Present
Marinela Alexeariu-Buttu - Romania
Theo Binnendijk - The Netherlands
Dragoi Calin - Germany
Shaul Elbaz - Israel
Simona Farcas - Romania
Anke Heunig - Germany
Nicole Janze - Germany
Emmanuel Grupper - Israel
Carol Kelly - USA
Cees Kleingeld - The Netherlands
Richard Joubert - France
Martti Kemppainen - Finland
Sari Laaksonen - Finland
David Lane - United Kingdom
Euridice Orrgoványi - Ungarn
Maya Pangnelova - Bulgaria
Onno van Praag - The Netherlands
Ole Rasmüssen - Denmark
Gerd Schemenau - Germany
Famke Schiff - The Netherlands
Bisser Spirov - Bulgaria
Helga Stefanov - Austria
Roland Stübi - Switzerland
Agnes Székely - Ungarn
Alexander Syewer - Israel
Daschenka Taschkova - Bulgaria
Anton Tobé - The Netherlands
Wolfgang Trede - Germany
Jean-Pierre Trinquier - France
Abudahad Usama - Israel
Aad Vroon - The Netherlands
Dragica Zelembaba - South East-Europe
1. Welcome to all members
Theo Binnendijk welcomed all members and the new ones in particular.
2. Minutes FC in Trogen 22-23
February 2001
Thanks were given to Helga Stefanov and Christina Karner for
the translations of the documents.
Corrections:
- Page 4, 3.5: Board of FICE Europe: Robert Soisson (President),
Onno van Praag (Secretary), Jaroslaw Utrat-Milecki (Treasurer)
- Page 5, 4: Gerd Schemenau said that he and Rolf Widmer were
not asked to prepare a text on the possibilities of Educateurs
sans frontières.
- Page 8, 8: Instead of Gerd Schemenau it was Christopher Tanner
who should have contacted Emmanuel Grupper.
3. Minutes of the CE in Mulhouse
28 July 2001
- Richard Joubert had written a letter to Gianluca Barbanotti
about the archives of FICE. He had not received an answer.
Wolfgang Trede offered compliments
to the President and the Secretariat for the preparation of the
Federal Council meeting and the minutes of the CE, which was
an improvement on previous years.
4. The current situation concerning
the Pestalozzi Foundation in relation to the future of the FICE
General Secretariat
Theo reported that Mr. Markus Mader was the new Director of Pestalozzi.
Theo had contacted Mr. Mader about the situation of Pestalozzi.
This organisation had promised to run the general secretariat
for two years. It had guaranteed the people and money for it.
It seemed that Mr. Mader as Director of Pestalozzi would not
have much time to do the job for FICE. It would not even be possible
to make other members of staff available. Mr. Mader would be
invited to the CE meeting to speak about a solution.
5. Basic discussion about
mission of FICE
- Shaping up for the future
- The Man at the Helm of FICE
David Lane had written two papers: 'Shaping up for the future'
and 'The Man at the Helm of FICE'. The background of the documents
was the CE meeting on the 28 July 2001. The CE had spoken about
the current situation of FICE concerning the problems of the
General Secretariat, the financial situation and the achievements
of FICE. The CE had decided to see the whole in a bigger perspective,
and it was felt important to review the goals of FICE.
The main aspects in the discussion
were: extra-familial care, co-operation with other organisations
and FICE Europe.
In the past the mission of
FICE had been focused on the education and development of children
and young people with social difficulties, who needed professional
help. This aim had been widened to include prevention and was
consistent with the mission of UNESCO.
Richard Joubert said that
FICE approached matters from different point of views: philosophical
(emphasising children's rights), political (taking action as
a pressure group), technical (providing training), social (as
a platform for exchanges and friendship).
FICE had focused on residential
care in earlier years, but nowadays it had changed its target
more broadly to extra-familial care. Many members argued for
a wider approach than residential or extra-familial care only.
They supported the integration of residential and community-based
care. FICE had to focus on all children needing professional
help.
The development of care was at different stages. In some countries
community-based programmes were not common yet, and foster parents
had to be trained. Therefore the availability of institutions
was still important to offer support to these people. Other countries
concentrated on extra-familial care.
The ideals of FICE had to
be put into practice. The problem of FICE International was caused
to a great extent by a lack of management. There was a limit
to what could be achieved through voluntary work. If FICE was
to realise its goals it needed a paid person to manage the administration
of FICE and provide support for the National Sections.
If everybody were to pay the
fee for FICE International, the organisation would not have financial
problems.
It was proposed that FICE
should take a pragmatic approach to these problems. First, the
mission of FICE, as laid down in the statutes, needed to be maintained.
Discussion was needed about the implementation of these aims.
Secondly, the statutes needed to be updated and the structure
of FICE needed to be reconsidered.
Partnerships
In the discussion about cooperation it became clear that other
organisations faced the same problems as FICE. In collaborating,
it was important that each organisation should keep its identity.
In order to play a role in partnerships FICE had first to consolidate
its mission and restructure its organisation. It had to seek
to collaborate with organisations sharing the same core aim:
to create services for children who had been in need. FICE had
to make contact with other organisations to see if there was
synergy and choose issues for cooperation.
Relations between FICE Europe
and FICE International
FICE Europe was founded:
- because it would be easier to get money from the European Union,
and
- to organise international conferences.
The situation of FICE Europe had not changed during the last
two years. It had not got money from the European Union and only
one conference had been organised.
FICE Europe was a 'sleeping
beauty' at the moment. There was a overlap between FICE Europe
and FICE International. The ideas behind the foundation of FICE
Europe had not proved successful. FICE International consisted
of FICE Europe and Israel. FICE Europe could exist usefully only
when there were also FICE Asia and FICE America. The differences
between the two organisations were difficult to explain. The
way it functioned was not efficient because of the existence
of two boards. Onno van Praag proposed his personal idea to let
FICE Europe continue to exist formally with a board virtually
identical to the board of FICE International.
Action : A proposal for FICE's
mission statement should be prepared. The discussion about the
purpose of FICE and what it stands for would be continued in
a smaller group. Participants: Theo Binnendijk, Richard Joubert,
Martti Kemppainen Roland Stübi, Wolfgang Trede, Anton Tobé
, Robert Soisson and David Lane.
The CE would prepare a concrete plan for reaching the goals.
Ideas for the mission statement should be sent to Famke Schiff
(f.schiff@sac-adam.nl)
6. Financial situation and
discussion about National Sections which do not pay
Richard Joubert presented the financial situation of FICE International.
" Fees: 37.45% of the members had paid; 62.55% members had
not paid yet.
" He proposed that the available money should be spent on
projects.
" There was a surplus of income over expenditure.
" From January 2002 onwards, European members could pay
their fees in Euros; non- European countries could pay their
fees in other currencies.
" An overview had been made of the fees paid by members
during the period 1995-2001.
Some members had paid every year, some had paid for a couple
of years and some had not paid at all. A few countries had explained
the reasons why they had not paid.
According to the statutes, if a member had not paid their fees
for two years they ceased to be a member any more. If the Federal
Council were to adhere to the statutes, FICE would lose members.
FICE International would not be helped by such situation.
Action: Members who had not paid their fees would receive a letter
with the request to pay by a specified date. They would be informed
that if they did not pay they would no longer be a member of
FICE.
" A proposal was presented concerning a model to justify
an increase in fees. The fee could be based on four indicators:
a basic contribution paid by every country, the country's GNP,
its population, and the number of members in the National Section.
Action: This proposal would be discussed in the next meeting
of the CE.
In Berlin next year a new
Treasurer would be elected. Members were asked to think about
candidates for this function.
7. Reports of the Vice-Presidents
" Martti Kemppainen:
- had contacted FICE members in Russia; because of lack of money
they could not participate.
- Projects that were mentioned: a European Union project concerning
the public heath service in schools, and a project in Karelia.
" David Lane:
- had participated in a conference of AIEJI in Barcelona about
social education.
The next AIEJI Congress was in Montevideo in Uruguay in 2005
- Web-magazine: the readership had increased now to 50.000 hits
per month. David Lane asked for the contribution of information.
- David Lane had produced several papers for this Federal Council
meeting.
8. Roles of the Vice Presidents
In the light of the need for the election of new Vice Presidents,
David Lane presented a proposal about the roles of Vice Presidents
from now on. The Federal Council had to decide about the subject.
Members agreed with the proposal but were concerned about the
costs.
This item could not be resolved, however, until the subjects
of the mission and future of FICE had been clarified. The proposal
about the roles of the Vice Presidents was added to the remit
of the group designated to discuss the roles and mission of FICE.
9. Report of the President
of FICE Europe
Present: Gerd Schemenau, Onno van Praag.
Robert Soisson was not present because of his health. The Federal
Council sent him a postcard.
There had been three meetings, held in September 2000, February
2001 and May 2001.
Activities:
- FICE Europe had established a new programme for young people
from 18-25 years old to work on voluntary basis in other European
countries. The project had just started in Spain. For the programme
FICE Europe would receive money from the European Union following
the project.
- A book had been published about juvenile offending on the web-site.
- A conference had been held in Luxembourg about school and children's
rights.
- The FICE Europe web site had been operational since April 2001
and it had received 12,000 visitors since then. The organisation
of Gerd Schemenau had paid DM2,500 for the development of the
web site. Members were requested to send information for the
web site.
FICE Europe had started to
get new sources of money, but it had not succeeded in this mission
very well. During its existence it had only received 5,000 Euros
from the European Union. For this year FICE Europe had incorrectly
expected to receive 3.000 Euros from FICE International. Two
third of the expenses had concerned the travel costs of the Board.
Many countries had not paid the contributions.
In the coming years the income of FICE Europe would be a problem.
The reserves, which had been built in the past years, would diminish.
PEP-programme
One and a half years ago the PEP-programme had been set up for
people working for 6 weeks - 6 months abroad.
There had been three exchanges:
- October 2000 - April 2001: a German person had worked in the
United Kingdom and was supported by Kathleen Lane.
- May - June 2001: a German person had worked for eight weeks
in Finland.
- A German person had looked for a job in the United Kingdom,
but this exchange was not a real PEP because the person had looked
for a paid job.
To make the programme a success, members were requested to publicise
it in their own countries. They were asked to respond if they
received a request, even if it was not possible to be of help
at that moment.
National Conference : South
East Europe
Roland Stübi reported about the National Conference for
South East Europe in Bihac, organised by FICE Switzerland, with
the support of the Netherlands, Luxembourg and FICE Europe. The
Netherlands and Switzerland had given substantial financial support
for the conference, but not all costs were covered. The theme
of the conference had been the social and vocational integration
of young adults after leaving residential care.
During the conference the participants had elected a Board with
a view to becoming a FICE section.
Dragica Zelembaba reported
about the conference for ex-Yugoslavia in SOS village Ballaton.
She also presented the plans for the new organisation which would
be a useful member for FICE. For each conference Sfr. 60.000
- 70.000 was needed to cover the costs for the participants,
and it was hoped that this would be provided by the European
Union.
10. Projects:
10.1 Educateurs sans Frontières
The aim of the project 'Educateurs sans Frontières' was
to create a life space for children in areas of crisis when the
immediate emergency had been dealt with. The project had potential
to make it to a success, but there had been difficulties to get
it off the ground.
Aspects, which had to be improved:
- Cooperation with partner organisations, e.g. UNICEF, Red Cross
- Logistics to find the camps, to find the people in the crisis
areas
- The quality of training for the workers
- Language problems
- The financial situation
It was considered important for an institution to support the
project. Jean-Pierre Trinquier proposed that ANCE France should
support the project. This organisation had experience with courses
concentrated on training people for social education work in
areas of conflict. The language of instruction was English.
It was agreed that before
the project could start, the board of ANCE France would need
to give its agreement to the proposal and detailed discussion
about the project would be needed.
Action : ANCE France would
prepare a proposal about the requirements for the project at
the next FC.
10.2 Round-table idea in memory
of Meir Gottesman
Meir Gottesman, an Israeli who had been born in Romania, had
been an expert in residential child care and had represented
FICE Israel for 30 years. FICE wished to find a way to commemorate
him.
Emmanuel Grupper reported about the action being taken in Israel:
a seminar in Israel dedicated on his name and ideas of a cultural
centre and garden. The Federal Council suggested the organisation
of an expert meeting and a biennial FICE prize for outstanding
achievements in the field.
Action: Emmanuel Grupper, David Lane and Aad Vroon would work
on a proposal for a FICE Award.
10.3 Web-site FICE International
David Lane presented a proposal for FICE International's web
site. The information needed to be kept up to date, attractive
for readers and published in English, French and German. The
website needed a zone for members only. FICE UK offered to manage
the website of FICE International. The Federal Council agreed
with the proposal and accepted the offer of FICE UK subject to
the agreement of a contract laying out the costs, duties and
conditions.
Action: A draft contract needed to be prepared and agreed.
11. Membership
11.1 New members
South East Europe
South East Europe was not a country, but a group of countries
covering Bosnia, Herzegovina, Republika Serbska and Montenegro.
During the conference in Bihac in August 2001 the participants
had explained their wish to become a member of FICE as an association.
The association did not have a legal basis, but was is a voluntary
association, to be used as a platform for spreading ideas.
Programme of the Board:
- Exchange of experts
- Enabling children from former Yugoslavia to meet
- Co-ordination of national standards within the former Yugoslavia
with European standards
- Peace camp
- The preparation of conferences
- Explanation of the organisation's mission to the public
- Co-operation between ex Yugoslavians and FICE members from
other countries
With regard to the acceptance
of associations of states as FICE members, there would be a problem
in article 3.2 of the statutes. This article stated that members
must represent nations and not associations of countries.
The Federal Council held a
vote about the joining of South East Europe. All the members
agreed.
Action: For the next meeting
of the Federal Council Roland Stübi would prepare a proposal
for changes to the statutes concerning the acceptance of associations
of states as members.
Scotland
An email had been received from Andrew Hosie from Scotland. He
had asked that the Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care
should become a member of FICE, independently of FICE UK, and
he had laid out the arguments for the proposal. Membership of
Scotland had consequences for the UK National Section.
Action: David Lane would contact Andrew Hosie about his request.
11.2 Discussion about full
members, associate members and correspondents
From the origin FICE had been organised mainly through National
Sections. David Lane presented a proposal to widen membership
and tighten up the status of National Sections. There had been
no way for individuals or organisations to join FICE as paying
members, where there was no National Section. This made it difficult
to get groups of members together to form new National Sections,
and did not allow contact to be maintained when National Sections
had become inactive. In his proposal he suggested that in countries
where no National Section existed, individual members should
be able to pay a subscription to make it possible for them to
keep in touch with FICE members.
Action: The CE would work
out the proposal for the next Federal Council.
12. Meetings
12.1 FC in Israel in April
2002
Because of the disturbed political situation in Israel the meeting
of the Federal Council in Israel in October 2000 had been cancelled
a few weeks before the meeting. Although the Israeli section
understood the withdrawal of members, Emmanuel Grupper explained
it was a frustrating situation. It was a dilemma for all.
Action: After hearing the
views of each country, it was decided to have the FC in Israel
in April (week 17) 2002. In February 2002 this decision would
be reconsidered. If the political situation had not changed at
that moment, the FC would be held in Hungary (or France if Hungary
could not make it).
The FC had to keep in mind
the price of participation with a view to the members of the
East European countries. Their lack of participation had to do
with financial problems. It was suggested that the meeting should
be held in the same place for three years.
12.2 FC and Congress in Berlin
17-20 September 2002
The main theme of the Congress: Young people and their families
in the metropolitan areas of this world - growing up in urban
settings.
Aspects:
- A new pedagogical, social approach to bring assistance programmes
to the place where young people live
- Cultural understanding: how to cope with cultural diversity
- City focused
Elements of the programme: multi-media opening, forums, workshops,
film.
Translations would be in the three FICE languages.
Financial affairs:
- Speakers would have free entrance, and their accommodation
and travel costs would be refunded as far as possible.
- Funds were being raised for financial support for delegates
from countries with weak economies.
12.3 FICE International Congress
2004
A 'co-production' by the National Sections of the UK and Finland
was proposed.
Action: David Lane and Martti Kemppainen would give the proposal
consideration.
13. Reports from UNESCO, Europarat
and ECOSOC
Richard Joubert represented FICE in two commissions of the Council
of Europe:
- In November 2001 there would be a meeting of UNESCO and NGO
to consider the future of NGO's in relation to UNESCO.
- From 18-19 October 2001 there would be a forum about new social
expectations organised by the Council of Europe and Nordic Council.
- 6 - 7 November 2001 in Strasbourg there had been a congress
about the theme: 'Citizenship and solidarity - what kind of Europe
do we want?
- In Tunisia there had been a symposium about education. Richard
Joubert had visited to contact the Mediterranean countries.
- ECOSOC: Contact had broken down between ECOSOC and FICE.
14. Other business and closure
- Because of their contributions for FICE Toma Mares presented
medals to: Helga Stefanov, representatives of Germany, Denmark,
USA, Israel, France, United Kingdom, Hungary, Switzerland and
Holland. |
