EDEN Annual General MeetingPorto, June 7, 2012

President’s Report

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Executive Committee

• The EC represents a good balance of leadership, experience and operative capacity

• Work for remained development of EDEN in all its fields of activity

• Well prepared EC meetings: Athens, Leuven, Porto and online

• Network of international relations further strengthened through formal memberships in ICDE and EUCIS-LLL

• Planning an online member survey prior to a strategy meeting in October

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Membership• Stable membership with 186 institutions and

1124 NAP members in May

• There are 420 institutions and 55 countries represented in the EDEN Memberships

• Since the 2011 AGM, 18 institutions (including 4 affiliate members) joined EDEN

• Improved membership services continue to have high priority

• Last year’s increase in membership fees did not result in measurable numbers of cancellations

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EDEN 20th Anniversary Year

• The Anniversary Conference with the Fellows’ meeting and seminar in Dublin

• The renewal of the web site

• The Anniversary Certificate for members

• The Best of EDEN 2010 Special Issue of EURODL

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EDEN Fellows• A first successful meeting of the EDEN Fellows was

organized in Dublin• The Fellows’ group has proven its potential value as a

unique think thank• Special Fellows’ activities and sessions are organized

around the Porto conference, and we intend to develop the Fellows’ meeting as a sustainable tradition

• A transparent annual schedule with an open nomination and application process is implemented for the Fellows’ Award Scheme

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Young Scholars• EDEN works systematically to involve young

researchers• The focus of the 2012 Annual Conference is on

intergenerational learning and we continuously invite early career scholars to join our activities

• The NAP SC attempts to identify and represent their interests

• The theme of the Leuven workshop is “Learners in the Driving Seat”, and we envisage strong involvement of students

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Network of Academics and Professionals (NAP)• Strong, competent and committed Steering

Committee was elected in 2011• Extended with two invited experts• Work on strengthening the NAP community with

focus on membership services and EDEN’s presence in social web services

• Easier process of joining NAP for individuals working for EDEN member institutions

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Management, Secretariat• Collaboration with the EDEN Secretariat host (Budapest University of

Technology and Economics) has been correct and continuous.• Consultations with EDEN’s legal advisor on the regulatory

environment has lead to updated staff contracts.• With the renewal of the EDEN web and the introduction of the NAP

Area, the structure of services for members has been re-considered.• The increasing demand for open access to resources has also been

dealt with. Conference proceedings and Books of Abstracts are now online.

• The content, relevance and layout of the monthly EDEN Newsflashes have been improved. The Newsflash is now available online, as well. 

• The financial situation has been followed closely by the EC. No liquidity problem is foreseen, but very systematic management will be required to maintain a sustainable operation in our economic environment

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Conferences• 2011 Annual conference In Dublin with nearly 450 delegates.

Theme: “Learning and sustainability”. Local host: IADT

• 2011 Open Classroom Conference in Athens with over 200 delegates. Theme: “Never waste a crisis” Local host: Ellinogermaniki Agogi

• 2012 Annual Conference in Porto with over 340 delegates. Theme:“Open Learning Generations”

• Organization of conferences in Leuven and Oslo started

• Relatively modest financial performance – because of economical difficulties around Europe

• Around 25 % of contributions from outside Europe

• Best research paper award maintained in co-operation with the Ulrich Bernath Foundation

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EURODL• Main ambition to augment academic value, visibility, and

increase the number of publications submitted. • EURODL is an important tool for strengthening EDEN’s

academic and professional credibility.• Reassuring to see the recent growing interest towards

EURODL. •  A themed issue on Creativity and Open Educational

Resources (OER) has been published. • All members received a complimentary anniversary copy of

the “Best of EDEN 2010” special issue . • The secretarial support to the journal is now provided by the

EDEN Secretariat

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European project work

• Increasing and unprecedented high number of EU project invitations

• 43 invitations resulted in 21 submitted proposals and 9 new projects

• Three more projects running until 2012-13• A joint project seminar (FREE, LinksUp and

teach.us) was organized in Budapest in September

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Conclusion

The challenges that were identified in the 2011 President Report, is still valid with small changes for 2012:The next years, will witness new scenarios in the economic, social, cultural, and technological development. This will require continuous efforts and further improvement of services to maintain the momentum of activities and impact of the Association in order to safeguard its leading position in Europe.

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