Held at University of Ghana Legon, Ghana, on Monday 17 July 2023. Participation was possible both in person and online. 

Chair: Svanibor Pettan, President.

In attendance (National and Regional representatives): 

Ardian Ahmedaja (Albania), Salim Dada (Algeria), Silvia Citro (Argentina), Tatevik Shakhkulyan (Armenia), Reuben Jay Brown (Australia & New Zealand), Sarah Weiss and Cornelia Gruber (Austria), Noor Al-Qassim (Bahrain), Galina Tavlai (Belarus), Remy Jadinon (Belgium), Pedro Fernando Acosta Da Rosa (Brazil), José Curbelo (Brazil, translator), Julia Byl (Canada), Ignacio Soto Silva (Chile), Irena Miholić (Croatia), Oldřich Poděbradský (Czech Republic), Kiku Day (Denmark), María Gabriela López Yánez (Ecuador), Elina Seye (Finland), Elina Djebbari (France), Teona Lomsadze (Georgia), Beatriz Herrera Corado (Guatemala), Soma Salamon (Hungary), Urmimala Sarkar Munsi (India), Mohammed Azadehfar (Iran), Darren Culliney (Ireland), Fadi Al-Ghawanmeh (Jordan), Dorit Klebe (Germany), Kanykei Mukhtarova (Kyrgyzstan), Anda Beitane (Latvia), Guilnard Moufarrej (Lebanon), Tan Sooi Beng (Malaysia), Marílio Wane (Mozambique), Ram Prasad Kadel (Nepal), Huib Schippers (Netherlands), Christian Onyeji (Nigeria), Velika Stojkova Serafimovska (North Macedonia), Shumaila Hemani (Pakistan), Don Niles (Papua New Guinea), Ewa Dahlig-Turek (Poland), Susana Sardo (Portugal), Javier Silvestrini (Puerto Rico), Danka Lajić-Mihajlović (Serbia), Mojca Kovačič (Slovenia), Sylvia Bruinders (South Africa), Francisco García Gallardo (Spain), Helena Simonett (Switzerland), Anas Grab (Tunisia), Lea Hagmann (UK), Marita Fornaro (Uruguay). Also Attending: Carlos Yoder (Executive Secretary).

The meeting followed the agenda attached here. 

1. Opening of meeting and welcome. Explanation of the significance of the meeting.

1. Pettan opened the meeting at 18:45, thanking all for attending the meeting of the Assembly, both in person and remotely. He stressed that the World Network currently counted the largest number of represented countries and regions, 131. 
2. Pettan asked the assembled to stand in memory of former Executive Board member Louise Wrazen, who had passed away the previous day.

2. Consideration of the minutes of the last meeting and business arising.

3. Pettan called for a motion to approve the Minutes of the 16th Assembly of ICTM National and Regional Representatives, as published on the ICTM website. Moved by Day (Denmark), seconded by Sarkar (India), carried unanimously.

3. Brief self-introductions by each representative

4. Attendees introduced themselves and their represented countries/regions. The total number of represented countries/regions was 50. 

4. Announcement of any business arising from Executive Board meetings of interest to the representatives

5. Pettan urged those representatives who had not submitted a report to the Bulletin in recent times to do so "as soon as possible."
6. Pettan praised the work of Al-Qassim (Bahrain) in helping find new representatives Middle East. 
7. Herrera Corado (Guatemala) reported that a participant from Bolivia was not able to travel to Ghana because her visa application had been rejected. Pettan thanked her for sharing the experience, and explained how denied visas was unfortunately a frequent occurrence for ICTM World Conference, regardless of where in the world they would be held.
8. Pettan related his experience in a recent visit to Kuwait, invited by Liaison Officer Ali Mahdi, where he was able to talk about the Council on national TV. He added that if his presence in any given country might help further the cause of the work of Liaison Officers, he would be willing to travel, and invited the assembled to contact him for this purpose. 
9. Seye (Finland) enquired about the process to propose a new Liaison Officer for a country currently not part of the World Network. Yoder answered that once a candidate is found, they should simply write to the Secretariat so the process (which involves submitting a CV to be reviewed by the Executive Board) can start. 

5. Main topic for discussion #1: Creating a meaningful presence of ICTM in a represented country or region

10. Sarkar (India) introduced the first topic, which she had proposed for discussion at the Assembly, bringing attention to the following sub-topics: 
    1. Representing ICTM in regions/provinces within a country. Using India as an example, Sarkar argued that in some cases more than one person would be needed to properly represent a country in the World Network. She acknowledge that the Executive Board would have to agree to such an arrangement before seeking out a co-representative for India. 
    2. Supporting local events. Sarkar specified that this support need not be financial, but instead by having senior members of ICTM (e.g., the Executive Board) attend local events to boost the Council's presence. 
    3. Equalising the amount of funding given to participants attending World Conferences. Sarkar argued for establishing a system that would provide the same amount of funding for people in any given country, i.e., that all funded participants in India would get similar amounts. 
    4. Implementing a tiered membership system. Sarkar called for the establishment of a stratified membership system, based on GDP, income, or other scale, that would allow members in soft-currency countries/regions to become fully paid members of the Council. 
    5. Representation in publications. Sarkar considered that the Council's journal could strongly benefit if the Editorial Board actively sought out submissions from different countries/regions, from young scholars, and/or from authors engaging in different kinds of scholarly work. 
11. Onyeji (Nigeria) argued for the creation of support networks that would foster interaction within a country/region outside of ICTM events. As an example, he proposed organising a Zoom session not tied to any scholarly agenda, to maintain the sense of community. Yoder replied that the Secretariat would be happy to share its Zoom account with the National Committee for Nigeria, if that would help with organising those meetings. 
12. Al-Qassim raised the issue of language, in particular "language barriers among some Liaison Officers." She added that she struggled with translating her colleagues' work, and therefore wondered whether the Council could approach institutions to fund translation services.
13. Al-Qassim referred to the vote to change the name of the Council conducted the day before, and enquired whether the appointment of "Liaison Officers for dance" would also be considered by the Executive Board.
14. Al-Qassim enquired whether the Executive Board would be willing to appoint a representative for Palestine. 
15. Niles (Papua New Guinea) considered that the questions raised by Sarkar, Onyeji, and Al-Qassim were important and complex issues, which should require careful study and exploration if meaningful decisions were to be reached. He argued that the Assembly meeting once every two years was "not sufficient to accommodate all these kinds of wonderful ideas," and encouraged everybody to make use of the World Network listserv to discuss these and other topics. 
16. Yoder shared that a similar discussion had transpired during the most recent Assembly of Study Group Chairs, namely, to hold meetings of the Assembly more often than every two years.
17. After a brief discussion lead by the Chair, a general consensus was reached that the Assembly of National and Regional Representatives should convene more frequently than every two years. However, it was understood that Statute 8 would need to be amended first. 
18. Al-Ghawanmeh (Jordan) supported the idea of meeting more often than once every two years, as well as Al-Qassim's proposal to appoint a representative for Palestine. 
19. Al-Ghawanmeh suggested to write personalised letters to academic institutions, introducing the Council and promoting the Council's journal. 
20. Pettan thanked everybody for their contributions, and closed the discussion by committing to bring their ideas, suggestions, and proposals to the Executive Board.

6. Main topic for discussion #2: Encouraging measures to combat racism in music education in the countries and regions represented in ICTM

21. Pettan introduced the second topic, and asked Acosta da Rosa (Brazil), the topic's proposer, to elaborate on it. 
22. Acosta da Rosa, who spoke in Portuguese and was translated into English by Curbelo, gave an overview of the political climate in Brazil, in particular related to the ongoing struggles against neoliberal and racist policies.
23. Acosta da Rosa considered that ethnomusicology had a "key role to play" in decolonising music curricula, which in Brazil were still quite Eurocentric. He invited the assembled to join the efforts being carried out in Brazil towards that end. 
24. Acosta da Rosa emphasised the importance of ICTM coming to different countries and speaking with government ministries, as previously discussed by Al-Ghawanmeh, and extended an invitation to the President to attend the event that the Brazilian Ethnomusicological Association (ABET) will hold on 14–19 November in Porto Alegre.
25. Acosta da Rosa called for ICTM to give visibility to academic contributions being made by Black scholars, based in either Africa or the Americas, as that would help to legitimise the same work being carried out in Brazil.
26. Schippers (The Netherlands) considered the issues raised by Acosta da Rosa to be "very important for all of us to think about", and called for the Council to make a strong statement on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), in particular related to music education systems. He brought attention to the work carried out on EDI in music education by the ICTM Study Group on Music, Education and Social Inclusion (MESI), the International Society for Music Education (ISME) and the Cultural Diversity in Music Education network. 
27. Citro (Argentina) reminded the Assembly that in 2020 the Council had issued an official statement on decolonization of music and dance studies, which had been translated into ten different languages. 
28. Citro announced that she was trying to establish a new kind of panel for future World Conferences, that would make special accommodations for Indigenous peoples. She considered that Acosta da Rosa's work in Brazil had been "very important," and invited him to join the Executive Board Committe for Outreach with Latin America and the Caribbean, which she chairs.

7. Main topic for discussion #3: Inclusion and support for growing Indigenous membership and its participation

29. Pettan introduced the third and last topic, and asked Brown (Australia & New Zealand, ANZ), one of the topic's two proposers, to elaborate on it.
30. Brown began by providing background to the ANZ context on the topic. He related how Indigenous membership in ICTM had increased in the past decade, as well as participation in events both face-to-face and online, often assisted by the ICTM's Oceania Study Group Travel Fund and Maud Karpeles Fund, combined with other institutional and research funding. He admitted that challenges remained, so based on feedback gathered from members of the Regional Committee for Australia and New Zealand, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous working with Indigenous collaborators and colleagues, he conveyed the following suggestions for the World Network and/or the Executive Board to consider:
    1. Accessibility of ICTM activities. Brown argued for the Council to continue offering multiple modes of participation in ICTM events, ensuring that hybrid conferences remain the norm, and continuing to offer funding for Indigenous in-person participation.
    2. Flexibility of registration. Brown called for the waving of conference registration fees for Indigenous presenters who are not in full-time academic employment, and exempting them from the rule requesting that all paper authors must register to the World Conference, even if they would not attend the meeting, so that Indigenous co-authors would also be properly acknowledged. 
    3. Waived memberships for Indigenous presenters. Brown argued that giving out free memberships to Indigenous participants would illustrate the value the Council would place on Indigenous membership and participation, and would potentially resolve the administrative burden of renewing memberships for World Conferences. 
31. Herrera Corado, one of the topic's two proposers, added to the question of placing limitations on Indigenous members at ICTM World Conferences, by proposing that different modalities of participants should explored. She added that a typical 20-minute-long paper session would be too short for the legitimate representation of Indigenous people. 
32. Onyeji discussed inclusion as it pertained to publications, and related his experience when submitting an article to the Yearbook for Traditional Music the previous year. He explained that his article had not published because no suitable peer reviewers had been found. He stressed the need to "find a broader way of accommodating people from all regions" in the journal, to make sure that "nobody feels excluded."
33. Pettan reminded the Assembly about one of the newest of the Council's Study Groups, on Indigenous Music and Dance. He informed that the Study Group would hold a joint symposium with the Study Group on Music and Minorities in Sri Lanka the following December, characterising it as "a step into the right direction." 
34. Tan (Malaysia) considered that the 2021 Dialogues project had made considerable efforts regarding the inclusion of Indigenous people, even though the sessions were exclusively online. She commented that the project would continue with a new series of dialogues in the following year, and stressed that the sessions were two hours long, and that no predetermined format was enforced on presenters. 

8. Appointment of two members to the Nomination Committee of the 2025 ICTM Election

35. After outlining the responsibilities of the members of the Nomination Committee, Pettan asked for two volunteers to join the Nomination Committee of the 2025 ICTM Election.
36. Seye and Weiss (Austria) volunteered to serve, and after a brief discussion, Pettan called for a motion to appoint them to the Nomination Committee of the 2025 ICTM Election. Moved by Beitāne, seconded by Tan, carried unanimously.

9. Any other business

37. Acosta da Rosa asked why his application for funding had not been granted, and Pettan answered that he would bring the issue to the Executive Board Committee for the Maud Karpeles, Young Scholars, and Other Funds, to follow the topic up.

10. Adjournment

38. Pettan called for a motion to adjourn the 17th Assembly of ICTM National and Regional Representatives. Moved by Onyeji, seconded by Herrera Corado. Meeting adjourned at 20:05.

We hereby certify that this document comprises the Minutes of 17th Meeting of the Assembly of ICTM National and Regional Representatives, held in Legon, Ghana, on 17 July 2023, and that its contents have been examined by us and that to the best of our knowledge and belief the content thereof is true, correct, and complete.

Lee Tong Soon, Secretary General

Carlos Yoder, Executive Secretary