We thought it might be a good idea to give a progress report on CGF
activities over the summer - particularly as there are obviously people out
there who think interest has died out a bit.
1) We have been compiling a list of CGF members and putting their details
on a spreadsheet for possible future mailings etc. Having a real
membership list helps tremendously in convincing other people (i.e. the
RGS) that such a list exists. People can still sign up to the real list by
contacting Tim or Steve with names, addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers
and e-mail addresses.
2) Discussions have been going on with various research groups of the RGS
with a view to aligning the groups with the CGF. This allows people to be
officers of the research groups without being RGS members. Some groups are
even talking about leaving the RGS and becoming solely CGF research
groups...there is clearly a lot of room for discussion about how this might
work. The Social and Cultural Geography Reseach Group and the Economic
Geography Research Group have alredy voted to affiliate. We encourage
others to do the same.
3) There has obviously been an international conference of the CGF at
Vancouver, substantial portions of which are going to go on-line. There is
talk of future locations outside of the "first world." We have also
brought up the possibility of a single day CGF meeting in the UK and would
welcome themes and suggestions for location. Perhaps the recent
discussion on rights and ethics might be a good theme for a first meeting.
We need to work out ways of linking the increasingly "real" UK CGF with the
international arena.
a) national bodies under an international umbrella?
b) a loose "web" of actors at all kinds of scales (county - continent)
acting in spontaneous ways?
c) one international body?
These are not meant to be exclusive options
As things now stand there is a British CGF with a constitution, a
membership list, a manifesto and a virtual bulletin board. Perhaps now we
need a vision of what the CGF night become - perhaps a move towards
something more than either the RGs or the old IBG.
We encourage discussion of any of these points and particularly welcome
pointers to the way forward.
Tim and Steve.
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