August 23, the first General Assembly of ICHS, 2015 was held in the Energy Hall, Shandong Hotel. The board and the bureau of CISH, the National committees and IAOs attended in the meeting. In the morning, Marjatta Hietala, President of the CISH, delivered the opening statement. Then, Robert Frank, presented the Secretary general’s report. Laurent Tissot stated the Treasurer’s report. After the speeches, the candidates (National committees and IAOs) made excellent presentations.
President of the CISH, Marjatta Hietala, gave us the opening statement, which highlighted the great meaning of ICHS, 2015 in Jinan: the number of registered people is large, 2684, which includes so many historians of developing countries. Then the President recalled the long process of Jinan Congress, the work began the year following the Amsterdam Congress, actually. When talking about the logo of the Jinan Congress, she showed a great interest. By dating back the logo-design days, she gave us an excellent understanding of the logo, a woman is sitting with a gentleman side by side on the carriage: the equality between different genders, which is perfectly eye-catching.
Robert Frank gave us the Secretary General’s report, in which he stated the new structure of the Secretariat general and activities of the Board. Then he stated the ambitions and disappointments of CISH. Take this congress for example, CISH has presented its large ambitions to gain new members in the parts of the world, not only in Asia, but also in Africa, in Latin America, we can see that ICHS devotes itself to the creation of a global framework for global historians to exchange their ideas about historical issues. Besides that, there are two new ambitious projects for the CISH: an International Prize of History and the organization of an international Conference between two Congresses, which will help members communicate with each other. Then he highlighted on the working relationship between CISH, CIPSH and UNESCO. After recalling the old relations, Prof. Robert Frank presented us the new activities devoting to maintain a new working relationship: the Paris talks in November 2014 and the exchange of Summer 2015. He was so generous with compliment and excellent words to Jinan Congress: Sydney Congress, 2005 was the first time that a Congress was held in Asia, besides that, Jinan Congress is the only time that the Congress was held outside of Europe and North America until now. The process from Europe and North America to China is so long, at the end of his speech, Prof. Robert Frank stressed his confidence in Jinan Congress. It “may be a great event.” He emphasized his confidence in Jinan and China, and diligent friendly Chinese people.
Laurent Tissot, gave us his data-based report in detail.
After all the speeches, the candidates of CISH made their presentations. Then Prof. Robert Frank stated the proposal that Moscow would be the venue of General Assembly of 2017.
In the afternoon, the General Assembly firstly voted for the new members, with all the members agreed unanimously, the CISH gained 5 new members (National Committees and IAOs).
Next General Assembly of 2017 will be held in Moscow.
Then, Robert Frank demonstrated to the members the draft regulations of the ICHS International Prize for History, some contents sparked widespread discussions, and we are looking forward to more clear regulations coming out next time.
There were three cities which applied for the venue of the 23rd International Congress of Historical Sciences in 2020: Athens, Poznan, and Tampere. Each of them showed us their wonderful scenes, detailed plans sincerely. As the birthplace of European culture, Athens showed us a video, taking us to the beautiful heritages, fantastic seascape scenes, of course, its long history of Olympics can never be forgotten. Since Poland ever held ICHS, the Poznan professor recalled the long process and stressed that Poland is a country values history, as we all know, cause of its unique location, Poland suffered a lot in World War II. The third proposal is from Tampere, Finland. Everyone got a brochure, including letters of invitation from the University of Tampere, from CISH National Committee (Finnish Historical Society), and from the city of Tampere. What most members concerned is the financial budget and more detailed program, Congress venues, catering, social program and accommodation, etc.
The candidate cities showed us various styles of their unique culture and beauty, and all of them are so charming and competitive. Who will be the lucky one? Let’s look forward to the General Assembly of 29, August.