A short Christmas Note to Members from the Secretary General

[Ric]

Dear Members,
I am presently in Australia, so this, my second personal message, will
come to you from “down under” to give all of our members my personal
point of view about the few weeks that I have been in this job. As, in
my previous personal note to everyone in the SOCIETY, the comments
will be my own and entirely expressed from my personal point of view.
It is not intended, in any way whatsoever, to be a substitute for our
official News Bulletin. It is likely to the point of certainty that my
note will go out before Christmas so, please take a moment or two to
read it. It should also be pointed out that I mean to go on producing
these little personal notes over the three years I will be functioning
as Secretary General to ISOCARP. You should also be aware that there
is no time frequency placed upon them. Whenever I feel that I have
something of interest to inform you about in relation to our Society,
I will do so. I mentioned in my first note that one of our Australian
members, Jeremy Dawkins, was working to establish an interactive
internet platform for members to air their views, etc. The prototype
is now up and running so please do have a look at it and sign on to
help Jeremy see where any teething problems may occur. I have already
done so. Again, this little experiment in helping to stimulate member
intercommunication right across the board is not a substitute for our
official web site. This is currently being looked at afresh for
redesigning by our Vice President, Dirk Engelke and our I.T.
Consultants.

I have become increasingly aware that it is time that our members were
made a little more aware of the the difficult financial circumstances
the Society is presently experiencing. The excesses and mismanagement
of the banking world and the enormous holes that have been created in
the individual economies of the world are well known to everyone. The
knock-on effect has affected the Society just as it has so many other
similar organisations. All of our respective well-beings have been
deeply affected. I have come to the conclusion that our Society is
just that, a group of people who have come together for common
interests, objectives and purposes. It is therefore important that we
all equally share not only the successes of the Society but also the
problems and burdens which occasionally inflict themselves upon us.
More on that later. Our particular objective is, of course, “Planning”
in all its guises, manifestations and practices. It is this
commonality of purpose that is surely the cement that has held the
Society together for almost 50 years.

As an International Society with a growing reputation for excellence
we have a commitment to consider how we can help advance the science
of Planning and we now have many vehicles for doing this. The “Jewel
in the Crown”, of course is the annual Congress which, next year, will
be held in the City of Wuhan in China. This may surprise some of you
as we have already had a Congress in the Chinese City of Dalian as
recently as 2008. The reason is simply down to the relative robustness
of the Chinese economy as compared with the comparative weakness of
almost every other national economy. Put simply, the Chinese made a
strong bid and while other cities were very interested the economic
downturn has clearly made a huge impact on available funds for such
large Congresses. The Congress subject has been being developed by the
Scientific Committee over the last few months and the final decision
will be made known to you shortly in the usual form i.e. there will be
a call for papers in the very near future.

With regard to the Scientific Committee it is worth taking a moment or
two to tell you of its new format. The Secretary General will no
longer be the Chairman of this Committee as the Chairman will be
selected solely by the members of the S.C. and entirely from among
themselves. It is intended by this new structure to energise the
Committee and raise “their game”. It is generally considered that the
previous S.C. did excellent work but new challenges have brought the
need for new responses. The first Chairman of the new S.C. is
Professor Andreas Schneider, I have suggested to the Committee that it
might be of great benefit if the Chairmanship was rotated every twelve
months from member to member. Clearly, a sincere vote of thanks is due
to the previous Scientific Committee for the excellent work they have
done on behalf of the Society over the years of their tenure.
I spent four days in the Hague in the Autumn to discuss with our
staff, Gaby, Monica and Lucian and our acting Executive Director Peter
Jonquiere their views, opinions and personal perspectives on the
Society. There was an exceptionally nice team spirit in the office and
I was greatly reassured by that. I went with Peter to Brussels to meet
with our previous President, Dr. Pierre Leconte. This was really nice
for me because I had never been to Brussels before and I was keen to
make some acquaintanceship with the work of the great Belgian
architect Victor Horta. There were additional meetings with Max van
den Berg, Martin Dubbeling, Derek Martin and our accountant, ms.
Ingrid van Oeffel. All of these meetings were intended to make myself
known to everyone as well as to obtain their advice about how I could
best achieve my aims and objectives as the new Secretary General. One
of the many things being considered was a potential move to new
Headquarters so Peter and I visited a couple of likely new buildings.
However, no decisions were taken and, for the meantime, we will be
staying where we are presently located.

I also had a meeting with the trustees of the Marc Jacobs Award which
was a little distressing as I worked with Marc and remember him with
great fondness. Anyway, the Trust is considering small revisions in
the way that their Grants will be made and when their revisions are
complete they will inform the Society. In addition to this we met with
Robert Rhemrev one of our distinguished Dutch members whom many of you
will know very well. Robert is offering an annual award to selected
young planners from “so-called” disadvantaged countries. The overall
annual funds available will be 5000 euros and he intends providing a
similar amount for each of the next five years i.e. 25.000 euros in
all. Robert will be setting up a Trust similar to the Marc Jacobs
Trust and is presently consulting with them. I cannot thank him enough
for his enormous generosity and the young planners who will benefit
from these two trusts will have even greater reason to be thankful. It
seems to me that we must find a way as a Society to ensure that these
Trusts can continue into the future indefinitely and your suggestions
as to how additional funds can be found would be greatly appreciated
by the two Trust Funds.

This latter comment brings me full circle back to my second paragraph
above. We are experiencing a considerable slow down in generating new
funds. Max van den Berg has convinced me that there is great affection
for ISOCARP among its members young and old. This is a great resource
which can and should be tapped into especially when times are
difficult as, indeed they are at the moment. We really need you guys
out there to be asking around, badgering people, prompting your local
politicians and local planning authorities to see if there are any
opportunities out there for us to participate in planning projects,
UPATs, and any other vehicle where we can earn money to ensure that we
can keep functioning in these hard times. We have the skills, we have
the international diversity we have the experience, etc. so, please
see where and how you can help your Society. Our two Vice Presidents
Zeynep Enlil and Paco Perez, for example, have negotiated a very
interesting "Intensive Training Seminar for YPPs and a YPP Workshop in
Abu Dhabi". This is surely a splendid accolade for them and their
efforts and commitment to ISOCARP. We, in the Society will be offering
a complete range of planning expertise. I am especially keen on
teaching and vehicles such as this Abu Dhabi Project must surely lay
down a strong marker for future investigation, research and
development. I discovered, for example, on a recent visit to Dubai
that all planning work and urban design work in that Emirate is
outsourced. The opportunities are surely there. Anyway, as you are all
now aware, the call has gone out for suitably qualified ISOCARPIANS to
put their names forward for consideration as participants in this
teaching and practical planning programme. Lets have a big response to
this call please.

As I said at the outset of this note I am presently in Australia
visiting my family members who now live here. I am far away from the
deep snow, ice and bitter cold of Northern Europe and quite enjoying
the change. I will be meeting the Australian National Delegates next
week to hear their views and concepts for our future development. In
this same vein, I will also be meeting the British National Delegates
towards the end of January in Manchester, England. So guys, there is
surely a lesson in there, if you want to meet me in a face-to-face get
together then lets see what can be done to achieve that end.

It is with considerable sadness that I must report that one of our
most loyal of servants, Ms, Judy van Hemert, will be finally leaving
us in February 2011. This lady has worked for you for twenty or so
years and this lengthy period of commitment to ISOCARP, I think,
deserves some form of recognition from the folk she has served so
faithfully and well. I am advising you of this turn of events to give
you an opportunity to think of some way the Society can recognise
Judy’s loyalty and hard work for ISOCARP. Suggestions please!

There are other developments which will be fully described in our
official NEWSLETTER e.g. the President’s work with UNESCO U.N. HABITAT
and the developments in that area of activity. But, as I said at the
beginning of this little message, this is purely a note to express my
personal thoughts, reflections and activities.

Finally, it is that time of year again when the bunting, twinkling
lights, brightly coloured decorations and Christmas trees are put up
to celebrate Christmas and the Festive Holiday Season. While many of
our member countries do actively celebrate Christmas, a great many do
not. It is this happy blend of cultures, etiquettes and traditions
which makes our Society, for me, the special entity that it is so, in
the best possible and traditional holiday spirit, may I wish everyone,
the whole way across and around the globe, in all its corners and
diverse countries both rich and not so rich, the happiest and most
tranquil of holidays and, above all, may this time be a restful one
for all of you and your families.

Warm Regards,
alex macgregor,
SECRETARY GENERAL