Following the successful example of the Portuguese and the Hungarian Associations of Large Families in 2003 and 2004, respectively,

 the National Association of Large Families (NOE, Hungary)

and

the European Large Families Confederation (ELFAC)

announce a

series of miniconferences

held

on 26 March 2011,  17:00 – 19:00

 These miniconferences should take place AT THE SAME TIME in as many countries of Europe as possible. The topics can be different, but they should be connected with the family. For the overall presentation of these events have a general title to be used in all our languages. This is „EUROPE: FAMILY FIRST!”

 We call family organisations in Europe to organise miniconferences in their country. Holding these events in many countries and many places would testify how extensive family movement is in Europe.

 Here is how these miniconferences ran in Hungary in 2004. The whole event had a general title („THOUSAND FACES OF FAMILY”), it consisted of 34 miniconferences, each one in a different town or village. Each miniconference had its own title. The topic was chosen by the local organisers: something of interest for their community. Each miniconference had 1, 2, or 3 speakers, the moderator was in most places a well-known person from the (local or national) media (a TV reporter, a radio speaker, a journalist, etc.). Even if there were three talks, they did not last more than an hour altogether; then the moderator added some ideas or questions, and after that there was time for discussion. Like Hungarian national family congresses, also these miniconferences addressed families and not politicians, and the aim was to give a positive message for families. At several places (but not everywhere) there was also a program organised for children at the same time.

 We hope that many family organisations will join and hold such miniconferences in several places. (In Hungary there will be more than 80.) In this case one can decide to have the same topic at each site in a country or to follow the Hungarian example and let local people choose a topic themselves. (The titles of the miniconferences in Hungary are available already on our website.)

 We suggest to use the above letterhead structure as follows. The logo on the left is the logo of the whole series of miniconferences. The logo on the right is the logo of the organising organisation – here it is the logo of NOE.

 We would like to collect information about ALL these miniconferences in Europe, and list on our website their titles as well as the towns or villages where they take place (grouped by countries). For this purpose I would be grateful to receive the titles in English.

We also wish to make available further information about them: name of the town or village, title of the local miniconference, site of the event, speakers and their profession (sometimes with title of the contribution, if the talks go into different topics within the title), moderator and his/her profession, contact person for the event with phone number. Since these data are largely for people who may go there, they should be in the language in which the event will be held. If the organising organisation has a website then it may be best to advertise its miniconference their, giving these data, and we would put a link on the ELFAC homepage to this website. If the organisation does not have a website then we could put the detailed data on the ELFAC website.

Please keep me informed of the miniconferences organised by your association. We would be grateful if somebody collected the information from all miniconferences of the same association, so that we would correspond with only one person from each participating association. And don’t hesitate to write me if you have questions.