RC 34 Board Meeting 30-31 October 1999 Walddorf, Germany Minutes
Those present: President: Lynne Chisholm (LAC), Treasurer: Ladislav Machacek (LM), Newsletter Editor: Helena Helve (HH), Vice President for Russia and assistant VP: Luydmila Koklyagina-Nurse (LKN) and Julia Zubok (JZ), Organisational Secretary: Claire Wallace (CW). Irene Guidikova (IG) from the Council of Europe Youth Centre in Strasbourg, attended for the Summer School agenda item. 1. Minutes of the last meeting were accepted 2. Policy Issues and Activity Plan
• An update of the Activity Plan was agreed (copy forwarded with these minutes).
• A public version of the Activity Plan was prepared by LAC and CW as part of the general information for members. This is now available on the IBYR website. Events since April a) Youth between two worlds – Europe and Latin America: Conference in May, Lleida. Organised by Carles Feixa (Hispanic Coordinator); LAC participated as keynote speaker.
• LAC reported that it was a tremendous success and established new links between RC34 and the Hispanophone world; the proceedings are currently in press (in Catalonian) and negotiations are underway to produce a Spanish language version for the Latin American market. The University of Lleida has now also decided to introduce an M.A. in Youth Studies and it is likely that RC34 will be asked to contribute to the courses.
• Carles Feixa has also kindly agreed to translate Spanish and French texts for the IBYR. Some of these have already appeared.
• The Board expressed their warmest thanks to Carles Feixa and hope he will be able to come to the next Board meeting in Helsinki. a) Training workshop for young youth researchers at the European Youth Centre,Budapest (organised by the Council of Europe in conjunction with RC 34; several RC34 Board/Committee members were involved).
• Again, this event had been regarded by all (including participants) as a great success; there is general agreement that it is a model to be repeated in future. A report about the meeting is now available on the IBYR website.
• CW to follow up participants and persuade them to join RC34. a) Toward 21st century: youth and youth studies.Conference in November, Beijing. RC34 was invited, but the advance notice was too short; LAC sent a letter of greetings and congratulations to be read to the conference by Songxing Su (VP Asia).
• Ingo Richter (Director, German Youth Institute, Munich) participated and will be asked to write a short report for inclusion on the IBYR website. (Action HH).
• LAC will forward a copy of the letter she sent to Beijing as an example for other Board members to use where appropriate in their regions (modules could also be translated into relevant languages). Upcoming events a) Bulgarian Sociological Association Conference, November 1999 in Sofia. Several RC34 members had been invited; Siyka Kovacheva (Board at large) will represent the Board at this event and LAC had sent a letter of greetings and congratulations to the organisers. b) Jaipur conference RC34 have been approached by Istval Modi from the University of Rajastan to co-organise a conference in December 2000 on Leisure, Culture, Tourism and special human groups: children, youth and the Aged together with RCs 13 (Leisure) and 53 (Childhood). Prof. Modi has asked the three RCs to give $1000 to prepare this event.
• The proposal was welcomed in principle; in particular, the Board is keen to co-operate with other RCs in this way.
• The initial draft programme requires considerable improvement (organisation and content)
• The meeting confirmed the principle that RC34 cannot and should not provide financial sponsorship of this kind. However, we are prepared to advance a loan to the organisers, on the understanding that the funds will be returned once the conference has found real sponsors. It was proposed that, in return for their professional sponsorship, the RCs should receive a share of any conference profits.
• More broadly, it was agreed that RC34 expertise is likely to be helpful in facilitating fundraising on behalf of local conference organisers; we also have much better access to information and communication networks than academics in many parts of the world. CW offered to see whether the Institute of Higher Studies in Vienna would agree to provide funds for a Project Development Specialist, who would help both IHS and RC34 in this area. a) ISA Mid-term Research Conference Social Transformations at the Turn of the Millenium, 28-30 July 2000 in Montreal. All RC Presidents have been invited to participate and present a paper. LAC will go and has sent in an outline entitled Youth, Generation and the lifecourse: the implications of contemporary social change. The idea would be to bring together contributions from RC34 Committee members’ own work and their suggestions about appropriate theory and research from their regions. LAC would write the final paper, which would be jointly authored as appropriate according to the contributions received.
• It was decided that this exercise should be seen as the first step in producing an RC34 book on the same theme, with different chapters covering specific aspects. The book should aim for genuinely international coverage, but would attempt to integrate work from different regions around specific thematic aspects rather than divide the book up into regional contributions as such.
• LAC will send the outline to the Board for their initial suggestions; LM, HH, LKN and CW will send their brainstorming ideas back to her by the end of November.
• The outline will also be placed on the IBYR website with an invitation to all Committee members to join in the process.
• Deadline for finalised individual contributions: 31 May 2000. a) High Tatra Conference The economic dimension of active citizenship in the Information Society. Youth and work and the future of Europe. LM has secured the support of the relevant Slovak Ministries (= funds for brochure, interpretation, etc.) and hopes to get an EU grant to cover the main costs. A suitable conference centre has been identified; rooms will cost between 75-150 DEM (37-75 Euro) per night. LM expects a wide range of participants from the research, policy and practice worlds.
• The meeting agreed to fix the conference dates: 26-30 May 2001.
• It was agreed that CW would assist LM to prepare the application for EU funding.
• It was suggested that if the Council of Europe would agree to hold a Youth Research Correspondents’ meeting in Slovakia at the same time, travel costs for a significant number of non-Slovak conference participants could be covered this way. LM will discuss this with Irena Guidikova.
• The Board congratulated Ladislav for this excellent forward planning. a) Milan conference Youth, Family and Intergenerational Relations: Carmen Leccardi (Advisory Board) plans to organise this event at the new university in Milan (Bicocca) in autumn 2001.
Following a recent discussion with LAC in Vienna, the Director of the Austrian Institute of Family Studies (which runs the European Family Observatory; and where Sylvia Trnka (Advisory Board) works), expressed very positive interest in becoming a partner for this conference. It would be possible, for example, to hold a specialists’ meeting in Milano at the same time as the conference and thus cover the travel costs of some of the speakers and participants. CL should contact Sylvia on this.
• CW also proposed that an application for ESF funding could be made – LAC will pass on the papers to CL.
• The Board congratulated Carmen for taking forward this promising initiative.
Russian Federation Activity Plan
• The welcome presence of both LKN and JZ meant that the meeting was able to consider a development plan for the region at some length, on the basis of a paper they had jointly prepared. Developing activities and recruiting members in Russia pose a number of practical problems (lack of local funds/low incomes, poor communications infrastructure), but there are also ‘attitudinal’ barriers to overcome (individual reluctance to invest time and money unless there is an immediate and tangible reward, lack of understanding of the value of international professional networks). The following decisions were taken:
• JZ will write a short strategy document for the Board with ideas of how to develop and promote RC34 activities in the Russian context.
• Relatively few researchers have access to the Internet, and thus cannot access IBYR. LKN will send print-outs twice each year to JZ, who will copy and distribute these as needed.
• Nevertheless, Internet access does exist and will certainly increase. So LKN and JZ will work on a Russian section on the IBYR website, containing translations in resume of important items and posting working reports, etc., from Russian researchers (but who would have to become RC34 members to take advantage of this opportunity to disseminate their work and make contacts with other researchers). Coding texts onto the IBYR website is expensive and very difficult for non-Russian readers to manage in practice. Therefore, only the introduction to the Russian section will be coded; all other items will be provided as e-mail attachments for downloading by readers.
• In order that the Russian and English/French/Spanish readership remain in contact with each other, JZ will write a report in English for the IBYR website on Russian RC34 activities in English twice a year, including resumes of items from the ‘Russian section’.
• LKN will also write a short account of Youth State Policy in Russia for the IBYR (which can also be included in the Summer School resources pack).
• We plan to repeat the Budapest training workshop in Russia in 2001 (see point (b) under events since April, above). JZ and LKN will contact Irena Guidikova about this.
• The Board confirmed that in principle, international RC34 events should always be multilateral rather than bilateral, and that RC34 should always be a recognised partner/professional sponsor if an event is to be given the label ‘RC34 activity’. Obviously, regional conferences will largely attract participants from the region or country concerned, and here it is the RC34 presence which makes them international.
• In the light of recent experiences, LKN will draft guidelines on how to get a visa without being humiliated in order to help Russian members participate in events in other countries.
South African Summer School
• David Everatt (VP Africa) has succeeded in attracting financial sponsorship from the Royal Netherlands Embassy for this ‘milestone event’ and serious planning has begun, in cooperation with LAC.
• The summer school is scheduled to take place around Easter 2000, probably hosted at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at Rhodes University in Grahamstown on the Eastern Cape. Firm dates remain to be set, but DE is working on it.
• Funds to cover travel and accommodation for five RC34 team members are available; several Board members have expressed interest in participating. DE and LAC will try to put together an internationally balanced team from the Board and the Committee membership, with the proviso that experience in this kind of work will be an important criterion as well as being able to communicate well in English, the lingua franca of the region.
• We would like to invite a representative from the Council of Europe European Youth Centre to participate, given their expertise in youth policy matters and in running international training courses in the youth field. LAC will write to the EYC Director, Lasse Siurala, about the prospects for sending a representative (Irena Guidikova), whose costs would be covered by the EYC.
• Extended discussion took place about the kinds of issues that should be covered and who would be the best people to involve. LAC will draw up the outcomes of the discussion and send these to DE as soon as possible.
• The Board warmly congratulated DE on taking this initiative forward so successfully.
Publication projects I History of RC34
• There has been no visible progress on this since the Vienna Board meeting in April. The plan remains to present the outcome as a concise book at the BrisbaneWorld Congress in 2002.
• LKN agreed to take over the management of this project, working with ST. It was agreed that a plan of action, schedule of action and specification of ‘who does what’ is urgently needed.
• HH also offered to make inquiries with the Nordic graduate youth research school to see if an M.A. student would like to take on the bulk of the substantive work as their dissertation project.
• Interim reports could be published via the IBYR website, to encourage more people to provide material; photographs of past ‘great events’ with ‘famous figures’ from RC34’s history could also be used to stimulate interest in the project. II Youth, Citizenship and Empowerment
• The editors are HH and CW; some members of RC34 may be asked to contribute articles; to be published either by Helsinki University Press or Routledge. III Summer School Resources Manual
• LM could use Slovak funds remaining from his IBYR Editorship period to produce an IBYR special issue in the form of an A5 booklet (reduced from 40 A4 pages maximum). The submission (including the proposed texts) would have to be made by the beginning of December 1999.
• It was agreed that the only viable method would be to use articles already published elsewhere (especially by RC34 members). Initial proposals were listed; Board members should send copies of proposed texts for inclusion to both LAC and LM before the end of November; LAC will do the final selection/editing. Texts should address youth policy issues or action research methods topics, if possible with a comparative focus.
• The ultimate aim is use this as a basis for developing a Sage reader on comparative youth policy and applied research, which can be used in RC34 training seminars and summer schools but also sold in the normal way. CW will also explore the costs of producing a CD ROM publication instead of, or in addition to, a conventional book, given the rapid changes in teaching/learning resources and the possibilities for including different kinds of materials in IT format. 3. Communications and Promotion a) IBYR
• Coding items onto the website costs €6 per hour (students’ rates), and there has been a lot of work to do in the initial stages. RC34 has transferred $500 as agreed, but HH has added 3000 Finnish Marks from her own resources so far. She is prepared to wait for reimbursement until we succeed in gaining more funds for the updating and maintenance of the IBYR site.
• In order to put the IBYR on a more stable long term footing, HH will estimate costs of running and updating the IBYR so that suitable funding support could be found. She will also inquire about how to get an ISA grant for the newsletter and put in an application as soon as she gets the go ahead from CW that we have 100 members.
• In future, the website will be updated twice each year to correspond roughly with the timing of the spring and autumn Board meetings.
• To keep costs within reasonable limits, coded articles/contributions will be restricted to a maximum 3 A4 pages (some exceptions may be made on an ad hoc basis). The content of regular columns (such as the twice-yearly President’s letter) will be placed in a back file (which can be downloaded by readers) when updated. The Russian language section will also be mainly for downloading only (except for the introductory text).
• The website will also include an ‘organisational secretary’s page’ with information about how to join RC34 (CW will send HH an electronic version of the application form) and the brochure text (which CW will forward to HH once she has done a final check on the accuracy of the contents).
• It was decided that CW will prepare a short version of the main decisions etc. from each Board meeting for the IBYR
The Board meeting agreed that the IBYR website should be open access for readers, but that only RC 34 members could be contributors (LAC will send HH a short explanatory text on this policy for insertion).
• RC 34 also needs to set up a system for providing IBYR to members without Internet access. CW will write to all members to see who needs a paper version and then pass on names/addresses to Vice Presidents, who will be responsible for sending out photocopies twice each year (after each update) to those people in their region who are on the list.
• Board members are also reminded that they can send information and news for the next NYRI newsletter (Nordic Youth Research Network), which is also edited by HH.
• The Board extended warmest congratulations and thanks to Helena and her team of assistants in Helsinki for all their work on behalf of RC34 in managing the transition to an electronic IBYR so successfully.
a) Hart Group
• LAC had written suggesting that the Hart Group take out institutional membership in RC34 in order to access the membership for attracting appropriate consultants in the youth field, and offered the possibility of a ‘Hart group space’ on the IBYR website.
• LKN reported that the proposal is being considered and a reply will arrive in due course. Hart Group already have their own website, with which IBYR could set up a hyperlink. Russian Federation Activity Plan a) Journal of Youth Studies
• LAC apologised for not having had the time to follow up getting a subscription discount for RC 34 members; this will be rectified as soon as possible.
• It was proposed that we could also offer the journal’s publisher, Carfax, some advertising space on the IBYR website in return for some funds towards its maintenance. Russian Federation Activity Plan a) RC34 brochure
• GH has now finalised the text of the brochure; the Board congratulated Gunilla on her excellent work.
• CW will now do a final check on the text and add the new logo (as used on the IBYR site); LAC and HH will ensure she has the electronic versions of both to work from. She will print out the final version on coloured paper and forward to all Board members, who can then produce their own copies for use as needed in their region.
• Board members are asked to consider translating the brochure into major world languages (with their own resources); CW will put these texts into the right format with the logo and send them back ready fro duplication. Russian Federation Activity Plan a) Young Youth Researchers’ Essay Competition There has been no further news on developing this idea from JH since the April Board meeting. LAC will contact him to see what is happening. It was decided that the Past President should always be the chair of the jury to judge the essays. OS will be asked to draw up a set of ‘competition rules’ for the next Board meeting.
4. Finance and Membership Finances
• After paying LAC 400 DM for postage (incurred at the end of 1998 for a mail shot to members needing to renew) and HH $500 for the logo and IBYR website, 25,000 ATS was left in the bank account.
• LM gave LAC $180 from Chinese members (6 members) to transfer to the account in ATS when she is next in Vienna.
• The organisation of banking and their charges are a particular disincentive in Russia. An arrangement was proposed for Russians to pay JZ who would pay LKN who would then make the transfer to the Austrian account from Britain. JZ will prepare a standard letter to send out to prospective Russian members.
• CW will also write to the ISA HQ in Madrid and ask for all transfers to be made in EURO (and not US dollars) in order to reduce bank charges, which are all passed on to us by the ISA.
• The PSK bank promised a bank card (for machine transactions) when we opened the account with them; they have backtracked with the argument that the account turnover is too low. This is very inconvenient for CW, who will insist that the card is issued (otherwise, we change our bank again). But the RC34 account will continue to be held in the Eurozone to keep bank charges to a minimum.
• It was noted that although the RC 34 membership dues had been raised to $40 at in 1998 and the ISA had been informed of this, $30 still appeared on the official ISA application form. CW will write to ISA HQ to have this rectified and will also check the electronic version of the form. Membership
• A careful check was made of membership lists and the Board ascertained that there were now 97 full members, plus 24 affiliated members. It is clear that the ISA lists are not entirely accurate; CW will pursue this vigorously to ensure that all those who have paid are included on the official list.
• At most, only a few more members are needed to surmount the 100 barrier which gives access to a higher Newsletter grant and full space at the Brisbane WC programme. CW has drafted a set of standard letters in order to attract and retain members. She has already written to affiliated members to persuade them to join as full members (only full members count towards jumping the 100 barrier), and also to a long list of likely candidates from the youth research community to persuade them to join. 20 memberships will expire next year; CW will now write to these people too.
• LM proposed that RC34 could found a “Millenium Trust” in order to sponsor the ISA membership of up to 4 people per year from poorer (Category C) countries combined with a lower membership fee for RC34. In Category C countries the membership fee was only $25 for four years. This would help to raise membership from poorer regions and also give us extra members at little cost to ourselves. Decisions could be taken at each Board meeting on the basis of applications made to the President. LAC will write a text on this new idea to put into the IBYR website.
6. Relationship with other groups ESA
• The positive discussion in Vienna had not been well followed through, partly due to misunderstandings about participation at the ESA Congress in August 1999 (JH had to cancel due to illness; ST had said she could not go very early on, but this had somehow not got through).
• It was agreed that LAC will contact Bob Miller about organising a more systematic hyperlink between the ESA Youth and Generations electronic discussion group and the IBYR website, and about how to cooperate more effectively in the future. UNESCO
• Against the background of the planning of an ISSJ special issue on youth in global context, LAC was concerned that RC34’s “special relationship” with UNESCO did not have much substance in practice. On JH’s advice, she had written to Elsa Oyen (Norway, Unesco Social Science Committee) to get more clarification and hopefully improve matters. UN
• We need to restore and renew good relations with the UN. LAC to explore the options. NYRI
• RC34 will be visibly present at the Helsinki conference next June (see activity plan) and the next Board meeting will take place during/alongside the conference period. Relations with NYRI are close and cooperative; the Board greatly appreciates the its many-sided support for our own work. AOB
• With sadness, the Board took note that Ovidiu Badina, first president of RC34, had died. The Board of RC34 expressed their sympathies and decided to ask SK to write an obituary for IBYR.
Date and location of next board meeting Helsinki, between 6-10 June, during the NYRI 7 Conference, Making and Breaking Borders. Board members can find information on this major conference via the NYRI link on the IBYR website. Everyone is encouraged to offer a paper (if they have not already done so) and to seek funding so that they can participate. This will be the mid-term Board meeting, where we begin forward planning for the next World Congress. It is important that as many of you as possible join us. ***