Present members: Amelia Álvarez, King Beach, Bernd Fichtner, Mario Golder, Mariane Hedegaard (chairman), Vladislav Lektorsky, Berthel Sutter and Bert van Oers.
Added to the meeting: Seth Chaiklin, Pablo del Río, and Willem Wardekker.
The proposed agenda for the meeting was accepted, but an addition to item #3 was made (in five words).
Berthel Sutter was elected secretary of the meeting.
Until standing orders are formulated and the organization is
official.
Amelia Álvarez was appointed vice president of the ISCRAT
Executive Committee.
Treasurer until now has been Seth Chaiklin. It was decided that he
continue as treasurer.
Berthel Sutter was appointed secretary of the Executive
Committee.
Seth Chaiklin gave an overview of the membership situation, comprising paid members, registered members, and "potential members," defined as persons who were registered for the Aarhus congress or appeared as first authors on papers to the congress.
It was decided that each Executive Committee member make at least one contact with the "potential ISCRAT congress members" in their country before September 1st, 1999.
Furthermore, it was decided that for countries not represented in the Executive Committee, a Committee member contact should be taken with potential members from each country according to the following list:
Seth Chaiklin informed that there is an ISCRAT homepage, and that the domain ISCRAT.org is registered. (It is located on a server at Aarhus University.)
An Application Form for Membership on the ISCRAT homepage was suggested, and so was an online address book for Executive Committee members. Seth Chaiklin is implementing this.
Mariane informed about books, published or in progress, based on articles presented at the last congress. This information is on ISCRAT homepage.
It was decided that each member of the Executive Committee would get a password to have access to the address book.
It was decided that Berthel Sutter would have access to writing on the homepage.
It was decided that a special page on the homepage be constructed for membership benefits on books and journals. Most likely, this will be possible for the German series on Activity Theory (Bernd Fichtner), books and journals from the Culture & Consciousness Series (Amelia Álvarez), and a Russian journal (Vladislav Lektorsky). It was decided that King Beach should ask Mike Cole and Jaan Valsiner if a discount for ISCRAT members would also be possible for Mind, Culture, and Activity, and for Cultural Psychology.
It was suggested that a Bulletin Board for ISCRAT, preferably an edited one, should be established on the ISCRAT website. For example, books of ISCRAT members could be displayed there. No editor was appointed yet. It was further suggested that a joint newsletter of ISCRAT and the Association for Sociocultural Research should be established.
It was decided that the Executive Committee approve these suggestions. However, no concrete measures were taken.
It was decided that each Executive Committee member will have access to a section on the ISCRAT website for announcing national meetings, or other matters of national interest. Seth Chaiklin will solve the technical issues.
It was decided that the Executive Committee will encourage arrangements of summer schools and PhD courses in connection to the next congress.
Bert van Oers, president of the next congress, gave an orientation.
The congress will take place 19-22 June 2002. Monday 18th of June will be a pre-conference day.
A local organizing committee is established (Bert van Oers, René van der Veer, Ed Elbers, Willem Wardekker, Sara Blom, and Bea Pompert). The Conference Bureau of the Free University of Amsterdam will be used.
An international group for the congress has been established, including Amelia Álvarez, Jerome Bruner. Michael Cole, Vladislav Lektorsky, Barbara Rogoff, Peeter Tulviste, and James Wertsch.
The Congress fee will be 850 Dutch Guilders, with a 10% reduction for ISCRAT members, 50% reduction for participants from Eastern Europe and developing countries.
It was decided that Executive Committee members should pay the membership fee to the organization. It was also decided that 10% of the membership fees go to the organization, and the rest to the Conference.
It was decided that there will be no reduced membership fees at this time.
Pablo del Río gave a short presentation of the history of the Society. He suggested a merging of the two organizations. Amelia Álvarez suggested that the new name could be ISCRAT, International Society for Cultural-historical Research and Activity Theory.
It was decided that the Executive Committee is open for establishing a joint organization. It was further decided that no formal (registered) organization will be established before the meeting with the Sociocultural Research Society in Brazil, and that the congress in Amsterdam will proceed as planned.
Future places for congresses were discussed with departure from a suggestion from Jim Wertsch. Japan, Mexico, Argentina and Italy were mentioned as possible candidates, but no decision was taken.
An earlier version of the Articles, from October 1992, to be revised, was used as a point of departure in the discussion.
It was decided that the secretary should send out the revised version of the Articles to the Executive Committee Members. This version is the result of the revision work of the meeting, and that further discussions of the Articles will take place at the next Executive Committee meeting.
Decision was made at item #9.
It was decided that the next Executive Committee meeting will be held at the III Conference for Sociocultural Research, Sao Paolo, Brazil, July 2000.