INTA Secretariat moving to Paris

In those times of crisis and transformation, INTA strives to help its membership to anticipate changes, all types of changes. To be able to provide sustainable responses to today' unknown questions, the first criteria – perhaps, the only one – is to be flexible, to remain open to the world. It is a question of attitude and the capacity to seize opportunities.

INTA secretariat has to be on the same position: flexible and reactive. So, to anticipate on its own changes, the INTA' Governing Board decided to reorganise the International Secretariat and to relocate it.

Few principles inspire the reorganisation:
o    strengthening and optimising the central role of the Secretariat,
o    a limited number of temporary "antennas" for specific functions,
o    "One address only" - ie, no INTA office anywhere else but where the International Secretariat is located.

After lengthy discussions, Paris appears as the more efficient place for the time being and provides an easier access to the world being itself a world-city. Therefore, as off December 1st the secretariat is located 18 rue Daval 75011 Paris (T: +31 (0)634 029 045) that is the legal address of our association.

The Paris office is already operational:
o    Lola Davidson, program coordinator moved there in August and I am myself already in Paris
o    Viviana Rubbo will work from Rotterdam together with Maranke de Krieger who will ensure a smooth transition.
o    Luis Buezo continues to liaise with Latin American countries.
o    Christine Lor, who works on a voluntary basis, will continue to liaise with French, and French speaking and Mediterranean countries.
o    Additional collaborators will be recruited and trainees will assist the regular staff.
At the beginning of the next year, we will stabilise the organisation of the secretariat.

Another point is that we invite Board Members and the membership in general to be more pro-active in convincing new members to join and in proposing new actions.

The new contacts:

INTA
18, rue Daval
75011 Paris
France
T: +31 (0)634 029 045
E:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
W: www. inta-aivn.org

INTA antenna in The Netherlands:
T. +31 (0)634029045
M:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
W: www. inta-aivn.org

Brief history

The initiative for founding INTA came from France. The "Congrès International des Villes Nouvelles" was held in Paris from 13 to 15 November 1975 with 240 delegates from 25 countries. On June 28th 1976, INTA was officially registered in Paris as an international organization by the 'founding members': the UK, France and the USA.
 Choosing a location for the newly born association involved a lot of thought. The criteria were: a place with an international character, the presence of allied institutions, optimal options for location, the prospect of subsidies, low structure costs and the availability of office space. The temporary secretariat moved to London in mid-1977 and until December of that year, work was carried out on a deed of formation under the English law. In 1981, the choice was made to move the Secretariat to The Hague, the legal seat remaining in France, mainly because the City Council and the Dutch Government pledged significant financial support. Both supports came to an end in 2008.
From the 1st of December 2011 INTA Secretariat is located in Paris. However, the opportunity for part of the staff to be hosted by Stipo and Deltametropool in Rotterdam is an occasion to retain in The Netherlands a sort of antenna for Northern Europe.

Michel Sudarskis
INTA Secretary General