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| Arielle Wagenknecht
Geneva, Switzerland
Age: 60-69 |
Nominated as:
Nominated by: |
Member
Swiss Association |
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| Professional
Field and/or present occupation |
Hospital Manager/Public Health Consultant, retired
IFUW representative at UN |
| Skills and experience in membership recruitment and development that
qualify you for this position: |
As a Member of the IFUW Membership Committee for
the last three years, I have been the person responsible
for making links with IFUW's European associations and federations.
I have been pleased to visit a dozen countries and to meet
the leaders of these NFAs. This has created bonds of friendship
with members and facilitated and strengthened links with
IFUW. I have also contacted individual members who wished
to create national associations and provided them useful
information to start their own associations. This is a long-term
task which requires continuity and I hope to be able to
continue this work in the next triennium. |
| Other skills and experience (volunteer and professional) from the last 10 years which qualify you for this position |
I am president of the Geneva branch of ASFDU and
have been working for many years to improve recruitment
of members and in particular of young members. I have worked
to improve our communication network and to circulate information
through to the members. I have organised debates, courses
and workshops and have just completed the revision of the
Regulations of our association. Having created a group of
young members in Geneva, we are developing new activities
such as mentoring, giving a "Prize of Excellence"
and implementing many activities in common with the University
of Geneva. |
| Goals for this position and the contribution you believe you can personally make if elected or appointed |
If elected, I would like to develop policies and
programmes that encourage membership growth, strengthen
and support existing NFAs, encourage the formation of new
NFAs and study trends in higher education that may affect
membership of IFUW. |
| What do you see as the main obstacles to membership recruitment and
retention and what can the Membership Committee do to help overcome these? |
Firstly I note that the ageing of the members and
the lack of interest of the young women in associations
such as ours, are serious obstacles to the development of
our associations.
The heaviness of our structures and the length of time between
the decisions being taken on the level of the IFUW and their
application at the national level, even local level, are
also negative factors.
Lastly, I have noted that our young members especially seek
networking opportunities, and ways to support their careers
as well as financial support for their studies. However
our local associations are rather directed towards offering
activities that current members like, such as conferences,
debates, etc. The offers of grants would get the attention
of younger members but associations find it difficult to
find the required amount of money, especially year after
year.
The Committee must be available to NFAs to suggest possible
actions to increase membership and to share with them the
positive practices of other NFAs. Personal contacts with
the leaders of NFAs are always beneficial. |
| 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? |
It is important to target the young women in the
last year of university training and to give information
and application forms to them so that they can join IFUW.
Regular contacts with the universities should make it possible
to solve the problem of accessing the lists of names of
graduating students. Another target group could be university
women who have recently arrived in a country, for example,
those who are re-settling because of change of job or those
that are accompanying a companion. |
| Education: |
University of Geneva, Switzerland 1978
Licence en psychologie clinique |
| Mother
tongue: |
French |
| Ability
to speak English: |
Excellent |
| Ability
to understand spoken English: |
Excellent |
| Ability
to read English: |
Excellent |
| Ability
to write English: |
Excellent |
| Other
languages: |
Italian, excellent
German, good
Spanish, some |
| 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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