The annual General Assembly of Caravan 2000 International was held in Vienna on November 13, 2015. In this General Assembly, the Russian organisation "Pitershed Theatre" presented themselves and was accepted as member within the next Board meeting. Actually the international Caravan community has 16 member countries. A Spanish organisation which applied for membership will be asked to present themselves during the next Board meeting.
During our meeting the outgoing president Magda Skiba reported about Caravan activities and especially about activities in the frame of our ELLA-Project. At the end of the assembly the nine members of the board have been elected consisting of "old" and "new" board members. Michael Thiele, Verbundgeschäftsführer IB-Behindertenhilfe, was elected as President. In a Board meeting later on, the following positions have been determined:
- Michael Thiele, IB Germany, President
- Magda Skiba, PSOUU Poland, Vice-President
- Ivana Stajkovic, United in Diversity Serbia, Vice-President
- Regis Alvin, Caravane 2000 France, Treasurer
- Irmela von Toerne, IB Germany, General Secretary
- Marita Jonols, Medis 5 Sweden
- Tommy Papp, Estia Greece
- Tarik Bitlis, IBETH Turkey
- Osman Öztürk, Spastic Childrens Foundation, Turkey
Co-opted members are: Kerstin Klepsch (Austria), Ino Cornel (The Netherlands) and Stefan Rothschild (Israel).
The focus of the new Board will be to ensure the success and activities of ELLA and to continue our work successfully in the future. We will emphasize to apply for a new network application to assure permanent financial support the frame of another European Programme. Caravan 2000 is strong as never before - with regard to members, contents and organisation. We thank Magda Skiba very much for her engagement as President during the past six years.
