Type of activities
One of the main conclusions was that we have
to differentiate more among four different types of sessions the IIRE (can)
organize, and be clearer about their different goals and target groups:
a) Educational sessions such as the youth schools, women's schools, and New
Questions schools. These are for organizations' cadres who already have had
elementary education. The institute will continue to organize and reserve a
budget for two or three such sessions every year, as a priority. When possible
lecturers will attempt to experiment with the format of the presentations, such
as: reports of 2 times 45 minutes plus discussion; a more improvised report
based on questions posed by the participants; or a round table.
b) Sector meetings should be considered for activists working in the same
field. These meetings, for which no money is available, should ideally combine
co-ordination and practical exchanges with programmatic elaboration and
analysis.
c) Seminars, such as the Economists' Seminar and Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Strategy
Seminar. In seminars we bring together participants knowledgeable and active on
a specific terrain. For a seminar papers are produced beforehand, and are only
briefly introduced for discussion in the meeting itself. Ideally, a seminar
should lead to a publication. There is only a very limited budget for travel to
seminars, so these activities should normally pay for themselves. On that
condition, the number of seminars can in principle be multiplied, and
collaborators are invited to propose (and prepare and organize) seminars to (and
with) the permanent staff. Several concrete proposals were made, such as a
feminist seminar and a seminar on globalization.
d) Ernest Mandel Study Centre (EMSC) seminars can attract a broader audience,
as we saw with the first one, and lead to a book (now already published in
several languages).
Preparation and centralization
of sessions
Based on years of experience with lecturing
in sessions, many ideas came up to improve lecturers' preparation, and to
increase the coherence of sessions: a) We will continue efforts to improve the
gender balance of mixed sessions. b) The staff will send out to all lecturers a
more detailed programme of every session with more indications of what should
be covered in the different reports.c) The staff will encourage all lecturers
to include gender as a factor in their topics. d) The staff will send outlines
of reports done during the session (in so far as this is important to know) to
the lecturers who will come later in the program, to avoid repetitive
reports.e) Lecturers will be encouraged to type out their reports and to put
them into a Working Paper/Document de travail, including reading lists if
possible.
Finally, there were some exchanges about the
way we use our building, most importantly suggestions for a possible re-organization
of the library and office space. This is clearly a longer-term discussion.