Group: Ipernity General Assembly (IGA)

The meeting starts in 15 minutes.

Please comment only when asked. If you follow the chat of the meeting organisers on Discord, then please report any technical problems on the IGA 2025 public channel there.

▶ Please write a comment such as 'present' or ‘here’ in the 'Sign the register' discussion as you arrive.
⇨ Click here to open to this register

▶ After you have posted, use the link in the left hand panel to return to this discussion.
**2025 IGA** Welcome! / Bienvenue ! / Willkommen!.

If you have not already done so, please read the guide on:
⇨ How to vote / Comment voter / Wie man abstimmt

The meeting starts in 5 minutes.

Agenda item 1: Opening

Dear Club members of ipernity!

We welcome you and hereby open the Ipernity General Assembly 2025.

Our communication with each other will mainly take place here, in this discussion. To translate these posts into your native language, please use ipernity's internal translation function. To do this, click on the Translate link directly below each post.

Because the ipernity group uses static web pages, you should reload or refresh the web page at regular intervals (every 1 to 2 minutes), to make visible the updates. Depending on your device and browser, this may be with the F5 function key on your keyboard, or by clicking an icon in the toolbar. We will not rush ahead.

Also take into account that locally, due to high Internet traffic, short waiting times may occur. Let's just be grateful that we have this opportunity here to communicate with each other.

Agenda item 2: Appointment of the minute taker

All posts here will serve as minutes and proof of the lawful conduct of the meeting.
Pages will be saved as PDF files. They will subsequently be available to all members of the community at any time.

Rob Stamp, (Rob Stamp) will perform this duty.

Agenda item 3: Determination of the quorum

The following information was published as indicated:
a. Invitation to this online meeting
b. The agenda of this meeting
c. The proposed candidates for the election of the President, Vice President, Webmaster and the Moderator

a) “IGA (ipernity general assembly) 2025” on 24 Feb 2025,
b) “IGA 2025 - Agenda” on 16 March 2025,
c) “IGA 2025 - Candidatures for the Board” on 16 March 2025.

The opportunity for public discussion was given.
This meeting was thus correctly prepared in accordance with the Statutes.

By the closing date on 18 March 2025, 24 members had registered to attend.

These members were duly informed about the technical procedure. Furthermore, they were given the opportunity to view the following documents at least 24 hours in advance:

● Report of the President on 2024
● Report of the Treasurer on 2024
● ima Financial Report on 2024

This IGA 2025 group has restricted visibility. Only registered club members with voting rights have access. Separate PollUnits will be used for the prescribed votes.

From the ima team the following are logged in now:

William Sutherland
Corinne Pommerell
Rob Stamp
Laura Fletcher (raingirl)

As advisors, assistants or auditors the following are logged in at this moment:

Eric Desjours
Ralph Weichert (RCW.)
Bernhard Westrup (Bergfex)
Pam Johnson (Pam J)
Guido Werner
Helena-Paule Fitoussi (HelenaPF)
Isabel Queiroz Marcellot (Xata)
Thomas Reck

Stefan Roßkopf (Kiezkickerde) offers his apologies for expecting to be late.
Don Sutherland offers his apologies for not being able to attend.
Stefan Beck (realbeck) offers his apologies for not being able to attend.

The total number of attendees at the start of this meeting is 18.
The number present when it comes to voting may be different.

We hereby declare that the meeting will take place in accordance with the Statutes of Association and will be legally binding and quorate.

I'm here [advisor] but a little late, my apologies

Agenda item 4: Report of the President on the past business year (2024)

We will publish this report in English here. Translations in French and German are also available and can be consulted via the following links:

● English: Report of the President on 2024
● Français: Rapport du Président sur l'année 2024
● Deutsch: Bericht des Präsidenten über das Jahr 2024

If any of these languages is not your native language, you can have the report translated into your language using ipernity's internal translation function and read it in this way.

As all attendees have had the opportunity to read this report in advance, we are now publishing it here rather quickly.

Dear members and friends of ipernity,

Today the world is in a state of flux. One moment it looks like peace is about to break out. Another, it appears the entire planet and its peoples are about to fragmented as alliances and relations between countries are transformed and redefined. An epic battle also exists between free speech and censorship that also threatens to tear the world apart. These are challenging times for the faint hearted and opportunities for those who embrace change. Fortunately at ipernity no one needs to choose an approach and each member may determine their personal limits on free expression as we remain a diverse community united by enduring friendships and a shared love of creativity.

2024 was a unique year. Peoples from around the world came together to photograph the total solar eclipse (8 April 2024) and the widespread view of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) Aurora and Australis (Southern Lights) (10-11 May 2024) during their peak Kp 9 display (the most powerful since March 1989). In Hamburg, an ipernity friendship group consisting of 30 photographers came together to demonstrate unity and common purpose for the thirteenth year in a row! Last, World Photography Day (19 August 2024) proved to be an overwhelming success as a record 73 members came together to share powerful images of that day ranging from, “a gentle photo of an orange tree [to a] bright flower with an insect and a collaborative stark mural on a large building.”

Keep up the great photography and cherish every image! As enduring as these sites may appear, like the fragility of life, they could be gone within an instant.

Treasure them and hold them dear to your heart. For example, when I photographed areas in Hollywood Hills and the waterfront properties in Malibu (California) in March 2024, little did I know that within less than a year they would be gone because of the January 2025 wildfires. Now as I write this, perhaps one of the most beautiful places (and most photographed) is facing its own existential crisis - Santorini (Greece) that has endured more than 10,000 earthquakes since the end of January with too many theories to mention about their cause or what the future holds. Let’s hope geology is kind to Santorini.

Aside from photography, videography, and blog writing, 2024 also saw a historical technical milestone for ipernity. First, after seven years of planning, effort and challenges, we were finally able to implement secure (SSL) connection (https:// protocol) on all of our pages (11 May 2024). The few issues that occurred were not of a technical nature, but the external consequence of our success. Due to the improved visibility on the World Wide Web, bots suddenly became aware of us and attacked our servers. However, our technicians were able to quickly overcome this challenge. Since then ipernity has not only been more secure, it has been successfully restored on major search engines (e.g. Google).

In addition, there were numerous other usability improvements over the course of the year, which were reported on in the monthly Club News. I would particularly like to highlight the new high-resolution video preview image that was improved to display a high-resolution image in place of the former blurred thumbnail.

Furthermore, the group clean-up process has significantly improved the site with dead groups being removed and like-kind theme groups being merged where practical. As a result, ipernity has just over 6000 groups compared to the 10,500 figure prior to the clean-up process. Many thanks go to the volunteers and members who have assisted with this effort.

Also as part of this process, many group titles and descriptions were translated into the seven supported languages - notably Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Many thanks go to the admins who have taken the time to improve our multilingual immersive experience.

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), many at ipernity have embraced this new technology to create stunning works of art and photo-real images. We welcome this development as it expands our membership, presents new creative options and enhances the site with the creation of more meaningful visual group icons and banners. Some are even using AI to check grammar or to improve their writing style.

Finally, a brief note on our financial situation, which is outlined in detail in the Treasurer’s report. We are proud of the fact we have been able to keep our membership fees stable for the time being despite rising operating costs. Adjusted for inflation, they are at the same level as in 2018 and well below the membership fees charged by many large commercial photo platforms. Nevertheless, we still need to draw new members for the future sustainability of the site as inflation adversely impacts site operations. As part of this effort, a promotional brochure about ipernity is currently being produced and will soon be available to download and print.

As mentioned in my opening paragraph, an epic battle is taking place regarding free speech and creative expression. Opinions are diverging with regard to what constitutes free speech and censorship. I would like to make it clear that hate speech is unacceptable at ipernity and will never be tolerated. Free speech and creative expression, on the other hand, are allowed within the framework guaranteed by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression and to receive and impart information…”. However, one must be aware of the legal requirements of their respective country as laws vary between nations. Our policy is stipulated in 3.1, 3.3 and 3.4 a-c in our Terms of Use. It is based on French law, as ipernity has its legal domicile in France.

Also, as in years past, I must pass on the sad news about our newly departed members over the past year: Anji (July 2023), Lucette (August 2024), Fabio (Photosofghosts) (September 2024), Ulrich John (January 2025) and Claus-Peter Unterberger (cp_u) (January 2025). With regard to Claus-Peter, he was a key figure in helping with the buyout from Ipernity S.A. to save our site. Without his immense contribution, our website would no longer exist today. It was truly an honor to collaborate and work with him on this endeavor.

May all these recently departed members along with all that we lost over the years be remembered and their families and friends kept in our prayers. Condolences and comments can always be left on their in memoria pages.

Finally, as we look forward to the challenges and hopes for 2025, may each of you and friends and family have a happy, healthy and prosperous year filled with adventure, love and precious memories. Thank you for all you’ve done for ipernity and continue to do for it.

27 February 2025
William Sutherland
President

Not forgetting Andy Rodker, very beloved here who passed July 2023…

Since we assume that you have read the report in its entirety before the meeting, we continue directly with,

Agenda item 5: Report of the Treasurer on the past fiscal year (2024)

The corresponding ima Financial Report of the association were examined by the cash auditor and found to be correct:

ima Financial Report on 2024 - EN

These financial statements are also available in audited French and German translations.

Downloadable pdf files are available here:
Accounts - ima Financial report on 2024

We will publish the report of the Treasurer in English here. Translations in French and German are also available and can be consulted via the following links:

● English: Treasurer's report on 2024
● Français: Rapport du trésorier sur l'année 2024
● Deutsch: Bericht der Schatzmeisterin über das Jahr 2024

If any of these languages is not your native language, you can have the report translated into your language using ipernity's internal translation function and read it in this way.

As all attendees have had the opportunity to read this report in advance, we are now publishing it here rather quickly.

Dear members and friends of ipernity!

The year 2024 was reasonably stable for our finances, but the trend of falling income remains, due to fewer and fewer paying members. This trend is not yet dramatic, but this must be our focus for the coming years.

At EUR 31,202, our club's income in 2024 was slightly below the previous year's level (EUR 32,234 - 2023 amount adjusted for the extraordinary income from the reimbursed Google Suite costs). The amount also remained below the expected income, which had been estimated at EUR 35,850.

Above all, our income from membership fees also continued to fall in 2024, from EUR 31878 in 2023 to EUR 30396 in 2024, or 4.6%.

The number of club members with outstanding multi-year advance payments fell to 7 members at the end of the year, and the members whose multi-year payments were due began making regular annual or semi-annual payments again. Overall, the number of paying club members fell to 802 at the end of the year (compared to 834 in the previous year).

Donations amounted to EUR 187 and were therefore higher than in 2023 (EUR 42.10).

Our costs amounted to EUR 33,465 in 2024, which is relatively stable compared to the previous year (EUR 33,086 - 2023 amount adjusted for the extraordinary expense due to the Google Suite costs incurred).

On the one hand, our main costs, the costs at AWS, have risen slightly: from EUR 29,686 to EUR 30,489, i.e. additional costs of EUR 803 or 2.7%. It should be noted that AWS displays an overview on its management platform with options for optimizing costs by adjusting various parameters. Some of these suggested adjustments were implemented in December. However, this did not yet have an impact on the December statement; we will review this in January and the following months.

Our Google costs also rose sharply in 2024 (from EUR 674 to EUR 827, i.e. around 23%). This is due to a new price and license structure and should stabilize at this level for the next few years.

A credit balance of GBP 19.11 (= approx. EUR 21.50), which currently cannot be allocated, still exists on our Paypal account. The amount is shown in the reports, but it is not possible to access the conversion to EUR or the transfer to the association's bank account. Paypal could not provide an explanation or solve the problem.

We ended the year with a negative result of EUR 2,264 and the reserves at the end of the year amounted to EUR 22,562 (compared to EUR 24,826 in 2023).

On the positive side, we can report that in 2024 our reserves exceeded our debts by EUR 1,426.25 on December 31, 2024.

In fact, our obligations in the form of prepaid membership months have fallen to EUR 19,369 (previous year EUR 25,754), plus the obligations from the former Covid 19 fund (now the general help fund) amounting to EUR 1,797.

Our reserves now amount to 106% of our obligations (previous year 90%).

The operating costs for AWS servers are expected to remain fairly stable in 2025, as are the costs for Google. Overall, costs should remain at the same level as 2024, at around EUR 33,000.

For 2025, the projected income from membership fees is EUR 34,705.

Based on these assumptions, we would close 2025 with a slight plus.

As in the previous year, the number of paying members will be the decisive factor in whether this forecast materializes. If we do not succeed in stabilizing or, even better, increasing the number of our members, the financial situation will deteriorate in subsequent years.

It is essential that we all participate as a community in keeping our website lively and attractive to keep it financially healthy. Please spread the word about ipernity in your area, display our flyer at photo events and introduce our community to your local photo clubs!

15 February 2025
Corinne Pommerell
Treasurer

Since we assume that you also have read the report in its entirety before the meeting, we continue directly with,

Agenda item 6: Report of the auditor

Ladies and Gentlemen,
respected club members of ipernity,

I have audited the financial statements of the ipernity Members Association for the financial year from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024. Based on the findings of my audit, the financial statements comply in all material respects with the legal requirements and give a true and fair view of the financial position of the Association.

March 19, 2024
Thomas Reck
Cash Auditor

We continue now with,

Agenda item 7:
Formal approval of the actions of the Executive Board (ima team) in the past.

You can now submit questions by posting comments below.
You can write the question in your mother language.

To avoid duplicate answers, we will answer the questions collectively after some time.

▶ You may begin now, please.

No question, just want to thank the Executive Board for all their hard work over the past year.

No questions.
From ‘You’ll never make it!’ (some pessimists in 2017) to ‘We’re officially solvent!’ — plus a secure website to top it off in 2024. What a ride! Huge thanks to the IMA team!

Well said!

+1

Danke für die umfassenden Berichte! Keine weiteren Fragen!

+1 !

Many thanks for the hard work of the board. I would like to underline that we need to focus on winning new members. Thanks to the implementation of HTTPS we are now in a better position to do that.

We are here today, thanks to Team’s hardwork ******************

1+

▶ Are there any more questions? (Yes, we know there weren't any yet)
(We will wait 1 minute.)

+1

We have closed the ‘Sign the register’ making a count of 15 (excluding the 4 ima team members who are not allowed to vote on this).

So let’s come to the vote on the formal approval of the actions of the Executive Board (ima team) in the past.

Use this link to open PollUnit for ‘Vote 1 - Ratify board actions (IGA2025)’.
pollunit.com/polls/syxftaalm0hnc4qyj7pnra

Note that the ∑ tally you see in PollUnit is not the number of votes cast, it is an aggregate ‘score’. So that if there are 10 ‘yes’ votes, and 4 ‘no’ votes, then you would see a tally of 6.

Please, ONLY if you have a problem with PollUnit then you can post your vote here, and have it added to the results from PollUnit. You can apply this to the subsequent PollUnits too.

Okay, funktioniert!

We wait a few more minutes to give everyone registered time to vote.

The crew’s really nailed the meeting game — props to y’all!

The "Saved" notice does not appear. Vote is "yes".

Maybe have to put your name and sign in as guest

I did that, then got back to the poll.

We will count your vote.

And no green hook at the bottom right?

We ask your patience while we get the vote tally correct.

Not sure whether my Yes vote was actually registered / saved [even after I signed in] ?

Maybe the same issue as I had. Will try another browser for the next vote.

All those registered to vote have been accounted for.

▶ The voting has been closed with the following results:

15 votes in favour
0 votes against
0 abstentions

The actions of the acting Executive Board (ima team) in the past are thus discharged.

This is what I see in PollUnit, too.

Okay! Sind das jetzt alle Stimmen?

So let’s come to Agenda item 8: Proposal for the next Executive Board, Cash Auditors and Data Protection Officer

The candidates for the vacant Board mandates were publicly presented to you on 16 March 2025. They are

William Sutherland as President
Andreas Schindler (Arlequin Photographie) as Vice President
Rob Stamp as Webmaster
Laura Fletcher (raingirl) as Moderator

(We will proceed to the cash auditors and the data protection officer after the election of the new board members.)

There was sufficient time to review information about the candidates.

▶ Are there any questions about them?
(We will wait 1 minute.)

Looks to me like all the votes were registered and counted. :)

That's good! Thanks!

Glad they are ok to keep going and fighting for our community.

So let’s come to Agenda item 9.1: Election of the next Executive Board

Use this link to open PollUnit for ‘Vote 2 - Accept board candidates 2025’,
pollunit.com/polls/pd4rosbnn2b-up3iluqpoq

I DONT FEEL SO STUPID NOW OTHERS HAD THE PROBLEMS WITH THE VOTE UNIT ALSO !

Ah, spotted the vote saved icon that time !

Poll Unit provides feedback in this way by highlighting the vote you have made in colour.

Used another browser (Edge), but the "Saved" notice did not show up again. First vote was with the Opera browser. Vote was "yes".

I'm using Edge [Beta] but the saved flag was only up for a short time

@ Thomas: Bei mir kommt auch keine explizite Meldung "gespeichert". Aber ich erkenne die Annahme meiner Stimme daran, dass das angetippte Symbol von grau auf farbig wechselt.

Is the hook at the bottom right green after you have clicked on it? If yes I assume that your vote was registered.

Eine Meldung "saved" ist bei mir vielleicht ein oder zwei Sekunden erschienen. Aber das farbige Symbol scheint in der Tat zu zeigen, was registriert worden ist.

Danke, ich denke, dann passt das schon. Beim ersten Mal waren am Ende auch 15 Stimmen angezeigt, also muss meine da ja auch mitgezählt worden sein.

Bei Poll Unit ist die Summe der angezeigten Stimmen jetzt 18.

Bis zu 19 können es sein. Hier dürfen ja auch die Board-Mitglieder abstimmen.

▶ The voting has been closed with the following results:

18 votes in favour
0 votes against
0 abstentions

This means that William Sutherland, Andreas Schindler, Rob Stamp, Laura Fletcher have been elected to the board.

Welcome & congratulations to all of them !

Now let’s come to Agenda item 9.2: Election of the Cash Auditor and Data Protection Officer

As Cash Auditors according to Article VIIb of our Statutes and as Data Protection Officer, the following previous mandate holders have declared their willingness to be available for another election period.

Thomas Reck - Cash Auditor

Markus Fritsch (Boarischa Krautmo) - Data Protection Officer

Use this link to open ‘Vote 3 - Accept supervisory appointments 2025’,
pollunit.com/polls/59lvunulb3pctxefljcvvq

Welcome and congrats to my old and new fellow board members!

Congrats to Andreas, Rob and Laura!

Congratulations!

Thank you very much for your trust. :-)

Good luck :-)

Whow! Our ima-team is complete again. Welcome Andreas!

WELCOME SBOARD AND THANKS TO YOU ALSO

@ all: In case of doubt, the person who has the admin rights for today's votes at PollUnit can check the votes in the voting logbook afterwards. (I am familiar with this because I administer the monthly votes on the ambassador pictures).
This is something like a vote recount. But it's probably only necessary if the result is on a knife-edge.

I used the Opera browser again for the 3rd vote. This time the "saved" notice appeared for 1-2 seconds.

Welcome Andreas Thank you for your involvement in the Team!
Same to the whole board.

Gratulation und viel Erfolg für die weitere Zeit!

We wait a couple more minutes to give everyone time to vote.

Congratulations, Board.

Merci à tous ceux qui poursuivent leur tâche dans la team de l'IMA et félicitations au nouveau membre Arlequin photography pour son courage!

▶ The voting has been closed with the following results:

19 votes in favour
0 votes against
0 abstentions

This means that Thomas Reck has been confirmed as Cash Auditor. Markus Fritsch has been confirmed as Data Protection Officer.

Congrats and thanks !

+1

Congrats to Thomas and Markus

Congrats to Thomas and Markus!

+1

+1

+1

1+

Thank you, Thomas and Markus, for continuing to do the important work for us!

And welcome, Andreas. Looking forward to working with you.