MINUTES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE VETNET NETWORK

Friday, 16 September 2011, 13:30 Freie Universität Berlin, Room K24/21

 

 1. Opening and welcome: The Convenor of the VETNET network, Ludger Deitmer, opened the General Assembly at 13.30 and welcomed the participants.

 2. Agreement of the Agenda: The board of VETNET had received the announcement that Ludger Deitmer will resign from his office as the Convenor. In the light of this announcement the Board had proposed the following points on the agenda:

a) Amendment of the regulations of the VETNET network;

b) Election of the new convenor(s) based on the proposal for the amendment;

c) Invitation of Honorary Fellows of VETNET;

d) Discussion on the VETNET programme at ECER 2011,

e) Other issues and proposals.

 3. Amendment of the regulations of the VETNET network: On behalf of the VETNET Board Graham Attwell presented the proposal for an amendment of the VETNET regulations. The Board proposed that the following changes would be introduced with immediate effect:

1) Instead of having one single Convenor (elected by the Board), VETNET will adopt the model of an Executive Committee that consists of the outgoing Convenor, the Convenor and a Deputy Convenor. The fourth (co-opted) member of the Executive Committee will be the VETNET programme chair of the forthcoming ECER conference.

2) The term of office for the member of Executive Committee will be two years. The Elections of the Convenor and the Deputy Convenor for the period 2011 – 2013 should be arranged immediately in the General Assembly.

3) The VETNET Board shall establish an online Membership List (for members to sign in) that enables broader participation than the current pattern.

4) VETNET will adopt the pattern of inviting Honorary Fellows. The annual General Assembly shall have possibility to invite at the maximum two Honorary Fellows.

5) An ad hoc committee shall be elected to prepare a proposal for a more thorough revision of the VETNET regulations.

 After a brief discussion all the above mentioned proposals were accepted unanimously. The following persons were elected to the ad hoc committee for revising the VETNET regulations: Martin Mulder, Johanna Lasonen and Joanna Burchert.

 4. Elections of Convenor and Deputy Convenor: On behalf of the VETNET Board Graham Attwell (as the election officer) invited the participants to nominate candidates for the office of the Convenor and Deputy Convenor. In the following discussion some participants paid attention to the need to have institutional backing for the management of network, to pass the experience in a smooth way and to make it possible that the responsibilities can rotate between several universities and/or institutes. Two nominations were presented:

a) For the office of Convenor Michael Gessler from the University of Bremen;

b) For the office of Deputy Convenor Margaret Malloch from the University of East London.

 Both candidates were elected unanimously by the participants of the General Assembly. The elected Convenor and Deputy Convenor thanked the participants for the confidence.

 5. Invitation of the Honorary Fellows: On behalf of the VETNET Board Graham Attwell (as the election officer) invited the participants to nominate persons to be invited as Honorary Fellows. Two candidates were nominated: Martin Mulder (as the founding Convenor of VETNET) and Sabine Manning (as a long-time Board Member and as the producer of electronic VETNET proceedings and of the Newsletter). Both candidates were invited unanimously.  On behalf of the VETNET Board Pekka Kämäräinen (as a co-opted member) presented Laudatio statements for the newly invited Honorary Fellows.

At this point Ludger Deitmer (as the Outgoing Convenor) handed the chairing over to the newly elected Convenor Michael Gessler.

 6. Discussion on the VETNET programme at ECER 2011: On behalf of the VETNET Board Michael Gessler invited the participants to make comments on the VETNET programme at ECER 2011 in Berlin. The following comments were presented on the VETNET programme and on the conference arrangements:

• The VETNET programme was considered interesting and the sessions were mainly of good quality. Also, the European projects who were using symposia and round tables as dissemination events, were using VETNET programme in a good way.
• Several participants had sent or uploaded their presentations on the VETNET page (proceedings folder) and the material was available in advance.
• Some of the sessions were addressing research issues and policy issues that had been discussed at earlier years of the VETNET network. There was a need to pay more attention to the history of European VET research and to the possibility to revisit the prior results, findings and lessons learnt.
• There were certain research areas that were not very strongly covered (such as the use of ICT and new media in VET or the development of competences in vocational and workplace learning).
• There was one VETNET session in which video materials were used extensively. However, since this was advertised as ‘paper session’, it was not attracting a wide audience (although the topic was relevant for several networks). There seems to be an issue, how to develop more active and participative sessions (demonstrations and interventions) and how to present them in the work programme.
• The fact that the opening session of VETNET was transformed into a participative workshop (after the short inputs) was praised by the participants.
• The fact that the social event was organised as a joint event with another network, was considered as a good idea. This pattern was recommended for the future.
• There were some sessions in the VETNET programme that were relevant for several networks but they were not advertised as joint sessions (although there had been plans for such ‘code-sharing’).  There is a need to pay attention to such collaboration at an earlier stage.
• The VETNET website provides a basis for more effective knowledge sharing (e.g. links to resources and to events) and for social networking (e.g. discussion on forthcoming events and project plans). Also, the VETNET conference folders should be used to share the presentations (not only the papers).
• The conference venue (Freie Universität Berlin) was good for organising the conference itself but the counter-side was that the hotels were far away. For the future conferences it would be an improvement if the participants can be accommodated closer to the hotels.

In addition to remarks on the VETNET programme Pekka Kämäräinen (who had been the VETNET representative at the network convenors’ meeting) informed of the following points:

• There is less money for the networks’ projects and initiatives than before but well-thought proposals will be successful.
• VETNET has indicated its interest to work with the history of the network and with the electronic archives. (These ideas are to be developed by the next convenors’ seminar.)
• The idea of inviting Honorary Fellows has also been discussed in other networks and in the EERA Council. The networks are asked to report on this to the Council.

6. Other issues, proposals and announcements: Michael Gessler invited the participants to present other issues, proposals and announcements before closing the VETNET General Assembly. The following issues were raised:

• Sabine Manning had prepared a brief overview on the VETNET programme. Because of the lack of time she indicated that she will upload it on the VETNET site.
• Lazaro Moreno made an announcement of a VET research conference to be organised in Stockholm in May 2012.
• On behalf of the former and present Board members Barbara Stalder thanked Ludger Deitmer for his work as the Convenor and wished him success in his new role as active supporter of the new Convenor and Deputy Convenor.

 

Michael Gessler closed the General Assembly at 14.45 and thanked the participants for their active involvement in the meeting.

The minutes were taken by

Pekka Kämäräinen, University of Bremen, ITB

 

List of Participants

 1. Ludger Deitmer, University of Bremen

2. Graham Attwell, Pontydysgu

3. Pekka Kämäräinen, University of Bremen

4. Martin Mulder, University of Wageningen

5. Margaret Malloch, University of East London

6. Michael Gessler, University of Bremen

7. Sabine Manning, Research Forum WiFo

8. Johanna Lasonen, University of South Florida/ University of Jyväskylä

9. Marianne Teräs, University of Helsinki

10. Carine Cools, University of Jyväskylä

11. Joanna Burchert, University of Bremen

12. Fernando Marhuenda, University of Valencia,

13. M’Hamed Dif, University of Strasbourg

14. Magdolna Benke, NIVE

15. Marja-Leena Stenström, University of Jyväskylä

16. Vidmantas Tutlys, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas

17. Christof Nägele, SFIVET

18. Barbara Stalder, University of Neuchatel

19. Lorenz Lassnigg, IHS

20. Lazaro Moreno, University of Stockholm

21. Ingrid Berglund, University of Stockholm

22. Ingrid Henning Loeb, University of Göteborg

23. Lisbeth Lindberg, University of Göteborg

24. Katarina Sipos Zachrisson, University of Stockholm

25. Viveca Lindberg, University of Stockholm

26. Len Cairns, University of Monash

27. Lewis Hughes, Enviro-sys

28. Libby Hughes, Enviro-sys

29. Elly de Bruyn, University of Utrecht

30. Tom Wünsche, BiBB

31. Gabriela Höhns, BiBB

32. Marion Fleige, University of Chemnitz

33. Julia Franz, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg

34. Trine Deichman-Sörensen, University College of Oslo and Akershus

35. Leif Lahn, University of Oslo

36. Vibe Aarkrog, University of Aarhus/ Danish School of Education

37. Lars Bo Henriksen, University of Aalborg

38. Bernd Hofmaier, University of Halmstad

39. Alan Brown, University of Warwick

40. Jeroen Onstenk, InHolland University

41. Carey Normand, University of Dundee

42. Christopher Winch, Kings College

43. Helen Colley, Manchester Metropolitan University

44. Marlise Kammermann, SFIVET

45. Christiane Köth, Arbeit und Leben Hamburg

46. Igor Folvarochnyi, University of Kiev