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| Nezihe Bilhan
Istanbul, Turkey
Age: 60-69 |
Nominated as:
Nominated by: |
Member
Turkish Association |
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| Professional
Field and/or present occupation |
As the spouse of a life-time career diplomat, I represented
Turkey alongside
my husband in various countries. Post retirement I worked
for the Republican People's Party - Turkey' foremost social
democratic political party - as the chairperson of the women's
branch of the district of Sisli, Istanbul. Currently I am
the CIR and Scholarship Comittee Coordinator of Turkish University
Women's Association.
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| Skills and experience in membership recruitment and development that
qualify you for this position: |
As the chairperson of the Women's Branch (Sisli
District) of the Republican People's Party I organized many
meetings with the help of volunteers to explain the party's
platform. I also pulled together working groups of women
to spread the word of the party - together we visited thousands
of houses monthly before the last local elections in 2009,
focusing on undecided voters. Many of my volunteers became
friends and members of the Party.
The second and more recent example relates to a project
that I personally started from ground zero and am running
with the support of two other associations: 'Friendship
Bridge' aims to help University girls(students) mostly coming
from rural parts of Turkey. Our members are trying to help
the girls to get used to their new urban environment and
help them become well-adjusted mature citizens, who will
succeed as university students and graduates. We try to
match these young women with people who can provide them
with guidance in their studies and in shaping their future
lives. |
| Other skills and experience (volunteer and professional) from the last 10 years which qualify you for this position |
I have always had a passion for charitable work and
as the spouse of a diplomat I had the fortune to be involved
in charity work in many parts of the world including
Africa. In each of our postings I joined various charitable
organizations working to help people in need. With the encouragement
of my husband who has always been my greatest support we
opened our residencial compounds for various charitable
functions. Independent of religious and racial affiliations,
I have always concentrated my efforts on women and children. |
| Goals for this position and the contribution you believe you can personally make if elected or appointed |
If I am elected I would very much like to work on
projects to attract more young women to our Federation.
Associations such as Rotarians and Lions offer associate
and/or student memberships. We could similarly offer women
who are still continuing their studies initiation opportunities
to our federation and into our member associations. In Turkey
our branches provide 600 university students with scholarships.
They would be an excellent starting point.
We should also consider initiatives to assist NFAs with
very small numbers of members to grow their presence.
Last but not least, retention of existing members deserves
considerable effort and focus. |
| What do you see as the main obstacles to membership recruitment and
retention and what can the Membership Committee do to help overcome these? |
In my experience members remain more committed to
a cause or an organization
when they feel that they are personally part of the organization's
success. Members need to have meaningful opportunities to
contribute to the organization's goal. The membership committee
should actively develop strategies to ensure that all members,
whether they can contribute a little or a lot , can find
areas to participate. |
| What do you see as the target audiences for recruitment drives for IFUW at the national and local level and how can IFUW best diversify its membership? |
IFUW should look at projects and initiatives that
will provide NFAs tangible and specific opportunites for
participation. Meaningful results of such tangible initiatives
will encourage more global participation. Scaled campaigns
- such as 'University Women Against Plastic Bags in 2010
' rather than just the broader environmental protection
theme - might provide more immediate results and a feeling
of accomplishment. Such simple themes may also result in
an opportunity for participation by members of a diversity
of NFAs that may not have large resources. A broad scale
participation even in a fairly simple project would result
in more recognition of our organization and therefore assisting
both national and local associations to recruit more members. |
| Education: |
Bachelor of Arts, Library Sciences, Ankara University,
1965-1969 |
| Mother
tongue: |
Turkish |
| Ability
to speak English: |
Excellent |
| Ability
to understand spoken English: |
Excellent |
| Ability
to read English: |
Excellent |
| Ability
to write English: |
Good |
| Other
languages: |
German and French (limited) |
| Computer
skills: |
Considerable
experience sending e-mail and using the Internet |
| Internet
Access: |
Regular access to e-mail at home or the office |
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