BAICE 2006 AGM

8 September 2006, Queens University Belfast

Present:  Professor Clive Harber [Chair], Professor Rosalind Pritchard (Chair elect) and members as listed in the Minute file

1.            Apologies:  As listed in the Minute file

2.         Minutes of the 2005 AGM:  Approved

3.         Matters arising:  (4.2) It was noted that Khadijah Fancy (Research Director, CAMFED International) had agreed to act as NGO Representative on the Executive.  Members welcomed this involvement.

4.         Executive Committee Membership:

4.1              Election of Chair and Vice Chair:  Following an election earlier in the year, it was noted that one nomination had been received for Chair, Professor Rosalind Pritchard (University of Ulster) and one nomination had been received for Vice Chair, Dr Lore Arthur (The Open University).  Both were, therefore, returned unopposed.

4.2       Election of Ordinary Members: Following the completion of Dr Yusuf Sayed’s second term of office and Dr Leon Tikly’s resignation, due to pressure of work, two replacement nominations were received for Ordinary Members.  It was, therefore, noted that Professor Clive Harber and Dr Elizabeth McNess were duly elected to the Executive.  Thanks were extended to Dr Sayed and Dr Tikly for their work on behalf of the Association.

4.2              Election of Student Representative: It was noted that Lynne Townley, the outgoing Student Representative on the Executive Committee, had come to the end of her two-year tenure.  Lynne was thanked for her hard work, especially within the student population of the Association.  Arrangements for the election of her successor were in progress.

4.3              Appointment of an Honorary Secretary: It was noted that, after four years as Honorary Secretary, Dr Elizabeth McNess would be stepping down at the next Executive Committee meeting.  Thanks go to Sheila Trahar (University of Bristol) who has agreed to take on this important role.  It was noted that Elizabeth would remain on the Executive as an Ordinary Member, and was thanked by the Chair for the contribution she had made to the Association.

 It was noted that there still remained two vacancies for Ordinary Members on the Executive Committee.  Members interested in being nominated for an initial three-year term should contact the Chair, Professor Rosalind Pritchard.

5.         BAICE President 2006/07:  It was reported that Professor Julia Preece (University of Glasgow) had been approached and would be pleased to act as the Association’s President for the academic year 2006-2007.  Members present whole-heartedly supported this proposal and confirmed the appointment.  The Chair thanked Professor Keith Lewin for his work as President in 2005-06.

6.         Election of Honorary Members:  Following nomination by Prof. Michael Crossley, members confirmed the election of Dr Hugh Hawes to Honorary Membership of the Association.

7.          Report from the Chairs:  Professor Harber expressed his delight that the conference was taking place in Belfast and thanked the organizers for their hard work.  He confirmed that the Association continued to thrive, that membership had expanded, and that the Journal, Compare, was doing well.  Michael Crossley reported on a chapter on the history of BAICE which was to appear in a book published by the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) – details could be found on the BAICE website.   Professor Harber congratulated BAICE members, Michael Crossley and Rosemary Preston, on their election to the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences. Professor Harber also reported on the success of the one day conference organised by Germ Janmaat on ‘Education and Identity Formation in Eastern Europe and Asia’ and drew attention to the conference to be held in Edinburgh (Going Global 2), details of which could be found on the website.  The Chair reminded members that up to £500 of financial support was available from the Association to help in the organisation of such events. Details could be found on the BAICE website.

The in-coming Chair, Professor Rosalind Pritchard, warmly thanked Professor Harber for all his hard work and for his efficiency in chairing the Executive Committee meetings.

8.         Treasurer’s Report:  Dr Ulrike Niens circulated a Statement of Accounts for the year ending 31^st July 2006 which had been audited by Coppers@ Co. She reported to members that the accounts looked healthy;a surplus of £7,240.44 was noted while there had been a slight loss during 2004-05, when the WCCES conference in Cuba had been costly. Since then, bursaries had been discontinued. For the past financial year, however, royalties had increased by £2,425.23, and subscriptions by £317.46, while conference and travel costs had also been slightly reduced. Secretarial costs for Compare had also been less than anticipated because of maternity leave but this was likely to increase again in the coming year.

AGM members were assured that the next executive meeting will discuss how best to handle the surplus. The Treasurer was thanked by the membership for her work on behalf of the Association.

9.             Report from the Membership Secretary:  Dr Lyla Brown reported that the number of members had increased slightly from 194 in September 2005 to 199 in 2006. A great deal of effort had been made to ‘tidy up’ outdated membership lists. Mrs. Barbara Rosborough had been paid to chase up missing email addresses and to check on the status of lapsed members.  This meant that there were now about 200 ‘active’ members instead of the previous mix of 400 with many inaccuracies. Overseas membership continued to be a problem because of banking difficulties and ways of solving this continued to be discussed.  It was noted that, because of the relatively small size of the Association, the costs of providing credit card facilities were currently prohibitive.  The membership thanked Lyla for her hard work as Membership Secretary.

10.       Report from the Editors of Compare: Dr Anna Robinson-Pant reported that the journal continued to do well. It was noted that, as Clive Harber and Lynn Davies had now completed their term of office on the editorial board, they would be replaced by Rosalind Pritchard and Julia Preece.  It was reported that in the preceding year 90 papers had been accepted for review and 21 papers had so far been accepted for publication in 2006/7. From January 2007 Compare will be increased to five issues per year. Members were encouraged to become reviewers, both for articles (email: compare@baice.ac.uk) and books (email: p.m.rose@sussex.ac.uk).  The editors were thanked for their work on behalf of the Association.

11.       Report on BAICE website:  A report on the website by Dr Pauline Rose was tabled in her absence.  It was noted that Dr Rose had given notice that she would like to step down as Website Manager and a new person would need to take over this responsibility. Professor Preece told members that she might be able to find a suitable person, though payment would be expected.

The membership expressed their thanks for the hard work that Dr Rose had put in over the years to develop and maintain the BAICE website at it current high level.

12.       Any Other Business: The UKFIET/BAICE conference will take place in Oxford in 2007. Comments concerning this conference should be sent to the Chair. It was noted that agreement had been reached that those attending the WCCES conference in Sarajewo, as well as the Oxford Conference, would be offered a 10% discount from both conferences.

Members were invited to comment on the Sarajevo Declaration (previously circulated) which it was hoped would be officially adopted at the 13^th WCCES conference to be held in Sarajevo in September 2007 in Sarajevo.  Comments should be sent to the BAICE chair, Professor Pritchard, in the first instance.

13.       Date of next Annual General Meeting:  UKFIET/BAICE Conference, Oxford, September 2007.

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