| Requirement | FIVA specification |
|---|---|
| Voters | 79 voters, predominantly remote |
| Voting mode | Hybrid (Brazil + remote) |
| Special feature | Weighted votes + proxy voting, quorum critical |
| Infrastructure | Hotel Conference Room, Streaming via Zoom, WiFi concerns lead to support via Whatsapp |
| Previous system | Paper ballots, postal proxies, Xerox copies |
FIVA's successful hybrid AGM in Brazil with proxy voting and weighted voting demonstrates how international associations with complex voting structures - weighted voting, proxy voting and multiple time zones - can seamlessly run digital AGMs.
The Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens (FIVA) held its General Assembly in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, in November 2025 - with over 80 member organizations worldwide, weighted voting and proxy voting. The biggest challenge: Achieving a quorum with many not being on site.
With NemoVote, the hybrid AGM went smoothly - quorum was reached within a minute, Magic Links eliminated password issues, and live support via WhatsApp enabled real-time coordination during the Zoom conference.
FIVA is a global federation with over 80 members in more than 80 countries and a total of around 2 million people. The organization protects, preserves and promotes the world's automotive heritage - from historic cars and motorcycles to tractors and military vehicles (all at least 30 years old).
The 2025 Annual General Meeting in Brazil presented special challenges:
Secretary General Gian Mario: "This General Assembly was a great challenge. We were outside Europe for the first time in a long time, many employees didn't speak English and the quorum worry was with me at night."
FIVA was already using NemoVote in its second year - in 2024 in Austria with the support of a local expert, in 2025 in Brazil without local helpers. Secretary General Gian Mario therefore opted for live support from NemoVote.
According to the FIVA statutes, a certain quorum must be reached, otherwise the general meeting must be repeated within a month at another location - with enormous costs and organizational effort.
FIVA established a test phase one day before the AGM:
FIVA chose an unconventional but extremely effective support channel for the 2025 Annual General Meeting: WhatsApp instead of Microsoft Teams or Zoom.
Aaron Lesicar, NemoVote: "I was skeptical at first, but WhatsApp worked perfectly. We had a group chat with Gian Mario and his colleagues - while I was watching the Zoom AGM, I was able to give him updates in real time: Quorum reached, 80% have voted, vote can be closed."
In 2024, FIVA still used username + password - voters had to copy and paste access data from emails. This regularly led to problems (spaces, incorrect symbols, mobile devices).
In 2025, FIVA used magic links for the first time: A single click on the link in the email authenticates and logs voters in automatically - no passwords, no copy-paste errors.
Gian Mario: "This was enormously helpful because our participants are over 50 years old on average. We had very simple problems this year - some couldn't log into the WiFi - but the Magic Links worked perfectly."
FIVA uses weighted voting: Not all member organizations have the same voting power (weights range from 1 to 50).
Aaron Lesicar: "We double-checked every proxy change - Gian Mario sent me the updates, I entered them and together we validated that the overall voting weights were correct. That was crucial in order to calculate the quorum correctly."
The Annual General Meeting ran smoothly - thanks to thorough preparation and the right tools.
To ensure transparency, Gian Mario formed a small committee with colleagues who also monitored the entire process in advance:
Gian Mario: "The voting results were very clear, the differences were large - that helped enormously with confidence in the system."
"I would absolutely recommend NemoVote. There are many options and flexibility in the service you offer and it is reliable. We have tested it extensively and I would absolutely recommend your company."
- Gian Mario, Secretary General FIVA
FIVA asked all delegates to conduct a test vote one day before the AGM. This identified 98% of the technical problems before the real voting started.
Gian Mario: "For the future, I'm considering setting the proxy deadline earlier - last-minute changes are always the trickiest. But if you need all the votes, you have to make this compromise."
If the AGM is running via Zoom and bandwidth is limited, WhatsApp is an efficient channel for real-time support - without opening additional video tools.
For complex voting structures (weighted votes, proxy voting), the four-eyes principle is crucial: Admin enters, support checks - then final validation of the overall voting weights.
Gian Mario: "Nothing replaces face-to-face meetings - the joy of sharing time and space. But hybrid AGMs are essential to engage people worldwide. This year, some European delegates even met in Liechtenstein to follow the Brazil AGM online together - a kind of hybrid-within-a-hybrid."
FIVA's 2025 AGM in Brazil proves that international association elections with weighted voting, proxy voting and hybrid participation work smoothly - if the right tools and processes are in place.
If your association has complex voting structures, covers multiple time zones and wants to rely on legally secure, GDPR-compliant online elections - FIVA's experience shows: it works.
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