INFO-Bulletin based on the minutes of the 6Th Meeting
of the EMU Presidium
Linz, Austria, 28 April 2001
Present were:
Jan van Muilekom (president), Gerd Eicker (Vice-President),
Wilhelm Dahl, Nuria Sempere, Timo Veijola, Viktor Zadnik,
Timo Klemettinen (present at point 5), Gerrie Koops (secretary
general, report)
Excused (absent) were:
Mario Sperenzi
1. Opening of the meeting and adoption of the agenda
The president opened the meeting at 09.30 h. and welcomed
all participants. He gave a special welcome to Timo
Klemettinen from Finland who had been invited to the meeting
to give suggestions - based on his recent involvement in the
newly developed website of the Finnish association - on a
website for the EMU.
The agenda was adopted.
1. A website for EMU
Experts on association management at the University of
Amsterdam have recently written a report, outlining both the
potential and the difficulties involved in the creation of
an EMU website. It also gives a global idea as to the
content such a website could include, its eventual design
and an indication of the cost level.
It was stated that, due to the huge priority attached to the
development of an EMU website, a clear strategy of the
structure of the website needs to be devised prior to the
project being launched. It was stressed that - as written in
the report - we only have one chance to do it right. From
the beginning the target groups that we define as most
important must be able to find the information they require.
If for financial reasons EMU needed several years to develop
to the full its website and to reach its final goals and
target groups then it would be very important to take a
realistic approach and make this clear in the promotion and
marketing of the website. To develop such a strategy for the
content of the first website the knowledge of some experts
in our associations would be very important. This team could
also try to locate specific people in associations
responsible for specific tasks such as maintaining and
updating the website. If EMU proceeds step by step it should
be quite easy to find funding and it would not be necessary
to co-operate with Net4Music.
The Presidium decided that:
· EMU will try to build a functional and realistic website
this year.
· EMU will develop this website further step by step in the
future.
· EMU will try to develop the website with its own
resources.
· The first target groups will be the member associations,
European organisations and politicians (that is to say the
targetgroups EMU now already has).
· The president will ask a small 'virtual' working group -
Timo Klemettinen (Finland), Gisbert Moeller (Germany) and
Even Fossum Svendsum (Norway) - to make a proposal for the
EMU website to be presented at the Presidium meeting in June.
This proposal should give insight into the practical
structure and information that should be obtained by the
site and contain an indication of those countries which
could give support in the nourishing and updating of such a
website. It was stated that the site should at least contain
general information on EMU, an intranet for the presidium,
information on interesting projects for the members and a
way to react to them and news from the countries. The
working group should give a presentation to the General
Assembly in October.
· After June the secretariat will make a deal with a
graphic designer/technical websitebuilder and co-ordinate
the helpingforces (as to these it was stated that their
rewards could be that they get an opportunity to travel to
come together on the costs of EMU).
2. Approval of the minutes of the 5th Presidium Meeting
held on 16 and 17 February 2001
The minutes were approved
Referring to point 4 the president mentioned that the final
version of the working program 2001 has been sent to the
member associations and related companies.
3. Developments/general remarks from the members of the
Presidium
The president gave the floor to the Presidium to report on
any outstanding developments within his/her
country/association.
· Nuria Sempere reported that for the first time, the
Spanish music schools - organised by the director from La
Palma - would organise courses for teachers and management
on national level. Approximately 1000 people will
participate in the course in July. A new review has been
published charting all the latest developments in the world
of music.
· Wilhelm Dahl reported that, in five different regions,
the Norwegian association had organised congresses where top
politicians at National level had been invited to give their
advice on ways of proceeding. Each politician was invited to
take part in a congress in his/her own home region. Because
the congresses were organised on Friday several politicians
were able to attend. One of the positive results of this was
a discussion, lasting more than an hour, in the Norwegian
parliament and 12 pages of positive reviews.
· Gerd Eicker reported that Bavaria had also organised a
meeting at governmental level. For two days more than 100
leaders and culture counsellors discussed potential future
developments.
· The president reported:
. On the interesting symposium 'Music schools - Art schools'
which was organised by the Austrian association the day
before. Austria will make a report on it for all
associations.
. On the subsidies from EU and the Council of Europe
concerning IMEE. EMU still hasn't received the last
subsidies form the EU (about 3000 Euro) and appr. 40.000
French francs from the Council of Europe.
. That Slovakia and Ireland became members of EMU two years
ago. The Slovakian association (110 member schools) has had
juridical difficulties in the official founding of the
association. In Slovakia, at this moment, the founding of
groups needs special permission. The Irish Academy is still
occupied with the building of their association. The EMU
will ask them to submit a short report to the secretariat on
any developments by 1 September.
. That every member country will receive 10 brochures on
Music Schools and Intercultural Education published by the
IMC in co-operation with ISME and EMU.
. The EMU has received a letter from colleague-European
associations among whom ISME concerning working together
with regular school life. This matter will have to be
discussed further in the June meeting.
4. European Youth Music Festival 2002 in Switzerland
a). Financial situation and efforts made to get in contact
with high level politicians:
Hans Brupbacher had been invited to this meeting to give his
views on the Festival but was unfortunately unable to attend.
Mrs Susanne Gilg, Presidiummember of the Swiss organisation
who participated in the Symposium yesterday has informed the
president that there are still difficulties in finding the
total budget.
The Presidium emphasised the importance of the Festival. The
president will contact Hans Brupbacher informing him that he
would like to be present to give advice on behalf of the EMU
at a meeting of the Swiss board that will decide on if and
how the Festival will go on (July?).
b). Some major themes concerning the preparations and the
content of the Festival
. The Swiss festival organisation will inform participating
countries in June about the final participants per country.
. They will inform all participating groups in September
about their host school in Switzerland.
. It was announced in the last presidium meeting that they
would organise a European Orchestra. The presidium urged
them to start the preparations for the festival orchestra at
the earliest possible date.
c). The Conference
Switzerland has received a proposal from the EMU for the
conference day. Switzerland would like to discuss this
further later on. EMU would have to reckon with it in the
budget of 2002.
6. European Union: Creation of a development centre and
realisation of a research project on government/governmental
levels dealing with music schools
a). Creation of a development centre
The president reported that he and Wilhelm Dahl had been to
Brussels to talk with two Euro parliamentarians, the Dutch
Mrs Sanders and Mrs Ivary from Finland. Both were
enthusiastic about the ideas expressed during this dialogue
and they promised to help. They stated that it was important
to remain in contact and advised forming new contacts with
parliamentarian's from Great Britain and Germany. They
explained that it is not possible to find subsidies for
structural activities from regular programs like Socrates.
In the future there could be a possibility but they remarked
that firstly there would need to be more interest in the EU.
They said that in order to succeed it is important to first
make contact at the highest political level and they advised
sending a letter to Mrs. Viviane Reding, Commissioner of
Culture and Education. We received her reaction last week
and she suggested that we should make an appointment with
Mr. Baer, one of the highest officials in her bureaucracy.
b). Research project
The Euro parliamentarians explained that finding subsidies
for research projects would be very difficult. They advised
finding subsidies through the Socrates Program. However,
this would mean EMU paying a part by themselves. One
possibility could be to find a participating University.
However, it seems that it would involve a lot of paperwork
and time to engage the interest of the subsidisers.
The president mentioned that he had met a manager of
Eurostat the day before. Eurostat is an organisation that
specialises in official statistics in many fields. They are
very interested in the EMU data. Eurostat seems to be
interested to co-operate with EMU to get them.
The Presidium adopted the proposal to proceed further with
Eurostat.
7. A manifesto of prominent persons
Timo Veijola handed out a big list with possibly interesting
people for the manifesto. Also Gerd Eicker had been
collecting names (list also handed out).
The presidium members will single out 10 persons from the
list and 5 from their own knowledge and send this to the
secretariat by the end of May. It would also be permissible
to mention that certain individuals are unacceptable. Gerrie
will make this new toplist with the preferences of the
Presidium members.
Timo Veijola and Gerd Eicker (in co-operation with Gerd's
colleague Mr Wuester) will prepare a draft proposal to be
discussed in the Amsterdam meeting.
8. Professional Qualification Project
Gerd Eicker reported on his project with Arthur Gieles. Some
countries still have not returned the questionnaire. Wilhelm
Dahl has not yet found a sponsor for printing in Norway.
It was decided that Gerd Eicker would engage professional
help for the translation as soon as possible. EMU will cover
the costs.
In September, before printing, a copy of the report will be
sent to the members together with the material for the
meeting in Slovenia to give them the possibility of checking
the data. Printing the publication will have to be on the
budget.
9. Net4Music
Having decided at the beginning of the meeting that EMU will
develop their own website the Presidium decided not to
co-operate with Net4Music.
10. Exchange of teachers: sharing good practice and
working over borders
11 reactions to the enquiry made by Nuria Sempere have been
received. It was remarked that some countries were not
interested because they were afraid that if they sent
teachers abroad they might decide to stay.
a). Sharing good practice
Nuria found out that the Socrates programs offers several
possibilities for sharing good practice (trying Comenius 2
first though we are a non-regular schoolsystem).
Gerd reported that Erick Hacker, manager of the
International Music school academy 'Schloss Kapfenburg' was
very interested in preparing and organising a training
program. The first program could take place next year at the
beginning or on the end of the summer holidays because
during that time there would enough space in the academy
(120 beds). The EMU should recommend teachers that could do
the teaching, with them the Academy could develop a program.
The costs will be appr. 53 DM per day including food. Gerd
mentioned that the region Bad Wurtenberg might be able to
subsidise a part of this project.
Gerd Eicker will ask the Music school academy to make a
proposal for a 3-day project (Five Including travelling time)
for 100 persons. The theme should be group teaching on the
same instrument.
Nuria and Gerd will choose the 5 most important instruments.
b). Working over borders
From the extensive research Nuria has done so far it is
evident that it would not be easy secure finance for
projects concerning bringing people across borders to work
there. The Socrates programmes are not suitable. Perhaps the
international company for temporary labor Adecco might help
us, also tackling juridical, diploma and other problems.
c). Getting European Union money in general
The president suggested asking an expert like Mratin Prchal,
who also works for the Union of conservatories, to help
write these proposals.
The president will contact Mratin Prchal concerning the
proposals to the EU and he will contact Adecco for
information about their experiences and for their advice.
11. Getting new countries to join the EMU
Wilhelm has had several contacts with Poland but as yet
there is no official organisation. The music schools have a
annual meeting organised by the government. Wilhelm will ask
the government, in writing, for the names of the contact
persons.
Timo has contacted Miroslav Pikhart of the Czech Association
and they would like to be present in Slovenia.
Nuria has not yet succeeded in contacting Portugal.
The associations will receive an invitation for the meeting
in Slovenia as soon as the right addresses are known.
12. General Assembly Slovenia in October 2001
Viktor Zadnik gave an overview of the proposed program. The
Presidium has been invited to hold their meeting on 18
October (arrival date 17 October). The GA will be invited
from Thursday 18 till Sunday 21 October. The member
associations will be invited to give a short report (max. 5
minutes) about a successful project in their country. The
main themes for the working groups are: general school life
and music schools (prepared by Jan), group teaching (prepared
by Nuria), political marketing work of member associations (prepared
by Gerd), European developments centre (prepared by
Wilhelm). Each theme leader should give a short introduction
beforehand and a general view after the working group
sessions. Member associations will be invited to add
interesting themes.
The draft programme for the GA: Thursday 18 October: arrival
Friday 19 October: 09.00 - 13.00 General Assembly; 15.00 -
16.00 Presentation EMU website
16.00 - 18.00 Workshops including introduction
Saturday 20 October: 09.00 - 12.00 Presentation of 5 minutes
per working group; Qualification Project; short presentation
of projects by members. Excursion in the afternoon.
Sunday 21 October: departure.
English, German and French translators will be present on
Friday from 09.00 till 18.00 and on Saturday morning. The
secretariat will send the invitation in the middle of May
because Slovenia needs to know the exact number of
participants by the end of June.
Item 13. News from EMC;
14. Meetings in 2002 and
15. Other things were postponed to the next meeting.
The President already mentioned that the presidium could
have a meeting on the Canary Islands whenever it wants
16. Closing
The president closed the 6th meeting of the EMU Presidium at
18.00 h.
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