Time and place: 27\u201328 April 2019, Baltic Centre\nfor Writers and Translators, Uddens gr\u00e4nd 3, 621 56 Visby, Sweden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The following\nrepresentatives of the 12 member organisations were present: Swedish Writers\u2019\nUnion (Anna-S\u00e4flund Orstadius), The\nUnion of Finnish Writers (Hannu Niklander), Society of Swedish Authors in\nFinland (Malin Kivel\u00e4), The Finnish Association of Finnish Non-Fiction Writers\n(Anna Rutanen, Satu Lundelin), The Finnish Association of Translators and\nInterpreters (Taina Helkamo), Lithuanian Association of Literary Translators\n(Kazimiera Astratoviene), Lithuanian Writers\u2019 Union (Marius Burokas), Estonian\nWriters\u2019 Union (Tiit Aleksejev, Piret Viires, Ingrid Velbaum-Staub), Latvian Writers\u2019 Union (Mudite Treimane),\nPolish Assciation of Literary Translators (Justyna Czechowska), The Union of\nBelarusian Writers (Dmitri Plax, Barys Piatrovich), The Norwegian Association\nof Literary Translators (Hilde Lyng). Lena Pasternak was representing the\nBaltic Centre for Writers and Translators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saturday\nApril 27st<\/sup> 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Agenda\nof the General Assembly<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11.00-16.00 Meeting with a lunch break <\/p>\n\n\n\n MINUTES FOR THE\nGENERAL ASSEMBLY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The participants of the meeting\nshortly presented themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Justyna Czechowska passed on the greetings from\nHalyna Kruk from Ukraine. The Ukrainian organisation is not ready with their\npapers to apply for the membership of BWC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2.<\/strong> The Agenda of the meeting was\napproved by the Assembly. Lunch at 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3.<\/strong> Kazimiera Astratoviene<\/strong> was elected chairperson for the meeting, Piret Viires<\/strong> was elected secretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4.<\/strong> The Chairperson of the BWC,\nKazimiera Astratoviene, presented the activity\nreport for BWC<\/strong>, for the year of 2018:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The General Assembly of 2018 for the Baltic\nWriters Council was arranged on 21st\u201322nd of April in Visby, Gotland. 16\npersons representing 12 organisations from 8 countries took part in the\nmeeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the afternoon of the first GA session\nliterary event named \u201eOpen House in Visby\u201c was held. It was the most important\nissue for the BWC Board to organize this event and to say the truth it exceeded\nall expectations. It was planned to be a minor event with few participants\ntherefore organized in the Centre\u2018s House after the first session of GA, but it\nappeared to be a real literary feast that went on for about 3 hours. 9 writers\nand translators from 6 different countries were reading their texts to the\npublic. Key-note speaker and invited guest was Ukrainian poet, translator and\nchildren\u2018s book writer Halyna Kruk, she delivered a speech \u201eLast trends in\ncontemporary Ukrainian literature: art and human experiences of war.\u201c I will\nnot go into further details, the program of the event is on our webpage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is also important to note that for the first\ntime BWC GA decided to take another approach for organizing the event and especially\nlooking for its finances. Instead of writing numerous applications throughout\nthe year and applying to different funds the Board asked BWC members for\nsupport. BWC member-organizations were asked to invite poets, writers and\ntranslators and to cover their travel and accommodation costs. They were also\nasked to donate money for the event that could be used for travel, accommodation\nand honorariums of those whose organizations weren\u2018t able to pay. Thus BWC\nreceived a donation: The Society of Swedish Authors in Finland, The Union of\nFinnish Writers, The Association of Finnish Non-fiction Writers supported the\nevent financially \u2013 each of these organizations donated 1000 euros, so at last\nwe had a budget of 3000 euros. It was such a good experience to find strength\nand support inside BWC that it can be seen as valuable lesson for the future\nactivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coming back to GA 2018, one of its decisions\nwas to organize a Round table discussion dedicated to the situation of literary\ntranslators in the Baltic region. In order to do so was created a working group\ninside BWC, together with the Board it prepared an invitation for the members\nto send their representatives to the Round table covering the price of their\ntravel and accommodation. Again it proved that BWC is an active organization\nimportant for its members \u2013 yesterday we listened to 10 Round table\nparticipants representing 9 different member-organizations. More about Round\ntable you will hear in next year\u2018s activity report, but this year I would only\nlike to point out, how significant it was to have someone from Iceland and from\nNorway in the discussion! We haven\u2018t seen anybody from these countries for\nquite some time and it\u2018s essential to BWC to keep in contact with all of its\nmembers at all times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The GA approved the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Literary event in\nVisby in 2020: new ideas and possibilities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The GA discussed several ideas about the possible\nliterary event in Visby in 2020 and decided that the next literary event will\nbe about Belorusian literature<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The GA formed\na working group<\/strong> to prepare this literary event: Justyna Czechowska, Dmiti Plax, Tiit Aleksejev, Viveka Sj\u00f6gren<\/strong>. The\nworking group will be responsible for the program and searching for possible\nfunding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 6.<\/strong> Membership questions.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n 5.1. New and old\nmembers.<\/strong> Ukrainian\nwriters are not organised yet, but are interested in becoming a member of BWC. Danish\nWriters Union are not members; we will work on it to ask them back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The organisations of Norway and Iceland are\nback. They have paid all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5.2. Membership fee.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Proposal: to raise the membership fee to 200\neuros. Reduction fee will be 150 Euros. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Vote: 10 – for raising the fee, 1 – against, 1\n– neutral<\/p>\n\n\n\n The GA decided that\nthe membership fee will be raised to 200 euros<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 7.<\/strong> BCWT news by Lena Pasternak, director of BCWT.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n During 2018 200 writers stayed at the centre,\nrepresenting 32 countries, altogether 3000 guest days. 85% residents were from the Baltic Sea\ncountries, 15% other countries, incl. Africa, Canada, China. There have been\nalso writers from Syria, Afghanistan, Iran. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stay for the writers is free. There is a\ngood cooperation with Estonian Writers Union which is offering scholarships for\nstaying in Visby. The same is with German translators\u2019 organisation. Swedish\nInstitute is supporting the stay of Belarusian writers. The BCWT has no\nEuropean funding at the moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2018 the house was renovated. The renovating\nwas covered by Gotland County. Windows and floors were renovated; it was the\nrefreshment that was needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Several seminars, workshops and project were\norganised and are ongoing. E.g. a project about \u201cMultilingual literature and\nreaders\u201d organised with Uppsala university; Swedish-Lithuanian translation\nworkshop etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The has also been active collaboration with\nschools from Gotland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The webpage of the Centre is in the renewals\nprocess. BCWT is a member of network of\ncentres RECIT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Summing up, BWTC is a centre for cultural\ndiplomacy, cultural exchange. The strength of the centre \u2013 it is a house built\nby writers and translators, it is a place to visit for work and contemplation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n .Lunch 13-14<\/p>\n\n\n\n Results of the working group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thw working group proposed the following\nschedule; first ideas until the end of May 2019. All materials should be ready by March 2020.\nThe literary event should concentrate on 3 main topics – Belorusian language,\nliterature and translation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8.<\/strong> Reports from member-organizations.<\/strong> The delegates from each\norganization presented reports. A few reports were left for tomorrow\u2019s session.\nThe delegates were asked to send their reports via e-mail. See Appendix<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. 1. Justyna Czechowska (Polish\nAssociation of Literary Translators ) <\/p>\n\n\n\n 7.2. Taina Helkamo (The Finnish\nAssociation of Translators and Interpreters). <\/p>\n\n\n\n 7.3. Anne Rutanen and Satu Lundelin (The Association of Finnish\nNon-Fiction Writers) <\/p>\n\n\n\n 7.4. Hannu Niklander (Finnish Writers\nUnion) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another concern for Finnish Writers Union is\nthe status of national languages in Finland. A standpoint has been sent to\nnewspapers that national languages \u2013 Finnish, Swedish, Saami – are loosing\ntheir position for English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tiit Aleksejev remarked that the same problem\nis in Estonia and Anne Rutanen said that for non-fiction writers in Finland\nthis has already happened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a discussion about the role of\nnational languages in Baltic sea countries. The GA expressed a mutual concern\nabout the situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 7.5. Tiit Aleksejev (Estonian Writers\nUnion)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. 6. Marius Burokas (Lithuanian Writers\nUnion)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7.7. Barys Piatrovich (The Union of\nBelarusian Writers) <\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. 8. Malin Kivel\u00e4 (Society of Swedish\nAuthors in Finland) <\/p>\n\n\n\n 7.9. Hilde Lyng (Norwegian Association\nof Literary Translators)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The session was ended\nat about 16.00.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The GA was resumed on Sunday\nApril 28th 2019 at 10:00. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sunday April 28th 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 10.00-13.00 <\/p>\n\n\n\n 8.1. Anna-S\u00e4flund Orstadius (Swedish\nWriters\u2019 Union) <\/p>\n\n\n\n 8.2. Kazimiera Astratoviene (Lithuanian\nAssociation of Literary Translators)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 9.<\/strong> Teasurer\u2019s\nreport by Mudite Treimane the Treasurer of BWC.<\/strong> The Treasurer Mudite\nTreimane presented the finances of 2018 and the budget of 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The income of 2018 was 31 500,81 SEK, the\nexpenses of 2018 was 19 397. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is surplus 12 039 SEK from the year\n2017, and a surplus of 12103,18 SEK from the year 2018, surplus TOTAL\n24 142,93. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The literary event\u2019s costs were covered by\ndonations from the Association of Non-fiction writers\u2019 9740,10 SEK, the Society\nof Swedish Authors in Finland 9835,60 SEK, The Union of Finnish Writers 9725,40\nSEK, total 29 301,10. The costs of organising the literary event \u201cOpen\nHouse in Visby\u201d was 29 301,10 SEK. The balance was 0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Income were more than planned, the debts have\nbeen paid. Membership fee – 2018, 1 member has not paid; 2019, 11 members have\nnot paid – but they will pay during the second half of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n GA the costs a little bit bigger than planned.\nThere were travel expenses included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Literary event\u2019s costs were covered by\ndonations, they were enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The economy is stable, 78 379 SEK is in the\nbank account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The board proposed the budget for 2020 – BWC\nactivities 40 000 SEK (income membership fees). Expenses in the budget: Administration\n10 000 SEK, General Assembly 16 000 SEK, Homepage 1000 SEK, Literary\nevent: 13 000. TOTAL: 40 000<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10.<\/strong> Auditor\u2019s report.<\/strong> The auditors were Justyna Czechowska and Johanna\nSandberg. Justyna Czechowska presented the Auditor\u2019s report. The auditor\nfound the books in order, finances were used according to the purposes and the\nboard was granted freedom of responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After hearing the Treasurer\u2019s report and\nAuditor\u2019s report General Assembly approved\nunanimously the finances of 2018 and the budget for 2020. – 40 000 SEK.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n 11.<\/strong> Reports\nfrom member organizations<\/strong> continued. See Appendix<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11.1. Mudite\nTreimane (Latvian Writers\u00b4 Union) <\/p>\n\n\n\n 12.<\/strong> Election of Baltic Writers Council board members.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Election of the BWC Board members: Kazimiera Astratoviene<\/strong> (retiring by\nrotation, willing to continue), Piret\nViires<\/strong> (retiring by rotation, willing to continue), Viveka Sj\u00f6gren <\/strong>(retiring by rotation, willing to continue). <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the result of\nthe elections Kazimiera Astratoviene<\/strong>, Piret Viires<\/strong> and Viveka\nSj\u00f6gren <\/strong>Malin\nKivel\u00e4 <\/strong>were elected to the board. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 13. Election of\nAuditors.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Johanna Sandberg<\/strong> is continuing and Justyna\nCzechowska<\/strong> was elected auditor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 14. Nominations for the\nboard of the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators Centre for the 2 years.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As the result of the elections Marius Burokas<\/strong> and Dmitri Plax<\/strong> were nominated to the board of the Baltic Centre for\nWriters and Translators. Malin Kivela<\/strong> and Mudite Treimane <\/strong>were elected as deputies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 15. Other issues.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Justyna Czechowska<\/strong> summed up the round table about\ntranslation and concluded that it had been successful and the aim of the round\ntable was met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was decided that the working group will\nprepare a manifesto stressing the importance of literary translations and it\nwill be sent to the members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Open discussion about the role of BWC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kazimiera Astratoviene<\/strong> informed the GA about the board\u2019s\ndecision about the next year\u2019s literary event. The board decided if there will\nbe not enough donations, the literary event will be of a smaller scale\naccording to the available finances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The GA agreed with this decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 16. Date of the next\nGA.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The GA decided that the next assembly will be\non 24-26th<\/sup> April 2020.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 17. Closing the GA. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The GA was closed at 13.07<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kazimiera Astratoviene Piret Viires<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chairperson Secretary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Time and place: 27\u201328 April 2019, Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators, Uddens gr\u00e4nd 3, 621 56 Visby, Sweden. The following representatives of the 12 member organisations were present: Swedish Writers\u2019 Union (Anna-S\u00e4flund Orstadius), The Union of Finnish Writers (Hannu Niklander), Society of Swedish Authors in Finland (Malin Kivel\u00e4), The Finnish Association of Finnish Non-Fiction … Continue reading Baltic Writers Council (BWC), General Assembly 2019<\/span>