The 2005 Annual General Meeting elected a commission
on the future of ITH consisting of representatives of 19 member institutes
from Austria, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Poland and Japan.
On the agenda of the commission were general questions of the development
of ITH (orientation & organizational structure) as well as the elaboration
of a thematic framework for a three years cycle of conferences in Linz (Austria),
2007–2009.
Since September 2005 the commission has been convoked several times. Following
a plenary meeting in January 2006 in Linz, the commission submitted first
proposals to the ITH members. The proposals
for the future orientation of the ITH have been slightly modified and
unanimously adopted by the General Assembly on September 14, 2006, as well
as a triennial cycle of conferences on "Labour
History beyond borders".
Members of the commission are:
Gerhard Botz, Michael Buckmiller, Josef Ehmer, Winfried Garscha, Bruno Groppo,
Eva Himmelstoss, Narihiko Ito, Erwin Kaiser, Maria Mesner, Jürgen Mittag,
Brigitte Pellar, Alexander Prenninger, Christine Schindler, Michael Schneider,
Henryk Skrzypczak, Antoaneta Tcholakova, Klaus Tenfelde, Feliks Tych, Berthold
Unfried, Marcel van der Linden.
The following topics have been discussed by the commission:
1. Strategic orientation of ITH
- Which are the “surroundings” of ITH, which characteristic makes ITH unique, who are ITH’s partners, who are ITH’s competitors?
- How the ITH network can be linked with networks of member institutes – and by that strengthened as an advantage for both sides?
- Is ITH more than the Linz conferences, and if that applies, what does that mean in form and content? And what are the consequences for staff and structure of ITH?
- How ITH’s relations to members and non-members shall be organized?
- How ITH shall achieve financial sustainability?
- Decision in principle: conference program for one year in advance or for more (e.g. three) years?
- Concretion of a three-years-version.
- Thematic priority for 2007 or 2007 et sqq.
Proposals for the future
orientation of the organization
(adopted version, September 14, 2006)