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EUDEC ANNUAL ASSEMBLY


30 JULY – 3 AUGUST 2009, CIESZYN, POLAND

Here’s a brief bit of feedback from the 1st EUDEC Annual Assembly, which took place in Cieszyn, southern Poland from 30 July – 3 August 2009.

Participants represented 11 European countries, namely: Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, and UK.

There were over 60 active participants at the Assembly. And when you add the family members of the participants and Ola Matyska’s group of students from Lodz, Poland, who took part in some sessions and the evening programme, we reach over 90. Leonard Turton, our elder statesmen, was the most senior person involved and Oskar French – at 2 years old – the youngest.

This was the first Annual Assembly, sandwiched between last year’s EUDEC Conference in Leipzig, Germany and next year’s due to be held in the UK. The Assembly has quite a different focus than the conference. It is essentially an internal EUDEC event, run for and by the members. It gives us an opportunity to focus specifically on EUDEC, rather than on the theory and practice of democratic education. Those of us who attend both the 1st Conference and the Assembly now know the different aims, focus and rhythm of the two events, which is sure to help us in the future.

The three main focuses of this, our first Assembly were:

  • The Guidance Document (GD)
  • Workgroups
  • The election of new officers


Probably the biggest task that we faced was putting the finishing touches to – and ratifying – the Guidance Document, which the Council – but chiefly Michael Sappir and Rachel Roberts – have been working hard on this past year. The entire proposed restructured GD was ratified, with some amendments discussed and voted on in Assembly and a few dozen more postponed for online discussion and Referendum.

The next chief focus was the Workgroups. The following workgroups were formed: outreach, website, research, exchange programme, workgroup organisation, anti-discrimination addition to the GD.

Elections for EUDEC officers to the Council, Oversight Committee and Auditors took place.

Council

The following nine people were selected by the membership:
David Simonsen (Denmark), Dragana Bolješić Knežević (Croatia), Leslie Ocker (Germany), Michael Sappir (Germany), Christel Hartkamp (The Netherlands), Benni Schmutzer (Germany), Aurelien Giraud (UK), Imogen Wright (UK) and David French (Poland).

The new council met twice on Monday, and all left with a clear idea of the most urgent tasks facing them in the coming months. The new Council members are sure to benefit from the experience gained by Leslie and Michael over the last two years. Former Council members and Chloe Duff, EUDEC Conference 2010 organiser, will join the Extended Committee and therefore be able to contribute to all Council debates, but without voting on outcomes.

Elections took place for the two new EUDEC organs, with the results looking like this:

Oversight Committee

Christian Pittner – who will also take on the role of Ombudsman (Germany), Zsa-Zsa Tempest Shea and Leonard Turton (both UK).

Auditors

Peter Hartkamp (The Netherlands) and Robert Welti (Germany)

We were also pleased to hear about the founding of the first two Regional Chapters: Germany and Switzerland. We trust we won’t have to wait long for further chapters to be founded in other parts of Europe.

Our thoughts are already beginning to turn to the 2010 EUDEC Conference to be held in UK. Chloe Duff was at the Assembly gathering suggestions from members. She will be working closely with the Council throughout the year in the run-up to the Conference.

Speaking as the Assembly’s main organizer, I did my best to find venues near the centre of town which were close to each other. I also tried to make participants’ time after the working day enjoyable, so we organised a few events in the evening to enable us to chill, get to know each other and have some fun. I would say the little town of Cieszyn was an excellent venue for the Assembly.

In finishing I’d just like to make the point that the way forward for EUDEC depends on the contributions of all the members. We need to maintain the momentum of the workgroups that was begun in Cieszyn. And every one of us can make a difference in other ways, like keeping up to speed with developments and posting our views on the Forum, staying involved with existing workgroups, starting or joining a new one, or by founding a regional chapter where we live.

We made a great start at this year’s Assembly, so let’s build on it.

David French