This document has been made available in electronic format by the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) 

Report of ICA Communications Committee (ICACC) to the General Assembly (1998)
 

July, 1998
(Source: ICA Review, Vol.91 No.2 - Annual Report 1997-1998, pp. 69-71)

ICA COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE (ICACC)
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Executive Committee
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Chairman:  Poul Dines (Denmark)
Vice-Chairman: Iain Williamson (UK)
Secretary:  Mary Treacy (ICA)
Members:  Kamal Hamdy Aboul Kheir (Egypt); Si Wan Kim (Korea); Tony Luscombe (UK);  Zahid Qureshi (ICMIF); Denis Tzarevcan (France).
 

Membership
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The Committee is a small active group with 17 members from 15 organisations in 9 countries. The Committees Rules have recently been changed to allow individuals who work for organisations and universities promoting co-operatives but not in membership of ICA to join. There are a further 19 individuals in membership of the ICACC Sub-committee on Network Technology for Trade and Communications. A mail vote was organised to chose the new Executive and members decided to re-elect the standing executive with no changes, except for the addition of Mr. Si Wan Kim, from the National Agricultural Co-operative Federation (NACF) in Korea.

Meetings
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Since the last reporting period, the ICACC has held Executive Meetings in Geneva on 14 September 1997 and  30 March 1998. ICA President, Roberto Rodrigues , whom the Board has appointed as their liaison person with the ICACC, attended the latter. He emphasised that efforts should be doubled to increase communication and  improve the image of the ICA. He also encouraged providing members with business opportunities through the Internet.

A meeting of the new Working Group on Network Technology for Trade and Communications was held in September 1997.  A Joint Seminar with the HRD Committee on overcoming geographical barriers through electronic networking and distance learning was also held in September in conjunction with the ICA General Assembly.

Activities
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The project concerning the Journalist Workshop in Africa was cancelled owing to budgetary reasons. There are, however, plans to hold a Communications Seminar on Lobbying and COPAC Open Forum in conjunction with the Regional Assembly in Uruguay in December 1998.

Report on Working Group on Network Technology for Trade and Communications
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This committee has been set up to receive information on developments in the area of trade and communication networks, advise in the creation of these networks, inform the co-operative community of advances and support the integration of such networks into co-operatives.

Inaugural Meeting
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The Working Group (WG) met in Geneva on the 18th of September in conjunction with the ICA General Assembly. Nine members of the WG met as well as Dr. Jim Spohrer of Apple Computer who attended the meeting as a guest. Dr. Spohrer had earlier made a presentation to the Joint Seminar on Overcoming Geographical Barriers through Electronic Networking and Distance Learning, organised by the ICA Global Human Resource Development and the Communications Committees with the support from the ILO COOPNET Project.

Those attending were: Byron Henderson, Chair, Centre for the Study of Co-ops, University of Saskatchewan; Mary Treacy, ICA; Mats Ahnlund, ICA; Jim Spohrer, Apple Computer, Learning Communities Group; Anne Reynolds, Center for Co-ops, University of Wisconsin; Alina Pawlowska, ICA staff; Bjorn Genberg, ICA; Michel Doray, Confederation des caisses Desjardins; Malcolm Corbett, Poptel Internet; Paul Hazen, NCBA.

For the short-term the WG members took on the following tasks.

* How to build a “community in a kit” from Apple

Desirable activities in the next year:

Over the next year it would be desirable for the WG to act as a core resource for the creation of demonstration or pilot projects in technology training, e-Commerce, information technology transfer within a co-operative organization, and a co-operative technology centre. The assistance of co-operative organizations will be essential

For further information on the Working Group, please contact Byron Henderson, email: hendersb@duke.usask.ca, or Mary Treacy, email: treacy@mail.coop.org.