Protocol from the board meeting for The Association of Castles and Museums
around the Baltic Sea held in Malbork Castle 29-31 January 2013, Poland.
Present: Larissa Eleskina, Russia, Mariusz Mierzwinski, Polen, Ina Line
Latvia, Vergillius Povillunas, Lithuania, Janus Möller Jensen, Denmark,
Christer Nilsson, Sweden, Marek Stokowski, Polen, Anne Parikka, Finland,
Bengt Kylsberg, Sweden
Invited experts: Marek Stokowski, Malbork Castle,Poland, Christer Nilsson,
Friends of Skokloster Castle, Sweden
Absent: Juliane Moser, Germany, Andres Toode, Estonia, Anastassia
Sokolova, Estonia
§1
The President Anne Parikka opened the meeting and will also be the
chairman for the board meeting, and the Secretary Bengt Kylsberg
will be the secretary of the meeting.
The President told about her cancer and that she has retired since 31
December 2012, and therefore this board meeting will be the last
board meeting with her as president, her elected period will be over
in 2014 and she thanked everyone who has participated over the last
years the meetings of The Association. New president will be elected
at the next GA. Also the Danish member of the Board has to be
elected in the next GA, since Kirstin Eliasen has not worked at
Sonderskov Museum since October 2012. Kirstin Eliasen had sent
the President an email about her resignation. Until the next GA
Denmark will be represented in the Board by Janus Moller Jensen
from Nyborg Castle. The Board welcomed Janus warmly.
§2
The agenda was presented with the following additions to Open
issues:
a. decision of the time frame of the items members want
to have in GA’s agenda
b. XXII GA didn’t accept the accounts of The
Association, how to solve this problem
c. annual fee 2013
d. Friends of the Castles around the Baltic Sea, election
of the President
e. updating the statutes
f. the project of the history of The Association
§3
Ina Line presented a power point presentation about the General
Assembly which will be held in Turaida Museums Reserve, Latvia
between 28-30 August 2013. During this time it will also be a
history conference that we participate in as one of the programs
during our GA. The theme for the conference is “Castle. Archaeology.
Museum – Archaeologist Janis Graudonis 100 years”. Turaida is one of
the most visited tourist sites in Latvia with c 200 000 visitors a year.
The Board discussed the program and the budget for the meeting.
2014 Riga will be the Cultural Capital of Europe and our GA will be
a topic in this.
Travel and accommodation must be paid by the participates. The
Association will pay for the Riga – Turaida – Riga, 1 lunch and 1
dinner and some part of the field trip. We will discuss this more
direct with Gunta Zakite in Turaida. The contact person between
Turaida Museum Reserve and The Association will be the President.
Everyone should send new updated contact information to Anastasia.
Janus will contact Gunta about making a poster and flyers for the
GA. The design will be made by Nyborg Castle.
Everyone should tell in their respective country about the GA and
conference, which will be open to public, to the media and
universities. The last day for announcing their participation should
be 15 May.
We should also invite CBSS in Stockholm to Turaida.
The President raised the question of how to celebrate our 25th
anniversary in 2015. The meeting decided to have a small group to
work with the question, Mariusz, Larissa, Janus and Mark was
appointed to this.
§4
Christer Nilsson who is the chairman of The Association of Friends
of Skokloster Castles, Sweden, was invited to give a presentation of
how to apply for EU founds. This will probably be very important
for our Association in the future.
Some very good remarks were made by Marek.
Some keywords which are very important for EU are for example;
cross border, culture exchange, lifelong learning etc. i.e. everything
that our association is working for.
The President told about what we have got from EU founds so far in
the Agora 2.0 project.
The main question now is what we will apply money for, or simplyWhat shall do?
Janus talked about why we want people to come to our castles and
museums; maybe to help the visitors to grow. Our castles/museums
are important locally but also in a broader meaning.
A new term “The Bubble Sea” was launched. Castles a center for
peace, etc.
Janus, Christer and Marek will be a small group to find out how and
with what subject will approach the EU founds for the period 20142020. Christer and Anne will travel to a meeting in Berlin about the
next program period of EU. The expenses will be paid by The
Association.
§5
Larissa told about the problems in KIZHI, The President said that the
Association will answer the email the President received from
KIZHI.
§6
Bengt told about the Book-project and all the difficulties we have
had over the last years. Finally the President and the Secretary had to
call in one more person as a control station for the language check.
Dr Simon McKeown will travel in February to Riga to meet the
designers and see that the English language corrections are properly
done and help the designers with other language difficulties. The
Association will pay the expenses of Simon McKeown.
§7
Our photo exhibition is now in Szczecin and then it will travel to
Malbork and after that to Stockholm and CBSS. The exhibition will
be sent from Malbork on 20 May and week 36 it will go to Trakai.
§8
The President went through what has been decided in last year’s GA
in Denmark.
Members have to send their proposals of topics to discuss at GA by
15.6.2013 to the President and the Secretary.
We need to receive a correct name of those who pays the annual fee,
both the castle and the contact person. Sometime s it is difficult to
see which castle has paid since it could be another address or name
then the actual castle.
In Denmark GA didn’t accept the accounts of The Association. At
the same time no decision was made how to correct the accounts and
how to handle accounts in the future. The President has asked
Angelma&Mäkelä accounting firm to handle the accounts of The
Association. CEO Minna Täppinen is the contact person at
Angelma&Mäkelä.
Annual fee for 2013 will be 80 euro + bank expenses 8 euro.
How can we be more active?
Our statues were discussed very lively and a small group will see if
we need to update them. That group will be Anne, Janus and Bengt.
Since The Association is registered in Finland all the legal acts take
place in Finland and The Association will work under Finnish laws.
Christer Nilsson told about The Association of Friends of Skokloster
Castle. The board decided to have an Association of Friends of The
Association of Castles and Museums around the Baltic Sea and
invited Christer Nilsson to be the first President.
Vice President Marius Mierzwinski asked the President to start a
project of writing the history of The Association. The history booklet
has to be done by summer 2015 when The Association celebrates
25th anniversary.
§9
The Vice President Mariusz Mierzwinski suggested that Anne
Parikka continues as the President of The Association in spite of her
leaving the active working life at National Board of Antiquities in
Finland. The Association needs someone who can work full time for
The Association and now Anne Parikka has that time.
The Board unanimously agreed and congratulated Anne.
§10
The President closed the meeting and thanked the Board for showing
the trust on her work and invited the participants to a joint dinner.
Bengt Kylsberg
Uppsala March 2013