Message from the IFUW President

It was my pleasure to attend the CFUW Annual General Meeting “From Grassroots to the Future - Des Débuts jusqu’à l’Avenir”, held in Winnipeg, Canada 19th - 24th August 2009.

From the time of arrival until leaving, IFUW was treated with respect and appreciation. The highlights for me were the focused programme and the strong debates about advocacy issues that are keenly proposed for national consideration by the regions in the Canadian Federation.

Key events included:

• First time attendees breakfast where the business procedures and other features of CFUW meetings were explained while we met other first time attendees.
• “Wisdom from our Sisters” Interactive Panel of five outstanding women leaders discussing their challenges and achievements.
• The Charitable Trust breakfast where a CFUW Fellowship winner from 2006-2007 spoke about her research on healthful residential environments.
• A speech at the final evening banquet by Kim Jasper, the Director of Marketing and Partnerships for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. This is a stunning public /private partnership, with a spectacular building - www.humanrightsmuseum.ca.

The Visible Voice Workshops covered a range of topics. Kathleen Laurila (WG-USA CIR), Phyllis Scott (IFUW Vice-President) and I presented a workshop chaired by Ardith Toogood (CFUW CIR). We spoke about IFUW and the power of women worldwide. We covered the past history and raison d’être for IFUW, the present strategic direction and advocacy work in the four United Nations’ centres. We also spoke about the future, the website, available material and friendship possibilities. Participants were surprised at the range of services and activities that IFUW was able to provide internationally in a focused and persistent way. We also shared the plans for the Triennial Conference in Mexico in August 2010. It was good to hear that many members are planning to attend and that some are planning to take family members with them to Mexico City.

Other workshops included Advocacy: Practical approaches for Clubs; Media, a hands-on workshop; Parliamentary procedure to help with running of meetings; a Club Presidents workshop to examine the role and responsibilities, expectations and opportunities involved in being a leader; and last but not least one on Resolutions exploring how to choose and research a topic for consideration at the Canadian AGM and what happens to these resolutions.

One outcome of the resolutions was a governance working party report which will go to clubs and regions for discussion. A core issue was communications and clarity of roles. Budgets and finance were challenges, as of course were membership recruitment and retention. It will be good to follow the progress of this major effort to move from a traditional to a new approach. Given the new technologies and work life balance challenges there will always be a need for change.

What a great opportunity to make new friends and meet up with old ones. Thank you to IFUW and CFUW for enabling me to attend. For more details see www.cfuw.org.

Louise Croot
IFUW President
September 2009