Cost Action A36
Tributary Empires Compared
Minutes of the kick-off meeting of the management committee
18. April 2005, Brussels
Participants
Peter Bang (DK)
C. A. Bayly (UK)
Greg Woolf (UK)
Björn Forsén (Fin)
Jeroen Duindam (Neth)
Dariuz Kolodziejczyk (Pol)
Adam Zielkowski (Pol)
Metin Kunt (Tur)
Claire Sotinel (Fr)
David Grønbæk (COST)
Morning
The meeting had been convened to ensure a quick start to the Action. Since the the required five signatures of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had not yet been formally lodged with the Secretariat of the EU Council of Ministers, the meeting was an informal one whose decisions had to be confirmed by written procedure or by the first formal meeting of the Management Committee (MC).
The morning session of the meeting was chaired by David Grønbæk, Science Officer of the COST domain of Social Sciences and Humanities. Its purpose was to clarify the practical administrative issues involved in setting up the action and enable the management committee to begin work.
The first main point was the adoption of the research agenda as outlined in the network proposal for A36. The agenda was adopted unanimously.
Then followed an introduction to all technicalities, procedures and rules of the COST framework. COST is an European intergovernmental organisation which seeks to promote collaboration between national research communities. Activities within the framework are based on intergovernmental MoUs (“mini-treaties”) and are called Actions. To promote collaboration COST mainly reimburses the travel expenses of individual participants in meetings. Actions are governed by the management committee. The management committee is in charge of developing the scientific programme, budgeting and defining the working groups (WGs). These latter are the bodies in which the real scholarly discussions of the network will take place. They are set up to deal with specific issues and problems under the research agenda laid down in the Technical Annex of the MoU.. Their format, in other words, resembles that of series of small closed conferences where only invited scholars participate. A maximum of two members, from each individual country which has signed the action, can be reimbursed for each meeting of a working group and of the management committee. In addition a small number of experts from countries outside the COST action may be invited to working group meetings (in this case that might for instance include scholars from USA or India). Finally, COST operates with “workshops” and “conferences”, which are defined as meetings with fewer or more than 80 participants, respectively, that in addition to the MC and WG members themselves (who are reimbursed) are open to participants from the wider European scientific community (who are not reimbursed). There should normally be at least two such open workshops/conferences during the life of the Action one of which is the Final Conference. In case of such major open events, COST can also contribute to the organisation costs but normally not other meetings. For this and other funding information, The SO invited the MC members to read carefully the document “Financing of COST Action Activities” to be found on http://cost.cordis.lu/src/cost_office_documents.cfm.
Normally an action receives an amount of some Euro 70,000 annually. This year, however, the network can expect only to dispose of a smaller amount, akin to Euro 40-50,000, subject to specification at the first MC meeting. In addition COST may provide means for publishing and exchange of young researchers within the network. The expenses for publishing are additional and will not be taken out of the Action’s annual budget.
The morning session concluded with electing a vice-chair and a chair of the action. C. A. Bayly (UK) was proposed an elected as vice-chair, Peter Fibiger Bang (DK) was proposed and elected as action chair. Both decisions were taken by unanimous consent.
Afternoon
The afternoon session was conducted by Peter Bang. The main aim was to device a working plan for implementing the action. The objective, to stimulate comparative dialogue on the character of classical empires, was to be achieved through establishing 3 working groups.
Working group 1: Empire and historical sociology. This working group is to constitute the backbone of the network. It is charged with the responsibility of developing a synthesising framework for the network discussions.
Working group 2: Central structures. This working group will examine the institutions of the central imperial government, such as the court.
Working group 3: Experience of Empire. This working group will focus on empire from the point of view of the provinces. It will enable the network to focus on the mechanisms in local societies governing surplus extraction, execution of law and the processes of decline mentioned in the MOU.
It was decided that the network would have two meetings annually, that management committee meetings would be held in connection with working group meetings to minimise costs and administration and that the network would run for four years, concluding with a large conference.
The meeting programme for the first year was then set to Copenhagen 18-19 June and Istanbul 15-16 October 2005. Copenhagen was to be a meeting of Working Group 1, followed by a meeting of the management committee. Peter Bang was made the responsible organiser. The meeting was to set an agenda for the work over the coming years. Istanbul would then start the detailed discussions with a meeting of working group 2, on royal courts and households. Metin Kunt and Jeroen Duindam were made responsible organisers.
The second year would then see working group 3 convene in the early summer and a mid-term evaluating meeting in the autumn of all 3 working groups with working group 1 as the main responsible.
Activities of the 3rd and 4th years were only provisionally planned in order to allow the network sufficient flexibility.
Below is listed a working timetable for the activities of the action.
1st meeting 2nd meeting
1st year WG 1 (hist. soc.)WG 2 (central)
2nd year WG 3 (experience) Mid-term (WG 1, + 2+ 3)
3rd year WG 2 (central) WG 1 (hist. soc.)
4th year WG 3 (experience) Concluding Conference
Regarding the working method of the network. The management committee defines the broad framework for activities (themes and budgets) and discusses how further to develop the action in the light of the results of previous meetings. For each working group meeting one or more responsible organisers will be appointed. These will organise the meeting in continuous dialogue and collaboration with the action chair who ensures that the meeting programme will fit into the general research agenda of the network.
During this discussion it was considered how to ensure efficient management of the network as the management committee expanded. A small group of participants may have to prepare meetings in order to ensure cohesion and structure. This will have to be discussed further at the Copenhagen meeting. The chair envisions a sort of Core Group (containing chair, vice-chair, plus the responsible organisers of the years meetings, plus perhaps one of two more) which is a normal part of the organisation of a COST Action.
Finally, the management committee gave its consent to the request of Peter Bang to have up to Euro 2000 to employ student assistance and a designer of the network homepage.
5 June 2005
Peter Bang
Acting Chair
University of Copenhagen
