UNGEGN Norden Division Meeting
8 May 2009, Nairobi

Minutes of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN)
Norden Division meeting, Friday 8 May 2009 in UNON, United Nations Office in Nairobi.

Present

Mr. Peder Gammeltoft, Denmark, Chair
Mr. John Jensen, Denmark
Mr. Teemu Leskinen, Finland
Mr. Johnny Andersen, Norway
Mr. Botolv Helleland, Norway
Ms. Annette Torensjö, Sweden
Mr. Leif Nilsson, Sweden
Mr. Staffan Nyström, Sweden

1. Opening of the meeting

Peder Gammeltoft (PG) welcomed everyone and opened the meeting. John Jensen (JJ) was elected Keeper of Minutes and the Meeting Agenda was subsequently accepted.

2. Norden Division Homepage

a) Overview of development
PG presented a status report on the Norden Division homepage and urged all participants to scrutinise the homepage and submit necessary additions and corrections to PG.

b) Publications of different name projects in the ND-countries
It was suggested that an overview of digital projects concerning geographical names should be added to the homepage. It was also recommended that all Nordic ”Toponymic Guidelines” should  be linked from the Norden Division homepage, as well as on the official UNGEGN-homepage. Until they have been given an official national url-address, the link on the Norden Division homepage may link to the document published on the UNGEGN-homepage. It was also discussed if there should be links on the Norden Division-homepage to other homepages relating to the subject of geographical names.

It was also suggested that the papers presented by Norden Division members could be made available from the Norden Division homepage, although probably no further back than the 2007 UNGEGN Conference in New York.

3. Norden Division Project idea: A minority names database/application

All Norden Division countries – apart from Iceland – have one or more minority languages.
It could, therefore, be a sensible ND-backed project to develop an internet application of minority language geographical names within the Norden Division area. A possible development of such an application involves a joint Nordic cooperation. In the light of this, it could be possible to secure financial support from funds or other interested parties for development of the application.

It was stressed the aim should be an internet application rather than a database structure on its own. The application could possibly be built according to the ”INSPIRE-model”. Some pros and cons of using this model was also discussed, and it was agreed to await further progress of the project and wait until INSPIRE has been established. Similarly, the financial conditions in connection with the use of INSPIRE-model is not known.

A similar minority geographical names project is being undertaken at the university of Tromsø in Norway and it should be investigated what the exact nature of this project is.
This agenda point will be resumed at our next meeting.

4. Next Norden Division Meeting

It was agreed that the next Norden Division Meeting should preferably be held in the autumn of 2010. Several meeting options were discussed:

a)  A meeting in Uppsala for only the Norden Division. 
b)  A meeting in relation to the annual meeting between the Norwegian Mapping Authority (Statens Kartverk) and the Norwegian Language Council (Språkrådet) in Oslo.
c)  It was also suggested that the Norden Division Meeting could be held in connection with the meeting to be held by the UNGEGN Working Group on Toponymic Data Files and Gazetters in september 2010.

The Norden Division Chair will look into the possibilies and will keep everyone informed of developments in the form, time and place for the coming Norden Division Meeting.

5. Any other business

The chair, Peder Gammeltoft, closed the meeting.

Keeper of minutes: John Jensen