2016 Heigh Leigh – General Assembly

Notes from the Study Days, 14^th – 16^th April 2016.

In the original languages, please find here the speeches of the study-days in Heigh Leigh – April 2016:
* The opening talk of the Study days was given by dr. Julie Clague of the University of Glasgow. She spoke on ‘Women, Church and Change’. Here is the text of Julie Clague’s talk; and here are the slides: nrs. 1-2-3 , nrs. 4-5-6 ; nrs. 7-8 ; nrs. 9-10 ; nrs. 11-12 ; nrs. 13-14 ; nrs. 15-16.

* On Saturday morning, the study days concluded with a talk by dr. Simone Curau, a member of the Catholic People’s Party in Switzerland, and a member of the Swiss federal women’s commission: Dare to Go!! Here is the text of Simone Cureau.

Central of the General Assembly (April 16-17^th 2016, at High Leigh – Hoddesdon, UK) was the work on and acceptance of the strategic plan.
The 50 delegates from 19 of the 23 member organizations and the CoCoA took also several other decisions:

* Priorities for the years 2016-2019 are:
– trafficking / modern slavery
– women in church
– refugees/migration.
There are already plans for a summer school on trafficking – more news will follow.

* Membership fees remain unchanged overall, but a lower rate was accepted for small organisations. Organisations with 100 members or less will pay €50 per year from 2017.

* Sybille Bader Biland will succeed Marie-Louise van Wijk-van de Ven as the delegate of Andante at the Council of Europe. Both Marie-Louise and Sybille will be attending the Council of Europe meeting in June.

* In the new CoCoA are elected Mary McHugh (United Kingdom), Vroni Peterhans-Suter (Switzerland), Inese Augskalne (Latvia), Gisela Hoeve (Netherlands) and the candidates nominated Joanne Seldenrath (Netherlands) and Sabine Slawik (Germany).
After the election the CoCoA choose the chair of Andante from their midst. They decided to make this two part time jobs – as a real feminine way to deal with leadership. Mary McHugh will be the chair for external affairs, Vroni Peterhans will be the chair for internal affairs.

Inese, Sabine, Mary, Vroni, Gisela, Joanne