Present:
Judit Legoza (HU), Leena Penttinen (FIN), Angela Quinn (UK), Adele Atkinson (UK), Lynn Allison (UK), Henri Braakenburg (NL).

Agenda:
1.Report Debrecen: The report of the Debrecen coordinators’ meeting (October 8, 2008) was approved.

2.Good practice guide and hand out: Henri has drawn up a first draft for the text of Part I of the hand out. Everyone is invited to comment on this draft in the next few weeks. A division of tasks was made for Part II (’themes discussed’):

FIN:
values and norms
health & wellbeing
HU:
mobility, transport for seniors
seniors as volunteers
NL:
retirement (age, conditions, allowances, etc.)
education & learning for/of senior citizens
UK:
housing for seniors
care & care provisions for seniors (family support, home help, care homes, nursery homes, etc.)

Per theme 1 - 1,5 pages of text would be appropriate. This means that we need summaries rather than extensive papers. At the end of Part II we will then insert the ’spreadsheet’ made by Trevor and Jan.
Per country a study circle participant who visited one of the other countries will be invited to give a brief impression of that visit. These impressions will be added to Part III (may I suggest: FIN on UK, NL on HU, HU on FIN, UK on NL -Henri-).
For Part III it will also be welcomed if a portrait could be collected of each study circle participant, his/her E-mail address -if any- plus a very, very brief CV (who are you, why did you join the Futeurope study circle?). Finally, any article or brief paper that is of interest in relation to the themes or the study circle concept, will also be welcome.
The half of May, i.e. May 15, is the very dead deadline for all comments and contributions!!

3.Publicity: An article on the Futeurope visit to Amber Valley will be published in a local newspaper; there will also be an interview held. Hopefully attention to the visit will also be paid in local newspapers in Kiuruvesi and Amersfoort. The Debrecen visit was in the news on their local radio.

4.Website and forum: All coordinators will encourage the Futeurope participants to use the website and forum more frequently. Coordinators may also insert interesting links to other websites inland or abroad, provided that the linked sites have an English page. Henri will contact the webmaster to make a few changes in the categories on the home page. Henri should also be informed if any further problems would occur.

5.Visit to Amersfoort: The preparations by the Amersfoort study circle for the visit to The Netherlands in June are in full progress. The duration of the visit is three days, i.e. 2nd June (Tuesday, arrival) - 6th June (Saturday, departure). On Friday 5th June a seminar is scheduled on ‘education by/for senior citizens’ (from 09.30 - 16.00 hrs).
All partners should send their information about the number of visiting participants to Henri as soon as possible, preferably before April 4th. Also information is needed about any preferences re accommodation: with Amersfoort study circle members in their private homes or in a hotel.
Henri will send information about the costs for accommodation etc.

6.Finances: No comments.

7.Towards a continued project?: Henri has made some inquiries regarding a so called multilateral project which could probably become an ‘in depth’ continuation of the present project. I.e.: more methodical input and output, seminars, trainings, extra local study circles, etc. Advantage would be that investments in labour might also be subsidized. Twenty five percent of all costs however must be paid by the partners. Maximum grant: EUR 300.000, maximum duration: 3 years.
Objectives and eligible beneficiaries seem to match with the present partners in the Futeurope project. Applications for such a multilateral project should be made in Brussels with the LLP headquarters.
The deadline for applications is in February next year. Thus there will be ample time for further considerations and drawing up a project plan. Partners agree that they will check with their respective National Agency whether they will be considered eligible for application. Further discussion in June in Amersfoort.
Information can be found in the EU ‘LLP Guide 2009′, parts I (page 14,15), II (page 13,14) and III (File nr 49, pages 1-3).

8.Any other matter: EU has launched a new bi-lateral Grundtvig programme for exchange of seniors who are active as volunteer: 3 - 8 weeks accommodation plus travel costs will be remunerated.

9.Closure: Meeting was closed around 19:30 hrs.

April 1st, 2009 / Henri Braakenburg