INTERNATIONAL KODÁLY SOCIETY
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Saturday, 8 August 2025, 3:40 pm CEST
Kecskemét, Hungary – at Hírös Agóra - Kodály-hall
Summary of the Minutes
Dr. Jerry-Louis Jaccard, President of the International Kodály Society, welcomed those attending.
Dr. Jerry-Louis Jaccard and Zsuzsanna Polyák gave instructions about the process of the online voting system which was used for the first time at the General Assembly.
One item was added to the Agenda: “Strengthening the recognition of the ALIMs” – presentation of the concept and approval of the changes in the Statutes.“ The General Assembly approved the modified Agenda.
The minutes of the previous General Assembly (2024) were approved.
Dr. Jerry-Louis Jaccard and the Executive Secretary gave an overview of the year 2024.
The report of the Committee of Supervisors (Eila Peterson, Róisín Blunnie, Anne Ralph) was approved
The Annual Report 2024 presented by Shinji Inagi was approved.
The draft Budget for 2025 was approved.
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The Board
The Board had 3 Board Meetings: in March, June, and November, online (Zoom). During the year, the President and those responsible for the IKS Symposium of the Board also exchanged emails, had online and personal meetings about various matters regarding the 27th International Kodály Symposium 2025, giving guidelines and assistance to the organizers in Kecskemét, Hungary.
Because of the resignation of ex-Vice-President Dr. László Norbert Nemes, an Exceptional online General Assembly was held on 21 February 2024 to approve the appointment of Zsuzsanna Polyák as the new Vice President until the ordinary elections of 2025.
Another Exceptional online General Assembly was held on 11 November 2024 to approve the appointment of Kata Körtvési as Chairperson for the Election Committee 2025. The General Assembly approved the appointment.
Finances
The IKS is grateful for the generous support of individual members and the contributions of the Affiliated National Institutional Members, the help of board members and individual supporters, but it still needs a strong permanent membership.
The PayPal account was temporarily blocked.
SimplePay is a payment platform at the IKS webshop and was introduced instead of K&H Bank’s payment platform.
The Executive secretary briefly reported on the Denise Bacon Endowment, which has been invested in a bank deposit. The IKS is looking for possibilities to invest the amount in a safe savings form that can provide a little benefit.
Membership
The Executive Secretary gave brief update on the membership.
An eventual new type of membership called APIM (Affiliated Prominent Impact Member) was mentioned but an acceptance protocol needs to be elaborated first.
Scholarships
The Sarolta Kodály Scholarship I 2024-2025 was awarded to Mert AKER–Turkey for studies at the Kodály Institute in Kecskemét. Finally he refused to accept this scholarship because he was a recipient of another grant as well.
The Sarolta Kodály Scholarship II 2024-2025 was awarded to Jenny FERRIS- Australia for continuing studies at the Institute.
In November 2023 the Board decided to have two rounds of application each year for the IKS Scholarship Competition, and there were 2 rounds of application in May and November 2024.
Scholarship recipients in May 2024:
• BUCKLER, Michael (Canada) - Kodaly Level II: University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB Canada
• GIANESINI, Jacopo (Italy) - 2nd year of Formazione Kodály by AIKEM, annual, in-person course in Torino - the applicant requested a postponement to commence the course next year
• MASCHERONI, Christian (Italy) - AIKEM Italian Kodály Training III Level - Torino
• TROVATO, Laura (Italy) - AIKEM Italian Kodály Training III Level - Torino
Scholarship recipients in November 2024:
• AVALLONE, Massimiliano (Italy) - Second year of Kodály Training held by AIKEM
• BORGOGNONI, Tazio (Italy) - FKI - Formazione Kodály Italiana - 2nd year. Location: Torin,
• MELTON, Amy (USA) - 2025 Kodály Certification Program (KCP) Hays CISD, Texas, USA
Elections
The Official announcement of the result of the Election 2025 was presented by Kata Körtvési, chair of the Election Committee 2025.
Zsuzsanna Polyák (Hungaray) - re-elected as Vice-president
Shinji Inagi (Japan) – re-elected as Treasurer- Secretary
Lucinda Geoghegan (UK) – re-elected as Director
Lydia Mills (Chile) – elected as Supervisor
Kelly Foster Griffin (USA) – elected as Supervisor
Pei Wen Tham (Singapore) - re-elected as Alternative Supervisor
Dr. Jaccard thanked the members of the Election Committee for their work. The results were approved.
Website & Webshop
The website is in order, but more malfunctions were detected. Throughout the year, there were blockings of emails from hotmail.com, yahoo.com, and live.com, which means that members do not receive the IKS Office emails, or emails went to Junk/Spam folders.
Because of the difficulties the IKS Office got in contact with the current IT provider, who is trying to find a solution to these problems. Due to changing emails, an update on the current version is needed, but not all the problems can be resolved. The IKS contacted other IT providers for bids to set up a database for the Vikár Forum, and that company could give advice and/or a proposal on how to move/upgrade the current website or build a new one.
We have an annual subscription to Office Family 365 to run the IKS Office and Zoom Pro to support the online Board meetings and other IKS-related online meetings, like the László Vikár Folksong Research Forum.
Symposia
Permanent consultations were held between the IKS board and the Organizing Committee of the 27th International Kodály Symposium 2025, Kecskemét, Hungary, about the preparation.
A meeting was held in February 2024 at the Kodály Museum in Budapest with the participation of Dr. Jerry-Louis Jaccard (president of the IKS), Susanna Saw (vice-president of the IKS, Symposium referee), Zsuzsanna Polyák (Chair of the Organizing Committee), Dr. Judit Rajk (Director of the Kodály Institute, Kecskemét), Dr. Laura Kéri (Deputy Director of the Kodály Institute, Kecskemét) Márta Sárosiné Szabó (representing the Hungarian Kodály Society), and Krisztina Molnár-Litvai (IKS Executive Secretary).
Presentation and invitation to the 28th IKS Symposium 2027, Ireland:
Anne Ralph, chair of the Irish Kodály Society, displayed a video and invited the IKS Membership to the next (28th) IKS Symposium, which will be held between 4 and 8 August 2027 in Cork, Ireland.
“Strengthening the recognition of the ALIMs” – presentation of the concept and approval of the changes in the Statutes was presented by Dr. James Cuskelly
“2. Affiliated Local Institutional Members
2.1. Affiliated Local Institutional Members are organizations that have similar objectives as the IKS and are recognized by the Board to have a significant impact, but do not represent any country nationwide.
2.2. A local institutional member may be granted affiliated status if:
a) its articles of association are in line with those of the Society,
b) its elected president/designated contact person holds a valid regular individual membership in the Society,
c) its professional standards meet the level required by the Society, with the detailed criteria set forth in the Society’s by-laws.
2.3. Affiliated Local Institutional Members are required to send an annual report on their activities to the Board of the IKS each year, and to pay the yearly Institutional Membership fee.
2.4. Affiliated Local Institutional Members must be broadly supportive of the work of the Society and remain committed to the goals and values of the Society. “
By-Law, Attachments are under revision. The changes are approved.
Varia
OAKE Lifetime Achievement Award (2019) presentation – by Kathy Kuddes (Texas). The award went to Lenke “Lenci” Igó.
Dr. Jaccard presented the new Executive Secretary, Mariann Varga, who takes over handling operational issues from Krisztina Molnár-Litvai at the IKS Office from August 2025.
Dr. Jaccard also thanked Ms. Krisztina Molnár-Litvai for her work.
The next General Assembly will be held online, on 5 September 2026. The Agenda and exact time will be posted in due time on the IKS website, and the Zoom link will be sent via email.
Dr. Jaccard thanked the participants and the presenters for their presence.
Dr. Jaccard also informed the attendees that the items not discussed at the General Assembly will be presented at an online meeting later. The exact date and time, Zoom link will be communicated via the IKS website and newsletter.
Budapest, 13 August 2025