The Communication Committee met in Manila during the Congress in two session
on 23 and 24 May, 2006. Ramendu Majumdar, President of ComCom, was in the chair.
The participants were welcomed by the President and Secretary, Heyno Byrgesen, after which the participants introduced themselves.
The President introduced The World of Theatre and Le Monde du Théâtre 2006 editions. There are entries from 48 countries. The committee thanked Fuad Al-Shatti of Kuwai Centre and Organisation Internationale pour la Francophonie for helping the committee to bring out the French version and also Duncun Brothers (Bangladesh) Ltd. For the English edition. The contributions of Nicole Leclerq, Editor of the French version, and also of Ramendu Majumdar and Mofidul Hoque, Editors of the English version, were highly lauded. The committee also appreciated the Bangladesh Centre of ITI for its continued effort to bring out the book.
The committee highly appreciated the untiring effort by Nicole Leclerq in updating The World Theatre Directory on line. The committee urged the centres to be more active in updating the data regularly and also requested the centres who are not included in the Directory to send their entries.
Tomas Engel presented the ComCom Website to the members and explained the different sections and its possibilities. He sought the assistance of the centres in improving the site to make it useful to the theatre community. With the growth in the regional network the ComCom website can be the platform for the regional centres to as depository of information on the region about their ongoing projects.
Regarding the role of ComCom in the new era, the meeting felt that the online network of information need to be strengthened and highlighted the importance of the World Theatre Directory and the ComCom Website. The Board will work towards this and welcome suggestions from all quarters.
The members felt the need of redefining the role of the ComCom in the changing situation and discussed various possibilities.Possible Board meetings:
1. March/April 2007, Berlin, Germany, in conjunction with ITI European Forum
meeting and ENICPA (European Network of Information Centers for the Performing
Arts)
2. February 2008, Dhaka, Bangladesh, in conjunction with Bangladesh ITI seminar
and Theatre Festival.
Bangladesh Centre expressed it willingness to publish the next volume of The World of Theatre and, if production costs are available, Le Monde du Théâtre too.
Bangladesh ITI would be ready to publish a catalogue of publications brought out so far in all languages from the different centres.
After two terms, Ramendu Majumdar decided to step down and proposed the following members to be in the new Board, which was approved unanimously:
President: Mofidul Hoque (Bangladesh)
Vice-President: Malgorzata Semil (Poland)
Secretary: Heino Byrgesen (Denmark)
Members
Ramendu Majumdar (Bangladesh)
Thomas Engel (Germany)
Nicole Leclercq (Belgium)
Anneli Kurki (Finland)
Fuad Al-Shatti (Kuwait)
Joan Channick (USA)
Dina Ziropolou (Greece)
Barbara Bertin (Italy)
Joy Clarita Villapando (Philippines)
After the elections, Ramendu Majumdar invited Mofidul Hoque to take the chair.
The new President of the Board Mofidul Hoque closed the meeting with the hope
that the cooperation from all quarters enable the ComCom to fulfil the task
it has taken up.
Heyno Byrgesen