Meet the Members Council: Joke van der Leeuw-Roord

Hello! I am happy to take this opportunity to share my activities for the Association over the last few months and my ambitions for the period to come.

At the moment, my main activity relates to the fact that I have a job to finish. Some two years ago I asked some general questions about the governance structure of Europeana during a Board Meeting of the Foundation. By chance, the new Europeana business plan required revisiting the governance structure, and sometimes you get exactly what you deserve: the Board promptly made me the chair of a Taskforce to review the Governance structure. 

The new Association, as it is regarded under Dutch law, and its legal foundation were the results of this Taskforce. Statutes under Dutch law are a rather commonplace, but expanding them to be fit for purpose for a large and international audience is quite an exercise.  As Max mentioned, in last week’s blog, this is exactly what several Members Councillors are currently working on.

Three workshops, led by Management Board Members, are currently working on these bylaws. One deals with issues related to Membership, a second considers voting and election procedures and the last one, which is led by me, addresses all the other elements which need finely-tuned explanations and procedures. 

The work is very collaborative, and we hope that by the end of March the workshop leaders can present the finished draft versions to the Management Board.  After approval of these draft bylaws, the other Member Council Members will then have the opportunity to provide feedback, before they go out to the full Europeana Network.  Only once everybody feels satisfied that we have developed a good working document, these By-laws will become the basis for the future operation of the Associations. And my job is done! 

Schoolmaster with three students at a table. Rijksmuseum, Public Domain.

Europeana for Education

So what next? Well, after that I can than pursue my real passion: education! My professional life revolves around my position as founder and special Advisor to EUROCLIO, the European Association of History Educators. I believe in high quality education and consider that digitalisation and internationalisation are key elements for educational innovation. More and more I become convinced that Europeana is vital in this process as the European digital platform for rich and diverse culture and heritage. 

I would like to use my position as Management Board Member to participate in discussions with the European Education Community about the opportunities and challenges of Europeana collection for stimulating educational innovation.

In recent months I have helped design Europeana for Education policy recommendations, which will be finalised and published soon. I also participated as table leader for Education during ‘Europeana for Education and Creative Industry’ strategy meeting in Riga last week, on 17 and 18 March, where we were able to draw up the Recommendations for Education.

Joke (right) in Riga with Europeana's Jill Cousins. By Europeana, CC BY SA.

I have already met with representatives of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Science and Culture about the position of Europeana in their policy focus on Digital Heritage during the Dutch European Union Presidency in 2016.  Wherever I can, I will advocate for the need for reliable, accessible, cross-border and quality resources, reflecting Europe's diversity in all aspects of education. It is one of my major goals to make Europeana’s collections better known among a wide range of education stakeholders.

That's all for now, but if you have any thoughts about the above, I’d be delighted to hear them! Please don’t hesitate to get in touch. 
@joke_leeuw