NEWSLETTER No. 5 (English)   17th June, 2005
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International Democratic
Education Conference

IDEC 2005 Berlin

July 30th - August 7th
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The 13th International Democratic Education Conference will
be taking place in Berlin, in Germany, from July 30th until
August 7th. There is detailed information on our web pages:
-> http://idec2005.org/


1. Registrations from 30 countries
2. Proposed documentary film
3. Relevant publications
4. Poster and Flyer
5. Sudbury Valley withdraws Mimsy Sadofsky's contribution
6. The IDEC programme of cultural events

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1. Registrations from 30 countries

So far people from 30 countries have registered. In order to
enhance the success of the IDEC and to give us more security
in our planning, we hope everyone will complete the
registration process as soon as possible. Anyone who is
certain to come should register soon, so that we can if
necessary take measures to increase the number of
participants we are planning for.

We would ask everyone who receives this letter either to
register personally or to draw the attention of friends and
acquaintances to the registration page:

-> http://en.idec2005.org/registration/


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2. Proposed documentary film

A professional film is to be made of the IDEC. We have
received a grant for this from the German Ministry for
Education and Research. All participants are requested to
bring copiable videos or DVDs which show life in their
democratic schools and institutions. We hope to make use of
extracts from these films, with your permission.


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3. Relevant publications

We invite participants to bring books from their countries
that they would like to sell. For appropriate books in the
German language please send us the bibliographical details;
our book-dealer will then look after them. The planned sale
of books is also intended for the participants in part B,
and will help to spread the concept of democratic schools.


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4. Poster

We have a new poster that you can order from us. The text is
in German, so it is aimed especially at participants from
Germany who might be interested in part B. In addition there
is also a new flyer.

-> http://de.idec2005.de/data.dl/plakat_01.pdf

To display it you can print it out and copy it on golden-
yellow paper.


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5. Sudbury Valley withdraws Mimsy Sadofsky's contribution

Daniel Greenberg from Sudbury Valley School has announced
that Mimsy Sadofsky (who had confirmed her participation)
will now no longer attend the IDEC. He told us that the IDEC
was not concentrating sufficiently on the Sudbury Valley
model, so the expenditure would not be worth their while. We
are extremely sorry. In Germany, in particular, Sudbury
Valley School would have aroused great interest, because
there are people who want to found Sudbury schools here. We
would be delighted if for this reason other Sudbury schools
would register, in order to promote their model.


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6. The IDEC programme of cultural events

Please look at our web page to see what is already arranged
for the programme of cultural events during the IDEC:

-> http://en.idec2005.org/program/#6


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Finally we would like to emphasise that we are aware that
the conference fee is rather high for people on low incomes.
In order to make further reductions possible we are turning
to sponsors, and again offering them the opportunity of
supporting the IDEC. At the same time we would like to draw
your attention once again to the possibilities of fund-
raising which may help individuals to raise their own
conference fee.

-> http://en.idec2005.org/sponsoring/
-> http://en.idec2005.org/fundraising/

Apart from that, all previous newsletters can be read in the
archive:

-> http://en.idec2005.org/newsletter/

We are very much looking forward to the IDEC in Berlin, and
send you our best wishes.

Mike Weimann