NORTANA Newsletter Newsletter for the Norwegian Researchers and Teachers Association of North America Fall 2004 http://www.nortana.net Torild Homstad, editor Contents President’s Greeting President’s Greeting NORTANA Business & News Takk for sist! It was good to see so many of Call for Nominations you at Norgesseminaret in Grand Forks in NORTANA Meeting Minutes mid-October. Thanks to Faythe Thureen NORTANA Treasurer’s Report (University of North Dakota) and the people Bjørn Jensen Leilighet at the Norwegian Consulate General in New Essay Contest Reminder York for all of the work they did in planning From Norwegian Information Service and hosting a most interesting and engaging U.S. Norway Forum event. Each year I return to my teaching and NORTANA Reading Group Guides research with renewed energy after spending Reading Group Guide “Dugnad” this time with my colleagues from across New Positions! North America, and I know that many of PLU Mankato you experience this as well. The 2005 U of MN Norgesseminar will be hosted by the Nor- Events, Conferences & Professional wegian Embassy in Washington D.C., and Development we look forward to marking Norway's cen- Bente Kahan Performance tennial at that time. LCTL Materials Development Mini-Grant Please encourage your students and people AASC Conference - Call for Papers Voice & Vision in Language Teacher Education in your communities to take advantage of ISS Språkseminar & Teacher Stipend NORTANA's 2005 initiatives. The reading Report from 2004 Språkseminar guides will be posted on our web site Education & Study in Norway (www.nortana.net) as they become avail- Oslo International Summer School able, so please spread the word to your local Scandinavian Studies in Telemark book clubs and others who may be inter- Scandinavian Urban Studies Term ested. Thanks to all who have developed or Projects, Publications & Reviews will be developing guides. Two-fold Identities Scandinavian Welfare States As you know our other major initiative is Twentieth Century Norwegian Writers the undergraduate essay contest. A few es- Naiv. Super – New Edition for Language Learn- says have already been submitted, and we ers hope to receive many more by the December Visions of Norway DVD 1 deadline. The prize winners will be an- New Hedda Gabler Film nounced via our list serve early in 2005, and Norskklassen the winning essays will appear on NOR- Bergenstest TANA's web site. A Call to Action? Standards for Foreign Lan- st guage Learning in the 21 Century This spring NORTANA members will be Congratulations! electing a new executive board. Katherine Melissa Gjellstad Hanson is chairing the nominating commit- Roger Greenwald tee, and the committee has issued a call for nominations which appears in this newslet- NORTANA NEWSLETTER FALL 2004 ter. Please consider nominating others or Katherine Hanson yourself for these important positions. A [email protected] paper ballot will be sent out to the member- Frankie Shackelford ship in the new year, and Eva Vincent of the [email protected] Norwegian Consulate General in New York will be collecting and tallying the votes. NORTANA Minutes You will also be asked to vote on a proposed amendment to the by-laws concerning the Saturday, October 23, 2004 composition of the Board. Grand Forks, North Dakota A note of thanks to all of the work that the 1. The meeting was called to order at 9:50 Board has done and continues to do. The am by President Ingrid Urberg. The first or- list serve is up and running thanks to Troy der of business was approval of the minutes Storfjell, and he has done a fine job of de- from the Spring meeting on April 17, 2004 signing our new web site. I would also like at Redondo Beach, California. There were to extend a special thanks to Torild Homstad no changes or corrections to the minutes, for her work as newsletter editor, and to which were then approved unanimously. Margaret Hayford O'Leary for her work on the administration of the Bjørn Jensen 2. Treasurer Terje Leiren gave his Financial apartment. Finally, thanks to the member- Report and made a proposal to increase the ship for all of their ideas and support for membership dues for NORTANA. The cur- NORTANA initiatives. rent rate of $10 US per year or $25 US for three years has been in place for a very long Med vennlig hilsen, time, and NORTANA expenses are in- Ingrid Urberg creasing. Terje suggested an increase to $15 NORTANA President US per year or $40 US for three years. Members would be asked to pay the higher NORTANA Business & News rate at the time their current dues expire. Call for Nominations After brief discussion the proposal was sec- onded and then approved by a wide margin. Dear NORTANA members: 3. Ingrid began her President’s Report by It is once again time to elect officers for the reminding the membership that the current NORTANA Board. Our current officers will board members will end their term after the serve until the next SASS meeting, May Spring 2005 meeting, which will be held at 2005. The election will be conducted by the SASS conference in Portland, Oregon. regular mail--ballots will be sent out to all Ballots will be sent out to the membership NORTANA members in February, 2005. by mail in February 2005 and should be re- turned to Eva Vincent for counting. Ingrid Nominations are now open for all positions encouraged members to consider taking on on the Board: President, Vice-President, one of the five board positions (President, Treasurer, Secretary, member-at-large. You Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, and may nominate yourself (this is NOT the time Member-At-Large). An ad hoc nominating to be modest!) or another NORTANA mem- committee consisting of Katherine Hanson ber for any of the positions. Please e-mail ([email protected]), Jerry Ander- your nominations BY DECEMBER 1 to any son ([email protected]) and Frankie member of the Nominating Committee: Shackelford ([email protected]) has Jerry Anderson been formed, and members are encouraged [email protected] to contact a member of this committee to nominate either themselves or another member by Decmber 1, 2005. NORTANA NEWSLETTER 2 FALL 2004 Next, Ingrid reminded the membership mittee very efficiently set up a series of cri- about the NORTANA student essay compe- teria for scholars wishing to occupy the tition. She has received one entry already, apartment. Priority will be given to and encourages members to have their un- NORTANA members, those who wish to dergraduates send essays to her by Decem- occupy the apartment for the full academic ber 1, 2004. A full description of the con- year, and those who have not had the op- test, along with the separate essay contest portunity to live in the apartment previously. sponsored by the Royal Norwegian Ministry This and further information will be made of Foreign Affairs can be found at available on http://www.nortana.net. The http://www.nortana.net. apartment will be available to scholars dur- ing three separate periods each year: Early Ingrid then reported on the activities of the summer (approximately the first three weeks ad hoc committee (Ingrid Urberg, Torild of June; application due November 1, 2004), Homstad and Louis Janus) on book club late summer (approximately the last three study guides. The first two guides will be weeks of August), and the academic year available on the website very soon. (approximately September 1 through May 30; application due January 15, 2005). At Ingrid’s request, Torild Homstad then re- (Following the meeting the committee de- ported on her attendance at the US-Norway termined it would be more efficient to have a Forum, which was held in Chicago, Illinois. single application deadline for both short- Of primary interest to NORTANA members term summer and academic year rental; the was an initiative proposed by Knut Brautaset single deadline will be January 15-ed.). of the Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Higher Education. The pro- Margaret further described the financial ar- posed initiative would form a commission to rangements that have been made for cover- work together to bring more Norwegian uni- ing the costs of the apartment. Because of versity students to institutions in North the idiosyncrasies of Norwegian banks and America. This commission would follow up service providers, it was necessary for Mar- on the report commissioned by the Royal garet to set up a bank account with Nordea Norwegian Embassy last year on the decline Bank in her own name, into which occu- in enrollment of Norwegian students in pants of the Bjørn Jensen apartment will pay North American colleges and universities. rent and utilities (currently 4000 NOK per Chuck Nelson, Dean of Admissions at Pa- month, 1000 NOK per week or 150 NOK cific Lutheran University offered some per day). A brief discussion of the long- practical suggestions and encouraged Nor- term advisability of having one member per- wegian-American institutions to work to- sonally responsible for this arrangement en- gether to recruit Norwegian students. Astrid sued. Ellen Rees volunteered to investigate Sæther of the University of Oslo also pre- the logistics of registering NORTANA in sented information on the preparations for Norway so that the organization could have the Ibsen year of 2006. a bank account there. Audun Toven re- minded the membership about the origin of Ingrid then asked Margaret Hayford the Bjørn Jensen apartment—namely that O’Leary to report on the ad hoc committee Bjørn Jensen, a former head of the Norwe- (Margaret Hayford O’Leary, Ingrid Urberg gian Information Service in the USA during and Torild Homstad) formed in early 2004 the 1970s and one of the people responsible to coordinate the Bjørn Jensen apartment at for instituting Norway Seminar and other Sogn Student Housing in Oslo.