Four new Member Organisations and a new Executive Board were some of the outcomes of the EIDD General Assembly meeting held in Tallinn 28 May 2011.

The 2011 European DfA Summit in Tallinn, organised by the Estonian Association of Designers, was an extraordinary event. It started with a workshop and a conference 26-27 May in the framework of the one year project ”Cities for All – Tallinn for All”, continued with the first EIDD General Assembly and ended with the first meeting of the new Executive Board.

The General Assembly proved to be both dynamic and constructive. The members discussion that preceded the elections tabled some important issues where member organisation representatives expressed partly different opinions. In the final round it was generally agreed that both encouraging and managing constructively a critical discussion on internal ideological issues was a significant proof of maturity for EIDD Design for All Europe as a federal organisation.

The new EIDD Design for All Europe structure is now in place and working. The historical elections (two year mandates) resulted in the following new Executive Board:

Finn Petrén (Sweden), President

Chris Ramsden (UK), Senior Vice-President

Ewa Golebiowska (Poland), Vice-President Administration

Daina Vitolina (Latvia), Vice-President Finance

Pete Kercher (Italy), Ambassador

Avril Accolla (Italy), Research

Jesús Hernández Galán (Spain), Special projects South and West Europe

Ilona Gurjanova (Estonia), Special projects Eastern and Central Europe

 

Four applications for membership were approved. :

TAG Platform, Istanbul (Turkey)
www.tagplatform.org

IDEA Department, University of Chieti-Pescara (Italy)
www.idea.unich.it

Creativity Zentrum, Bilbao (Spain)
www.creativityzentrum.com

Fundacion ONCE, Madrid (Spain)
www.fundaciononce.es

EIDD Design for All Europe now counts 33 Member Organisations in 23 countries.

Special thanks to Ilona Gurjanova, President of Estonian Association of Designers, for fantastic organisation of all the events during this year’s European DfA Summit, to the Finnish World Design Capital 2012 DfA team for a good meeting, and to Rama Gheerawo who completed his duties as Vice-President Administration. Also a big thank you to all who attended and contributed to one of the best EIDD Annual Summits ever.

Next year’s European DfA Summit will take place in Helsinki, World Design Capital 2012, 24-27 May. And yes, EIDD will be part of the official WDC 2012 Programme.