The 1998 international Ido conference took place from the 31st July to the 3rd August in Bialobrzegi (Republic of Poland) with participants from five European countries and the USA. After the long (for some) journey, the participants were greeted by the president of ULI, who presented a plan of the conference programme.
After a tasty breakfast (as the other meals, prepared by the conference centre cook) in the morning of the first of August commenced the first discussions of our conference. First the president of ULI, Günter Anton and the conference organizer, Vlado Yakovenko greeted once again the participants and the conference officially began. After that the programme for the conference was decided upon. The conference received a large number of greetings from Idists and sympathizers from many countries, which were read out in full by Günter Anton, Vlado Yakovenko, Alfred Neussner and Frank Kasper. In the first part of our discussions we discussed our experiences of successes in strengthening our small movement since the conference in Bakkum. The president of ULI was able to present a positive picture. He mentioned chiefly in this regard the promotional success of Alfred Neussner and the Ido activity on the internet. During the discussions Frank Kasper first mentioned the excellent activities of James Chandler as administrator of "Idol" and of Martin Lavallée and others creating new and interesting Ido pages on the internet, and his words were completed by Hans Stuifbergen.
Frank Kasper also presented the results of his own work on the internet and stressed the importance of this still young medium for our Ido movement. Then Alfred Neussner presented his Ido activities. He talked mainly about his constant use of opportunities to place free announcements in newspapers and magazines to promote Ido or offer to correspond only in the international language Ido. He has received countless responses, to which he replied sending Ido promotional material in the sender's own language. In this way he has already succeeded in interesting some people in Ido, or even gaining one or the other for Ido. He proposed to all participants to make more use of these possibilities.
In the second part of the session, the hosts had to inform the other participants how their Ido activities could be sustained. Our Polish friends mentioned chiefly the difficult financial situation, because of which participation in foreign Ido meetings is completely impossible for them. Unfortunately ULI does not have the financial means to make possible the participation of East-European Idists in Ido conferences. For this reason we will also in future have to think through the arranging of conferences in East-European countries, if we want to include the East European Idists actively in our work for Ido.
After lunch we arranged an excursion by public bus to the nearby town of Radom, where we looked at a church and took care of various personal requirements. On the third day was arranged an all-day visit to the capital of Poland, Warsaw. The participants visited the arts centre and the old town. Before the participants' departure on the 3rd August, in the afternoon was arranged a last session, at which was discussed the possibilities for collaboration with movements for other languages, and lastly there was a language seminar concerning various linguistic problems.
Concerning the first point it had to be said, that collaboration with individual adherents of other movements is possible, but not really with organizations and in particular not with the Esperantists. Lastly Günter Anton and Hans Stuifbergen made final speeches with special thanks to Vlado Yakovenko and to his girlfriend for arranging the conference.
To sum up we can say, that the participants at Bialobrzegi experienced an interesting and fruitful conference, which will certainly long remain as a good memory for all the participants.
Frank Kasper
Germany (tr. James Chandler)
This page hosted by Yellow Internet.
James Chandler
9-Sep-98.