Minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee in Budapest on 23 April 2002

Present: Theo Binnendijk (President), David Lane (Vice President), Martti Kemppainen (Vice President), Richard Joubert (Treasurer), Robert Soisson, Famke Schiff (minutes)

Secretary General
ANCE France had offered a candidate - Daniel Vidaud - for the function of General Secretary or Vice President for representation with the Council of Europe and UNESCO. The advantages of his candidature were his knowledge of FICE over many years and the continued involvement of ANCE France in FICE. The members of the CE were unsure about his fluency in English, which was felt to be a requirement for the post of Secretary General, and so it was proposed that Daniel Vidaud should be asked to fulfil the function of Vice President.

Markus Mader had not been able to fulfil the job of Secretary General, and so Pestalozzi had offered Sfr.10.000 a year for the coming two years in lieu. Wolfgang Trede had informed Theo that SOS Kinderdorf would not be able to provide a Secretary General.
The decision about the future of the post of the Secretary General was felt to be important, and arguments for having such a role were:
- it is in the statutes of FICE;
- the Secretary General often has special tasks and functions in associations and a special relationship with President in offering support and advice on policy;
- for networking within FICE.
The qualities needed to fulfil the function of Secretary General were:
- drive to get things done,
- speaking English, German and French,
- time.
It was noted that if FICE were to start more projects, the role of the Secretary General would be affected, as more people would become involved, spreading the work-load and attracting funding for the management of the projects.

Projects
Three kinds of projects were identified:
1. policy projects: e.g. children's rights, peace education
2. associative projects: e.g. projects to find members in Africa
3. technical projects: e.g. éducateurs sans frontières, friendship camps, PEP
Especially for the last group of projects sponsoring was needed. Decisions would be made to authorise the projects in the FC.

Project proposal: The World Bank had organised a project in which some countries take part as partners. The aim of the project was to get all children in school. It was proposed that the World Bank should be contacted to ask if FICE could participate in this world-wide project.

Finances
- 75% of the contribution had been paid
- a letter had been sent to FICE Poland and Hungary for reduced contributions of Sfr. 500 but no answer had yet been received.

Future strategy
Robert Soisson, President of FICE Europe, stated that he did not agree that he should take part in the CE as a Vice President, but as President of FICE Europe. According to Theo there could be only one President in the CE, namely the President of FICE International, and FICE Europe was a part of FICE International. FICE Europe was meant as a European association with a European character. It was necessary to have European financial support for European projects. An association such as FICE Europe needed a President, Treasurer and Secretary General for its identity. For the future of FICE there should be one strong FICE. The emphasis had to be on FICE International, to prevent countries losing their interest in FICE. There were opportunities to develop contacts in the Mediterranean countries, Africa and Asia, but FICE was a weak organisation at the moment and it could not afford the travel costs. FICE had to be pragmatic and see what worked best and was most effective. The discussion about FICE Europe and FICE International was more a matter of competition than of cooperation.

Report of President
- AIEJI: Theo Binnendijk had met Arlin Ness, President of AIEJI, during a meeting of the Board of AIEJI in Paris in April. They had spoken about the kind of organisation AIEJI and FICE are; the problems of both organisations are similar. AIEJI not only related to children, but also to adults.
The best way for cooperation was through projects. FICE and AIEJI should also keep in contact.
- IFCO: Theo had met the President of IFCO, Anja van Hout. The organisation dealt with the same problems as FICE. It worked to a master plan for the work of the headquarters. IFCO had no national sections; it organised an international conference every year. After the meeting in Budapest both Presidents would have another meeting in order to work in cooperation on a project about residential and foster care.
- ENSCW: Theo had made contact with Ton Waarts about street children. It was a specialised organisation; there would be no cooperation because of the many differences between the two organisations.
- At the beginning of January 2002, Theo Binnendijk had attended a meeting in Moscow organised by the All Russian Fund of Education in Moscow. The contacts had been made through FICE Holland, who supported a project for street children in Moscow. Theo had met Emilia Chervinskaya and Martti Kemppainen during this meeting.

Website
The website had not been progressed as far as had been intended; David had been waiting for a reaction to his proposals for the structure of the website.
The password proposed for the confidential area: Trogen. The FC had to make a decision to what information people should have access to.

General Assembly in Berlin
Election of Treasurer: Roland Stübi proposed Rolf Widmer as candidate for Treasurer. Rolf Widmer had many contacts in the World Bank.

In memoriam
At the age of 98 years Louis François (President of ANCE France from 1950-1978 and President of FICE from 1970-1976) had died on 13 January 2002. To commemorate him Richard Joubert would speak a few words in the FC.