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| Beatrice Christensen Sköld
Stockolm, Sweden
Age: 60-69 |
Nominated as:
Nominated by: |
Member
Swedish Association |
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| Professional
Field and/or present occupation |
I was head of Research & Development at
the Swedish national library for print disabled until the
end of 2007. I retired in January 2008 and have since
then been writing my thesis about the Education of Blind Women
1879-1923. |
| Skills and experience in membership recruitment and development that
qualify you for this position: |
Before the present President of the United States,
Barack H. Obama, launched his"we can" I had a
similar catchword "Never say we can't".
For KAF that has meant that the organization now has received
government grants for the years 2009 and 2010. I have
also taken the initiative for establishing an International
Committee where we discuss matters concerning women's rights
of global, the follow up of CEDAW in Sweden etc. Part
of the tasks of the International Committee is to intensify
KAF's participation in IFUW. The committee started
its' work in January this year.
KAF is a comparatively
small NFA but by marketing our organization and raising
the quality of our work we have managed to attract more
members. A minor issue but one that has been a success
was the leaflet made by the President of KAF and myself,
which has been handed out at conferences and other events.
I am also participating
in KANN - the Nordic Network of University Women that was
established in 2008 where I have acted as secretary.
The background of establishing this network is that we believe
we have common values and problems in the Nordic countries.
The first result of KANN's work was a workshop, Understanding
the mechanisms of the "leaky pipe", held during
the 6th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher
Education, held in Stockholm August 5-8 August 2009.
We now plan a seminar in September this year to be held
in Bergen, Norway. |
| Other skills and experience (volunteer and professional) from the last 10 years which qualify you for this position |
During the period 1994-2007 I was active in the IFLA
the selection of Libraries for the Blind. I was elected
chair four times. IFLA stands for International Federation
for Library Associations and institutions. As in any
other, NGO membership had a high priority. Due to
marketing and a regular newsletter we were able to reach
out to new members. The newsletter was published in
audio, Braille, inkprint and the web. I also took the iniative
to hold annual workshops n non-member countries which were
very rewarding . We got new members and new input.
As a professional
I worked with spreading literacy to people with a print
disability. Whereas the blind are frequent library
users, people with dyslexia almost panic when they hear
the word library. We started a marketing campaign
for the use of audio books for dyslectics which was a success.
Today this service is a common part of every public library
in Sweden. |
| Goals for this position and the contribution you believe you can personally make if elected or appointed |
• to spread information about the work of
IFUW.
• to stress the importance of international cooperation
• to find new ways to market IFUW
• to identify problems connected with membership
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| What do you see as the main obstacles to membership recruitment and
retention and what can the Membership Committee do to help overcome these? |
I think there are two main obstacles:
IFUW and the NFA’s compete with many other Women’s
organizations. By concentrating on the target group “University
women” and the education of girls the organization
can achieve much. There should never be too many goals,
better to keep to one or two and concentrate on those. In
universities and schools the target group is easier to reach
. Then identify the existing problems in those two areas;
concentrate on those. It is more difficult to find new members
in other parts of society.
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| 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? |
Same as above. Furthermore you have to attract
teachers and students by identifying what they think are
important issues . One issue the Swedish Association has
identified as being of great importance is what we call”
the Gender issue in the seminar”. How do the university/
college teacher/lecturer/Professor behave during a seminar.
Do they treat males and females differently in the teaching
situation? It is a matter of awareness. This is a way of
getting members at the local level. You also have to identify
political issues that are of importance for University women
and where you can influences an organisation. It can be
done by arranging open seminars or conferences. This way
you can increase members at the local level, thus create
a stable base for IFUW. |
| Education: |
Master of Arts 1971 (English,
Scandinavian Languages, General and Comparative history
of Literature)
Master of Social
Science 2002 (Ethnology, Pedagogy, including history of
Pedagogy)
On-going PhD studies
- will be completed June 1st 2010
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| Mother
tongue: |
Swedish |
| Ability
to speak English: |
Excellent |
| Ability
to understand spoken English: |
Excellent |
| Ability
to read English: |
Excellent |
| Ability
to write English: |
Good |
| Other
languages: |
Danish,
good
German, good
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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