Report from Askov

From SI Exco News

Dear members of EXCO,

As you know, we arranged a meeting with participants from some of the Northern European countries at Askov Folkehøjskole in Denmark in the middle of August. We are happy to inform you that there was a wonderful atmosphere at the meeting, and we are still in a mood of optimism, hope and tranquillity. So we can say that the Servas spirit lived among us, and we came closer to each other as the hours went by!

With this letter we want to share with you what we experienced, what we learned and what we talked about. As you remember, when the initiative was taken to this meeting, it was with an understanding that we within Servas needed to talk and learn about conflicts and their solutions, and about inter-human communication. And for almost four days, that was just what we were doing!

All of us felt a deep sadness after Barcelona, but not to let the negative energies steal all our powers, we started the meeting on Thursday afternoon with identifying 10 positive events and circumstances from the GA. And that worked!

The main themes we discussed during the meeting were:

• - Conflict handling and resolution (workshop)
• - Comments and questions about Distant Voting
• - Sharing experiences regarding Barcelona 2004 –

Discussing ideas and possibilities Bjarne Vestergaard from Danish Centre for Conflict Resolution in Copenhagen introduced us to conflict handling and some methods we can use for participation in future conferences. The starting point was that conflicts can never be avoided. They are a part of life, very often they are both necessary and useful, so it is important to know how to deal with them and try to resolve them in a peaceful way. It is very important to share views and visions, and from disagreement try to create a new solution, for instance on another level or in a different – unforeseen – direction. It may seem quite obvious to us now, but maybe not at the moment of argument. It is often hard for us to separate the facts from the feelings and not to personalise the conflicts we are engaged in.

Bjarne also presented models on which we did practical exercises. In one of our exercises we suddenly found it had turned into a conflict about how to understand the exercise. When we subsequently could look upon our own feelings and our own communication, this was quite useful! (In some respect it could be looked upon as a parallel to a discussion about a conference agenda!)

The training has given us lots of hope and new energy. We believe that the conflicts within Servas can be solved, and we are ready to help to overcome them. We need to do it because life in peace is one of our basic ideals, we trust in everyone's good will and expect everybody to co-operate even though some have had their feelings deeply hurt...

Above all, it is vital to look forward, not backward!

How to continue the talks regarding the future of Servas Looking forward to the future General Assemblies, we are prepared to play a positive role, and we also discussed aspects that we think will be of importance, such as

• - Thorough introduction and information about the assembly and its agenda
• - Improvement of communication and behaviour through introducing some ground rules (code of conduct) in written format
• - Providing each participant with a wordlist of basic conference words and phrases (e.g. chairman, take floor etc.)
• - Necessity of using simple English and/or providing translation where necessary
• - Hiring a professional/independent facilitator (in case of conflicts foreseen)
• - Discussing issues in smaller groups

As a conclusion to this part of the meeting, a sincere desire to continue our talks was articulated. So we want to suggest that we should use every possibility that will come in our way to do just that. As a concrete possibility, the group agreed to keep in contact via e-mail, and we will be happy to receive any comment, questions and ideas from anybody who wants to contribute.

We also discussed (but not in great detail) some aspects concerning the proposals from Germany, France and USA. These proposals have qualities and potentials that are worth developing, and we indeed hope that we will be able to discuss these matters in a constructive way in the future.

Distant Voting On request from the Distant Voting work group we looked at their draft proposal, discussed the proposed rules and the changes that will be necessary in the Statutes. We appreciated the work done by the Distant Voting work group. We will respond to the group with questions and comments.

Cultural Evening Saturday night we just relaxed from all our talks, sharing with each other food and drink (with contributions from many countries). There was also a lot of singing and reading of poems. Through the whole meeting a legend written by Selma Lagerlöf, “The Sacred Flame”, followed us, the last part being told that night. In a way it describes what Servas is all about. Jacqueline had beforehand sent a symbolic gift to the meeting, and this was beautifully arranged on the food table, with the candles burning with their peaceful flames all through the evening!

Economy The Askov meeting was offered an economical contribution from EXCO. We decided that this meeting should be self-funded. But we want to thank you very much for the offer, and for the kindness that lay behind it!

At last, we want to share a wish about meeting in fraternal spirit, being devoted to our organization that is standing for just the values that our world and our time are now needing so urgently.

In Peace and Friendship The Askov Participants Sus Thestrup and Jan Degrauwe (Denmark), Siri Simonsen and Dag Eirik Eikeland (Norway), Jan Simon and Jerry Lantz (Sweden), Hannu Huusko (Finland), Ewa Dzierzawska (Poland), Rita Dessauvage (Belgium), Eva Meggeneder (Austria), Jane Giffould and Jean Seymour (Britain)

• the following brief extract from the preliminary Report from Askov, is attached for its helpful references to websites
• Report

Askov Meeting 11 - 14 August 2005

Bjarne Vestergaard from Danish Centre for Conflict Resolution in Copenhagen [1] introduced us to conflict handling and some methods we can use for participation in future conferences. The starting point was that conflict can never be avoided. It is part of life, so it is important to know how to deal with it and try to resolve it in a peaceful way. Bjarne also presented models on which we did practical exercises.

For those interested, we refer to websites which were recommended during our workshop: [2] and [3]