Loughborough 2003 - Minutes of the Executive Board Meetings

Present
Morgan, Parés I Maicas, Prehn, Méar (not present at the meeting November 8 th ), de Bruin, Meigs, Prehn.

The president opened the meeting and noted that Sarikakis, Servaes, Teer-Tomaselli,and Kuo were not able to attend.

Agenda

Business arising from the minutes and new members were added.

Minutes of the meetings in Barcelona

The paragraphs on the treasurer´s report were corrected and abridged due to proposal from Méar.
Among the many items emphasised as business arising from the minutes were:

• during the time since the Barcelona conference, the association seems to be loosing momentum, amongst others due to postponing the Taipei conference, and that the board had not fully lived up to its own expectations, and that matters accomplished or vividly in the pipeline had not been communicated satisfactorily to the membership
• in line with the above, it was stressed that being a member of the Executive Board necessitates both responsibility and commitment - the president was urged to supervise the work of committees
• a lot of work has been done regarding WSIS and UNESCO, and Divina Frau Meigs emphasised the need for building a network of correspondents and the need for more thorough communication of activities going on in this particular field
• the need for a secretary was raised
• the IAMCR should do better in attracting funding for projects coordinated with the conferences as UNESCO is no longer able to support conference participants
• the issue of printing new brochures was raised

The minutes were then approved.

Reports

The report from the president was approved. Arising from the report was the question whether IAMCR should play a more active role as an information broker. This could be done on the website.
The oral reports from the secretary general and the past president were approved.

The treasurer_s report was dealt with at the International Council meeting following the meetings of the Executive Board.

In her report, deputy secretary general Divina Frau Meigs noted that the presence of the IAMCR during meetings in UNESCO has hightened the profile of the association, and that time is up to take initiatives – for instance in relation to a UNESCO supported journal or yearbook. She also emphasised the work in relation to WSIS. It was decided that the IAMCR, if at all possible, should host a UNESCO panel in Porto Alegre based on a position paper drafted by Frau Meigs. The report was approved.

The report of vice-president Marjan de Bruin concentrated on the publication of the newsletters, and it was agreed that a special issue to be published prior to the Porto Alegre conference would contribute to the WSIS discussions as a follow up on the Geneva summit in December 2003. It was decided to continue the print version of the newsletter, but that the newsletter would also be available on the website. The report was approved.

Reports from members not being able to join the meeting were not discussed, but in relation to the report from vice-president Jan Servaes and the subsequent on-line discussions, the board decided the reviewing process should not be disclosed.

The Porto Alegre conference

The secretary general reported on the status of the preparations for the conference. The board approved the overall logistical issues and awaited the results of remaining issues to be dealt with during past president Manuel Parés I Maicas visit to Porto Alegre later in November and during the secretary general_s visit early 2004.

Report of the Barcelona conference 2002

The board approved the report and sent its congratulations to the local organising committee for the perfectly organised and successful conference.

Coming conferences

The board decided to start a search process for identifying venues for the conferences beyond 2005. It was approved that the following countries should be contacted: Canada, South Africa, Russia, Sweden, Jamaica or Cuba, and Iran.

Conference guidelines

As the chair of the conference committee, vice-president Katharine Sarikakis was not present, the board decided to postpone the discussions of the draft recommendations.

Preparations of the 2004 elections

The board, joined by the chair of the Elections Committee, went through the procedural and technical issues related to the elections and conferred its proposals to the International Council.

Update on the new website

The secretary general gave a status on the work in progress. Due to the fact that much more work and financial means was needed, and the fact that hosting the website might change in 2004, it was decided to run the site in a trial period during spring 2004 and make final decisions during meetings in Porto Alegre. As it was originally the plan to launch the new site and the new addresses at the same time, it was decided to make the new web addresses operative at soon as possible..