WOCATI News: The Newsletter of the World Conference of Associations of Theological Institutions
MINUTES OF THE FIRST MEETING OF 2002 WOCATI EXECUTIVE,
(12th December 2002)Present: Tevita Banivanua, Hyacinth Boothe, Bill Hopkinson (Secretary), Edison
Kalengyo, Kan Nam Soon (Vice President), Leonor Rojas, Petros Vassiliadis
(President). Chris Meinzer attended part of the meeting.
Apologies: Kathleen Williams.
· Edison Kalengyo was asked by the President to start the meeting with prayer.
· Addresses and emails of the newly elected Executive Committee were checked (appended).
· A decision was made to ask Daniel Aleshire, Director of ATS, to continue as consultant to the Executive Committee. Also to send letters of gratitude to Buddy Martinez, Dr. John Butt, and the ATS for its assistance in various forms.
· The committee defined its task for the next four years broadly as to find a way forward for WOCATI, that is, promotion, redevelopment etc. It considered and endorsed section 8.3 of the constitution as the role of the executive committee.
Other priorities mentioned were:
- how to get member organisations online, and linked from www.wocati.org
- obtaining regular reports from and interchange with member organisations
- keeping wocati records up to date
- efficient collection of wocati fees
· The committee decided to schedule its work in the following way:
a. December 2002 - May 2003: Email discussion and preparation of papers to expedite major meeting in June.
b. June 2003 (last week) 48 hour meeting over 3 days. (Consultation with travel agent about which venue on the basis of which is the cheapest from the locations of the exec committee). Preference for accommodation is at a residential facility of a member organisation, represented in the committee. This meeting will be the decisive meeting of the four years setting up the work for the remaining time, making decisions about next congress, and so on.
c. July 2003 onwards. The executive committee has a task to do, and gets on with it.
6. Regularisation of minutes and publicity.
a. Kathleen William is producing a report of the Congress. This will be the journalistic account of the conference which can be available to member organisations, and which will be on www.wocati.org . ATS are taking steps to provide pictures which will be available on the website.
b. Petros Vassiliadis (in consultation with the out-going President, Dr. Zenny Lumba) is responsible for the minutes of the Business Meeting at the Congress.
c. Secretary is responsible for the minutes and records of the Executive Committee. The minutes of the executive committee will not normally be made available to member organisations or published on the web, because of the possibility of reserved business. However, the Secretary will produce a yearly report which can be published on the website and which will summarise the work of the executive committee
· Evaluation of Congress
Thanks were expressed to Chris Meinzer and Loretta Groff for their work, especially to Buddy Martinez and the local committee. It was recognised that with the depletion of the executive committee they had taken an especially large role in making the congress happen, and the executive committee owed them a debt of gratitude.
Some of the comments made were:
- Travel arrangements were good.
- Too much theology with little connection to education.
- Issues were appropriate, but not always sufficiently connected or followed through.
- Issues didn't lead to conclusions.
- Not focused enough on theological education.
- Not enough time devoted to discussion.
- Need better briefing for presenters.
- Need members to engage with issues more.
- Lacked a process which allows us to get to a list of conclusions for theological education.
- Felt too passive.
· The meeting in June to review whether an assistant secretary/treasurer is needed in the light of experience.
APPENDIX
Executive Committee addresses and emails:Petros Vassiliadis, 14 Dardanellion St, Thessaloniki 56727, GREECE pv@theo.auth.gr
Kang Nam Soon, Methodist Theological Seminary, West Gat, Nangchun Dong 31, Seoul KOREA 120-701 nshoffnung@yahoo.com
Bill Hopkinson, 3 Goldings Court, Ashford, Kent TN24 9JR UK whhopkinson@f2s.com
Tevita Banivanua, 30 Gardiner Road, P.O. Box 2426 Govt Bldgs, Suva, FIJI spatsfi@connect.com.fj
Hyacinth Booth, United Theological College, P.O. Box 136, 5 Golding Ave., Kingston, JAMAICA unitheol@cwjamaica.com
Edison Kalengyo, Uganda Christian University, P.O. Box 4, Mukono UGANDA emkalengyo@yahoo.co.uk
Leonor Rojas, De la Victoria 2974, Asuncion (B San Pablo) PARAGUAY leonor_verena@hotmail.com
Kathleen Williams, Yarra Theological Union, Box Hill 3028 AUSTRALIA President.ytu@mcd.edu.au
Daniel Aleshire 10 Summit Park Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15275 aleshire@ats.edu
