During AGM 2010, the ACI Communications responsible and Germany Delegate Stephan Joest presented the new concept of the ACI website to all Delegates. Using latest blogging tools such as WordPress and with that a great pack of new services also supporting social media and networks, the new site additionally embraces latest SEO (search engine optimization) features to get a better visibility and ranking.

The new update also reflects observations made on latest trends in club organization. In several countries, the organization of Citroen enthusiasts is going away from a hierarchically, centrally managed organization to a more decentrally, federalistic loosely-connected group structure in which electronic media is the main if not even *only* communications channel. Access to spare parts via the internet is available 24/7 and most parts can be obtained in less than 72hrs. Thus, clubs have to adapt to other means to attract members – and also embrace newest communication technology trends.

Download the ACI AGM 2010 communications outlook presentation here.

We’re interested into your comments. Please feel free to share your thoughts with us below. Thank you.

AGM 2010: All Delegates

Minutes of Amicale Citroën Internationale Annual General Meeting 2010

23-Jan-2010, 3.30 pm at Le Conservatoire Citroën, Aulnay-Sous-Bois, France.

1: Welcome

Didier Parjadis, president of ACI welcomed all Delegates and Honorary Members and gave a special thank to Denis Huille, Communications Citroën, for inviting us at this prestigeous place, the heart and centre of Citroën’s heritage, Le Conservatoire.

This was followed by a speach by Marketing Director Xavier Duchemin, who also sent a warm welcome to all participants. The support from the clubs and the cooperation with ACI is highly appreciated by Citroën, who has had the best year ever in 2009. A special thanks to everybody who took part in the celebration of the 90 Years of Citroën. Xavier Duchemin expressed the wish to strenghten the relations with the clubs and the ACI in the future.

After the presentation of the AGM agenda, a practical/legal adjustment which formally had to be approved by the AGM; namely the change of our registered address from 12 rue Fructidor to 6 rue Fructidor following Citroën move of HQ address. This was approved by all.

2: Minutes of last year’s AGM – approved by all.

3A: Report from the President

Didier Parjadis reported about the last year’s activities and achievements. It has been a good year for the ACI. We have finalized our new image, new logo in particular. Approved by Citroën the new logo shows the same colours and font as the new logo of Citroën – as the two logos will appear together in certain communications. We also added the baseline “Bringing together the
Citroën clubs of the world” – expressing our goals in a significant way.

The Event of the Year 2009 was a great success with more than 1000 Tractions gathering in Arras. The meeting was truly international, organized by 4 clubs from 4 different countries in a very professional way. Not only was it a perfect event for the participants, but also for the public and the town of Arras.

At the Arras event we had an ACI stand for the first time. This was good for the promotion of the ACI and also an opportunity for the organizers of the coming events of the year. Together with several Delegates they helped holding the stand during the meeting. With beach flags at the main entrance and other communication material on the stand the ACI was very visible in Arras.
We have decided to pursue the experience with Retromobile in
Paris, Technoclassica in Essen and Citromobile in Urecht.

A major step forward is the agreement made with Citroën about funding of the Event of the Year. In the future, a fixed amount will be given to the ACI each year – and the ACI will do the payout to the event organizers. ACI decides when and under which conditions we supply the money. This gives us the opportunity to ensure good quality of the meetings, as well as it simplifies the transfer procedure for the organizers.

A part of the amount received from Citroën can be withhold by ACI, as a provosion guarantee in case of losses of future events. If there’s a profit, ACI can ask to receive a part of it for our own reserves funds.

The agreement was made with Xavier Chardon and has been confirmed by his successor Xavier Duchemin.

A legal contract /written agreement is presently being processed with Citroën. This document contains not only guidelines for the future fundings, but several points concerning the cooperation between AC and ACI, communication, duties etc. Also the preservation of Heritage is a subject in this agreement.

We are also working on a written agreement for event organizers, to outline the responsibilities of both the organizers of EOTY and ACI.

Last but not least, Didier mentioned the good process and cooperation around the 90 years of Citroën.

3B: Report from the Vice President /Strategy

Dieter Pétré did a status on the past 6 years of ACI and the progress we’ve made so far. We have come a long way, but we can improve in many areas of communication, administration, coordination, ensuring continuity etc.
The system is beginning to show it’s limits.

Dieter made some proposals for the future such as:
- Hire a professional secretary part time
- Smaller board – maximum 4 persons
- Board election for a period of two years
- Integrate Honorary Members and former Board members in an advisory board
- Meetings with the Delegates more than once a year
- Develop a procedure to talk with Citroën affiliates
- Work with the protection of the Citroën Heritage.

Here it is important to say that these proposals were all Dieter’s personal ideas. They have not yet been discussed within the Board.

2010 AGM at The Conservatoire

4: Treasurer’s Report

By Henrik Almquist. 2009 has been a year of changes and extra work. Most of all the VAT registration of ACI, which has required the aid from a professional accountant. But also the administration of the funds for EOTY, which is now a part of the ACI accounting.

Our finances balance at approx. 28.300 €. Expenses in 2009 were 53.800 € including the EOTY funding. Also we had expenses for communication materials of almost 4.000 €. The result of 2009 shows a loss of 1.800 €. Looking at next year’s budget we expect a positive result thanks to increased support from Citroën.

The President and Treasurer’s reports were then approved by the AGM.

5: Communications report

We only issued one Newsletter and some Newsflashes since last AGM. It was stated from the Board that we could have done it better, and that we will be more aware of this in the time to come. There have been many tasks.

Stephan Joest made a presentation of the relaunch of the ACI website, explaining some of it’s new features. These are not only technical, but also providing us with several new ways of communication. Next to state of the art content management systems for joint publication and search engine optimization, social media component like Twitter, YouTube,
Facebook and others are now incorporated and there are several ways to contribute – not only for the Board, but for the Delegates as well.

Main message from Stephan to the Delegates: Contribute with content! And if you have a local Amicale with a website in your country, give us a link!

Stephan received solid applause for his job well done – the beautiful new website!

The Board will consider the future of the ACI Newsletter. With the new website, the need might be less newsletters but more fresh sendouts from articles published on the ACI website.

6: Final report from the Arras Team

André Jacquemain, Piet Kok and Bernie Shaw gave an overview of this great EOTY 2009. From the organizers’ point the meeting was a succes too, with 4 clubs involved (BOCC Belgium, TAN Holland, TOC UK and La Traction Universelle, France). Between 1000 and 1200 Tractions were there and 10.000 visitors paid to visit the Expo Hall. Tens of thousands visited Arras over the 3-day period – particularly for Sunday’s Parade which according to the local newspaper was visited by more than 30.000 people.

Among the participants 17 different countries were represented.
Unfortunately the event is still showing a financial loss, partially due to the refusal of a sponsor to pay the sum initially agreed towards museum transport costs. If the 4 organizing clubs agree to write off some, if not all, of the initial 2.500 € each club initially loaned the organization to facilitate cash-flow it is hoped the remaining loss will be covered by selling the event DVD and other remaining merchandise.

Several of the Delegates who were present in Arras expressed their gratitude to the organizers for one of the best meetings they had ever attended.

7: Upcoming Events Of The Year (EOTY)

a) CitroënStory, Zolder Racetrack, Belgium 2010, presented by Ann Dries, niece of the president of the organisation, Guido Dries

b) The 2CV World Meeting in Salbris, France 2011, presented by Xavier Audran

c) The 15th ICCCR in Yorkshire, UK 2012, presented by Nigel Wild.

All three presentations collected a big appluse – surely we have professionally organized events to come!

Until now we have no applicants for EOTY 2013!

8: Delegate reports

A quick round was made to hear all Delegates – a short report from each country about the club structure, cooperation with Citroën, events etc. We had news from the following countries:

Slovenia, Czech Republic, Belgium, Hungary (with nice video), Italy, Holland, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Canada. Only the French delegate did not wish to give a report.

9: Info from the Delegates

No (further).

10: News report from Automobiles Citroën

Denis Huille was pleased to open the Conservatoire for the ACI. Two of the major issues in 2009 was the introduction of the new logo – at Retromobile in February – and the celebration of the 90 Years of Citroën. The latter was a bit difficult as everybody was concentrating on the new logo and image, but even though the planning of the 90-year activities had to be done at a late stage, it was very successful, thanks to the good club network.

Having supplied cars to both, Denis Huille commented favourably on the 75th and the UK Classic Car Show. He also said he hoped to support the UK Clubs at the Classic Car Show in the future.

New PSA Manager M. Phillippe Varin replaced M. Streiff. New general manager of Citroën: M. Frédéric Banzet. New communication and marketing director: Xavier Duchemin.

Citroën introduced new models and had a very good year in 2009. The DS3 is one of 5 finalists in the Eurosport Award for the most Beautiful Car in 2009.

The budget for Citroën Heritage was increased a bit and Le Conservatoire got more space for new cars and cars to be restored. Two new cars: A T23 bus and a T55 firetruck. Le Conservatoire is now open for visitors two week per month (instead on one) and there will be a charge of 4€ per person. 2300 people visited Le Conservatoire in 2009 – there’s an increasing number of requests from both clubs and journalists.

Denis Huille thanked all for the good relations and cooperation with ACI.

11: Questions and Answers

Deliaan Vollgraff was wondering how the visions of Dieter Petré (with only 4 Board members in the future) complies with the upcoming election of a seven-member Board. Walter Homberger replied that the strategy report had not been presented to the Board prior to this AGM. But as responsible for strategy is has been Dieters task to bring in new ideas and present them – which is now done!

Dieter Petré thanked for 6 exciting years in the Board and the ACI – and gave his final advice: Never to forget the “rule number 5” – which goes: “Never take yourself too damned serious…”

12: Presentation of new candidates and election of the new Board

Two new candidates, Bernie Shaw (UK) and Karl Prochazka (Austria) presented themselves and their motivations to work in the ACI. After this the election was held – the number of votes including proxy votes were 27. The result of the voting:

Bernie Shaw: 25
Walter Homberger: 24
Stephan Joest: 24
Jens Møller Nicolaisen: 24
John McGulloch: 22
Henrik Almquist: 19
Didier Parjadis: 19
Karl Prochazka: 12

Which means that we can welcome Bernie Shaw as new Board member, replacing Dieter Petré, whilst Karl Prochazka did not receive enough votes.

This year’s AGM lasted 3h 30min!
Minutes: Jens Møller Nicolaisen.

Annex

Delegates attending the Annual General Meeting of the Amicale Citroën Internationale at the Conservatoire Aulnay-Sous-Bois, France January 22 2010

Austria Prochazka, Karl
Belgium Pétré, Dieter
Belgium Serrus, David
Canada McCulloch, John
Czech Republic Hula, Lubomir
Denmark Nielsen, Peter,B.
Denmark Nicolaisen, Jens, M.
France Parjadis, Didier
France de Rocheprise, Laurent
Germany Knaack, Ulrich
Germany Joest, Stephan
Hungary Szolomayer, Roland
Hungary Schubert, Sandor
Italy Marini, Maurizio
Italy Wilhelm, Guido
Netherlands Vollgraff, Deliaan
Netherlands Vink, Jan-Willem
Norway Ruud, Morten P.
Norway Lund, Arne
Sweden Almquist, Henrik
Switzerland Keller, Peter
Switzerland Homberger, Walter
Slovenia Krajncan, Ales
Slovenia Orovic, Dejan
Spain Espinosa, Effren Temez
Spain Navarro, Yasmina Jajada
United Kingdom Annels, Barry
United Kingdom Shaw, Bernie

Honoray members present:
David Conway, Carl Gabrielsson, Jean-Francois Ruchaud, Herman Sluiter.

Two new candidates, Bernie Shaw (UK) and Karl Prochazka (Austria) presented themselves and their motivations to work in the ACI.

After this the election was held – the number of votes including proxy votes were 27.

The result of the voting:
Bernie Shaw: 25
Walter Homberger: 24
Stephan Joest: 24
Jens Møller Nicolaisen: 24
John McGulloch: 22
Henrik Almquist: 19
Didier Parjadis: 19
Karl Prochazka: 12

Which means that we can welcome Bernie Shaw as new Board member, replacing Dieter Petré, whilst Karl Prochazka did not receive enough votes.

Bernie Shaw’s reacted immediately: “I should like to thank all those who showed faith in me by voting me on to the ACI Board. I am truly honoured and look forward to serving the ACI to the best of my ability to justify the support I received at the AGM.”

Also the other re-elected Board members have expressed their thanks to the Delegates for their support for the next 12 months.

Here is a picture of the new ACI Board right after election:

ACI Board 2010, and Denis Huille (left)

(click to enlarge) – from left to right:

Denis Huille (Automobiles Citroen, our host), plus the newly elected Board members:
Stephan Joest (DE), Jens Moller Nicolaisen (DK), Henrik Almquist (SE), John McCulloch (CA), Didier Parjadis (FR), Bernie Shaw (UK), Walter Homberger (CH).

Find out what we are doing by navigating through the site. Enjoy!

Your ACI organization.

Download newsletter #1/2009 here.

The results were as follows: McCulloch (CDN) 24; Almquist (SE) 24; Møller Nicolaisen (DK) 24; Joest (DE) 23; Parjadis (F) 21; Homberger (CH) 24; Pétré (B) 22 votes.

All the 7 candidates were elected to the Board.

See the ACI Board for faces and functions.

Our last Annual General Meeting was held on February 7th in Paris.

This was the opportunity to present our main actions and orientations.

As you will see, we have initiated a new cooperation with Automobile Citroën by setting up common working groups.

The most concrete result of this work will be the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the brand. Automobiles Citroën and its affiliates intend to organize this event for the 3rd and 4th of October in most important capitals of Europe, with the help of the collectors represented by the ACI and local Amicales or clubs.

Please see further details in our Board report; additional information will be supplied soon.

To fit with the image we want to give to the ACI, and also to be in line with the new communica-tion strategy of Citroën, we have also decided to change our logo. We are now finalizing the choice and you will discover the new one on this website very soon.

I hope you will enjoy the presentations of the upcoming Events as well as the report on the ICCCR 2008 (links below). This one was a very nice event for all collectors who where there; it has also shown that, in order to avoid the risks of financial loss, we need to find closer ways of cooperation with the organizers and improve the mutual exchange of information from the be-ginning of the preparations.

I want also to thank the delegates and all the board members who have been working hard in 2008 to ensure the success of the ACI. Our friend Peter Keller, who has been with us since the beginning, has decided to resign, having too much work with his local Swiss Amicale and club. He was in charge of the Events of the Year. In that position he created all the procedures for the selection process and the monitoring of the event. He was also always available and every board member appreciated his contribution on all major topics we had to deal with in the board. Thanks again to him.

In place of Peter, we are pleased to welcome Walter Homberger, who is well known in the Citroën collectors’ world ; addicted to Citroën cars since his youth, he was in January 2009 re-elected for the 5th time as president of Citroën traction Avant Club in Switzerland.

Also active member of other clubs including DS, SM and CX, he is the happy owner of several Citroën classics.

The other board members and I have been reelected for 2009; thanks to the delegates for trusting us. We will do all our very best to continue our work and to reach our goals.

Amicalement

Didier Parjadis
President

Find the Minutes within our Document Download section.

Welcome “on Board”:

Jens Moller Nicolaisen (DK), Henrik Almquist (SE), Stephan Joest (DE), Dieter Pétré (BE), Peter Keller (CH), Didier Parjadis (FR), John McCulloch (CDN).

2008 Annual General Meeting
Date: February 9, 2008
Time: 11:00h – 14:00h
Venue: exact location t.b.d., will be around Hall 4 of Parc des Expositions, Paris (near Retromobile fairground)

More details to be announced soon. Agenda and additional details can be found within the ACI Documents section.

Welcome Bienvenue Willkommen

Welcome – Bienvenue – Willkommen!

Welcome to the fascinating world of Citroën cars and a global club network!

We invite you to discover the ACI (Amicale Citroën Internationale), the official representation of all non-commercial Citroën- and Citroën-related clubs worldwide.

Our website is in constant update. In case you miss some information or have ideas or suggestions on how to improve this site, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you!