| | | BOARD MEETING
Århus, Denmark, 21-22 May 2005
Present at the Boardmeeting: Conchi Gallego, Emma Yeoman, John Petersen, Mjellma Mehmeti, and Erik Jentges on line.
Note must me taken that on this meeting the board is not constantly decisive as there are only 4 board members at the venue, but on issues needing a decision the board consults Erik Jentges who is available on line from Strasbourg.
1 Opening the meeting
John is chairing and Mjellma is the secretary of the meeting.
John opens the boardmeeting
2 Approving the previous board meeting minutes
After taking a through look at the minutes of the previous board meeting the board members approve the minutes.
3 Approving the agenda
Board members also approve the agenda of the meeting.
4 Since last time
UPDATE
i. Activities
a. ACCENT no. 3. John reports that the coordination work has not gone as good as it should have. Dasa and Allan are both too busy and it appears that they can not finalize it. Since Dasa has some local finances it was concluded that some professional should technically make the ACCENT. Emma has been proof reading it and the work has kicked off. The plan is that the ACCENT no. 3 should be sent to all the participants of the Youth 2002.
b. ERCC II. The Declaration that came out as a result of the event has been printed and sent to the participants of the ERCC II. Since the ACCENT from ERCC I was sent together with the ACCENT from the Transylvania course and still a large number of the ACCENT have remained in the office, now the Declaration is sent together with the ACCENTs to the Danish media, politicians and it has coincided with the GA of the FFD. This has received a very high media attention since today we are on the front page and on the first couple of pages of the Danish daily paper Kristeligt Dagblad and in the editorial. In the days to come the office will send the Declaration out to the rest of Europe.
c. Webseminars. This project had provided the ACC with supporters (individuals and organizations) from all over Europe. It has provided finances and publicity for the issue by providing some of the finances for the NECE and Sofia seminars. Out of these seminars came a report/magazine on our website. On this occasion we would like to thank Helle for collecting the comments that came in from all over Europe and taking over a very big technical responsibility for arranging them properly.
d. Annual 2004. It was produced and sent to the ACC members. We thank Mjellma for collecting the needed material and editing/shaping it in the appropriate form, Conchi for placing the material in the proper computer format and John for finalizing the technical part of the job.
e. Events in Rite. Since the last Board meeting several seminars for high school kids have taken place in Rite. Thanks to the ACC Latvia, the events like “European parliament - What does it mean for me?” and “Youth Perspective on rural Development” were successful events that gathered young people interested in European matters.
ii. Media coverage
a. Bundeszentrale fur Politische Bildung. The ACC and the Chairman John Petersen is on the website of Bundeszentrale with a live interview on European Public Sphere / European Community Colleges.
b. Szilvia Malik article. Our member from Budapest currently studying at the European Studies Institute of the Aarhus University, and a journalist has conducted an interview with Mjellma Mehmeti on non formal education and the role of the European Community College Courses. This article with additional general information about the ACC have been published (in Hungarian language) on the largest Daily Hungarian newspaper Nepszabadsag.
c. Alf Christensen study. Our member Alf Chistensen has written a thesis having to do with the boarding school education and has taken as an example an idea and initiative of the ACC the European Community College and ACC as a successful example.
d. Lucie Čížková wrote her masters thesis on the issue of “Learning for European Co-Citizenship – Danish Contribution to the Educational Aspect of Post-National Identity Formation”. This work continuously creates attention and contacts for the ACC. The full text of the thesis is available on the ACC website.
iii. Participation on events
a. Sofia Conference.
b. Skopje
c. Latvia
d. Santiago
e. Bilbao
f. Brussels Conchi and Maria (copy from the agenda)
g. Elizabeth Alber has presented the ACC, Romania
h. Szilvia Malik has presented the ACC at the event in Warsaw and made some new members for the association.
i. Elly and John have taken part at the EAEA meeting in Metz, France
j. On the 3-4 February the Commission invited the ACC to the Forum concerning the future action programme to promote active European Citizenship - a Consultation Forum for the future 2007-2013 transnational programme. John represented ACC at this meeting in Brussels. On this occasion John briefed the board members present at the meeting on the impressions from this Forum.
k. EAEA meeting. John and Jan-Christoph (and Agota and Barna) took part at the reception meeting of the EAEA and the NIACE in Brussels.
l. ACC thanks Helen Frenzel for representing ACC at the Newropeans nominations ceremony in Paris
m. Lucie has made a presentation of the ACC at the International peoples College at Helsingor
iv Cultures in Dialogue
This is boarding school course taking place at the Danish-German border land. It has to do with minority issues and is linked up with the 50 Years Anniversary of the Copenhagen- Bohn Declaration. ACC is engaged by the Board of this event as a consultant agency for this project taking into consideration our former experiences in organizing courses like this. John is then engaged as a consultant. In the frames of the “Cultures in Dialogue” event the ACC will have time and space to present itself to the 180 participants coming from all over Europe, in the three boarding schools where the event will actually take place.
v Danish politics as the lever..
John explains about the committee in the Danish Education Ministry that is in the process of revising the Folk High School Law. Moreover John informs the board members that he has been in contact with the Danish Minister for Education, Mr. Bertel Haarder.
vi FECC
John met with a Social-democrat MEP, Dan Jørgensen, from Denmark at the ACC international Programme Office. At this occasion the MEP believed that there is a possibility to make a working group made up of MEPs working on the idea of the FECC.
vii Apple Campaign
There has been an amount of 4000 DKK arriving on our account as a result of shown support to the Apple Campaign through a donation for this event taking place at the Rite school in Latvia.
viii The Turkey Project.
Unfortunately this project did not manage to get financial support. This project will be used in the future again and try its luck by reapplying on available and appropriate foundations.
ix Wallström letter.
John informs that the office has the information that the Commissioner Wallström is aware of our ideas but so far we have not received a reply from her office.
FUTURE
i. a. COCC- there is a very difficult communication flow with the Cornwall Committee, more concretely with Richard.
b. Exploring Borders.. a coming up event in the Netherlands which is a follow up of the last years Rural Development course that took place in Latvia.
c. Bridging CC II. This event is a second organized so far that gathers past and future organizers of events for sharing experiences and consultation. This time it has been quite a challenge to gather participants as our organizers (present and former) are very busy in this period. For this reason the concept of this BCC will deviate a little from its original, it will concentrate much more on the needs of the new organizers and organizers that have quite new and alternative methods (appreciative inquiry and open space technology) coming from the business life the Bologna Process…. This event will take place at the Rite school in Latvia.
d. European Citizenship in Action (known as Demos CC + Active Citizenship CC). There is financial approval for this project now. Even though we are still waiting the co-financing portion of the finances, the event in Rhodes is high on its preparations.
e. Representation CC. This project previously planned for August will be moved to September. This project has received funding from the EU and the office in cooperation with the project committee is now working on the co-financing. Some eventual solutions have been suggested and detected so the planning and preparations for the event are on their way.
f. SECC III. Validation of the non-formal education and we have been invited in Brussels for a meeting and we will probably get support for this event by the Commission.
g. Parents CC. There is an idea that the ACC should do something more to build our profile as not only a youth organizations, but to broaden the age group of our participants. Helena has initiated and discussed this very idea with John and it really has made a remarkable reaction from all the ones who have had the chance to hear it.
h. Active Citizenship. This is a combined activity to the Demos CC and it has to be a public event that is of an interest in Denmark. Shortly, this needs to be a Conference like event. John has been working on the fundraising of this event and he has a working title for it which is: Challenges for the European Civil Society.
ii. a. The Board approves that Mjellma should follow up on the EDC activities by taking part at the Inter-institutional meeting to be held in the beginning of June at the Council of Europe, in Strasbourg, France.
b. The Board moreover obliges John to officially reply to NECEs on their invitation extended to the ACC for the event to be held in December 2005, and to the BSUF for the invitation extended to the ACC for participation on their event to take place in Bucharest from 1-5th of June 2005.
iii. Conchi informs the board members on the latest developments related to the eventual Zamora event. Our contact at the venue unfortunately does not work there any more. Under the newly developed terms, it will be very difficult to pursue further activities in this venue. Conchi’s suggestion is to start looking for a new venue for the event previously planned for Zamora.
iv.
v. FECC. There is a possibility that there will be concrete activities and meetings coming up in connection with this upcoming working group of the Danish MEPs.
vi. Tuomo is a Finnish member of the ACC who has been in contact with us since the Youth 2002 event. John has been inspired from what Tuomo has been doing in the direction to write the Finnish Government to organize a Youth 2006 when their presidency with the EU Council takes place. The board encouraged John to write something related to this idea to the Finnish Government, Wallström and Mairesse
Daniel and his concept related to his new position in Poland is still in status quo. We are still waiting for his reply and update.
Hannes, one of the former EVS’es and our member in Latvia has a project for the ACC and we are waiting for further information from him.
vii. Naomi’s song- book. John presented Naomi’s idea to make a European song-book to be used like the folk high school song-book. This song-book should be used at the CCs.
viii. Bori, our member from Budapest, has applied to have a stand for the ACC in the NGO Fair at a large Festival in Budapest (at an island on Danube). The office has approved this initiative and we are looking forward to receiving more information on the application.
ix. See i
x. Aarhus Business School. According to the recommendations from the GA 2004 we have gone into cooperation with the AaBS in terms of improving our website. The group of students is currently working on the improvement. After John’s meeting with them a circulating e-mail has been sent to our members with questions that have to do with issues related to the information available on the website and some more diverse encouragement for suggestions.
xi. Cyprus initiative. There is an initiative coming up from one of our members in Cyprus, Heleni. Conchi has expressed her interest in taking up the contact with her and investigate the possibilities for her to take part at the BCC II.
5. ACC Århus Committee, ACC Fundraising Committee, ACC Chaudenay Committee. New Committees
John presents to the Board the activities so far taken up with Angie and Perrine. The project they suggest has to do with environmental issues, ECCC- European Countryside Community College. The Board while consulting Erik approves the Committee for this project, ACC Campagne Committee.
The Board members have gone through the project description of the “French” project of Perrine and Angie. There are some concerns about some formulations that need further clarification because they might be caused by translation from French in English. The Board has decided that Mjellma will be the Board member responsible for this project. The board has taken note of the previously suggested corrections and remarks to the draft project description and in consultation with Erik approves the Committee for this project.
ACC Fundraising Committee. Advised by the GA 2004 a certain amount of finances were set aside for the functioning of this committee which was identified as necessity for the organization. The members of this committee have not managed to use this amounts and meet for this purpose. It seams that there is not so much optimism in this committee.
The Aarhus Committee is postponed until after the Latvia ACC event.
6 ACC International Programme Office
Helle has finished her contract March 1st. Helle has performed solidly and we hope she has benefited from the time she spent at the ACC office. Malene is now a new assistant for the period of 6 months. Perrine is employed on specific tasks, and so is Mjellma. There is one more ACC member in Aarhus, Emily that has also offered herself to help in the office whenever there is a need.
7 The platform network (ENCLOSURE)
John informs the Board about the meetings in the European Civil Society Platform on Life Long Learning. The Board members read the minutes from this meeting and present John with their questions of clarification. ACC needs a decision of the Board for taking part on the Civil Society Platform. For this issue the Board consulted Erik and decided that the ACC should be part of the EAEA-related European Civil Society Platform, and added that we should do our best to make our aims and activities known to the EAEA.
8 Economy and budget
John explains the board members the Budget and finance plan. After some questions coming from the Board members were answered a conclusion can be brought that now the Board is very well informed about the current financial status of the association.
9 Rites Tautskola
Rite Tautskola. Rite had a GA a couple of weeks ago. ACC was represented at the GA by: John Petersen, Linda Jakobsone, Dace Salmina and Inese Ardone. The meeting went fine, Inese got elected as our candidate in the Board of the school and John is a substitute. The Board suggests that this point should be taken up again in Rite. In the meantime the Rite Board should hand in the complete Annual accounts. Good news: Now there are showers in Rite!!
10 Active yahoo-group, exchange server, spam…
Web-facilities. Since last meeting the exchange server has been in use but it is not used as much as it should. Still this stands as an opportunity of faster communication that eventually should cut on our telephone bills. We have made some improvements as far as to prevent the spamming of our e-mail accounts. The monthly reports of the Committees and new initiatives have not shown so much success. John suggests that we should not spend time on squeezing people to write them. Conchi suggests that this group should be maintained and be available to the ones who want to use it in the future. Maybe the communication of the board members and the active members will increase through the exchange server but that should be yet to be seen.
11 General Assembly
The board decided to organize the coming General assembly in Brussels. We need to write invitations and first confirm with Anna and Erik about the exact date of their event in Germany. The Board also decides to contact Alexander Hoffman for his eventual consent to join the Board of the ACC. The date of the GA shall be flexible until we find out about an event in Brussels that we could take part in and connect it with our GA.
| | |
|
| |
