Björn Vrooman Dec 20, 2019:

PS Where it gets a bit difficult is (außer)ordentliche Bundestag, which is also in Sebastian's text. I didn't read some of it thoroughly enough, I suppose. So it can be both the group and the sessions, as you suggested. Such complicated questions on a Friday!

Björn Vrooman Dec 20, 2019:

Hello Daniel "...is sometimes a bit fuzzier in English usage than it is in German." I agree, which is why I'm having a hard time explaining this, I admit. The following could perhaps be a good example of what I mean.

Let's assume it says das Gremium or der Bundestag beschloss...

I'd expect to see something similar to "...it was decided at the meeting that the Bank should take any action..." http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/11/section/14?view=... should you choose meeting, but "...the council decided he was adequately housed and..." https://www.lgo.org.uk/information-centre/news/2018/jun/coun... should you go for council.

Considering the, say, personification of Bundestag in Sebastian's example ("Er legte 1904 den Beitritt zur FIFA und 20 Jahre später zum Deutschen Sport-Bund fest. Er übernahm 1906 auf Verlangen der FIFA die englischen Spielregeln,..."), I'd choose something that could easily be used as the subject of the sentence.

Best and enjoy your day!

Daniel Williams Dec 20, 2019:

Hello Björn Thank you for clarifying that; now I understand your point. I agree a lot of this comes down to phrasing, especially because the distinction between the actual body (the 'Gremium') and its meeting/session is sometimes a bit fuzzier in English usage than it is in German.

Björn Vrooman Dec 20, 2019:

As Oxford's collocations dictionary tells us, an assembly, as in a group of people, can indeed be formed: http://www.freecollocation.com/search?word=assembly

You won't find anything close to bilden under meeting:
http://www.freecollocation.com/search?word=meeting

And the LDOCE likewise says: "an event at which people meet to discuss and decide things"
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/meeting

Thus, as said, I'd agree with assembly, which is, by the way, what the DFB calls it, I think. What I'm trying to say is that people shouldn't get confused by the "tage" bit. The Bundestag is the lower house of parliament in Germany. They meet, of course, but the Bundestag itself is a group, not a meeting.

Likewise, Gremien who are present at a company's AGM may be committees, or the shareholders. Maybe others do, but I'm reluctant to call this a Gremium.

I realize that my explanation may not be convincing enough. I merely think that when you read what Sebastian linked to, you may agree that you'd have to rephrase quite a bit if you chose one of the three suggestions I mentioned below.

Best wishes

Björn Vrooman Dec 20, 2019:

Hello Daniel First off, thank you for the response! My point was that congress, session and meeting are types of events.

They may run for several days, but they are not what you call Gremien; meetings, sessions and the like are occasions for a Gremium to come together and debate a range of issues. I should note that I don't disagree with assembly.

As I don't like linguee, I'll use two monolingual dictionaries. Duden:
"zur Erfüllung einer bestimmten Aufgabe gebildete Gruppe von Expert(inn)en; beschlussfassende Körperschaft; Ausschuss"
https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Gremium

Ex.:
"ein internationales Gremium von Fachleuten
ein Gremium bilden
einem Gremium angehören
in einem Gremium mitarbeiten"

The first example on the list may be a bit wobbly, but the others should make it pretty clear: You can convene a meeting, but you can hardly "form" one (you can form a group, though) and set up a meeting is not the same as Gremium bilden. The same is true for congress.

Assembly, though, fits the bill: "a group of people who are elected to make decisions or laws for a particular country, area, or organization"
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/assembly

Note that I chose sense 1, not 2.

Daniel Williams Dec 20, 2019:

@ Björn re: Gremium 'National Council' would also work, but I am not sure I agree with your logic on 'Gremium'. The German term has a very specific meaning, but there is no simple equivalent for that meaning in English. My understanding is that a "Gremium" is effectively any body authorised to take decisions. If I am right on that, 'congress', 'meeting' or 'session' (as would 'committee' or 'board.' For example both the Chinese Communist Party and the Church of Scotland have 'General Assemblies' whose primary purposes is to make decisions - so they could both be referred to as 'Gremien' in German (see also https://www.linguee.com/german-english/translation/Gremium.h...

I am straying off-topic though - bottom line is that 'National Council' is a good translation!

Björn Vrooman Dec 19, 2019:

PS https://www.dfb.de/verbandsstruktur/
https://www.ussoccer.com/governance

Björn Vrooman Dec 19, 2019:

@Sebastian I don't like what's on offer, simply because the Bundestag is a Gremium, which per definitionem cannot be a meeting, a session or a congress.

You need American English? Why didn't you take a look at the Wikipedia page about the United States Soccer Federation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Soccer_Federatio...

There's a board of directors (Präsidium or Vorstand?) and a national council (Bundestag?):
"The national council is the representative membership body of the federation. It elects the president and vice president, amends the bylaws, approves the budgets, decides on policies adopted by the board, and affirms actions of the Board."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Soccer_Federatio...

Compare:
"Neben der Wahl des Präsidiums und Vorstands beschließt der Bundestag unter anderem die Satzung und die Ordnungen des DFB."

Best