Present: Seth Chaiklin (President), Fran Hagstrom (Treasurer), Inger Eriksson, Antonia Candela, Ana Luiza Bustamante Smolka, Alberto Rosa, Anne-Nelly (minutes)
Excused: Harry Daniels, Irina Verenikina, Vitaly Rubtsov
1. Minutes of the Executive committee meeting in Moscow (October 2006)
Minutes are approved, with thanks to Irina.
Anne-Nelly understands only now, reading the minutes, that some other members of the Executive Committee would have liked to be members of the workgroup for the new website. She begs their pardon for having been left out of the ongoing work.
2. Next congress
The existing proposals for hosting the next ISCAR congress are discussed.
- (North of) Mexico D.F.
- it is a long time that the suggestion has been made
- some fear the area and its bad reputation for security
- some think the Mexican colleagues should take benefit of better situated locations in their country
- and be better inter-connected with other ISCAR colleagues in Mexico
- Mexico is too close to San Diego. The next conference should be on another continent.
- Rome (organizer: Prof. Annamaria Ajello with the support of a network of Italian universities).
- attractive destination. A large number of participants can be expected.
- large facilities are needed to host the conference. They are available in Rome. But when? August is too hot. September can be difficult for some members (start of the academic year in many universities).
- the work load for to organize such a conference is heavy. Annamaria seems to know.
- Australia (organizer: Prof. Irina Verenikina)
- Australia has only 10% of ISCAR members. This means expensive transportation costs for all the others unless some sources of financial support can be found, but this takes time. Expensive conference centers? To be considered for 2014?
N.B. The call for the congress in 2014 should be opened well in advance. Time is needed for making the decision.
Criteria taken in consideration:
3. Next steps for ISCAR and reflection on looking back
- Seth has done a tremendous amount of work for ISCAR and is deeply thanked for that, in particular for the work on standing orders, executive orders, finances, congress, etc. He has been more than a president. His terms are now finished and many other members (perhaps most of them) will now leave the Committee.
- Some members are very worried about the continuity of ISCAR. How can ISCAR be made a more stable institution without, of course, becoming a rigid one? How can the need for continuity be cared for, still leaving space for creativity?
- The new committee could consider electing not only a president, but also a “president elect” committed to become the next president (articles and standing orders would not to be changed for that).
- Seth is confident in the conservative role of standing orders, and suggests an administrative continuity in the hands of a secretariat for ISCAR. He could hire one in Bath. Some other members think the future president should choose the secretary and that there is a need for continuity in procedures, know-how, etc. that can be best transmitted orally and in the joint activity of a committee at work.
- Would a scholarship given to a younger person to work on the grass-roots of the administration, in direct connection with the president, be a solution?
All agree that ISCAR does not want any kind of “centralized definition” of what CHAT is. The structure and work of the executive committee should aim at the coordination and support of initiatives of the regions and sections. This is also the scope of the website/portal presently under construction.
An open discussion illustrates the existing dialectical tension between “claiming diversity” and “saying what is shared in common”. A dynamical open process.
4. Website
Anne-Nelly presents the present state of the work of the website group: Vitaly Rubtsov, Inna Korepanova (both from Moscow MUPP), Felice Carugati and Elvis Mazzoni (University of Bologna) and herself (Neuchâtel).
Several meetings have been held together thanks to support from their Universities: Felice and Elvis went to Moscow to work with Vitaly, Inna and the Russian ICT professionals; Elvis and Anne-Nelly met in Neuchâtel and skyped and phoned with the Russian colleagues many times. It has been a nice adventure to work on this international project and a stimulating intercultural joint action.
The work is still in progress. Feedback is needed on the main technological choices made and the workgroup is open to any kind of suggestion.
The idea is to transform the present website into a portal that includes the facilities of the present website but goes beyond it by offering the possibility to the regions and sections to manage themselves, under their own responsibility and with their own logos and information, hosted on their own servers. Special tools can be added such as a “multi-languages dictionary” (a sort of thesaurus of keywords) that can support a search engine across the languages of the different regional contributions. (Slides were shown with more details).
The discussion encourages the workgroup to continue their work (“an important strategical step”) and confirms the choice made to rely on the free technology of Mediawiki and to link to local regional websites/portals. Each region becomes a resource for the whole.
Points discussed and suggestions:
Anne-Nelly
Perret-Clermont
San Diego, 11.9.2008