Courageously, and despite the pandemic, we the board members of the IGF, have conducted this week (5-8 September) a frontal meeting in Italy, due to the necessity of the matters at hand. This meeting is the first one after two years of virtual and Zoom meetings. It addressed updates and new policies dealing with the international crisis of COVID-19. A number of IGF members attended the meeting,hosted by the Italian federation in south-east Italy.
The discussion presented ways to deal with the crisis, important updates, setting the agenda for 2021-2022 in the field, while maintaining the local regulations according to the goals.Here are the policies/ decisions voted for unanimously during the meeting:
1. Setting the 2021-2022 schedule: planning programs (conferences, 2021 Oscars, folklore festivals, theater and music 21/22) in a number of locations which will be published soon.
2. Updating communicational channels (digital, frontal and technical) among the member federations aiming to conduct cooperations and build better communications, which will provide a more effective and efficient response to the common needs, focusing on dealing with this international crisis.
3. Scanning and updating the legal code, regulations, policies and rules of the IGF, as to personal responsibilities of all IGF members and their representatives towards the IGF and vise versa.Therefore, decisions were made as to conducting ongoing reports to the IGF headquarters and all representatives, regarding the annual activities, which sum up in one main goal: promotion of folklore and culture of all member states, while emphasizing the importance of resolving local issues and plausible ways of amending.
4. Validation and discussion around the presented content as an annual publishing of IGF newsletter, its image, assuring an equal and appropriate disclosure of activities of all member states.
5. Specific decisions fir the 2021 Award Committee policies, setting updates of candidates’ applications for 2021-2022 and updating the member states authorities as representatives of their country and recommendations for the IGF awards in various fields: artists, managers, conductors, and potential donors. Among so, reducing the number of potential award winners annually due to the difficulty in maintaining long ceremonies (the competition is fierce), which will allow quality and professionalism regarding future winners.
6. The Italian federation, it’s chairman, the IGF senator and local authorities shared their thoughts about the connections and ties between the Italian federation and the IGF.
7. Discussion over the interpretation of the constitution, updating/ amending/ maintaining prerequisites, the member states authorities as to implementation of the constitution effectively despite the current crisis.
The main issue of the meeting is the common conclusion approved by all participants, that a complete lockdown of IGF activities, including live international activities, is not efficient anymore, thus leading to conducting a more plausible agenda of routine activities, subject to the rules and regulations, which have been implemented worldwide, and representatives of leading countries (yet still learning from others’ experiences- such as Italy, the hosting country, which implements the green label in entering to any facility).
IGF president adjourned the meeting with a call to cooperate to all member states to ensure the audience’s experience in culture in each and every location.
During our stay in Italy, the hosting federation invited all participants to a series of street shows of the local folklore, conducted according to the green label.
