Present:
Leon Beech, Association of Further Education and Training Institutions of South
Africa
Dr George Boggs, American Association of Community Colleges
Jim Doyle, Association of Polytechnics in New Zealand
David Gibson, Association of Colleges (Secretary)
Dr Tayeb Kamali, Higher Colleges of Technology
Barry Peddle, TAFE Directors Australia
Dr Peter Rutland, Higher Colleges of Technology
William Rwambulla, Commonwealth Association of Polytechnics in Africa
Frans Schneider, European Forum of Technical & Vocational Education &
Training (Treasurer)
Apologies:
Gerry Brown, Association of Canadian Community Colleges (Deputy Chair)
CHAN Lee Mun, Council of Polytechnic Principals
Perive Lene, Pacific Association of TVET Providers
In attendance:
Rita Dobson, Association of Colleges (AoC) (Secretariat)
Dr Piero Formica, as observer for the Higher Colleges of Technology
1. Welcome and apologies
Chair David Gibson, Secretary
David Gibson welcomed Board
members to the meeting. Dr Kamali
welcomed Board members to Abu Dhabi and introduced his colleagues Dr Peter
Rutland and Dr Piero Formica. He
explained that Dr Formica would be acting as an observer for Dr Kamali and Dr
Rutland in periods of absence from the meeting as they were responsible for the
organisation of the E-ducation Without Borders conference which was taking place
at the same time as the meeting.
2. Agree Chair of current meeting
David Gibson explained that in
view of the Chairs resignation and the absence of the Deputy Chair he, as
Secretary of the World Federation, proposed to chair the meeting until the
Deputy Chair had been formally appointed. Members
agreed with this proposal.
3. Formal receipt of resignation
by the Chair
Members were presented with a
letter of resignation from Molly Venter. Board
members agreed that the internal rules and procedures did not specify a process
for the appointment of a new Chair. In
view of this, members unanimously agreed that the Deputy Chair, Gerry Brown,
take over as Chair until the next election of Board members in February 2004.
Members unanimously backed the nomination for Jim Doyle to take over as
Deputy Chair until the next election of Board members in February 2004.
It was agreed that Jim, as new Deputy Chair of the Federation, should
chair the remainder of this Board meeting from this point on.
Chair Jim Doyle, Deputy Chair
Jim began by thanking
members for attending the meeting and for approving his nomination for Deputy
Chair. He expressed a concern
immediately in relation to a Constitution item on the term of office of the
WFACP Chair. He suggested that the
Constitution be amended so that the Chair is in post for a period of no less
than 2 years to ensure some level of continuity - in the case of Gerry Browns
appointment as Chair following the resignation of Molly Venter, according to the
Constitution his term would expire in February 2004 after only one year in post.
Members agreed that a recommendation be made to WFACP members at the next
General Meeting to change the Constitution as described.
4. Formal signing of minutes of a
Board meeting held on 22nd and 23rd July 2002
The minutes were amended so that
item 1 (Welcome and Apologies) was changed to read Raymond Preiss, the
Director of AFETISA. The Chair
of the meeting approved and signed off the minutes.
5. Board communications
Members agreed to defer this item
to the next Board meeting.
6. 3rd World Congress
update from AFETISA representative
The Chair explained that,
following receipt of an update report from AFETISA on the 3rd World
Congress, members would need to consider three options; a) to proceed with the
Congress on the planned date and at the planned venue, b) to postpone the
Congress to a later date and c) to cancel the Congress and discuss other
alternatives. Dr Kamali offered for
the Higher Colleges of Technology to host the Congress in February 2004 as an
alternative if members decided to cancel the Congress in South Africa.
Leon Beech was welcomed to
his first full meeting as the official AFETISA representative on the WFACP
Board, following the resignation as Chair of AFETISA by Molly Venter. He explained that he is the current President of AFETISAs
Executive Team and a new Chair will be elected later this year.
He also reported that all members of AFETISAs Executive Team act as
Directors of AoCSA, the section 21 company established for financial or
contractual purposes in any matter relating to the Congress.
Derrick Keyser, who attended the WFACP Board meeting in July 2002, is the
Chair of the Congress planning committee and Leon is also a member of that
committee. Leon agreed to give
members a structure of the planning committee.
He explained that Mollys
resignation had been unexpected and that all Congress planning had been done
through her office at Pretoria College using her own college staff. Thus, he was still in the process of gathering information
from the college about Congress arrangements.
He explained that the AFETISA Board were completely behind holding the
Congress in South Africa in February 2004 and that AFETISA had already committed
Rand 250,000 to the Congress planning. AFETISA would incur further costs if the Congress was
cancelled and that this really was not a viable option.
Members received a copy of an update report on the 3rd World
Congress.
Leon then apologised for any lack
of communication about Congress arrangements with Board members in the period
since March 2002 and expressed his wish to see Board members committed to a
successful Congress and a willingness to contribute as much as possible to the
Congress content. He suggested
sending regular (possibly even weekly) development reports to Board members.
Keynote speakers:
Leon reported that both President Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela would respond
in June to invitations to speak at the Congress. Members suggested the inclusion of a keynote speaker to close
the conference and announce the host, date and venue of the 4th World
Congress.
Programme outline:
Members suggested that more than 4 parallel sessions should be running at the
same time and commented that no time had been allowed in the programme for
delegates moving from one session to another.
Leon expressed his wish to have Board members introducing all the
parallel sessions. Members agreed
that the inclusion of networking group sessions would be an incentive to
delegates. There was also a concern
that delegates may not be able to justify their attendance at the Congress
unless they were presenting a paper.
Budget:
Leon Beech requested Board members to consider reducing the capitation fee from
USD$40.00 to USD$25.00, as it had been for the 2nd World Congress.
He offered that AFETISA could make a further donation to the World
Federation if profits exceeded expectation.
He also commented that the high registration fee may prohibit delegates
from other African countries attending the Congress.
William Rwambulla suggested concessions in the fees and moving the
deadline for early registration to September 2003.
Call for papers:
Leon requested that Board members ratify all proposals received for presenting
at parallel sessions. Board members
agreed that they were not qualified to make these decisions and that it should
be left to the Congress host.
Marketplace:
Leon requested that Board members provide him with suggested exhibitors or
international sponsors.
Promotional activities:
Members were asked to ensure they promote the Congress as much as possible
within their own countries. Members
considered reasonable number of delegates from within their own countries and
the following estimates were made:
South Africa 400 delegates
Rest of Africa 200 delegates
United Kingdom 60 delegates
Rest of Europe 300 delegates
New Zealand/Australia 30 delegates
Conclusion and decisions
Board members agreed that the Congress should proceed in South Africa in
February 2004
-
Board members agreed that the capitation fee be reduced to USD$25.00
-
Leon Beech agreed to produce a list of actions and their deadlines
required by Board members in relation to their input to the planning of the
Congress
7. Items for decision/approval
a)
(i) Achieving Our Aims - As Jim Doyle had contributed to
this paper with Gerry Brown, the Secretary of the Federation took over as Chair
for this particular item.
Members
agreed that the paper had been extremely useful in beginning to identify
possible activities to be undertaken by the Board and possible sources of
securing revenue. Members received
an additional paper, produced by the Secretariat, which explored ways of
splitting members into groups (ie. associations, other organisations and
individual institutions) to achieve further revenue in return for some tangible
benefits, including reduced fees at seminars, Congresses etc. David Gibson agreed to expand this paper for the May board
meeting and to include different costed options. Members agreed to forward to David Gibson dates of their own
institutions annual conferences upto 2006 so that the paper could include
possible World Federation seminars built into member conferences.
(ii)
Report on member recruitment activities Members received this paper,
prepared by the Secretariat and for information only, which highlighted
activities carried out since the establishment of the World Federation Steering
Committee in 1999.
b)
World Federation draft action plan template (deferred to next
Board meeting)
c)
Board internal rules and procedures The Chair suggested some
further amendments to the final draft of this paper and members agreed that the
revised paper be distributed via email by the Secretariat to Board members for
comment, with a view to presenting the paper for information only at the next
Board meeting.
d)
WFACP promotional flyer (deferred to next Board meeting)
e)
Co-option of Commonwealth of Learning to the WFACP Board
Members agreed that the Constitution only allowed authorised representatives of
paid up full member organisations of the Federation to be elected or co-opted to
the Board. They therefore agreed that the Commonwealth of Learning could
not be co-opted onto the Board. However,
it was agreed that John Bartram, representing the Commonwealth of Learning,
should be invited to participate in future Board meetings as an observer thus
not having a formal vote. It was
agreed that the Chair should write formally to John Bartram.
f)
Members ratified membership of Bve Raad as full WFACP members.
Members also ratified membership of Commonwealth of Learning and Colombo
Plan Staff College as associate WFACP members.
8. Items for discussion
a) Legalisation of World
Federation (deferred to next Board meeting)
b)
WFACP Newsletter and Awards (deferred to next Board meeting)
c)
Appointment of a Patron (deferred to next Board meeting
9. Any other business
Dr Peter Rutland, representing the
Higher Colleges of Technology, reported that HCT will be bidding to host the 4th
World Congress in Abu Dhabi in 2006. He
was informed that the deadline for expressing an interest was 15th
April 2003 and that the bid should be sent to the Secretariat by that date and
then presented at the next Board meeting in May 2003.
It was agreed that the Chair
should write formally to Molly Venter to thank her for acting as Chair of the
Federation from March 2002 to January 2003.
It was agreed that the Chair
should write formally to Dr Tayeb Kamali to thank him for hosting the Board
meeting in Abu Dhabi.
10. Date of next Board meeting
Members agreed to proceed with the
next scheduled Board meeting taking place on Wednesday 28th and
Thursday 29th May 2003 in Vancouver (Canada).
These minutes have been approved
by the WFACP Board and have been signed by the Chair of a meeting of the Board
on 28th May 2003.
Signature:
..
Member organisation:
..
Date:
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AGENDA
ITEMS DEFERRED TO NEXT BOARD MEETING:
·
WFACP promotional flyer (agreement on text for
the flyer following consideration of tangible benefits for members)
·
Legalisation of World Federation (consideration
of paper produced by AoC Finance Director outlining options for legalisation)
·
Appointment of a Patron (consideration of the
purpose of a patron, an appointment process and suggested names)
ADDITIONAL AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT BOARD MEETING:
SUMMARY
OF ACTIONS FROM BOARD MEETING HELD ON 21ST FEBRUARY 2003
Issue to Board members a chart
showing the structure of the 3rd Congress planning committee (Leon
Beech)
Prepare recommended changes to
Constitution for presentation at the General Meeting of Members in February 2004
(Deputy Chair)
Produce
a paper exploring ways of achieving increased membership of the Federation and
further revenue in return for tangible benefits.
Paper to include different costed options (David Gibson)
Forward to David Gibson dates of
member institutions annual conferences (ALL)
Write to
John Bartram of Commonwealth of Learning to invite to future Board meetings as
an observer (Gerry Brown)
Write to Molly Venter to thank her
for acting as Chair of the Federation upto her resignation (Gerry Brown).
Write to Dr Tayeb Kamali to thank
him for hosting the Board meeting in Abu Dhabi (Gerry Brown).