13th October, 2007
35 rue de Sevres
Centre Sevres
75006 Paris

Present

Sonja Danner, Austria [Chair]
Hugo Verkest, Belgium
Marja Honkaheimo, Finland
Marit Hallset Svare, Norway
Genevieve Locqueville, France
Lesley Prior, UK, arrives at 1150

1. Welcome

Sonja Danner greeted everybody, and thanked Genevieve for organizing all the practical details.

Apologies from Marianna Szabo, Paul Hopkins

2. Agreement of Agenda

The agenda was agreed.

3. Minutes of previous meetings

The minutes from the Budapest General Assembly and Board meetings are not ready yet. Marianna will provide these. Sonja Danner made a short summing up.

Membership fees are now as following: Central European organisations will contribute whatever they can affords, the rest € 100.

Paul Hopkins will bring UK contributions to meetings in order to avoid exchange fees

4. Matters arising

Nothing arising here.

5. Membership

Revision

We need the Board members to go over the list of members and check who will continue as members, and who not. So far in 2007, only 17 have paid the membership fee. Sonja will send an email with a deadline for doing this. Invoices for 2008 will be sent in December 2007 for those who would like to pay early.

New members

Various contacts were discussed and follow-up agreed on.

6. Evaluation of the Budapest Conference

Sonja Danner has gone through the evaluation papers, and the overall impression is very good. There are some points to take into consideration for the next conference:

• We should plan discussion/reflection after a keynote speaker; the session could be as follows 1-1,5 hr keynote followed by a break and 1 hr reflection/discussion in plenary, workshops in the afternoon
• No female keynote speakers this time
• A possibility of reflecting in international groups instead of language groups, could offer in the main languages English, German and French?
• More practical work and seminars and short lectures
• Invite all Budapest participants to sign up for giving a workshop to spread the recruitment of workshop leaders?
• Use local teachers to run workshops, no pay, but get the fee and meal that day
• Next time in Prague or Brugge – both got the same vote. Exec. deciding on Belgium as we have a group there who are willing to do the work
• Important that the whole group stays together
• Part of conference material ought to be where and when faith communities in the neighbourhood meet
• Important with detailed information on how to get from the airport/railway, timetables and prices
• Not all scholarships have been transferred to EFTRE
• Folkdance was good
• Important to make up the participation confirmation sheet and receipts on beforehand
• Workshops as early as possible in conference as a good place to get to know each other
• The celebration was too Christian
• 80 seems to be a good number

7. The next EFTRE conference: theme, where when:

• Belgian group has offered to organize the conference.
• Offer shared rooms
• The last two weekends of August 2010 ( 19-22 or 26-29 Aug 2010)
• Need to check the religious calendar as well for holidays
• 2 excursions RE related
• Workshops offered on a first come first serve basis
• Theme: Many suggestions came up, no decision was made. The suggestions can be summed up in My role as a RE teacher in a classroom of diversity.
• We need to check what theme EU has for 2010, that might make it easier to apply for money. In Rome we need to decide on the venue, time period and working title

8. 3-years-plan of EFTRE: where will EFTRE go and how will we try to achieve our aims

• Working towards an NGO status. Sonja will find out about the rules here
• Teaching exchange , Genevieve checks on European funding, Lesley on Martin Rogers’ funding
• Arranging seminars for teachers in connection with the Exec and Board meetings in the area. This can be a way of covering expenses for some of the members. For seminars the hosting institution will do the practical work. A small fee will be asked according to national standards
• Other ways of financing Board meeting? Comenius projects?

9. Participation in COGREE meeting

Sonja Danner and Hugo Verkest go to the November meeting. Not clear when and where the next meeting is.

10. Future Meetings

The Board meetings will have a 20 min session called Forum.

EFTRE can support some of the members with their travel expenses; no one can receive more than € 100, with a total frame of € 500. The members that need the support apply to EFTRE’s leader. The application must contain information on what the member can bring to the meeting/ Forum, and how the information is disseminated in the home country.

11. Any Other business

• An internet page with addresses for national guidelines and curricula in RE
• Hugo will send in separate mail an overview of the financial situation
• E-mails from Paul. We appreciate that Paul is offering his time to work for EFTRE, and help in applying for EU funding. Regarding the journal, we need to find a realistic level of activities. Good idea, but we would like to develop the Good Practice at present. Could this be linked to the seminars, and will keynote speakers’ notes be available? Link the seminars to the newsletter. We also appreciate the offer of helping out with future conferences.
• Developing a multilingual newsletter will be too much right now
• For future conferences we decided on the following
  • Workshop leaders who give their workshop 4 times get the conference fee free. They pay their travel expenses and accommodation. WHAT ABOUT FOOD?
  • Keynote speakers are offered economy flight, accommodation at the venue, staying the whole conference, no additional fee.

Espoo, 15 November, 2007
Marja Honkaheimo