| | | 22nd Board Meeting
September 27th-28th
Snoghøj Denmark
The following persons were present:
John Petersen (chairman)
Conchi Gallego (deputy chairperson)
Jan-Chistoph Napierski (treasurer)
Mjellma Mehmeti (secretary)
Linda Jakobsone (member)
Dasa Bolcina (member)
Emma Yeoman (substitute)
Laszlo Dani (substitute)
Other ACC members present at the Board Meeting:
Alexander Hoefmans
Erik Jentges
Rasmus Overgaard
Helena Soares
Maria Bakari
1. Opening of the meeting
John P. welcomes everyone and opens the meeting.
It is decided that he would chair the 21st meeting of the Board.
2. Approval of the agenda
The proposed agenda is approved with the following changes:
- point 6 Guidelines for Committees and Community Colleges, has been postponed because this matter will be a topic of discussion and work of the coming up Bridging Community College taking place in Sopron, Hungary 3rd- 9th Nov. 2003.
- point 10 Annual plan update (who did what?) has been postponed for another Board meeting since it is not necessary to have this point on every Board meeting.
3. Approval of the minutes of the previous meetings
The Board approves the minutes of the last Board meetings before and after the General Assembly with small modifications.
4. The magazine, title & shape
John presents the enclosures- suggestions by ACC members about the possible name/title of the magazine. The Board decided to take into consideration all suggestions that came from the members even though according to the investigation John made, some of the titles are already in use by many magazines around Europe. All 8 suggestions were separately voted and the title ACCENT is chosen to be the title of the ACC magazine.
John proceeds reading the guidelines so that all members are familiar with the content previously drafted by the board on the last Board Meeting in Reggello- Italy.
Conchi had one more recommendation to add to the list of the guidelines and it had to do with the with the usage of images (photos, signs..) and quotations in the magazine. A discussion rose around this and former experiences (in the Youth2002and other) were reviewed. The conclusion was that the editorial Board of the magazine, the board representative in the editorial committee, should be responsible about the sources of the images used in the magazine, and that any eventual usage of quotation follows the rules of copyright. A new recommendation having to do with the style/font used in the “ACCENT” was added to the guidelines. Trebuchet 11 (the standard font used by the ACC) should be the style/font of the “ACCENT”.
A discussion evolved on the eventual cases when there will be lack of finances to edit and publish a “hard copy” of the magazine. On possibility should be to publish the magazine on the website, but the Board decided that this should not be a normal practice because of the space such a publication takes on the internet and for normal reasons, that the Board would like to see more issues of the ACCENT published and distributed the members and the usual network of the organization.
5.- New committees
John presented the already existing Committees and the coming new initiatives. The Italy Committee has an intention to apply for a new ERCC project (ERCC II) and the Board greets this initiative.
John also informs about the initiative coming from some ACC members in Portugal. The Board appoints Eva Valvo to be the Board representative in the eventual CC in Portugal.
The Board approves the ERCC editorial Committee.
The Board approves the Hungary Committee with Laszlo Dani as a contact to the Board.
According to John´s report on the status of the already existing Committees, the Board cancels:
- the Apple Committee and merges it with the Latvia Committee (Linda Jakobsone as a contact to the Board).
- the EU Development Committee
- the Balkan Committee
- the Estonia Committee
- the Chapter Committee
7.- Rite update
John reports on the latest developments with Rite. The next event taking place at the school is the actual constitutive assembly and the adoption of the statutes of the new association Rite is growing into. ACC together with two other partners (the Danish supportive school circle and the Latvian (local) supporting circle) are the founding parties of the new association. In the Statutes there will be two new clauses: One, saying that the Board of the association will employ the principle f the school, and ACC has no objections to this change. The second one is that the local staff employed at the school can not have a seat in the Board of Representatives.
Linda gives some input on what are the plans for future activities taking place in Rite.
They plan to continue with the European debate courses for high school students. Another coming up idea is to organize evens (debates) with the local farmers on the agricultural policies of the EU. Linda also announced the possible continuation of the English courses for children conducted by Sandra and Inese.
The Board had no comments or questions and took note of these reports.
8.- FECC update
John reports that in line with our attempts to spread around the idea of FECC and build a supporting circle for it in Denmark, the office is sending the letters to important names in DK politics and society in general. Positive responses are coming in. Our request in the Danish Minister for Education has still not been answered by the Ministry. We are still waiting for a response and in the meantime the office is engaged in finding out other ways to reach theThe idea for a honorary Board and a list of important influential individuals that can help in the fundraising process for the FECC rose. The Board agrees with the observation that a (honorary) board for this purpose is needed and supports the eventual actions that go in this direction.
9.- Evaluation on Seminar + board follow-up
The Snoghøj Seminar is perceived as a very successful activity. Even though it did not attract that many from the local surrounding (since it was advertised on the newspaper) the present representatives and students of the Snoghøj Folk-high-school, a group coming from the neighbouring folk-high school Brenderup and representatives from the Association of European National Minorities made a efficient enough crowd for the presentations and the workshop sessions organized by the ACC.
The information and input gathered from the working groups will be further used for determining the frame within which the contents of the FECC should move. This seminar was also very useful for the new members of the ACC Board and for the ACC guests present.
11.- Revised calendar
John passed on the information coming from Agota and Barna that the CoE did not approve the total budget of the Bridging Europe. This is why the weekend event (10th-12th of October) will be canceled.
From 3-9th of November the Bridging Community College will take place in Sopron, Hungary;
25th October, Rite, Latvia, ACC and two other partner associations will establish the Rite Folk High School (Rites Tautskola);
the magazines produced in Hungary and Italy are being supported;
the dates for the next ERCC II are announced for September 2004;
the new volunteer in the ACC International Programme Office, Hristina Raycheva will arrive on the evening of September 27th and her start at the office will be in the second week of October because she will immediately after her arrival proceed with the EVS Introductory Course in the Folk-high-school Brandbjerg, organized by CIRIUS (the Danish Office administering Youth means).
12.- Policy proposal from Italy (harassment etc.)
John presents the paper and shortly explains the circumstances this document has been put forward to the Board for comment/adoption by the Italy Committee.
The Board members greet the initiative of the Italy Committee to suggest the Policy Paper on Sexual Harassment produced by the WSCF.
It is pointed out in the discussion that ACC does not work in the principal of producing policy papers, as it has not been done so with many other equally important issues. ACC is a small organization and misses a formal address on many crucial issues. This is why developing a policy paper on sexual harassment may not be the most natural place to start.
[…] the Board decides that it should be added to the material for the Bridging CC. After the Bridging CC, the Board foresees that many other recommendations and useful guidelines will come into light because this will be the first time people who have already implemented activities and the ones who plan to do so will meet. It is considered important that each of the future Committees individually decide what will be the spelled out rules and regulations of their own events.
13.- Next statutes proposal
It is clear that the so far practice has shown that ACC has been a part of some temporary networks (while implementing projects) and some more constant ones (AWE, and now Rite). The decision to join or step out of these networks has regularly been taken on individual bases.
This is why Board members present on this meeting were unanimous in the need for a more formal set of procedures for joining networks.
The board decided as well to add a clause saying that an official document from the ACC should always contain two signatures: one of the chairperson, and another one from the treasurer, secretary or the vice chairperson.
The Board agrees to enclose this clause as a suggestion for the statutory changes at the General Assembly 2004.
Linda and Jan-Christoph will make the draft suggestions.
13.- Formality debate
[…]
14.-Place and date of the next board meeting
The Board is not able to be concrete on the venue of the next Board meeting, because of the uncertainty of the Board members to take part in it.
15.- AOB
Laszlo informs again about the initiative of CIVITAS association in Romania. This organization plans to implement a Youth Participation project which involves more organizations and offers a one part-time position for each partner organization in a 2 years period of time.
John presents that he has been accepted in the Pool of Experts in the Socrates Programm of the EU DG for Culture and Education.
The meeting is closed
| | |
|
| |
