Kiyoshi Amano could not attend because of illness.
The members received the President's proposal for agenda through e-mail before the meeting.
The proposed agenda was approved, with the clarification that a discussion about the meaning of the letter C in the name of the ISCAR would be discussed under "Other Society business".
It was decided that the minutes for this meeting will be circulated and approved through e-mail.
The proposed standing orders and article changes were distributed in advance of the meeting. The proposed changes were reviewed and approved, along with the following changes:
Article 3. A sentence will be added that describes how the purpose of the society was created by uniting the purposes of the two previous societies. Harry Daniels will propose a formulation. The word activity was replaced with the word practices.
Article 5. It was the understanding of the executive committee that the criteria of membership of "doing research" does not imply only academic research and should be interpreted broadly.
Article 20. Last sentence was reformulated: "Procedures for the election of and term of office for Executive Committee members are regulated by the Standing Orders. "
The following changes to the proposal for Standing Orders for Articles prepared by Seth Chaiklin, Antonia Candela and King Beach were discussed or made:
Standing Orders for article 12. First paragraph. The suggestion to add that "at least 51% of the executive committee members should be present in the members meeting" was rejected.
Standing Orders for article 14. The formulation "51% " was changed into "more than half"
Standing Orders for article 16, second paragraph. The formulation "secret" was changed into: "recorded valid vote", in third paragraph the formulation: "written ballot" was changed into "secret written ballot"
Standing Orders for article 20 and 22. The last paragraph of standing orders for Article 22 was moved to be the last paragraph of standing orders for Article 20.
The Articles and Standing Orders will be put forward for approval at the next Members' Meeting. Until that time, the revised articles and standing orders are recognized as the Society's articles and standing orders.
The documents of the society will be only in English. Otherwise languages are used flexibly.
It was decided to use a black and white logo in documents and to ask an artist to develop a logo based on the idea used in the Multidisciplinary Newsletter for Activity Theory and the Lahti ISCRAT congress, but make some changes in the design (e.g., to use several tools such as pen, paint brush, screwdriver to symbolize intellectual, artistic and physical work). The proposed font for the ISCAR letterhead (Bauhaus 93) was accepted but the artist may propose another, if it is necessary to match the font to the figure. The colours of a coloured version of the logo will be chosen by the artist.
It was decided that executive committee members search for possible artists and inform the President of possible artists by 20.4.
It was decided not to change the name of the society.
It was decided that
* ISCAR can lend money to the organizing committee of the congress if needed, with the expectation that the loan will be repaid after the Congress is finished.
* any profit that the congress may produce will be transferred to ISCAR.
* ISCAR's executive committee will appoint a "Program Advisory Board" for matters of the Congress program. The chairmen of the previous four congresses will be invited to join this board together with the President and Vice President of ISCAR and a person who could represent professional areas that have relatively newly become interested in Cultural Historical Approach and Activity Theory like computer science and design professionals. The local organizing committee of the Sevilla congress is free to decide when and how it will use this advisory board.
* It is up to the organizing committee to decide the congress themes and the key-note speakers, but the executive committee encourages the organizing committee to consider multidisciplinary themes that highlight new emerging ideas.
* A number of possible key-note speakers like MichaelTomasello and the Acapulca-group were mentioned in the discussion. Further proposals that members of the executive committee might have should be sent to the "program advisory board".
It was decided that:
* The official language of the congress is English and all abstracts will be written in English.
* it important to try to enhance the participation of people from the hosting country even if they do not speak English fluently. The local organizing committee should try new, creative forms of bilingual cooperation during the congress. As a goal, each thematic block of the program should have at least one such session. These sessions should be clearly marked in the program, and the way in which the bilingual cooperation is planned should be clearly explained. The congress organizers are encouraged to have simultaneous translation of keynote speeches and other main events if possible.
It was decided
* to set a working group to find out optional ways to get and arrange financial support for attending the conference and drafting standing orders for such support.
* that executive committee members were asked to search and propose persons for this group.
* persons who have dealt with this matter in previous congresses will be asked to provide their experiences.
The President presented data about the number of members from each country and the amount of received membership payments. The number of members was 285. In some sectors the recruiting had not yet started, because of practical reasons. The President emphasized the importance for the executive committee members to go on with the recruiting and to remind potential members about the society every now and then.
The committee discussed ways of recruiting.
It was decided
* to prepare a brochure
* Antonia Candela produces a draft about the general idea of the brochure and its text which can also be used as the basic information about ISCAR members of the committee can provide to relevant sister organizations to make ISCAR known to their members.
* Antonia Candela coordinates executive committee members contacting other associations. To avoid overlapping members of the executive committee are advised to contact Antonia before contacting an organization to know if some of the members has already been in touch with the particular organization he/she intends to contact.
The President emphasized that membership benefits can also be local and singular.
It was decided that each executive committee member should continue to look for possibilities to find more benefits.
* the President informed the committee that the credit-card payment system should soon be available.
* the members have to be remained about paying the membership fee for this year, and renewal reminder will have to be sent at the end of this year. Jaakko Virkkunen will take care of the payment reminders
The committee discussed the role of the coordinator and the role of the sections and local ISCAR websites. The President informed about the local websites developed thus far and encouraged the committee members to organize the building of local websites for which there is capacity in the ISCAR server. Some local websites will have bibliographies about Activity Theory literature. Websites could also have links to the relevant research groups in the region.
The President presented the plan of the newsletter (attached) and the editing group. The plan was accepted.
It was decided that members of the committee should suggest persons who could act as local "correspondents" of the newsletter.
a. It was decided that ISCAR's money will be used to support conferences and events in which there is multi-national participation and a focus on creating interactions between different perspectives. One possible form of support would be to provide for the travel and living expenses of a key-note speaker.
b. Dorothy Robbins asked for ISCAR's help for her project of collecting examples of the use of Vygotskian ideas in practical applications.
It was decided that she will be offered to send a description about the project to the newsletter and to ask for contacts.
The members of the executive committee noted that the work of the committee has proceeded well and thanked the President for his remarkable work to get the work organized and for his support to the individual coordinators in their tasks. The President was encouraged to, besides the common messages, point out, when he needs especially a reply from a specific region.
The next meeting will be held one day before the congress. In case there is need for a new meeting before that, it will be held in connection with an ISCAR event or in connection with a seminar having also other researcher participants than the committee members.
The President closed the meeting and thanked the committee members.