Latest News on FEDORA - EAIE merger

27
Jan 2011
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27 Jan 2011

Dear FEDORA members,
We would like to inform you about the current state of things in regard to the eventual merger with the European Association for International Education (EAIE).

As you know, the General Assembly (GA) in October 2009 in Berlin has decided that FEDORA should become a preliminary Special Interest Group (SIG) within the European Association for International Education (EAIE) and explore possibilities of a merger to strengthen the organization in general and its administration in particular. This became effective on February 1, 2010.

FEDORA/EAIE

The Fedora Working Group coordinators met twice with their counterparts on the side of the EAIE subgroups and a Steering group with Board members of both associations met several times to monitor the process. In these meetings, the pros and cons of merging were discussed and laid out in SWOT analyses as well as the idea to keep FEDORA as a whole entity under the EAIE roof. This last option was rejected by the participants in the joint working groups as not desirable and unrealistic. Detailed summaries of the Working Group reports are available online in the members only section of the FEDORA homepage (www.fedora-eu.org) and here:

http://studienberatung.fu-berlin.de/fedora2009/newsletter/EAIEFEDORACooperationReport.pdf

http://studienberatung.fu-berlin.de/fedora/summary_working_group_reports_aug_2010.pdf

The FEDORA Board meeting in Nantes on September 16, 2010 resulted in the unanimous decision of the Board, that a merger is feasible under the following conditions:

• Fedora Working Group Psyche shall join the EAIE as a separate Professional Section (PS).

• Fedora Working Group Educational Guidance and Counselling and EAIE Professional Section Safsa shall merge, as well as Fedora Working Group Career Guidance and Employment and EAIE Professional Section Emploi. Both newly formed PS will be renamed to make it visible that this is a merger, not a takeover.

• Fedora Working Group Inclusion/Equal Opportunities and EAIE Special Interest Group DIW will have another meeting in November 2010 to further explore how a merger can be arranged.

• Until the newly formed PS will elect a new Board according to the EAIE time frame, a Fedora representative from our respective Working Groups will be attached to the existing Boards as a resource person.

• Following the wishes of the Fedora Working Group Career Guidance and Employment and the EAIE PS Emploi, both will make further steps into a merger and thus serve as a pilot project for the actual process of joining.

• All PS or SIGs will be able to have small events and conferences with the support of the EAIE office in Amsterdam, if they wish so.

The above mentioned further meeting between Fedora Working Group Inclusion/Equal Opportunities and EAIE Special Interest Group DIW led to an agreement to merge.

The Board presented the results of the negotiations to the Executive Committee (EC) at the meeting in Alicante on November 19, 2010. The EC accepted the results and voted for the merger, expressing the desire to strengthen the importance of Guidance and Counselling as topics inside the EAIE, e.g. by having a biannual special Conference on Guidance and Counselling in the form of an EAIE Forum or the like.

The last meeting of the Steering Group in Copenhagen on February 10, 2011 led to an agreement on these terms and laid out the next steps. A final report about the implications of the merger for both organizations is available online in the members only section on the FEDORA homepage (www.fedora-eu.org) and here:

http://studienberatung.fu-berlin.de/fedora/EAIE_FEDORA_Cooperation_April_2011.pdf

We would like every member to read this report carefully as it gives useful information for the decision in the GA.

With the results of these negotiations, we see the assurance of a good future for and strengthening of the actual work in the areas that Fedora covers, even though the association in its present structures will not persist. After having looked into various other possibilities to solve the problems which have led to the GA decision in Berlin in 2009, we have found no alternative better than merging with the EAIE. The possible establishment of a new PS Psyche, two newly founded PS (FCGE+Emploi and Educational Counselling+SAFSA) and a new SIG or PS (I/EO + DIW) makes it very visible to the membership of both associations that this is a merger on an equal level. Also, with support for having small events and conferences which ensure continuation of the vivid exchange among and between members of the working groups that Fedora members valued over the years, it ensures the kind of professional development that we are accustomed to. Within the wider scope of the EAIE, new possibilities of exchange and professional development arise through participation in the annual EAIE conference, but also in the newly planned EAIE Academy. Members can engage actively in the leadership and governance structure of the EAIE. The importance of Guidance and Counselling will be strengthened by the weight and importance of the EAIE as a European stakeholder. Within the EAIE, the specific FEDORA field of Guidance and Counselling will be covered
either by the EAIE leadership or by one or more of the PS/SIG’s.

Thus, the Executive Committee’s proposal to the General Assembly on June 17, 2011, which has to make the final decision about the merger and subsequently eventually the dissolution of FEDORA as it is organized now under Belgian law, will be to merge.


Last Updated on Sunday, 17 April 2011 15:34

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