Agenda for the CE-meeting in Paris on 31 January – 1 February 2003

(Starting time 15.00 a.m.)

1. Announcements

2. Meetings in Berlin:
- Executive Committee on 16 September 2002 (actions)
- General Assembly on 17 September 2002 (actions)
- Federal Council on 17 September 2002 (actions)

3. Membership:
- E-mail David Lane 14 December 2002
- Irish Association of Care Workers: letter Noel Howard 13 December 2002

4. Sources of finance
- Report of meeting in Brussel by Rolf Widmer

5. Finances:
- Completion of the congress in Berlin in September 2002
- Devolution to Rolf Widmer

6. Projects FICE International
- Educateurs sans frontières
- Friendship Camps
- PEP
- Partnerships with other international organisations
- Baltic
- Northern America and Australia
- Collections of policies concerning childcare
- Experts in the extra familial care and education of children
- Childrens rights in institutions
- Collection of successful projects
- Ethical Code

7. PR / Information FICE International

8. FC Meeting in Moscow in April 2003

9. Meeting AIEJI / IFSW / FICE in Denmark in May

10. Congress in Glasgow in 2004

11. Planning next CE (in July?)

12. Planning FC
- October 2003: Denmark
- April 2004
- September 2004: Scotland

13. FICE Europe

Minutes of the Executive Committee in Paris on 31 January - 1 February 2003

Participants
Theo Binnendijk - President
Rolf Widmer - Treasurer
Martti Kemppainen - Vice President
David Lane - Vice President
Anton Tobé - Vice President
Daniel Vidaud - Vice President
René Bernard - President FICE Europe
Famke Schiff - Secretariat

Welcome
Theo Binnendijk welcomed the members of the Executive Committee

1. Announcements

The archives of FICE International arrived from Florence in Amsterdam. In the boxes were: minutes, correspondence, banners and leaflets.

Christine Karner had an accident last May; she was doing well now and was working on the translations for the website.

Theo Binnendijk and Anton Tobé went to the farewell party of Wolfgang Trede in Frankfurt on 23rd of January 2003. His successor was Anton Koch.

FICE Europe had a meeting of the Board last week. Onno van Praag handed on the accounts to Daniel Collombet as the new Treasurer. FICE Europe was acting as the co-ordinator of a project in Israel concerning Meir Gottesman.
Insurance for people placed through PEP is responsibility for the organisation providing the placement. FICE International has no insurance.

2. Minutes

General Assembly 17 September 2002
Page 4, Item 7, Report of Treasurer, last sentence: Audit Committee was changed to Executive Committee.
Federal Council 17 September 2002
Page 4, Item 8, Resolution: The resolution was sent to all the members with the request to give publicity to it as much as possible. No reaction had yet been received from Kofi Annan.

3. Membership

- The procedure concerning the admission of members according the rules of procedure was not being followed properly. It used to be the pattern that the CE checked the constitutions of prospective National Sections and their validity as possible FICE members. Nowadays this control has slipped. The members of the CE felt there should be a protocol to check the constitution, the budget (by Treasurer) etc.

Rolf Widmer made a questionnaire to list information, e.g. about the activities of the FICE sections, how they are organised, the intention of their membership. This format should be for all members (for existing and new members) and is of importance as presentation material in order to obtain money from funds. Rolf will collect all this information in a book.

Action: On the agenda of the Federal Council in September 2003 will be put a proposal for a procedure concerning admission of new members by Rolf. David will send Rolf some information for this. Rolf will translate the questionnaire in German and English and send it to Famke. She will distribute it to the members with the request to send it back before Moscow or bring it with them to Moscow.

In the Federal Council it was agreed that if there is no National Section in a country people join FICE as individuals or as organisation. This means that people have to pay a membership fee from the start and not to participate for free. FICE Scotland, for instance, was set up by SIRCC, which would have to pay fee as an organisation until Full Membership was granted. The fee for individual members is a symbolic payment.

Action: agenda item for the FC in Moscow: fee for all members

There still was confusion about the National Sections. According to Robert Soisson they do not exist. The statutes (3.2) tell us about Full Members. What do we call organisations that vote in the Federal Council and General Assembly as they vote on behalf of the countries?

Usually there is one organisation that represents the country; this is a Full Member and has got two votes. If there are two organisations (such as in Israel and Russia) FICE International has opted for a pragmatic solution; each organisation has got one vote. If there are three or more organisations, they have to negotiate how to represent their country; together they have got two votes.

The Executive Committee took the decision that it should not be forbidden to use the terms Full Members or National Sections.

Action: Decision about the use of the terms, Full Members and National Sections, will be put on the agenda of the FC in Moscow.

Tanzania
There was a request from Faustaina Ncheye from Tanzania to set up a new FICE section.
Action: Theo Binnendijk will inform her about the membership procedures and will send some information about FICE to Tanzania.

Ireland
Mr. Noel Howard of the Irish Association of Care Workers asked for affiliation to FICE. The predecessor of this organisation (The Association of Workers with Children in Care) broke with its FICE-membership.
Action: Theo Binnendijk will inform Noel Howard about the membership procedures and will send some information about FICE to him.

FICE Scotland
Tuesday the 4th of January 2003 FICE Scotland has its first meeting organised by the Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care. Theo Binnendijk was invited for the second meeting in May this year.

Lithuania
Lithuania wanted to join FICE. This country is not ready for it yet; it is not a NGO. It will organise NGO activities. The person with whom Martti Kemppainen was in contact can start as an individual member.
Action: Martti Kemppainen will inform the person about the membership.

4. Sources of Finance

In November last year in Brussels there was a meeting organised by the European Foundation Centre. This Foundation Centre gave a presentation about the different possibilities for fundraising. It became clear that projects, and not organisations, will be supported; therefore it is important that projects are well documented.

Rolf Widmer, René Bernard and Wim Kok participated in the meeting. There was no concrete action; the participants got books about sources of finances at the meeting. It had a business character. The Foundation advised that fundraising should be done by paid professionals.

The Belgium section of ANCE has knowledge how to get money from Brussels.

Action: FICE Europe will make contact with ANCE-colleagues to see what ways might be open to obtain long-term sources of finance.

Concerning the Friendship Camps money is needed in the immediate short term. No request for subsidy has made yet, while the deadline is believed to be 1 February. €70.000 is needed for the Friendship Camp. Switzerland is willing to pay €20.000.
Action: Anton Tobé will undertake action to find a way to get money. Rolf Widmer will inform Robert Soisson about this action.

Although FICE is against paying people for fundraising it was suggested that it would be helpful to consult such a professional because the CE was of the opinion that it would be more successful in getting money for projects.
Action: Rolf Widmer will ascertain the costs of professional fundraising.

5. Finances

Pestalozzi paid Sfr. 20.000 for 2002 and 2003.

Financial report 2002: the costs of the CE/FC/GA rose in 2002 because of more people attending the CE.

Some countries have not paid their fee for 2002:

Italy: had not paid for the third time; this Section is not active anymore.

Action: Decision about membership in FC.

Israel (IRECA): had not paid for the first time. Not paying the fee is an exception for IRECA.

Action: Theo will call Emmanuel Grupper.

India: Full Member now and had to pay. It had not sent a letter that the contribution fee was too high.

Austria: had not paid for the second time

Action: Theo will call Eveline Eichmann.

Germany: had not paid the fee of 2002 because of special circumstances. Because of the conference in Berlin there was a shortfall of €18.800. Eighty expected participants had not attended. FICE Germany asked for support, but it was not FICE-International's practice to pay to support international Congresses. The Congress in Paris had been an exception because of FICE's fiftieth anniversary celebration. (The Congress received Sfr. 10.000 from FICE International.)

Decision of the CE: Germany has to pay its membership fee 2002 of Sfr. 8.500; FICE International will provide a single payment of Sfr. 10.000 for the shortfall of the Congress.

For the future it also decided that the budget for Congresses should be checked by the Treasurer beforehand.
Action: CE decision has to be agendaed for FC in Moscow.

Contributions for 2003/2004: the proposed contributions were based on the decision made in Berlin last year:

Poland: Sfr. 500

Republic of Slovakia: US$ 400

Bulgaria: Full Member, fee as per 2003

Russia (Association of Experts..): Full Member, fee as per 2003

Scotland: Full Member, fee as per 2004

The retiring Treasurer transferred all the books to Rolf Widmer, his successor, with extensive explanation. Theo Binnendijk thanked Richard Joubert for all the work he had done and wished Rolf Widmer success as Treasurer.

6. FICE International Projects

Educateurs sans frontières:

No activities have been undertaken in the cooperation with the institution in Grenoble, as a result of the problems ANCE France has at the moment. The project has been on the agenda of FICE International for many years, but no progress has been made. If Jean Pierre Trinquier did not have new information about Educateurs sans Frontières the project would lapse.

Rolf Widmer proposed that the project should be developed in a different way. He suggested informing helping organisations about the knowledge and experience of FICE members and offering the assistance of FICE in areas of crisis. He proposed that first of all people drawn from FICE should undertake a quick assessment in those countries, make a report of the situation and then present it to organisations such as UNICEF. This initiative is similar to the project 'Experts in the extra familial care'. The suggestion was to start a pilot project with two persons from FICE and then to ask every country to deliver people with the knowledge needed in case of crisis.

Friendship Camps: see agenda item 4.

PEP:

In Holland the project ran better and better. England had two more places arranged. The programme has become more flexible. It was previously only for workers. Now students were also admitted. PEP is a programme of FICE Europe. A new Co-ordinator was needed since Wolfgang Trede had left IGfH. No follow up information was known.
Action: Theo Binnendijk will contact Wolfgang Trede.

Partnerships with other international organisations:

Theo Binnendijk had been in contact with Anjo van Hout, President of IFCO. There was a proposal for FICE and IFCO to work on a foster care project together. Maybe some opportunities to cooperate with the East European countries might also be possible. Serbia had some areas where foster care was well-developed.

The IFCO congress is planned to be held in Argentina: 28 July - 1 August 2003. Theo Binnendijk will visit the congress to do some PR for FICE.

Action: Rolf Widmer and Martti Kemppainen will come to Holland for a meeting with IFCO.

IFCW (International Federation of Child Welfare): President Mr. Quiros, Vice President Mr. Mauri. This organisation has platforms on other continents. Money had been spent to a large extent on administration, rather than the running of projects. The office in Brussels had had to be closed because of financial problems, and IFCW's work had been more centralised.

FICE had to learn from the experiences of this organisation and to consider how many platforms it will have. Members of UK EFCW wanted to set up a new organisation, but there already are many of this kind of organisations. It was suggested that it was better to have a few strong organisations instead of many weak ones.
IFCW congress to be held in Cape Town: 21-25 October 2003.

European section of AIEJI / Toni Julia had prepared a report about the development of the plans which AIEJI hoped to undertake.

Lars Steinov, Secretary of AIEJI, had said that there still is no date for the meeting between FICE/IFSW/IFCO/AIEJI in Copenhagen in May this year. The meeting probably will be after the weekend of 24-25 May 2003. The CE will be informed about the date as soon as possible; Rolf Widmer was unable to come.

It was suggested members of FESET and former EFCW members should be invited to the meeting too.

Baltic

Emilia Chervinskaya and Albert Likhanov have been in contact with each other and are working in collaboration on the preparations for the FC to be held in Moscow in April 2003.

Estonia: Martti Kemppainen was an intermediary for establishing contacts between the cities Vantaa (Finland) and Narva (Estonia) with the intention of planning a joint project on child welfare. He proposed to include NGOs in the project. After the meeting in Narva, he met Sirje Grossmann-Loot in Tallinn and he reported the interest of the Estonian Children's Fund in becoming a project partner.

Strengthen contacts in East Europe

Hungary: the government had decorated Julia Blumenfeld. Anton Tobé visited the Christmas party of FICE Hungary. Hungary was not at the conference in Berlin because of a lack of money. Anton Tobé had told them that it was important to come to these meetings to maintain contacts with other sections. Hungary will try to visit Moscow.

Bulgaria: has contact with Holland regularly. Three Dutch institutions had started co-operation with an organisation in Bulgaria. A meeting had been planned with the Bulgarian minister responsible for financing organisations. It seemed that Gerd Schemenau had some fundraising activities in Bulgaria. These activities had to be coordinated.
Action: Anton Tobé will contact Gerd Schemenau about his activities in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria and Serbia co-operated in organising a congress.

Anton Tobé will try to visit Poland and Slovakia next summer.

The twinning partnership between Austria and Bulgaria in the European Union programme was reported. Germany and England both were involved.

Northern America and Australia

Canada: James Anglin restarted FICE in Canada. He was organising a conference in Victoria. Theo Binnendijk and David Lane will visit the congress in August 2003.

Australia: David Lane had no further contact with the organisation. He wanted to encourage the organisation to become an individual member.

Africa

Daniel Vidaud had some contacts with different francophone countries.

In November 2002 there was a meeting organised by the International Social Service for 47 participants from 9 francophone African countries. Rolf Widmer represented FICE. The seminar was about how to deal with refugees and their rights. Rolf Widmer made a report of this seminar. There will be a second conference at the end of this year. An exchange of experiences was needed. Some of the countries had schools of social work.

Daniel Vidaud and Rolf Widmer asked what kind of proposal they could make for intervention in these countries.

Theo Binnendijk complimented Daniel Vidaud and Rolf Widmer on the action they had taken, following the decision in Berlin to start an African Platform. Remarks:

The Platform should not only be a matter for FICE France but for all French-speaking sections.

Activities should be arranged in the African countries itself.

For the preparing of material for training David Lane advised that contact should be made with FESET.

Material for training should be in French and English in respect of anglophone Africa (e.g. Tanzania)
People responsible for projects (in general) should send their information to David Lane for the FICE Website and the Web magazine, so that people could be informed of what is going on.

The work for the African Platform could not be done without money. What was needed:

Money for the preparations: letters (e.g. copies, stamps)

Money for the costs of the FICE-International delegation

FICE International had Sfr. 10.000 for concrete projects. Platform Africa was the first who had made a request.

Action: Rolf Widmer will have a presentation in Moscow about action concerning the African countries.

Collections of policies concerning childcare
Nobody had sent information to David Lane.

Experts in the extra familial care and education of children: see Educateurs sans frontières

Children's rights in institutions

Project of Robert Soisson; no information was known about it.

FICE Suisse / Rolf Widmer made a book about it in German. It will be translated in French. If it would be a FICE International book than it could be translated in English.

Action: Famke Schiff will have a look to see if the secretariat had received a copy of the German version.

Collection of successful projects:

It was about an overview of successful projects as presentation material. Nothing received.

Standards
Project manager: James Anglin. No recent information was available.

7. Website

David Lane gave an overview of the work which had been undertaken or was in hand.
Translations: Christine Karner had offered to make summaries of some material; otherwise the costs will be to expensive for FICE.

Action: David Lane will contact Christine Karner. Theo Binnendijk will contact Wim Kok for the promised 4-language Glossary

Fees: Money for the creation of the website and for the first three months' updating had been paid to Bill Stevenson. Because since then the work had not been as demanding as anticipated no further fees would be paid for the present. Bill Stevenson will only send invoices for the work as it is undertaken.

Archives

It should be useful to scan some material from the archives as presentation material.

Action: Famke Schiff and Theo Binnendijk will get an overview of the material; then it will be decided what to do. Famke Schiff will have a look in the archives for A Short History of FICE by Irene Knopfl Nobs.

Glossary

The 4-language Glossary needed to be revised. However, since it will take time to revise, it should be placed on the website, and if it is on the website translation into other languages was possible.

Action: Decision about a project to update the Glossary will be made in Moscow.

8. UNESCO

Daniel Vidaud had attended an interesting meeting about street children. UNESCO had asked FICE for cooperation on this topic in November 2002. The current situation, the changed role of childcare institutions, globalisation, family problems, the Mafia and abused children had been discussed. It was of importance to find new ways to help children in the street.

9. PR / Information about FICE International

The text of the brochure (blue/black) is still up to date.
Action: Famke Schiff will make a sticker for the brochure providing contact details for further information and mentioning the website. Stationery should also include references to FICE's e-mail address and website.

10. FC meeting in Moscow in April 2003

The seminar will be held in a different hotel from the one where delegates would be staying. This had to do with the equipment for the translators.

Action: Theo Binnendijk will call Emilia for an all-in-price and the request to make the free programme not too extensive.

11. Meeting AIEJI / IFSW / FICE in Denmark in May

See: 6, Partnerships with other international organisations

12. Congress in Glasgow in 2004

David Lane and Theo Binnendijk had been invited to the meeting of the programme committee in November 2002. The impression was that the organisation was in good hands, the committee was open about the situation and financial problems. The price will be rather high because of the high living standard. The city of Glasgow will support the reception. It was hoped that sponsorship would be found to support the Congress. If this is not possible, the price could be too high for the East European countries.

13. Planning next CE

A meeting was planned to be held in Amsterdam on 11 and 12 July 2003, to be confirmed at a later date.

14. Planning FC

Denmark: CE 30 September 2003, FC 1-4 October 2003

April 2004: Bulgaria

September 2004: Scotland

April 2005: Slovenia was willingly to organise a FC

September 2006: Sarajevo

Daniel Vidaud said that if these meetings were held over a weekend, it would make travel costs less expensive.

15. Other business

For the FC in Moscow Anton Tobé will write a proposal about the establishment of a foundation for assessing and monitoring projects which need financial support.

6-10 April 2003: Nordic Conference; it is about residential care. Since Sweden will be participating in the congress, Martti Kemppainen will try to use the opportunity to re-activate FICE in Sweden.