Chojna, 23 November 2010

Dear Douzelage Friends,

It has been six months since I was elected the President of Douzelage. As we meet just once a year I would like to inform you about the work of the presidency of our organization.

I took part in two international conferences which were held in Poland. "Leaders in education" was organized in Łódź with the participation of delegates from the USA, UK, Poland and European Commission. At the workshop of EU projects I talked about the role of international projects in the process of education and introduced Douzelage. I also presented the role of Douzelage in the cooperation between schools, local governments and associations during symposium for participants of Comenius Regio projects from Poland and UK.

Bad Koetzting and Koszeg received the awards called Plaque of Honour by Council of Europe and I had a great pleasure to be invited to the events. It was a very good opportunity to promote Douzelage. I would also like to inform you that Mr. Ed Weber became the Honourable Citizen of Koszeg.

Mayor of Sigulda and Mrs Inga Barissa visited Chojna in June. We all had a very interesting meeting with the Mayor of Chojna and a headteacher of a secondary school in Chojna.

I visited Marsaskala in July. It was a private visit but I had a few meetings with our Vice President, Mr. Mario Calleja. I met members of the Douzelage Committee of Sherborne and Mr Mike Balfour, the Vice President , during my Leonardo Da Vinci project visit to Sherborne in August.

Mr. Balfour and I went to Granville in October to prepare our next GM. We met members of a Douzelage Committee and Mayor of Granville.

The presidency was working on the process of the enlargement of Douzelage. Mr. Calleja visited Tryavna (Bulgaria) and prepared a very detailed report. I received an invitation from the Mayor of Tryavna and visited the town in November. I am very pleased to inform you that Tryavna met all requirements of becoming the member of Douzelage and hope that it will be invited to our organization during GM in Granville. You will be sent a PowerPoint presentation of Tryavna in January 2011. Mr. Balfour is responsible for new towns from Cyprus and Slovenia. He wrote several letters to Agros and Skofja Loka. Mr. Balfour and I received an official invitation from Agros and we will go there in January 2011. Mr. Balfour will be on a private visit to Slovenia in November and will try to meet the Mayor of Skofja Loka.

I took part in a few project meetings of Comenius Regio programme with Sherborne, Comenius School Partnership with Koszeg and Leonardo Da Vinci with Sherborne and partners from Germany ( Berlin and Angermunde). I coordinated a Youth in action project "Focus on future" with partners from Koszeg, Sigulda and Susice.

I would like to express my thanks to all Douzelage towns and members of local committees who were organizing the projects and events last summer and taking part in them.

Year 2011 will be a special one for our organization. Douzelage will celebrate its 20th anniversary. Our friends in Granville and the presidency have already started preparations to the meeting. As you remember we would like to invite the Mayors of Douzelage towns.

Could you please send me the name of the Mayor of your town and her/his postal address and e-mail. I do not want to make any mistakes concerning the address or spelling. I will be very grateful if I receive it by 15th December 2010 (Ten adres pocztowy jest chroniony przed spamowaniem. Aby go zobaczyć, konieczne jest włączenie w przeglądarce obsługi JavaScript.). Could you also send the names and addresses to Andre Gendre in Granville (Ten adres pocztowy jest chroniony przed spamowaniem. Aby go zobaczyć, konieczne jest włączenie w przeglądarce obsługi JavaScript.). Mr. Majoor, thank you for your information. I hope you will do your best to convince all Mayors of Douzelage towns to come to Granville in May.

Could you inform me if you have any proposals for new projects and events. The beginning of February 2011 is the deadline for many actions in Youth in action, Lifelong learning and Europe for citizens programmes.

I will be very grateful if you keep informing inhabitants of your towns, local town councils and Mayors about Douzelage and its activities. I believe that we still have a lot to do in that area.

I wish you a lot of great ideas and energy to face new challenges.

Yours sincerely,

J. Cezary Salamończyk - President

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Centrum Kultury

Plac Konstytucji 3 Maja
74-500 Chojna

POLAND
Phone : +48 603750639
Fax: +48 91 4142029

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