Board of Directors' Meeting - Alicante

D. José Arnay Puerta, welcomed all attendants and thanked the University of Alicante for having received them and allowed them to hold the meeting.

The meeting began by stating that last December 20, he sent a letter to the Secretary of State of Universities to request the holding of such meeting, but it was sent to the Secretary General instead. He also reported that Mr. Bernabé Sarabia knew that and that there wasn't any problem. The Ministry was going to fix a place to hold the meeting.

It was agreed to make the request the sooner the better to send the call to all universities with sufficient time.

It was also agreed to look for a hotel close to the meeting and suggest it to all universities in case they would need accommodation. Juan Antonio Lorenzo was in charge of this duty, after the venue was known.

Arnay kept reporting about universities to where the certificate of wanting to be part of the Spanish National Association had been dispatched: Rovira i Virgili, Granada, Murcia, Alicante, Burgos, Almería and the Pontifical University, that handed it over at that time.

Juan Antonio Lorenzo informed about the review that the Legal Consultancy of his university had made to the modified Statutes in Santiago. The proposals suggested didn't affect the content of these Statutes, but they do complete and reorganize them.

Then, he handed over a copy of the statutes to all attendants and began to state possible modifications. After reviewing: 

It was agreed to send a copy of the modified statutes to all universities along with the call of the General Assembly, stating that it wasn't necessary for those Universities that had reviewed them with their Legal Consultancy to make this twice. 

Juan Antonio Lorenzo also stated that the Ministry of Interior knew about the application form that each university must submit to join the Spanish National Association. The need of reviewing those who had nearly arrived was expressed.

Following the guidelines of the Ministry of Interior, each university application was analyzed. They would attest that these universities were funding members of the Association. The template must include explicit certification of the approval, by the corresponding bodies of each university, if there is a will to be part of the Spanish National Association. The name of the representative of the corresponding university must also be stated. 

The applications received until that moment were revised and all were forced to make a new certificate, so:

It was agreed to draft a paper and send it as soon as possible to each university, stating the NEW application form to be submitted the same day of the Assembly at the latest.

Then, the following aspects were discussed: agenda, rules and procedure to be followed during the meeting on February 27.

Juan Antonio Lorenzo showed a draft, widely addressed over the meeting. 

It was agreed to send, along with the meeting call:

• the agenda of the Constituent Assembly.
• the paper with rules governing the development of the Assembly, so that every University was previously informed about the steps to be followed.

Other addressed issues were:

* Important issues yet to be addressed by the Association:

• Integration and regulation of university programmes for older adults in the educational framework.
• Ways of access of adults over 25 to the programmes.
• Ways of collaboration with social services.
• Study and implementation of the Association's Magazine.
• Website design
• Boosting of research and programme evaluation.

* Tasks of the Board of Directors:

• Draft the Internal Regulations.
• Distribution of tasks and functions amongst the Board members.
• Form sectoral groups by working areas: educational, institutional, research, scientific, broadcast, international, institutional. 
• Collaborate in the broadcast of programmes to all universities.
• Invigorate information and communication with partners.
• Boost institutional contact with all official bodies by drafting a little dossier on what has been done.
• Broadcast programmes to all older adults, through the Spanish National Senior Council and other associations.
• Look for collaborating ways with seniors associations and federations.

* Proposal of the Eighth Meeting.

Adoración Holgado stated that the Interuniversity Programme of Experience in Castile and Leon was thinking about organizing the Eighth Meeting along the year 2004. The Castile and Leon Regional Government had institutionally and economically helped.

• Commission members accepted the submission of the proposal in the Assembly. They also accepted its delivery knowing that the Scientific Committee of the Meeting would be the Board of Directors of the Spanish National Association.
• After debating different ideas, the following topics were proposed for the next Assembly: 

Seniors and the university: a bid for lifelong learning:

.Learning: theory and experience

.University: the way it faces this education

.Social broadcast.

* The convenience of changing the name of the meeting to Congress so that it was equivalent and could be treated equally as academic record.

Concha Argente stated that what makes an event positive is the content and not the denomination.  

She also stated that the Eighth meeting shows continuity and consistence on the initiatives that have been carried out until now.  

Eventually, the denomination "Meeting" was agreed to be maintained, although "Scientific" could be added.