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The President, Ivan Berend, after welcoming all the members in attendance, gave the floor to the Secretary General who first verified the delegates’ mandates.


1. — Report by the Secretary General

François Bédarida reminded the meeting that ICHS members are to vote on the important decisions to be taken on the eve of the new quinquennium at the second General Assembly. Then he presented his 1990-2000 General Report. Because of its length and detail, it was not read at the meeting; the full text is appended to this report.

He expanded on certain important points and expressed special pleasure at receiving four new applications for membership: Chile and Peru are applying as national committees, the International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport as an Affiliated International Organisation, a study group on the “cold war”, chaired by Alexandre Tchoubarian, as an Internal Commission (for a limited amount of time).

Further, in compliance with decisions taken in Prague in 1992 concerning the change of status of the Internal Commissions, the following three of them have completed the procedures required to become Affiliated International Organisations: the International Commission on the History of the French Revolution, the International Standing Conference on the History of Education and the Society for the Study of Crusades and the Latin East.

Last, as concerns the ICHS Web site, Pierre Ducrey, the Treasurer, has completed the preparations and indicated that the site has been on line since 5 July 2000 at the following address: <http://www.cish.org>. The new ICHS logo, created for the occasion, will henceforth appear on the letterhead and on the cover of the next issues of the Bulletin d’information.


2. — Treasurer’s Report

Pierre Ducrey drew attention to some points of his report which is appended hereto. After reminding the participants that the main part of the Committee’s income comes from membership dues, he drew attention to the arrears (details are set out in the table of arrears for the past five years, appended hereto). Three cases are especially alarming; they include Andorra which has not given any sign of life since 1986 and has been removed from the ICHS registers as of this session.

Since there were no questions about the Treasurer’s report, two auditors were appointed: Prof. Kathleen Burk (Deputy Delegate, British National Committee) and Prof. Gregory Kealey (Delegate, Historical Society of Canada).


3. — Nominating Committee

In keep with the tradition, the Nominating Committee was composed of three Bureau members (Prof. Natalie Davis, Prof. Ivan Berend and Prof. François Bédarida) and four non-Bureau members (Prof. Shulamit Volkov from Israel, Prof. Manuel Espadas Burgos from Spain, Prof. Takeshi Kido from Japan and Prof. Wolfgang J. Mommsen from Germany).

Since the Nominating Committee was not able at its meeting in Moscow on 30 August 1999, to draw up a full list of proposals for the 2000-2005 Bureau, the Secretary General had to work by mail with the Committee members in order to complete the list. The final list which had been presented by the outging Bureau had been unanimously adopted. It is to be submitted to the approval of the General Assembly on 10. August.

Natalie Davis read then the list, adding some remarks about the newcomers.

Natalie Davis, on behalf of the Nominating Committee, said the curriculum vitæ of the six people who were being nominated to the Bureau for the first time were available between 7 and 10 August at the ICHS Secretariat (Room 326, Building C) for consultation by members of the General Assembly.

Natalie Davis also mentioned Article 5 of the ICHS Constitution which states that “[the Nominating Committee] shall present its proposals at the first of the two General Assemblies which take place at each quinquennial Congress. Counter-proposals may be submitted to the Bureau between the first and the second Assembly. To be admissible, a counter-proposal has to be signed by the representatives of five National Committees or Affiliated International Organisations. The Bureau shall be elected at the second of the two General Assemblies held at the quinquennial Congress.” If a counter-proposal is submitted, the curriculum vitæ of the candidate being proposed shall be made available to the members of the General Assembly.


4. — Transformation of three Internal Commissions into Affiliated International Organisations

Referring back to information explained in his report, François Bédarida briefly presented the three Internal Commissions that have asked for a change of status in order to comply with the decisions taken at the Montreal General Assembly in 1995.

1. the International Commission on the History of the French Revolution, presided over by Prof. Michel Vovelle;

2. the International Standing Conference for the History of Education, presided over by Prof. Jeroen Dekker;

3. the Society for the Study of Crusades and the Latin East, presided over by Prof. Benjamin Z. Keddar.

Since Pres. Ivan Berend received the unanimous approval of the General Assembly, the three candidates were admitted “by applause” as Affiliated International Organisations and thus were eligible to vote on August 10, at the second General Assembly.


5. — Admission of new members

François Bédarida took the floor again to present the four requests for membership in ICHS:

1. the Chilean Committee for Historical Sciences, presided over by Prof. J. Gonzales Echenique (President of the Chilean Academy of History);

2. the Peruvian Committee for Historical Sciences, presided over by Dr. Guillermo Lohmann Villena, with Prof. Miguel Maticorena Estrada, of the N.M.University of San Marcos at Lima as Secretary General;

3. the International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport, presided over by Prof. Dr. Gertrud Pfister (Freie Universität, Berlin) with Prof. Thierry Terret (Université de Lyon I) as Vice President, applying as an Affiliated International Organisation;

4. an International Commission, that brings together research centres and study groups on “The Cold War”, supervised by Prof. Alexandre Tchoubarian, and is applying as an Internal Commission for a limit of five years.


Since Pres. Ivan Berend received the unanimous approval of the General Assembly, the four candidates were admitted “by applause” as members of ICHS and invited to start participating in the General Assembly immediately.


6. — Australian candidacy for the 20th Congress in 2005

After the withdrawal of another proposal, the only candidate offering to host the congress in 2005 was the National Committee of Australia.

Prof. Jill Roe (Macqarie University, Sydney), President of the Australian Historical Association and her colleague, Prof. Martin Lyons (University of New South Wales, Sydney) presented the Australian candidacy to the General Assembly. Their presentation was well prepared and included numerous slides. It was designed to respond in advance to the objections that potential participants might have concerning the distance and the travel cost. The suggested dates, 4-10 July, fall between two university semesters; this means 400 to 500 congress participants could be housed on campus under excellent conditions and at a very reasonable price. Hotels in the city are also very reasonable compared to the rates charged in most countries.

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There being no other questions, Pres. Ivan Berend thanked the Assembly members for their attention and adjourned the meeting.