At the last section of the Shared worlds workshop arranged in Oslo October 14-15 2011, a very first general/annual meeting for Minding Animals Norway, through which MAN was founded as an NGO (as one of the first national bodies of Minding Animals International), was held. Not many attended, but a board of six was elected:
* Chair (and for the time being treasurer): Morten Tønnessen
* Deputy chair: Kristin Armstrong Oma
* Secretary: Rhys Evans
* Webmaster: Rune Ellefsen
* Member of the board: Frode Bakke Bjerkevik
* Member of the board: Runar Næss [later withdrew]
Regulations and an activity plan for 2012 were decided on. According to the mission statement, MAN will function as a bridge between academia and activism, and provide a Norwegian forum for the interdisciplinary field that studies human-animal relations, environmental issues included. MAN aims to facilitate discussion between the various interests in this rapidly growing field of research in a way that will improve the status of non-human animals and increase understanding of Man as a natural being.
Among the substantial decisions were these:
* MAN will be a member organization (with annual and lifetime membership)
* MAN will arrange an annual research seminar; and supports and will get involved in Kristian Bjørkdahl's (SUM, UiO) broad HAS conference initiative, which aims to establish an annual conference series involving researchers, activists and people with a livelihood in animal husbandry etc.
* MAN will occasionally produce letters to the editor and chronicles
* MAN will occasionally produce hearing statements (submit "høringsuttalelser" to Norwegian ministeries etc.)
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