MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF WOCAL6, HELD ON WEDNESDAY, 19TH AUGUST 2009 IN COLOGNE, GERMANY (taken down by Anne-Maria Fehn) PRESENT Herman M. Batibo (President of the WOCAL standing committee) Matthias Brenzinger (Secretary General of the WOCAL standing committee) Akinbiyi Akinlabi Josephat Rugemalira Zelealem Leyew Margarida Maria Taddoni Petter Neville Alexander Maarten Mous Karsten Legère Ekkehard Wolff Ian Maddieson APOLOGIES Al Mtenje Sû-tôôg-nooma KukkaFKA Raphael Kaboré Bernd Heine Rosalie Finlayson 1. WELCOME Matthias Brenzinger, Congress Chairman of WOCAL6-Cologne and Secretary General of WOCAL, and Herman Batibo, President of WOCAL welcomed the Standing Committee Members present. 2. CORRECTION OF THE MINUTES OF THE 5TH MEETING HELD IN AUGUST 2006, IN ADDIS ABABA Observed that there were no substantive corrections to be made from the minutes of the last WOCAL business meeting. 2. MATTERS ARISING Reported that Matthias Brenzinger succeeded in sensitizing Japanese scholars to attend WOCAL6-Cologne, including substantial participation at the 1st Workshop on African Sign Languages (10 Japanese participants). Mentioned that Ekkehard Wolff & Matthias Brenzinger also made WOCAL known to colleagues from South Korea during a conference in Seoul. Discussed possible interest to host a Special WOCAL in Korea maybe in 2014. Karsten Legère also mentioned Chinese research activities in East Africa. (Karsten should make WOCAL known to them!) 3. EVALUATION OF THE SPECIAL WOCAL-BRAZIL AND WOCAL6-COLOGNE 3.1. Special WOCAL-Brazil Evaluated Special WOCAL in Sao Paulo as follows: a) Organization was excellent, the organizing committee was well constituted, and the correspondence was dealt with effectively. b) The facilities were excellent. c) Attendance of local and global participants was very good; many colleagues from Africa were present. 3.2. WOCAL6 – Cologne Evaluated WOCAL6-Cologne as follows: a) Organization was excellent; the organizing team was small in number, but operates efficiently. The correspondence was dealt with promptly and effectively. Especially visa problems were handled very well. b) The facilities were excellent, very spacious and neat. Since a whole building was rented for the congress, it was very easy to change from session to session. c) Attendance was extremely good; 483 participants from 64 countries (36 African, 20 European, 4 American and 4 Asian countries) were present, and 272 papers were read. Participation from Africa was extremely high (more than 117), with 55 participants obtaining sponsorship from the DAAD, the DFG, the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation, the Fritz-Thyssen Stiftung, the Volkswagen Foundation and the University of Cologne. d) A workshop on African Sign Languages (AfSL) took place for the very first time. We are proud that this important event was held within the frame of WOCAL. The organizers of WOCAL6-Cologne invited Sam Lutalo, a deaf scholar from Uganda for the WOCAL keynote of the second day. The AfSL workshop was organized by deaf and hearing scholars, namely Victoria Nyst, Shane Gilchrist, Eyasu Tamene and Rezenet Moges. Interpreters for International Sign and DGS (German Sign Language) translated the presentations to the deaf and hearing audience. It was agreed upon that WOCAL will offer the AfSL committee to run regular workshops within the frame of all future WOCAL congresses. Congress chairs of WOCAL should try to support the AfSL organizers in all possible respects. f) Remarks and criticism: - unexpected time shifts and short term program changes - technical problems because people had to use the university laptops instead of their own computers - too many (7) parallel sessions, i.e. conflicting presentations with related research topics - the high congress fee of 100 Euro, no discount for participants from Africa 4. VENUE FOR WOCAL7 4.1. Cameroon Informed that at last only one university had submitted a proposal to host WOCAL7, namely the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon Reviewed the situation at hand and noted that Pius Tamanji, the Head of Department is very active. Colleagues from several Cameroonian universities are very enthusiastic about hosting the congress and will be able to set up an organizing committee; adequate facilities and infrastructure are also present. Gratien Atindogbé from the University of Buea, who is presently at the University of Cologne, was instrumental in the DAAD-sponsored Summer School preceding WOCAL6. He got in touch with his colleagues about the Congress. At WOCAL6-Cologne, a total of 12 scholars from Cameroon read their papers and several others were attending the congress. Agreed on Cameroon as the host country for WOCAL7, with Pius Tamanji acting as the congress chair. Emphasized the importance of a network to be set up prior to the congress, involving Cameroonian scholars as well as outside scholars working in Cameroon. Maarten Mous has been asked to act as a coordinator of this Ad-hoc WOCAL Cameroon support network. Discussed the possible problem of SIL-dominance in Cameroon, as WOCAL is explicitly secular. The experience with the ACAL congress series in this respect has been mentioned. Strong objections: individual SIL linguists are welcome; however, there should not be any institutional involvement of SIL. SIL publicity should not be present at the WOCAL venue as well as in WOCAL publications and announcements. 4.2. Stand by Venues - Botswana - Southern Africa (Kwazulu-Natal) 5. PUBLICATION OF WOCAL PROCEEDINGS 5.1. Proceedings of WOCAL5 No proceedings were published, due to the fact that only a limited number of participants actually submitted their papers. Some of these may be published within the volume for the Special WOCAL Brazil. The #6 should not be mentioned with this Special WOCAL-Brazil. 5.2. Proceedings of Special WOCAL-Brazil The proceedings of Special WOCAL-Brazil will be published. 5.3. Proceedings of WOCAL6 - Cologne The Proceedings of WOCAL6-Colognev will be published online and in print by the organizer Matthias Brenzinger and Anne-Maria Fehn as joint editors. A strong point has been made that a paper copy should be available. The publication of the WOCAL-Brazil congress should appear as the 5th WOCAL publication. 6. THE WOCAL WEBSITE Agreed upon the main website will remain at Rutgers, with links to the website of the congress web pages; the African Sign Language Workshop will be in charge of their own website and links should be included at the Rutgers WOCAL side. The WOCAL7 website should be based in Cameroon 7. REMARKS ON THE WORKSHOP OF AFRICAN SIGN LANGUAGES Agreed upon the great success of the Workshop within the frame of WOCAL6-Cologne. Decided that the President through the General Secretary will invite the organizers of the 1st African Sign Workshop formally to be a permanent part of WOCAL; they will be informed about the next venue and be made part of as well as benefit from the network for WOCAL7. Designated Matthias Brenzinger as contact person for the African Sign Language WOCAL Initiative. Agreed upon an amendment to the Constitution: „African languages, both spoken and signed“. 8. MEMBERSHIP TO THE STANDING COMMITTEE 8.1. Secretary General Agreed without objection that Matthias Brenzinger will remain Secretary General. 8.2. Invitation to new members The following candidates were agreed upon: - Shigeki Kaji from Japan - Yamina El Kirat from Morocco - Adjaratou Sall from Senegal 8.3. Promotion to full membership Promotion of Neville Alexander to become a full member of the Standing Committee. 8.4. Co-opted members Decided that two persons representing the African Sign Language Workshop, a deaf and a hearing, should be promoted as co-opted members of the WOCAL Standing Committee. Decided that Karsten Legère will continue to serve as a co-opted member representing LoT - Languages of Tanzania - project. Agreed upon Pius Tamanji, as the WOCAL7congress chairperson is a co-opted member. Discussed: Sozinho Matsinhe is the new president of ACALAN and he asked to represent ACALAN in the position of a co-opted member in the WOCAL standing committee. The secretary will wait for an official statement by ACALAN. 8.5. Elders Agreed that this category of members is now formalized. It was agreed that former Presidents and Congress Chairs will automatically become Elders, as long as they were not dismissed. The number of Elders not meeting the above mentioned criteria, but having been chosen to this category (WOCAL elders) because of special service to WOCAL (including the WOCAL-founders?) is limited to three. 9. ELECTION OF THE NEW PRESIDENT Akinbiyi Akinlabi was unanimously accepted as new President of WOCAL. He accepted. Report of an additional meeting: MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE AD-HOC SUPPORT GROUP OF WOCAL7-CAMEROON, THURSDAY, 20TH AUGUST 2009 IN COLOGNE, GERMANY (taken down by Matthias Brenzinger) Present: Maarten Mous (Head of Ad-Hoc Support Group of WOCAL7-Cameroon) Herman M. Batibo (President of the WOCAL Standing Committee) Matthias Brenzinger (Secretary General of the WOCAL standing committee) Ekkehard Wolff Mark van de Velde Raimund Kastenholz Roger Blench Pius Tamanji Roland Kießling Gratien Atindogbé Dmitry Idiatov Doreen Schröter Rebecca Voll Marieke Martin Laura Robson Daniel Duke Nobutaka Kamei Others to be informed: Bruce Connell Carole de Féral Jeff Good Britta Neumann The Ad-hoc WOCAL7-Cameroon support group consists of people with research projects and interests in Cameroon. Suggestion: The group stressed the importance of including travel to Cameroon in their project for the time of the WOCAL7-Cameroon congress in August 2012. Suggestion: To invite speakers and co-investigators of language projects in Cameroon to the congress and offer an opportunity to set research on the spot. AfSL: Nobutaka Kamei offered to be instrumental in getting a AfSL workshop organized. Suggestions: Herman Batibo suggested that the organizer might consider the following points: 1. WOCAL7-Cameroon organizing committee( is there an efficient cooperative team) 2. Is the venue available and facilities suitable? 3. Corresponding facilities such as Internet available? 4. Institutional support? 5. Accommodation Transport (from outside and inside Africa) Envisaged problems: Visa for Cameroon may take a long time, application process should start in time.