Members
in attendance : Jürgen Kocka, President, Pierre
Ducrey, Treasurer, Jean-Claude Robert, Secretary General
The Bureau restreint met on Friday, 23 March 2001 at
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
(WZB), to review ICHS operations and activities, between
regular Bureau meetings of Oslo (August 2000) and Princeton
(August 2001).
Agenda:
1. ICHS operations
2. Treasurer’s Report
3. Relations between ICHS and Unesco
4. Action plan for the Bureau, 2001-2005
5. Congress of 2005
6. Other matters
1) ICHS operations
The American Historical Association has invited the
Bureau to hold its meeting of 2001 in Princeton and
organization is progressing. The meeting will be held
on two days (Saturday and Sunday) and in addition to
current affairs, a short session of presentations by
young American scholars will take place. For the General
assembly of 2002, the Royal Dutch Historical Association
has extended a formal invitation to ICHS. The tentative
dates would be September 1st to 3rd.
National Committees and International Affiliated Organisations.
Historians from South Africa inquired about the possible
revival of the South African National Committee; the
Secretary General encouraged them and will try to help
as much as possible. The international Commission of
Historical Demography has accepted to change its status
from an Internal Commission to an International Affiliated
Organisation, in compliance with the decision of the
General Assembly of Prague.
Internal Commissions. The Secretary General presents
a request from a group of historians to establish an
Internal Commission to be called Commission internationale
pour l’histoire des voyages et du tourisme / International
Commission for the History of Travel and Tourism. This
is a spin-off of a session during the Oslo Congress
and the members of its Bureau provisoire are from a
range of different countries. The Bureau restreint is
in favour of establishing this IC for a period of five
years, after which it should transform itself into an
IAO (2007). The formal proposal will be made at the
regular meeting in Princeton.
2) Treasurer’s Report
The Treasurer gives an overview of the financial situation
of ICHS for 2000. The deficit for that year has been
substantially reduced in comparison with 1999. However,
arrears in annual membership dues cause a cash flow
problem and in 2000, seven National Committees and four
International Affiliated Organisations have not paid.
The Treasurer brings up the fact that a better balanced
international representation on the Bureau will result
in increased travel expenses, essentially for the annual
Bureau meetings. At its Princeton meeting, the Bureau
will have to address this question, but the Bureau restreint
suggests that one annual meeting could be dispensed
with, for instance the one following the inter-Congress
General Assembly and preceding by two years the Congress
(2003).
3) Relations between ICHS and Unesco
Following the report prepared by Professor Jerzy Kloczowski
on the joint ICHS-Unesco Committee in October 2000,
the Secretary General indicated our interest and wrote
to him again in January to enquire about future developments.
In March, Unesco reiterated its continuing interest
but, due to a financial reorganisation, the decision
on the continuation of this committee was postponed.
The biennal meeting of ICPHS (International Council
for philosophy and Humanistic Studies) took place in
Buenos Aires in October 2000 and the Secretary General
represented ICHS at the meeting. The situation of ICPHS
has greatly improved and the General Assembly discussed
the future policies of the organisation. Aside from
publishing Diogène, which it intends to continue,
the organisation wishes to extend its membership to
the rest of the world, especially outside Europe and
North America, just as ICHS is trying to do. There will
be some real possibilities of collaboration in that
direction. On the other hand, ICPHS brings some contributions
to ICHS. Some of our member organisations benefit from
a publication subsidy and our quinquennial congress
receives a small grant from ICPHS to help bring some
colleagues from the Third world.
4) Action plan for the Bureau, 2001-2005
The Bureau restreint agrees on the necessity to extend
ICHS membership by all means. The Congress of 2005 could
be useful for that, and so would the joint ICHS-Unesco
committee. Accordingly, the program of the Congress
will need our special attention.
Three actions are singled out. First we need to increase
participation to ICHS activities, especially the Congress.
Second, we need to identify regions where ICHS is under-represented
and to propose solutions. Third, we need to build synergy
with our International Affiliated Organisations and
our Internal Commissions to develop and further the
internationalisation of the historian’s craft.
As a first step in that direction, the President will
prepare a mission statement for ICHS which could be
used systematically to make our organisation better
known and invigorate our own constituent organisations.
5) Congress of 2005
The first call for themes was made in January 2001 to
all National Committees, IAO and IC, setting a deadine
of September 30 to send proposals to the Secretary General.
Already a certain number have replied. All proposals
will have to be finalised for January 2002 at the latest.
In March-April a subcommittee of the Bureau will have
to work out a final proposal to be presented to the
Bureau and the General Asssembly of September 2002.
The Bureau will have to designate members for this subcommittee
during its Princeton meeting.
6) Other matters
The International Commission for the History and Theory
of Historiography has formally requested that ICHS take
the lead to revive the project of an English translation
of Karl Dietrich Erdman’s book, Die Oekumene der
Historiker, published in 1987, an history of ICHS up
to 1985 [See Prof. I Veit-Brause review in History and
Theory, XXIX, 3 (1990) : 358-375]. Following a discussion,
the Bureau restreint agrees to give one last try. Jürgen
Kocka will contact publishers and colleagues on that
matter.
