CEUC - News from The Chair

Annual report 2008-2009

2009-06-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

CEUC 2008-2009

Report to the general assembly by the chair of the board

It is my duty and my honor to present you the report about the CEUC activities in the last year.

The board came together for board meetings twice this year: Our fist meeting took place here in Sogne, in November 2008. The second meeting we held also here Monday morning this week.

In order to improve our cooperation the board agreed to have regular phone conferences as new tool of communication: So in addition to the board meetings we had two phone conferences, one in September 2008 and one in March 2009.

At the first meeting the board elected Lise Lotz as new treasurer of CEUC. You will hear more from Lise and about Lise’s work at the presentation of the financial report and the budget.

In march Evy Toolenaar, CEUC secretary, informed the board that she’d like to resign. Evy supported CEUC with her dedication and her great personality for many years. At the conference we will have the opportunity to express our gratitude for the work she has done for our organisation.

It is the goal of the board to elect a new CEUC secretary at the next board meeting in autumn this year.

One of points on the board agenda last year was our cooperation with the International Association of Chaplains in Higher Education IACHE which was founded at the global conference in Tampere/Finland last summer.

CEUC board member Esther Diederen, who is also CEUC representative at board of IACHE will present you more information about the Global organisation later at this general assembly.

Another project was the communication with the CEUC members. We realized that it is not enough to inform our members once a year at the annual general assembly. That is why we started to send newsletters in order to keep you informed on current CEUC issues. We received very positive feedbacks, and we plan to continue sending you newsletters – enough that you are updated on CEUC issues, not as many as to fill the spam box of your email programme.

Talking about communication, our website www.ceuc.org has been refreshed. We added regularly the latest news on the conferences and helpfull documents. We are working on a solution to make the website a more interactive tool for the CEUC members, first steps in this direction have been done.

It is one of our goals for the next years to improve permanently our website: For instance by implementing a directory of European chaplaincies, with addresses and links to the university chaplaincies all over Europe. And we would like to add an event calendar, where regional and national chaplaincy organisations can publish their events, reunions and further information. Both, the event calendar and the directory will support the networking and the cooperation across national and confessional boundaries.

According to our constitution the main aim of CEUC is the organisation of an annual conference for European University Chaplains.

The board had its first meeting at the conference site, together with the local host committee. We discussed the programme and supported the host committee with our advice and our activities. It was a very productive cooperation. Thanks a lot, Norwegian colleagues!

In march the board of CEUC received a bid from British chaplains to host next year’s conference in Coventry. The board supported and welcomed gladly this excellent bid. A local host team of nine chaplains was established, consisting of representation from the Church of England, Methodist, Muslim, Roman Catholic and United Reformed Church. More information about the conference 2010 will be presented to you at the general assembly and in the following months through our website www.ceuc.org.

And we are looking forward to planning the conference 2011. We have not yet received an official bid. One of the ideas we shared in the board, was the organisation of “off-shore” conference. That means a conference with an international host committee and as a re-union of chaplains
somewhere in Europe, for instance as a pilgrimage on the St. Jacobs way in Southern France or Spain. Let us know your opinion and share your ideas on this issue with us.

Looking back on the past year, looking forward to the up-coming years I must say: a few things have been done, more things still have to be done… As the chair of the board I am grateful for the support and the cooperation within the board.

The board thanks its secretary, Evy Toolenaar for her work, a special thank you goes to Lise Lotz, who as treasurer, webmaster and acting secretary is doing an important and excellent job.

Last but not least, on behalf of the board of CEUC I would like to thank you, the members, for your continuous support. We appreciate your feedbacks and your active support. We need it – for our organization is as much board driven as it is driven by its members.

Kristiansand, June 5, 2009,
Markus Anker, chair of the board

Newsletter 3/2009 (April 2009)

2009-05-20T02:46:00.000-07:00

Dear members of CEUC,
Dear colleagues and friends

Good news from CEUC! Already by mid-April, more than 50 participants registered for the conference in Kristiansand, and we are grateful that the conference programme attracts a great number of chaplains from all over Europe. Registration is still open. In case you’d like to participate or to encourage your colleagues in chaplaincy to do so, you are welcome to register through http://www.ceuc09.org/.

Together with this message, the board of CEUC cordially invites you to the General Assembly that takes place during the conference, on Friday, June 5, 2009 in Kristiansand. You find all necessary documents in the attachment:
- Agenda of the CEUC General Assembly 2009
- Minutes of the CEUC General Assembly 2008
- CEUC Constitution
The documents are also available through our website http://www.ceuc.org/.

Additional topics to be put on the agenda of the General Assembly should be reported to chair of the board in the next weeks, accordingly to the CEUC constitution (§ 4 The General Assembly, Art. 5: Proposals to be discussed at the general assembly should be forwarded to the chair of the board at least two weeks before the general assembly).

Earlier this month Evy Toolenaar, CEUC secretary, informed the board that she’d like to resign. Evy supported CEUC with her dedication and her great personality for many years. At the conference we will have the opportunity to express our gratitude for the work she has done for our organisation. We encourage members who are interested in becoming CEUC secretary and thus having an important and creative role in the cooperation of the European chaplains to get in touch with the board.

We are looking forward to meeting you soon in Kristiansand and we wish you inspiring weeks. Peace and blessings to you all!

On behalf of the board of CEUC,

Markus Anker, Chair of the Board

* * * * * * * * * * * *
Pfr. Markus Anker
Evang.-ref. Universitätspfarramt
Universität St. Gallen
Steinbockstrasse 1,
CH-9010 St. Gallen
Phone +41 (0)71 744 71 77
Fax +41 (0)71 244 18 31

markus.anker@unisg.ch
www.treffpunkt-steinbock.ch

Newsletter 2/2009 (March 2009)

2009-05-20T02:45:00.000-07:00

Dear members of CEUC,
Dear colleagues and friends

The board of CEUC hope this message finds you well and you are enjoying sunny spring days.
In our second newsletter this year we would like to give you a quick update about what has been done by and in our organisation in the last few months:
- Registration for the conference 2009 in Kristiansand, Norway: Update / Workshops
- CEUC representatives at the international board / Global Conference 2012
- CEUC 2010 in Coventry, UK

Registration for the conference 2009 in Kristiansand, Norway:
Update / Workshops
Join us in Kristiansand! The local host committee has arranged an inspiring programme with many opportunities for reflection and recreation. The website of the conference was updated recently and has a workshop section now. You are welcome to present your projects and to share good practice.Make sure to register and to register soon. You can benefit from an early booker discount on the conference fee until April 17 (not as indicated on the conference website until March 31) On www.ceuc09.org you find all necessary information.

CEUC representatives at the international board / Global Conference 2012
At the last global conference the International Association of Chaplains in Higher Education (IACHE) was established. CEUC is part of this global ecumenical organisation and has the possibility to delegate three representatives to the board of IACHE. At the moment we have two delegates, Esther Diederen (NL) and Cassandra Howes (UK), one position is vacant. That means that you could become representative! If you are interested to support the cooperation of chaplains on the international level, please contact Esther Diederen who can give you further information (E.Diederen@SSC.unimaas.nl). There will be a formal election of all CEUC representatives at IACHE at the next general assembly in Kristiansand. A short notice about the next global conference: American chaplains have launched a bid to host the Global Conference 2012 at Yale University, City of New Haven, Connecticut / USA.

CEUC 2010 in Coventry, UK:
The board of CEUC supported and welcomed gladly an excellent bid of British chaplains to host next year’s conference in Coventry. A local host team of nine chaplains was established, consisting of representation from the Church of England, Methodist, Muslim, Roman Catholic and United Reformed Church. More information about the conference will be presented to you at the general assembly and in the following months through our website www.ceuc.org. Mark your calendar: CEUC 2010, 14th June to Friday 18th June 2010 in Coventry, UK.

So far by now. In a few weeks we will come back to you by sending you the agenda of the general conference in Kristiansand on June 5, 2009

We, the board of CEUC, are grateful for your support and we will continue to promote and to foster the exchange and the cooperation among the European chaplains.Peace and blessings to you all!

On behalf of the board of CEUC,
Markus Anker, Chair of the Board

* * * * * * * * * * * *
Pfr. Markus Anker
Evang.-ref. Universitätspfarramt
Universität St. Gallen
Steinbockstrasse 1,
CH-9010 St. Gallen
Phone +41 (0)71 744 71 77
Fax +41 (0)71 244 18 31

markus.anker@unisg.ch
http://www.treffpunkt-steinbock.ch/

Minutes: GA, Tampere, July 2nd 2008

2009-05-20T02:43:00.000-07:00

CEUC GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Tampere, 2nd of July 2008

At the 3rd Global Conference of University and College chaplains, Campus Ministers and Religious Professionals at Tampere, Finland on 30 June – 4 July 2008.
Agenda:
1. Welcome
2. Election of chair of the general assembly
3. Election of minutes secretary
4. Election of ballot-counters
5. Approval of the minutes of the general assembly 2007
6. Report by the chair of the work of the CEUC Board 2007/08
7. Financial Report: financial statement 2007/08, budget 2008/09
8. Amendments to the CEUC Constitution
9. Constitution of the International Association of Chaplains in Higher Education IACHE
10. CEUC board 2008/09
11. Administrative officers (secretary and treasurer) 2008/09
12. Election of the chair and the vice chair of the board from the members of the board
13. Election of auditors
14. Miscellaneous

1) WelcomeChair Cassandra Howes, UK, welcomes attendees to the general assembly.

2) Election of chair of the general assemblyThe general assembly elects Renske Oldenboom, NL, as chair of the general assembly.

3) Election of minutes secretaryThe general assembly elects Jeremy Clines, UK, as minutes secretary.

4) Election of ballot-countersThe general assembly elects Einar Vegge, NO, and Roald Iversen, NO, as ballot-counters

5) Approval of the minutes of the general assembly 2007Correction, pg.1: not ‘Flemish speaking’ but ‘Dutch speaking’.The general assembly approves to the corrected minutes.

6) Report by the chair of the work of the CEUC Board 2007/08In the past year the CEUC Board has met once at St. Gallen in November 2007, and twice here at Tampere. As there is no CEUC conference this year, plans are well underway for next year.The board has considered its relationship with CEC (Council for European Churches). CEUC are members of CEC and pay a membership fee. The issue is direct communication with CEC, so Markus Anker has been committed to CEUC liaison with CEC.The other matters that continuing to be consider by the board are:
- Guidelines for hosting a CEUC conferences
- Further development of the website
- Inclusion of vocational chaplains
- Inclusion of Chaplains of other faiths
- Consideration of the CEUC constitution
7) Financial Report: financial statement 2007/08, budget 2008/09Carl Fuglsang-Damgaard resigned so Evy Toolenaar is to present the financial report, that was submitted in writing. Questions were asked about the costs, and the € 1200 deficit on the previous year.An agreement was reached with CEC for a reduced membership fee of € 750. The board meetings included the cost of a dinner in ??.The low balance is not an issue since the costs of the conferences breaks even.Membership dues for the next financial year: There is a drop in fee contributions during a Global Conference year since there is not an automatic collection of fees that comes as part of the CEUC conference delegate fee.A query was raised about collection of fees, e.g. PayPal, or collecting nationally. It was agreed the new treasurer could look into these things.A question was asked about how the honorarium is determined, it was clarified that this was decided by the CEUC Board.

8) Amendments to the CEUC ConstitutionIt was explained this was further work of the board in the last year. A proposal to amend the amendments
- delete all bracketed items
- replace the comma after ‘Austria’ with a full-stop
Final version:Amendments to the CEUC Constitution

1. Add to § 4 The General Assembly
Art. 9 On request of a member or on request of the board, permission to speak can be given to non-members. The General Assembly has to approve the request.

2. Amend in § 5 The board, Art 1, the names of the regions

1. The Netherlands and Belgium.
2. Germany, Austria.
3. France, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

3. Amend § 3 Membership Art. 4

Membership dues:
Membership dues are decided by the General Assembly. Dues for members and associate members are the same.

4. Add to § 4 The General Assembly
Art. 4 All full members, who have paid their membership before the General Assembly, and who are present, have the right to participate and vote.

There was a unanimous agreement to amend the amendments.
There was unanimity less one abstention to pass the amended amendments.

9) Constitution of the International Association of Chaplains in Higher Education IACHEEsther Diederen, Netherlands presented on this issue.She explained that: CEUC were a first founding body who helped to found IACHE. When the constitution was presented at last year’s CEUC general assembly comments were fed back from that meeting to the IACHE Executive Committee. Now all other groups have voted on the constitution. CEUC agreed to vote on the constitution at this General Assembly, following amendments/corrections.Esther continued to explain three optionsa) If CEUC votes ‘Yes’, today, on the constitution, this will make CEUC a part of IACHE
b) ‘No’ would mean we’ll ‘not be on the train’ in terms of shaping and influencing the Global Conference.
c) The third possibility is to decide not to vote, but that leaves things in a state of flux.
It was asked who would be represented from CEUC on IACHE; and the CEUC Board has suggested that the General Assembly chooses them.Esther continued to explain there is an important contribution that can be made from CEUC to the shaping of Global Conferences. A final clarification was that the IACHE Group entirely consists of representatives from other organizations.Markus Anker raised two concerns from the previously considered constitution, since these matters have been discussed by the general assembly last yeari: democratic accountabilityii: financial accountabilityEsther’s answer was that all the other founding bodies were informed of our comments on the constitution, and there were further questions that were raised, but no other organization felt there’s questions were so significant as to want to say ‘no’.It was suggested that the questions and challenges to the constitution should be kept in mind by the appointed board.A question of clarification was: are we voting on a constitution that we cannot see? It was clarified that it has been visible on the CEUC website for months.A second question of clarification was if any amendments have been made to the constitution since last year’s feedback was given by CEUC? It was confirmed that these issues were addressed.
The statement that every year the constitution of IACHE and its operation must be considered year by year to CEUC found support from both the board and the general assembly.

The IACHE constitution was passed by 35 votes (unanimously) barring 4 abstentions.
10) CEUC board 2008/20091. The United Kingdom and Ireland: no one elected yet (Jennifer Croft was elected the day after the general assembly)2. The Netherlands and Belgium (Dutch speaking): Esther Diederen, Netherlands3. Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (German speaking): Martina Rogler, Germany4. France, Belgium (French speaking), Switzerland (French speaking) and Luxembourg: Markus Anker, Switzerland5. Denmark, Norway and Iceland: Nils J. Riedl, Norway6. Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania: Katarina Egfors Härnring, SwedenAt the moment there are no representatives from the following regions:7. Spain, Portugal, Italy, Malta and the Vatican State8. Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, and Croatia9. Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Cyprus10. Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Armenia
11) Administrative officers (secretary and treasurer) 2008/09
a) secretary: Evy Toolenaar
b) treasurer: vacant

12) Election of the chair and the vice chair of the board from the members of the boardThe proposal is that Markus Anker, CH, is elected as chair and that Cassandra Howes, UK, elected as vice chair. The vote was unanimous for both.

13) Election of auditorsThe proposal was to elect Hannu Majamäki, SF, and Leena Huovinen, SF, as auditors. The vote was unanimous for both.

14) Miscellaneous
- Representative of CEUC to the IACHE board:It was suggested from the Board is that we continue with the current two representatives (Esther Diederen and Cassandra Howes), until we gain a formal proposal at next year’s General Assembly.
- CEUC communication with members:It was suggested that CEUC asks the Board to appoint a webmaster to help ensure clear information is forwarded and placed on the website on a regular basis.It was confirmed by the Board that this communication is improved.
- Invitation to the next CEUC Conference in Norway:Nils Riedl invited CEUC to come to the next CEUC Conference 2009 in Norway.
- Future hosting of CEUC:A few years ago it was agreed that 1 year is too short a time to plan a conference. Cassandra Howes confirmed that the UK is considering offering to host 2010.
- CEUC representation from Eastern Europe:A welcome was extended to a new member Dániel Püski from Hungary.

Newsletter 1/2009: The Chair of CEUC wishes you a happy 2009

2009-05-20T02:41:00.000-07:00

(January 2009)

Dear members of CEUC,
Dear friends and colleagues

On behalf of the board of CEUC, I wish you a happy 2009 - may it be a time full of inspiration, encouragement and enriching encounters.

I would like to inform you quickly about what has been done by and in our organisation in the last few months:

Registration for the conference from June 1 to June 6, 2009 in Kristiansand / Norway is open!
On www.ceuc09.org you find all necessary information. To make sure to be part of a marvellous conference, we encourage you to register in the next weeks and to book your trips soon.

On July 2, 2008 at the Global Conference in Tampere, we gathered for the General Assembly 2008. Attached to this message, you find the minutes.

On November 1 and November 2, 2008, the board had its meeting at the location of the next conference in Kristiansand, together with the Norwegian local host committee. The agenda of the General Assembly 2009 has been outlined and we discussed scenarios for the conference 2010.
A bid to host the conference was made from UK chaplains but has not been confirmed yet. In the next weeks the course for the conference 2010 will be set.

Our website www.ceuc.org has been refreshed. We are working on a solution to make the website a more interactive tool for the CEUC members; first steps in this direction have been done.

We, the board of CEUC, would like to thank every one of you for your continuous support. We appreciate the friendship that exists among the European chaplains and we are looking forward to enhancing the solidarity and the exchange of good practices throughout Europe, across National and denominational boundaries. May God bless all the work in our chaplaincies and at our universities, that we may be true witnesses of his love.

With my sincere best wishes,

Markus Anker, Chair of the Board

* * * * * * * * * * * *
Pfr. Markus Anker
Evang.-ref. Universitätspfarramt
Universität St. Gallen
Steinbockstrasse 1,
CH-9010 St. Gallen
Phone +41 (0)71 744 71 77
Fax +41 (0)71 244 18 31

markus.anker@unisg.ch
www.treffpunkt-steinbock.ch