ICDE membership 2002
Dear Sir/ Madam,
I am writing today to invite your institution to renew its membership, or if you are not already a member, to join the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) as a member institution for the calendar year 2002. If you have already renewed your institutional membership for 2002, please ignore this letter.
Established in 1938, the ICDE facilitates and communicates leadership in the field of distance and virtual learning globally. Institutions from more than 140 countries are members of ICDE. That the organization represents the world’s premier forum for debate, knowledge and experience sharing and a networking of peer capability is undisputed; the ICDE is pivotal in bringing together the world of distance education and virtual learning. The United Nations officially recognizes ICDE as the global non-governmental organization responsible for the field of distance and virtual learning. ICDE is an affiliate member of South East Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO).
ICDE represents the leading-edge trends and developments of a unique information technology community in the countries of the world. ICDE also embraces many developing countries in its membership, and has a policy of working towards narrowing the digital divide. ICDE works with all kinds of stakeholders: governments, universities, schools, companies, trade unions, at all levels of education and training. The emergence of the new economy, fuelled by the advancements in CIT, means that ICDE is now in a period of transforming and positioning itself to meet the new challenges in education and training of the Information Society.
From 2001, the successful meetings of the ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents (SCOP) are for ICDE member institutions only. SCOP was established in 1993 as a unique forum for the Principals and Chief Executive Officers of ICDE member institutions. Through its annual meetings and working programs, SCOP offers unique opportunities for access to the latest developments and trends in distance and web-based teaching institutions around the world in areas such as policy, strategy, technology, innovations, management, quality assurance, and market approach.
SCOP is a closed forum of policy level decision-makers for exchange of information, sharing of expertise, building cooperation, and establishing advocacy activities. It gives unique access to transnational and global views, and to invaluable and detailed information about policy, strategic thinking and development in distance teaching around the world. It offers strong opportunities for exploring partnerships and strategic cooperation with other ICDE institutional members from all over the world. It also offers opportunities to participate in setting the international priorities and agenda for the future of distance learning. Should you wish to participate in the SCOP meetings, we encourage you first to become an ICDE institutional member. The next SCOP meeting will be held in Pretoria, South Africa, in October 2002, with the University of South Africa as the host institution.
ICDE has since 1938 organized the World Conferences on Open and Distance Education in different regions of the world. The ICDE World Conferences are the main world events in open and distance education. They offer a tremendous variety of presentations on open and distance education in the world. They are important professional development opportunities in open and distance learning, and offer great opportunities for international co-operation in the field.
The successful 20th ICDE World Conference took place in Dusseldorf, Germany, in April 2001, where more than 1300 persons from 90 countries attended. This conference was a huge effort by the international society to focus on learning in the first decade of the 3rd millennium. The next World Conference will be held in Hong Kong, SAR, China, 1-5 June 2003.
The Executive Committee of ICDE believes that it is the responsibility of the ICDE to bring quality and overview of the state of the art to the rapidly developing distance and virtual learning environments around the world. The key strategies for offering this will be through:
1 A very considerable new development for ICDE members of online communication and interactive membership cooperation capacity; research and development; information; and online services available on the Internet from ICDE. This will be accomplished by increasing the capacity of the ICDE to provide such services. These new services will be provided for members only, starting from 2002.
2 Escalations in the ICDE conference and meeting agenda around the world, through 1- the organisation of periodical regional Conferences, that will link the regional expertise, experiences and knowledge with the global arena, giving access to new communication and cooperation channels; and 2- the organisation of thematic conferences, based on leading edge and/ or relevant issues on distance and virtual learning. Besides these activities, ICDE will continue with its traditional World Conferences and the ICDE SCOP annual meetings.
As far as institutional membership is concerned, the policy of ICDE is to accept as members educational institutions that are recognized and in good standing in their own countries, and that conduct their educational operations in accordance with codes of ethics in distance learning within their own country or region. Hence, the ICDE reserves the right to refuse membership to or expel from membership without any refund in membership fee already paid, any institution not meeting these criteria.
Please note that ICDE also offers membership to individuals. If you wish to become an individual member of ICDE, or to renew your individual membership, please use the enclosed membership application form. In addition, you will find enclosed the ICDE Profile with further information about ICDE.
We welcome all recognized players in the field as members of our organization. We look forward to receiving your application for membership in ICDE for the year 2002. Please fill in the enclosed membership application form, and send it to us as soon as possible together with your payment or credit card authorization for your membership fee.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours sincerely,
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Reidar Roll
Secretary General and CEO of ICDE