A letter to steering committee - April 2006

Dear Members of the Steering Committee of the Commission on Local Development, On behalf of the Steering Committee I would like to extend the thanks of the Commission to all those people who have contributed to our work last year and on the first quarter of the current year. Particularly I would like to thank all those that led the sessions during the November 2005 Web Conference, Ayda Eraydin and Clélio Campolina Diniz, to Tony Sorensen who put a lot of effort in organising the coming post-conference meeting in Cairns Australia, and again Clélio Campolina Diniz for his productive effort and assistance all along the way.

I take this opportunity to update you about the coming activities of the Commission on Local Development.

1. The major coming event is the IGU Congress in Brisbane on 3-7 July under the title: Regional Responses to Global Changes:
   A view from the Antipodes. Four sessions were allocated to the Commission and we have a diverse range of papers. The sessions will take place on Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th. They were composed according the submitted papers and carrying the following titles:
   1. On development plans and local development
   2. The nature of local development in peripheral areas
   3. Local development and the urban environment
   4. Brownfield, the urban landscape and local development
2. During the congress we’ll have our business meeting and issues raised during the meeting will be circulated among the members of the Steering Committee for further consultation.
3. The congress site address is: www.igu2006.org. Looking into the site I realised that the program hasn’t been updated since January, though I have recently received an updated draft.
4. 4. The Brisbane Congress will be followed by a field excursion and moving conference (9-14 July) of which the venue is Cairns in north Queensland. It is a joint venture of the commissions on:
   • The Sustainability of Rural Systems
   • Use Cover Change, and
   • Local Development
   This event is organised by our active member Tony Sorensen, and there are about 50 participants in this event.

Thinking about our future activities there are three matters that spring to mind:

1. I am concerned that we do not yet have a sound financial base, and this is very much affected by the over-all finances of the IGU itself. This matter should be discussed as a policy issue on our business meeting in Brisbane. We would welcome any suggestions.
2. We need to be thinking about future meetings (and publications). There are some tentative offers from Brazil in 2007, and the IGU Congress will be in Tunisia in 2008. We should even look forward towards 2009. The 2010 meeting will be part of the Regional Congress that will take place in Tel-Aviv. The table below shows a crude draft of the 2005-2008 plan of the Commission’s activities. Any idea and suggestion is welcomed.
3. We are looking for a couple of fresh members on the steering committee. I made some effort to recruit African members but didn’t have much success. Also, in the 2008 IGU Congress in Tunis we need a local organizer, do you know somebody there that could be an anchorman? Waiting for any information and suggestion.

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The Commission on Local Development 2005-2010 working plan

Year	Month	Place	Comments	Theme
2005	November	On the web	Done	The meaning of local development
2006	July	Brisbane, Australia	Includes a meeting on the field excursion	Diversified issues
2007	25-28 June	Beijing	Second Global Conference On Economic Geography	The dynamics of local and regional development
2008	August	Tunis	IGU International Congress Possibly - a pre-congress meeting in Tunis	To be decided
2009	July / September	Warsaw	Commission annual meeting	Poverty-reduction through local development
2010	July	Tel Aviv	IGU regional conference	To be decided

I would like to thank all members of the steering committee on past advice and suggestions. In order to succeed in the job, I'll need your further support. I am open to any advice and any assistance.

Best wishes,
Michael Sofer (CHAIR)