery. The plan was adopted unanimously.

It was suggested that gay and lesbian issues should be included in the next strategic plan, and the representative from the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association stated that they were involved in an international organisation working at the UN.

New Bylaws and Internal Rules
Some of the most important business of the GA concerned the proposed new IHEU Bylaws and Internal Rules (see p. 35). Vice President Roar Johnsen took the chair and presented the proposals, which were passed unanimously. One of the goals of making these changes was to give national MOs from developing countries more influence at the General Assembly. Under the new Rules, established national, democratic membership organisations will be able to be Full Members of IHEU with voting rights at the GA, along with national and international umbrella organisations for such membership organisations.

New definitions of all membership categories are laid out in the new Rules, together with membership benefits and obligations, their dues calculation and representation at the GA. The EC's responsibilities, powers and duty of care are made clearer. In future years, the GA will elect six members of the EC, who will then appoint the officer positions, of President, First Vice-President and Treasurer from among the members of the Committee.

Over the next months, IHEU will be contacting all MOs to seek information from them so that their membership category can be established as well as the level of their dues. Under the transitional arrangements, also agreed at the GA, the new Bylaws and Internal Rules came into effect immediately.

Resolutions
There were long and detailed discussions on three policy resolutions that had been submitted on: Religion in Schools; Values of Freedom and Democracy; and Astrology and the Paranormal in the media. Following discussions, the resolutions were referred to working groups for further development.

Communications and Fundraising
Communications and fundraising had been a priority in the last nine months with the appointment of Matt Cherry. He presented his work on external communications (see p. 33) and internal communications between MOs and IHEU, and the various flagship fundraising projects that were in the strategic plan, and he led the subsequent discussion.

Membership Growth and Development Network
The newly formed Membership Growth and Development Network told the GA of their plans. First, it had been agreed to appoint a contact person for regional areas and MOs were asked to share information with these contacts:
Europe David Pollock
West and Southern Africa Leo Igwe
East Africa Deo Ssekitooleko (supported by Barrie Berkley)
America (North, Latin, South, Caribbean) Matt Cherry
SouthAsia Babu Gogineni
rest of Asia Roar Johnsen
Oceania Robbi Robson

Secondly, there was good news that there was some funding to support membership development with the HIVOS/IHEU grant programme, which was to be extended for another three years, and HIVOS wanted the overall objective to be to strengthen the Humanist movement in the global south. A donation had been received to support organisation-building activities to meet the objectives in the strategic plan.

Thirdly, the meeting had begun to develop a strategy on how to proceed.

Babu Gogenini explained the content of the training programmes he had run in India, which were transferable, and Leo Igwe spoke of his work in Southern Africa to strengthen organised Humanism.

J. Veeraswamy spoke of his work in Dalit Villages. Babu Gogenini stated that Libre Pensée had sponsored the first village in the Adopt a Village project. Unie Vrijzinnige Vereningingen reported that they too had agreed to adopt a village, and Ron and Carol Solomon also said they had decided to adopt a village.

Elections
Sonja Eggerickx and Roar Johnsen were re-elected unopposed as President and Vice President respectively for three years (until 2011).

Future meetings
The 2010 General Assembly will be held in Hyderabad, India on 7–8 August 2010. The next Congress will be held in Oslo, 12–14 August 2011.

Robbi Robson is IHEU Administrator and Company Secretary