The Articles of the Association

1. Basic concept

The Association are the active members of the FIE. The Foundation for Independent Education (FIE) is a free civil initiative aiming to create and promote opportunities for independent cultural and educative endeavours. In today's world of ever-increasing economic globalization, there is an ever-increasing need for individuality awakening to personal responsibility and a need for appropriate non-institutionalized spheres where communication and an understanding for essential questions can take place. This includes not only the autonomy of traditional cultural and educational areas, but also increased self-sufficiency in all aspects of work. The underlying aim of FIE is therefore to create the necessary conditions for the civil society to develop a new self-consciousness which in turn would allow more societal areas (specifically education, culture, and social welfare) which are currently state led managed and financed, to be transferred into responsible self-management and self-governance. Education, culture and social welfare are questions that concern all of us directly and must therefore not be left in the hands of profit-making companies or to abstract and remote state management.

2. Board and governance

The members of the association support the development and the work of the the FIE, that was founded by Thomas Brunner and Clara Steinkellner, and is now hold in joint responsibility by an executive committee of voluntary board members. The board com-prises: Stefan Böhme / Berlin, Thomas Brunner / Cottbus, Corinna Gleide / Eberbach, Ralf Gleide / Eberbach, Thomas Keil / Chemnitz, Maria Kleo / Cottbus, Cornelia Leh-mann / Cottbus, Ulja Novatschkova / Berlin, Sascha Scholz /Stuttgart, Clara Steinkellner / Wien, Philipp Tok / Dornach, Hans Wolkers / Cottbus. The board members oversee the structural arrangement and the policy guidelines of the FIE. They are responsible to ensure the continuity of work. The members of the board are at the same time active members of the Association and are in this way already initiating direct dialogue and co-operation.

3. Application guidelines

Anybody who shares the vision described in Point 1 can become a member of the As-sociation of the FIE. Membership entails signing the Membership Registration and making a financial contribution of 50 Euro or more to the endowment fund.

4. Donations

It is left to the freedom of the members to what extent and in what way (e.g. monthly contributions) they make any contributions to the ongoing development of the founda-tion. However, as the FIE relies solely on voluntary contributions, it is suggested some contribution be made. These monetary funds are managed by the board or by an ap-pointed committee.

5. Contacts

To promote contact and internal networking, every member will have access to contact information for all members of the Association of the FIE. These lists will be held in strict confidence and will not be published in any way outside of FIE.

6. News bulletin

Members of the Association will occasionally receive a news bulletin "Aus der Arbeit des Stiftungsrates" informing about the work of the FIE via post or email and will therefore be informed about the ongoing activities.

7. Decentralized networking

Through decentralized networking and direct co-operation the members have the opportunity to directly foster specific initiatives and learning projects. For instance in autonomously organized, regional working groups the members of the Association can discuss and develop mutual insights and perspectives amongst themselves.

8. Economic Association

All further economic co-operation is not to be regulated centrally, but should arise on the basis of actual encounter and mutual trust.

9. Members' Newsletter

To strengthen contact between members FIE will be sending out at least once yearly a newsletter to all members. To this end members are free to publish any contributions, introduce initiatives, invitations etc within the Association of the FIE.

10. Independent educational forum

At least once yearly the Association will invite all members of FIE to attend our inde-pendent educational forum. Here we hope to jointly discuss basic ideas and perspec-tives of FIE as well as engage in dialogues with representatives of business, politics and civil society (education and culture in particular), discuss fundamental questions and consider opportunities for co-operation.

11. Termination of membership

Should a member choose to discontinue his/her membership, he can without stating reasons notify the board in writing.

12. Independent collaboration

Membership at FIE does not entail any legal obligation for the member; it merely serves the purpose of intensifying communication and independent collaboration.

Cottbus, the 1st December 2008

How to become a member:

Please download the attached Membership Registration and send the completed form to:

Stefan Böhme
Florastr. 60
13187 Berlin
Germany

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PDF files:

Articles of the Association

Membership Registration