The Executive Committee is calling for a special online meeting of the General Assembly of ASSITEJ.
Space: Online
Dates: 18 – 26 May 2020
The online meeting
The online meeting will consist of three sections:
- A video conference between members, the Executive Committee and the bidders for ASSITEJ Artistic Gathering 2022 and 2023. The meeting will take place on 18th and 19th May in two time zones. Members should attend only one of the two meetings. Please read more below.
- Circulation of the recorded online meetings and questions by email. The online meeting will be recorded and circulated to all members. Members can send questions by email to the Executive Committee and the candidate of the ASSITEJ Artistic Gatherings. All questions and answers will be shared on the website of ASSITEJ. Dates: Wednesday 20 May 2020 – Sunday 24 May 2020.
3. Online voting.
All National Centres and ASSITEJ Networks will receive an email from ASSITEJ. This email will contain an online voting ballot with instructions on how to cast the vote.
Read more about the voting and the verification of members right to vote.
Video conference open to all members
All National Centres and ASSITEJ Networks can participate with a delegation of three persons. All other members are very welcome to attend as observers. According to the number of participants, the right to speak might only be given to the delegates.
Members should attend only one of the two meetings.
Note: The meeting will be recorded and circulated to all members.
Meeting A
Mainly for members from Africa, Europe and the Americas.
For this meeting ASSITEJ provides translations into Spanish and French.
Date: Monday 18 May 2020
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm South African Standard Time
See the time in your time zone.
Link to registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZModu6pqzIoEtfzH2SqWXVJDpE_At-_P9lO
Registration closes 30 minutes before the start of the meeting.
Meeting B
Mainly for members from Asia and Oceania.
For this meeting ASSITEJ provides translations into Mandarin and Japanese.
Date: Tuesday 19 May 2020
Time: 8 am – 10 am South African Standard Time
See the time in your time zone.
Link to registration https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtcO2uqTooGtJn4L7QWZ-ANM9anTbpS49W
Registration closes 30 minutes before the start of the meeting.
Technical information
The meeting platform for the meeting is Zoom. If you are unsure about how to attend a Zoom meeting or whether your audio or video work you can join a meeting test here: https://zoom.us/test
Agenda for the Video Conference
1. Introduction
a. Welcome by the President
b. Presentation of the present members
c. Sec-Gen: Practical information & voting for the agenda
2. Postponing the General Assembly and the election of the Executive Committee from May 2020 to March 2021.
A. Rationale and implications
B. Questions from members
3. Presentations of the Candidates for the events:
a. Rationale for including the bids for 2022 and 2023 in the special meeting
b. Questions from members to the rationale
c. Presentation of the candidate for the place of the ASSITEJ Artistic Gathering 2022
d. Questions and discussion of the bid
e. Presentation of the candidate for the place of the ASSITEJ Artistic Gathering 2023
c. Questions and discussion of the bid
Rationale and general information
Postponement
All members have been informed that the 20th ASSITEJ World Congress planned to take place in May 2020 was postponed to March 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since COVID-19 became a pandemic, there was no doubt that it was impossible to hold an event gathering hundreds of people in one place and that very few international participants and members – if any at all – would be able to be present in Tokyo in May. The timing of the announcement was determined by the process to secure support from the major funding bodies, to ensure that the Congress and festival could take place in the future.
The postponement includes all elements of the events including the General Assembly.
General Assembly in March 2021
The General Assembly will take place in the second half of March 2021. We will call for the Assembly as soon as the dates are confirmed. We will reopen the call for candidates for the Executive Committee, proposals for constitutional changes and bids for the ASSITEJ World Congress in 2024 and the ASSITEJ Artistic Gathering in 2025. Members that have submitted candidatures and amendments will not have to send them again, but only confirm their submission.
Special meeting
Article 9.8.1 in the Constitution of ASSITEJ states that “Elections for the Executive Committee of the Association are held at a meeting of the General Assembly at least once in every three (3) calendar years.”
To respect this part of the constitution the Executive Committee is now calling for a special meeting of the General Assembly asking for approval for the postponing of the elections of the Executive Committee to March 2021 (fourth calendar year since the 19th congress in 2017).
The meeting will take the form of an online meeting taking place in the period of the General Assembly as it was originally planned for May 2020. More information will follow below.
Bids for ASSITEJ Artistic Gatherings and the 21th World Congress
The postponement of the General Assembly also means that the centres that were presenting the bids for the ASSITEJ Artistic Gathering and the 21st World Congress will not be able to do so as planned.
To accommodate the need of the hosts of the ASSITEJ Artistic Gatherings in 2022 and 2023 to start their planning, the Executive Committee (EC) has decided to add this to the agenda of the Special Meeting.
The EC also feels that in times of crises and insecurity, it is important to give all members confirmed ASSITEJ events to look forward to.
The sequence of ASSITEJ events
Because of the postponement of the 20th World Congress in Japan to 2021, ASSITEJ Serbia who was bidding for the ASSITEJ Artistic Gathering in 2021 has decided to postpone their bid to 2023. ASSITEJ Cuba who was bidding for the World Congress in 2023 has in solidarity decided to postpone their bid for the 21st World Congress to 2024, giving the space to ASSITEJ Serbia and securing a three year term between the 20th Congress in Japan and the 21st Congress in Cuba.
ASSITEJ Sweden was not able to postpone their bid for 2022 because the hosting festival, “BiBu”, is a biannual festival.
