For its first meeting of the year, the EFIL Board met in Helsinki, Finland, 17-19 February 2017. The meeting agenda included three main discussion topics which took up most of the available time: (1) the preparations for the upcoming EFIL General Assembly (Prague, Czech Republic, 25-28 May – see elsewhere in this edition of EFILife); (2) the Business Plan and the draft budgets of 2017-2018; (3) various matters related to EFIL membership (including the transition to Full membership of EFIL’s Affiliate Members).
Funding applications have been particularly successful lately, covering a large number of the events presented in EFIL’s activity calendar for 2017-2018. Next to several training sessions (including training with advocacy focus and with focus on partner development) and the annual Volunteer Summer Summit (for more: see elsewhere in EFILife), events sponsored by the European institutions include a two-year project aiming at developing training for teachers for the promotion and assessment of intercultural competences with upper secondary education, combining mobility experiences with in-class learning; and a project to prepare the launch of the future Global Citizenship Trimester Programme between AFS Organisations in Europe and Asia.
At its first meeting of each year, the Board looks back at the past year’s funding application results, particularly with regards to Erasmus+, the EU Programme in the field of education, training, youth and sport for the period 2014-2020. It was concluded that our success rate with Earsmus+ applications remained very similar compared to the previous years.
The Board further discussed the outcomes of the meeting of EFIL’s Training and Intercultural Learning Advisory Body (TICLAB), which took place on 11-12 February 2017 in Bled, Slovenia, attached to the biennial Organisational Development Coordinators meeting (see articles elsewhere in EFILife).
Last but not least, the Board expressed its satisfaction with the financial results of the past year 2016 (before audit), presenting an end-of-year result that stays within the limits of the draft budget 2016 as was presented to the General Assembly in 2015.
The EFIL Board wants to thank AFS Finland for their much appreciated support with the logistics for the Board meeting in Helsinki.
The next Board meeting will take place in Prague, Czech Republic, on Sunday 28 May (immediately following the EFIL General Assembly).
