Learning Unlimited Meeting
18 May 2004, Hes Fes, Charmouth, Dorset.
Leslie Safran Barson took notes during the meeting although they are
patchy!
1. Introductions and News:
We introduced ourselves briefly. There were several families from France
and Holland as well as Finland and Britain.
2. Help Wanted?
No specific help was needed from LU at this time although we explained
about the internet poll that one Dutch group used this year.
3. Constitution and objectives for grant applications:
Mike and Leslie explained that in order to apply for a grant in Britain
we needed to have a constitution and a bank account. We have a bank
account. The constitution would be purely formal and have no standing
on LU work in general. It was decided to let the English members of
LU find a simple constitution away form the LU meeting because 1) this
is purely a formality and will not dictate the way LU is run 2) it is
time consuming for our meetings.
Leslie has a simple sample constitution in mind. The objectives, which
are the most important part of the constitution, would be those we have
already agreed in our newsletters.
4. Finances - way forward:
It was thought that we should have some form of membership. It was decided
that organisations that want to affiliate to us should pay between €20
- €50. Individuals should be asked to donate something. With this
in mind a pay pal service will be put on the website so people can donate
on the internet. The meeting raised £32 through individual donations.
We received £1000 from The Potential Trust last year. We spent
£500 last year on families coming to Hes Fes, £250 this
year, £50 on renewing our domain name and £90 on web hosting
(see below). We therefore have £42 in the bank including a £10
donation during the year.
5. Newsletter and jobs:
Simone has suggested LU produce an internet magazine and she has someone
who is interested in doing this. This would be a good way for LU to
remain in people's minds during the year. Anyone who wants to send anything,
articles, items of interest, photos, drawings etc to it please do so
to Leslie. This magazine is partly so we do not have to spend precious
time at Hes Fes writing the newsletter.
6.Website and translations:
Mike suggested LU buy a web-hosting package. He explained how this would
work. The advantages are that any home educators can post to it what
they want. Any small group can post for free. So even if there are only
a small number of home educators in a country they can have web space
provide they are home educating. This means that countries will have
more control over their information under the LU name and the information
will be in the language of that country. If you have your own website
then we can link to it. This was thought to be a good idea.
Mike explains:
The LU site as a hosting package means that we can now expand the site
and offer to host individual countries home education websites for free.
I will be developing guidelines over time but for now we will work on
the basis that all pages are associated with home education and are
respectful of other people (i.e. no racism, sexism, religious attacks
etc). There must be no inflammatory statements and copyrights must be
respected and the site is of course only available to not for profit
organisations. Nor will we allow pages that advocate harm to children.
There will be more as our experience improves and these will be developed
and worded more elegantly.
If anyone has any doubts or questions please let me know.
I will rely heavily upon members reading the pages in languages other
than English as I only have English - sorry. I am happy for pages to
be put up in the local language but I would appreciate an English translation
but it's not a condition of the site.
I need people to start to consider taking part in the project.
You will need to designate a person who can write html or who has
access to html editors. I can offer some advice on this and I will help
them get started. There will be lots more info as the project develops.
If a family wants to put up a page then that's OK
The address of each country's pages will follow a standard format for
example Germany would be:
www.learning-unlimited.org/germany/
If there were two organisations in Germany the address would be:
www.learning-unlimited.org/germany/organisation1/
www.learning-unlimited.org/germany/organisation2/
And so on.
The project is primarily for Europe. However we recognise that we have
"brothers in arms" in other countries where resources are
poor and home education can be illegal. In such countries, at my discretion
we will allow access to other countries under the title "the rest
of the world".
The webmaster would need to join a special mailing list so those who
are responsible for their country pages can share info.
As people will be offered passwords they must undertake to keep them
private. They must not be passed on to other persons without me being
told prior. This condition is absolute and violation will lead to exclusion
from the project. I'm sure people can understand the necessity of this.
Also no-one is to alter any part of the website other than the area
or zone they are offered. This includes the email forwarding or mailbox
or web mail system etc.
There will be a disclaimer somewhere to show that LU is not responsible
for the country pages.
I'd also appreciate it if people kept photos to a reasonable level -
we don't have unlimited web space or download bandwidth.
It was decided also that we have no money for translations at this point.
7. Any other business:
i) Other meetings.
Three meetings in Europe were announced:
EFFE European Forum for freedom in education
For more information contact dirkhoeflich@t-online.de
Their next meetings are:
4- 6 June, A
Odenwaldschule, Ober-Hambach, 64646 Heppenheim, Germany
15-17 October
Szekszard, Hungary
28 June - 4 July
Sormaland, Sweden
It was decided in France at the August meeting of LU that this was
an important organisation for LU to be in touch with. It was thought
that the only reason they have not so far addressed HE issues is because
home educators have not told them enough about us yet. Jennifer Fandard
and myself, Leslie Barson had hoped to attend the June meeting but unfortunately
for different reasons will not be able to. We still will try to go.
It is hoped several members of LU will attend these meetings. If you
want more information contact
Magnus.drysen@telia.com or 46 151 30 007
ii) The Children Bill
This Bill, now before Parliament in Britain, was explained and its ramifications
for HE and families. For more information go to www.arch-ed.org and
follow the links to the Children Bill. The meeting was as appalled as
we are at this new development in government. It was thought that if
the British government could introduce this then other European governments
would not be far behind.
iii) LU lead conference
Finally, Leslie proposed that next year at Hes Fes the whole conference
time (3 days) be given over to an LU lead conference called 'Autonomous
Learning' or 'Child -led Learning' encompassing questions like What
is it? What does it look like? Does it work? Is it different in different
countries etc. The idea would be we apply for money to get speakers
form other countries and translators. (This may now be somewhat superseded
by plans for next years Hes Fes. See below) We could also have workshops
where people exchange what they do, where they 'draw the line' etc as
I have the feeling autonomous ed is on a line and different people do
different things but all describe themselves as autonomous.
These ideas are somewhat similar to what we were going to have in Paris.
We already have the Hes Fes time and venue so it seems silly not to
use it as I don't think we are ready to present a big show conference
yet.
Developments for LU since Hes Fes:
It seems that at Hes Fes next year will be satellite internet access
which means that we will be able to beam the conference onto the internet
and have speakers from other countries giving lectures over the internet.
This will considerable lessen costs both for speakers and participants.
It also means we will be able to have speakers and participants from
further a field than Europe. Further we will be able to record the speakers
and perhaps sell the
recordings to generate some income for further travel grants.
Possible Help needed for Dutch Family:
A Dutch family, mother with 3 children 9,3,and 1 year old may need to
flee Holland fast at the end of July if a court rules against her and
says her son has to attend school. She does not want to send him and
would rather leave the country. She wondered if there is an English
family living somewhere near Dover who could offer her and the children
camping land while they await the outcome of the legal battle. If you
can offer them help please contact Leslie at lesliebarson@yahoo.com
and I will pass on your contact details.
