18th March 2011: 0930-1600

APPRECE
Bda, Ntra Sra de la Oliva Locales 38-39
41013 Sevilla
Spain

Present

Sonja Danner (Chair), Austria
Paul Hopkins (Executive Officer)
Hugo Verkest (Treasurer), Belguim
Marit Svare (Secretary), Norway
Outi Raunio-Hannula, Finland
Genevieve Locqueville, France
Hrisanti Bulugea, Romania
Lesley Prior, UK
Henk Pol, Nederlands
Orazio Ruscica, Italy
Norman Richardson, UK (NI)
Graeme Nixon, UK (Scotland)
Jose Guardia, Spain
Carmen Montaner Abasolo, Spain
Nils Tidman, Swedenpresent Saturday

1. Welcome

Warm thanks to Jose and his group for organising the meeting.

Apologies from Birgitte Thorsteinson, Elisabeth Faber, Risto Aikonen, Peter Schreiner, Tiina-Erika Friedenthal, Dzintra Ilisko, Viera Presov, Stefan Dick

2. Minutes

Minutes were approved

3. Treasurer’s report, finances and contributions

• The conference cost € 13,500, and we lost some €550 which is less than we feared in April 2010. It was the first conference with no sponsorship.
• The € account has €7452, the £ account some 4,000. So far only € 200 has arrived in 2011. Deadline for paying approx 1.May, Must send reminders afterwards.
• Some org can contribute with practical work, but not by giving money. These need to let Hugo know. We need € 2,000 before the conference in Malmø
• In order to become an NGO we need € 10 000.
• New members: 2 applications from Britain and Irish Rep. Possible member in Nuremberg, Germany.
• Sonja follows up Polish contact, and Lesley the Welsh.
• In the future we ought to consider raising the fee to € 150.

Follow up: Sonja –Polish contact - Lesley the Welsh contact

4. Responsibilities of the Board

Organisations we believe are members are on the web page.

Members check which organisations they are to contact and keep in touch, forwarding the newsletter/journal. The treasurer sends the invoice to the institution and copying it to the board member. Treasurer contacts the board member to inform that the bill has not been paid.

Board member keeps in touch with national organisations to facilitate the communication both ways.

Follow up: Hugo and Paul

5. Evaluation of 2010 conference

Paul summed up the response forms: The programme was good in as the variety of key notes, workshops, seminars and visits made a good mix. Not all were happy with the grave yard visit as they did not see the connection to the theme. Some sommented on the fact that there wer no workshops in other languages than English.

Good combination of learning and enjoying.

For the future we ought to consider these points

• Keep on 2 keynotes
• Can we offer workshops in other languages? German, Roman, Scandinavian workshop, one each to aim at?
• Language groups? Are these necessary if workshops are in other languages?
• Wednesday – Saturday a good period.
• Remember that the programme is for teachers in the classroom, find it useful, not just for university teachers
• Good to have access to the other workshops on the web.
• Translation of power points on beforehand would be helpful.
• Cultural context also important here

6. Next conference in 2013 [See - Malmo Conference Webpage for updates]

Note: Some discussion took place in an executive meeting on Saturday March 19th as well as the conversation recorded below.

Challenging RE: Poverty and Social Inclusions as European Issues

25-28 august 2010, changes made due to local situation.

Accommodation will be made through a local organization, so that each participant books their own accommodation. We will provide a list of cheaper options as well.

Venue: A former abbey, now priest seminary; student rooms (with bath) can also be used by the conference. The Exec will stay here, and it is an option for those requesting financial support.

Early Bird : booking and paying before 1 March 2010, 10% reduction.

Program: See conference section of the website

• Discussion around the nature of these
  • Gender , choices, sexuality …. ? “Religion and relations”, equal opportunities, gender, sexuality and the classroom, etc, love in the movie world, Human Rights
  • “challenging RE - exploring differences” wider theme to allow for specialized workshop “All you need is love?”
  • Love, agape, charity, sexual love, relationship between diff religions,
  • Inclusive truth?
  • Dealing with differences? Focus on gender and sexuality, but not forgetting there are other differences.. Same principals applied to other fields.
  • Need to clarify the European situation
  • Emphasis the on the professional identity of the teacher when dealing with issues that the teacher does not agree with
  • Questionnaire on the theme to make summary on what happens in Europe in RE? for the board members, use as a starter or the conference?

Follow up: Marit will liaise with Nils over the conference and this will come back for confirmation at the executive meeting in Malmo in November 2011 - see the Executive Working Page.

7. Mini seminars in Belfast 2012

Norman suggests mini seminars on Friday, Board on the Saturday. Students and teachers at different workshops. Structure in London was good. Choices of 2+ for parallel sessions. A smorgasbord/buffet of European RE. Norman thinks about the structure and maybe one session for students and one or teachers. 10-15 for students, 16-19 for teachers. How many workshops are needed, Board invited to do the workshop. University accommodation is possible.

Advertisement for the conference, unique selling point

Follow up: Norman gets back to Exec before next meeting with practical details.

8. Development plan 2010-2013

Some of the points we discussed were

• What should we plan or the next 3 years? Just the conference or other things as well?
• Is EU-NGO status important for our work?
• Sharing practice, also through conferences, but also in Journal
• Facilitate teacher exchange
• Involve research element, like Redco project
• What is it that teacher do not get from their own national organisation? How can EFTRE help here? Common platform on the web - to help them find each other? Provide a forum for this
• European dimensions are what we provide - how do that?
• Internet projects, travel not longer needed
• Are we reaching the people we want to?

Follow up: Exec asks the Board before the meeting in November 2011, take it back to discuss at Board in 2012, and taking it to the assembly in 2013.

Follow up: Hugo checks out Platform for job shadowing, Students assistant program, Europe web page, participation witness programme, we need to find a practical way of doing this.

Follow up: Paul will do an announcement for the web. RE-match

9. Journal

Items for the Spring 2011 edition. 300 - 600 words. Mid April deadline.

Autumn newsletter deadline 1 October 2011

10. Country Reports

Please send to Paul, also if no change

11. Web

Please do look at the website, recommend to colleagues in schools and send things for the website to Paul

12. CoGREE

• Münster discussed common interests - common concerns; economy, and how to use the Klingenthal meetings
• 4 March 2011 Amersfoort Chose one focus area to work on - “Religion as a factor of social cohesion and the role of education ” which might be theme at Klingenthal Oct 2012. Continue this at board meeting in April.

13. Any Other Business

• Wergelandsenteret - partner search
• ICCS + IV conference in Prague. [see - The ICCS website for more details]
• Human Rights court decided that the crucifix can be left in Italian classrooms, today.
• South of Europe “religion in front of the crisis in Europe” necessary to discuss - fits in the theme of next conference.
• When board meeting we cannot expect members to take two days off work, therefore Board meeting on Saturday,. Is this OK for the Exec?

14. Next meetings of the board

• Exec in Malmø 25-26. November 2011
• Board in Belfast 23-24 March 2012

12th - April 2011 - Marit Hallset Svare