Board Meeting 2011

IKS: Summary of the 2011 Board Meeting

A brief overview of the previous working year was given. Then reports of representatives of National Organizations followed. For those National Organizations not having a representative present, Mr. De Greeve spoke briefly about the reports received.

The Board discussed again the future financial status of the Society. It becomes more and more a major concern because of the increasing costs of living in Hungary and the continuous decrease of income from previous sources. The IKS Foundation – friends of the International Kodály Society has been supportive in balancing the IKS budget in the past 3 years but the resources of the Foundation are not unlimited. The publication of IKS materials have been an important source of income.

The Board extensively discussed the promotion of the Society to attract more members and to keep those who joined as active members of the Society. The importance of new technologies and communication avenues was discussed, such as Facebook for instance, in particular in view of attracting more young people..Several fruitful ideas were heard and valuable insights were given by all present.

Attention was drawn again to the Archives CD. It was emphasized that this exceptional research tool ought to be in every library. The CD has been upgraded with the issues of the latest five years and now contains all the articles published in the Bulletin from 1976 until the end of 2010.

The launch of an electronic version of the IKS Bulletin was discussed. It seems that there is great interest from the membership to receive the Bulletin in electronic form in the future. However, for libraries, etc., it will always be necessary to have a number of printed copies. In the frame of this change it became clear that further technological developments need to be researched, such as, for instance, the possibility of having the Bulletin online, only accessible for IKS members in good standing.

Dr. Jaccard gave the Board an update on the work of the László Vikár Forum for Folk Music Research and showed a copy of the beautiful book published after the First Meeting of the Forum at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico.  

Mrs. Judy Johnson accepted the invitation to chair the Forum for Early Childhood Education. It was also decided to establish a Composers’ Forum, chaired by Mr. Gilbert De Greeve. This forum will be involved in the preparation of the Second Songbook.

Then the administrative handling of the Society was briefly mentioned. After the retirement of Ms Lili Vandulek at the end of March 2011,  Mrs Boróka Bodacz-Nagy was employed for the position of Executive Secretary. In connection with this change, the office had to move from Kodály körönd to Csengery street, phone, fax and e-mail details remaining the same.

Two scholarships were awarded. The recipients are Ms Katherine Slager, Australia and Mr. Stephen Buck, USA.

Another in-depth discussion on the future of the IKS Scholarship program followed. Several suggestions were heard and it was agreed that this topic needs time and it would be kept on the Agenda for the future.

The Board then heard about the Symposium 2013. The original idea was to hold the Symposium in Budapest but because of the uncertainties in regards to the renovation of the Liszt Academy building, the plan is to hold the 21^st International Kodály Symposium at the Kodály Institute in Kecskemét from July 29^th to August 2^nd, with the opening on the eve of July 29^th. Dr. László Norbert Nemes prepared a DVD introduction for the 2013 Symposium, which was shown at the General Assembly.

The Board unanimously voted to grant Honorary Membership to Dr. Deanna Hoermann and Dr. Mihály Ittzés.

Finally it was emphasized that 2012 was going to be another Kodály Celebration Year and the Board asked the national Societies to raise world-wide attention.