Uwe Gartenschlaeger, Germany

Elected 2008
reelected 2011

1. Since 1 September, I am the vice-director of dvv international, the Institute for international Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association (DVV). The DVV is the Federal umbrella organization of about 1.000 German Folkhighschools.
   Together with the director and the head of administration, the vice-director is in charge of all issues regarding the strategic development, fundraising, internal management, lobbying and external relation. EAEA was and will be one of the most important network structures on the European level for the DVV and dvv international. As the current representative of DVV at EAEA, it is my responsibility to ensure the participation of our member organizations at EAEA activities, the communication flow between DVV, its members and EAEA and the coordination of joint activities.
2. Lobbying Adult Education is an integral part of all our project activities. As the responsible manager for our projects in transformation countries, we introduced various forms, such as:

• Lifelong Learning Festivals (see below)
• Supporting and lobbying the development of a AE and LLL legislation
• Development of Adult Education publications (journals, newsletters, books)
• Development and implementation of applied research aiming to support the development of AE
• Organization of international and regional conferences and workshops

Hopefully, I will be able to support the lobbying activities of EAEA by using these experiences and the networks, which remains with me from these times.

1. My experience of the last 15 year is mostly linked with two major issues:
   1. Developing and implementation of international projects: As a project manager in dvv international from 1995 - 2008, I was responsible for developing, lobbying, fundraising and implementing Adult Education and Lifelong Learning projects for our institute. The sources of funding included national and European programs as well as private foundations. I hope my experience in this context could be helpful for the development of the EAEA, too.
   2. South Eastern Europe and the CIS countries. This gave me a broad understanding of the problems of these regions, including the difficulties of their integration into European structures. I hope I could share some of my knowledge with colleagues from the EAEA to strengthen the ties within the whole Europe.

Apart from these two experiences, I developed, participated and organized a couple of conferences and workshop in different regions. One of our most successful projects was the organization of Lifelong Learning Weeks as a lobbying instrument in Southeastern Europe and the Caucasus. In 2006, I was the co-organizer for dvv international of the conference "The Right to Education in the Context of Migration and Integration", which was organised together with EAEA and ICAE in Bonn.

In my current position as a Vice-Director, the duties of a EAEA-board-member would be a part of my job, enabling me to invest a certain amount of time and energy in this field.

1. I am fluent in English, Russian and of course German. My computer literacy is medium developed. I am a historian, married with two kids.

Sorry, I don´t like long texts, as you see ;-)

More details about my activities can be found on our website www.dvv-international.de

Possible contribution to EAEA:

• Development and implementation of projects
• Participation, moderation and training at workshops, conferences and trainings
• support of the integration process of Eastern European members and partners into the EAEA
• support the linking of EAEA with international networks