Intersteno e-news n. 1November 2004 |
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This newsletter is published under the responsibility of the Board of the International Federation for Information Processing Intersteno and sent to all e-mail adresses of persons participating in the work of the members of Intersteno, known to the Board. Contributions to the newsletter can be sent to news@intersteno.it. Publication will take place at the discretion of the Board. |
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Dear Friends, From now on Intersteno will publish an electronic newsletter regularly. It is meant to inform all persons all over the world, interested in the work of Intersteno, about new developments in its domains of activity. We have a huge database of e-mail addresses, but if you have received this letter and know that others in your country, who are interested, didn't, please send a message with their addresses to news@intersteno.it. From Saturday July 23 to Friday July 29 2005 the 45th Intersteno Congress will be held in Vienna. Venue for the congress office, the opening of the congress, all competitions, conferences and lectures is the modern School Centre, Längenfeldgasse 12-14. The congress office is open on Friday July 22 (15.00-18.00 h) and on Saturday July 23 (08.00-17.00 h). Here and on these days sightseeing tours, excursions and guided walks can be booked. The closing event is on Thursday July 28. The City of Vienna invites all participants to have dinner at the Festival Hall of the famous Vienna City Hall. After dinner there will be the award ceremony and dance music. On Friday July 29 participants can take part in an excursion of a whole day (with luncheon and dinner) to famous sites in Austria. Closing date for all bookings is April 30, 2005. In the next newsletter you will find details about the competitions, the lectures, the prices and the way to register. Look in the meantime on www.intersteno.at, a website which will be updated regularly. On this website you can also find information about the hotel accommodation. It is advisable to book your hotel early, because in the summer there are a lot of tourists in Vienna. |
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From Friday September 3rd up to and including Monday September 6th, the 2004-meeting of the Central Committee took place in Helsinki. There were 34 participants from 14 countries, also from far away ones like USA and Korea. The Finnish National Group had organized the meeting very well. Intersteno owes them, and especially Jari Niittuinperä, many thanks. A Board meeting and five sessions of the Central Committee were held and important decisions were taken. All participants worked hard, but also enjoyed the excursions included in the programme. The fifth session was held in the Parliament of Finland and that evening a very enjoyable dinner was offered in the Lappish Restaurant Saaga. There Jari and his lovely wife were in traditional costume to receive their guests (see picture here on the right). On Tuesday a number of participants took part in a trip to Estonia to visit the Estonian Parliament and the beautifully renovated old centre of Tallin. |
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Intersteno is growing! In Poland a new group has been established, called Interinfo Poland. This new association is taking over the activities of the old National Group. Apart from the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA), which is the National Group of the USA, the National Voice Reporters Association (NVRA), was accepted as an individual member. Four associations of reporters in four Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay) have formed together with Spain a co-operating organization, called Federación Iberoamericana de Asociaciones de Taquigrafos (FIAT). This organization wants to become a member of Intersteno. The Board announced, that the Central Committee will receive a proposal to modify the statutes to make this possible. Contacts of the Board with the Shorthand Reporters Association of Australia (SRAA) will be continued in order to achieve, that SRAA becomes the National Group of Australia. The contacts with the National Groups of China and Japan have been renewed. These National Groups nowadays develop great activity. In Kazakhstan an association for reporting, textprocessing and secretariat is in formation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Science and Education of Kazakhstan are considering to support a request of this Kazakhstani association to become a member of Intersteno. The Board has asked officials of the parliament in Estonia to mediate in making contacts to achieve that an Estonian National Group can be formed. The Board is also in contact with several countries in Africa.
The modified statutes of Intersteno, as adopted in Rome, have been registered. So, the big step forward, that was taken by the General Assembly in Rome to develop Intersteno into a modern organization that is working world-wide, has been validated legally. But some new modifications are necessary. These concern among others the number of delegates of the National Groups in the General Assembly, the possibility for an organization, representing more than one country in a continent, to become a special area group and the composition of the Jury for the international contests. In order to increase the income of Intersteno the Board studies the possibility, that a small percentage of the participation fee for an Intersteno congress shall be transferred to the International Federation. Also the international Internet contests can bring some income for Intersteno. The Central Committee accepted to propose to the next general assembly in Vienna to increase the fee per delegate to 35,00 euro. As each National Group will have at least 5 delegates, the annual fee for National Groups will be at least 175 euro. Also the annual fee for individual members will be 175 euro. The Jury. In the opinion of the Board the structure of the Jury for the international contests has to be reformed. In the future there must be one jurypresident, being the head of the Jury and member of the Board. Under his or her responsibility two or more co-ordinators for different groups of competitions shall be appointed. They shall be assisted by a number of very informed helpers, chosen by the Jurypresident and coming from the National Groups and the individual members. The co-ordinators and the helpers shall form a permanent task force. This enables Intersteno to have a professionally working Jury in the future. To achieve this goal article 19 of the Statutes has to be modified. Ms. Gabrielle Fasnacht has resigned as Jurypresident for shorthandy. The Central Committee warmly greeted Ms. Fasnacht for the work she has done in this charge and accepted the offer of Mr. Jan den Holder (the Netherlands) to become the Jurypresident for shorthand in 2005. Shorthand competitions. The majority of the members of the Central Committee decided against a proposal, to have only one classification list for the shorthand competitions in Vienna, regardless the way in which the spoken word has been captured (by pen writing, machine writing or speech recognition). This majority was of the opinion, that it is too early to merge the different technologies in one competition. Out of the three lists only one world champion will be chosen. Correspondence and minute-taking competition. Although some National Groups wanted to cancel this experimental competition, the majority of the members of the Central Committee decided to maintain this competition in Vienna, because it is important for Intersteno to have a competition measuring the skill of minute-taking. Keyboarding competition. There was a difference of opinion about the question, if In Vienna there shall be two keyboarding competitions, one without the possibility to use macros for abbreviations and one with the possibility to make use of this technology. The Central Committee decided to have only one classification list for the keyboarding competitions in Vienna, as was the case in Rome. Competitors are free to use or not to use macros for abbreviations. In both cases it concerns a competition with normal keyboards (real keyboarding, which means keyboards where keys are consecutively pressed). Participants using keyboards with the possibility to press keys simultaneously, like steno machines, and speech recognition, can take part but will be put in separate lists. The Central Committee decided to continue the international keyboarding competition on Internet. There are two modules in which this competition can be offered: the ZAV-module, developed a number of years ago by Mr. Jaroslav Zaviacic (Czech Republic), which have to be downloaded, and the Java-module, developed by Mr. Marco Olivo (Italy), which allows a competition online. The Board proposed to offer both modules for this competition in 2005 resulting in one competition list. For the 2005 competition only the Java-module will be offered. Mr. Zaviacic would only put at disposal his software on condition of two separate result lists based on the used software, which was not accepted by the Central Committee. Since its establishment in Rome the Scientific Committee did a lot of work. A working programme was drawn up. Documents were produced about the future of the keyboarding competitions and the reconsideration of the rules for all competitions of Intersteno to bring them in accordance with the new technological possibilities. These are questions which need further research. The same goes for the ideas, brought forward about the education of teachers in relation to e-learning and about a worldwide certification of Intersteno for keybaording skills and other ICT-skills. Information about firms, bringing new software to the market and offering systems for training and e-learning, was spread and brought to the attention of the Board. |
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