SI NEWS 2005 en EXCOReports
From SI Exco News
A review of the year from the top along with ideas and hopes for the future.
President - Geoff Maltby
I am one of six people on the Executive Committee (Exco) of Servas International (S.I.). who are responsible for the day to day running of S.I. between one General Assembly and the next. We are scattered all over the globe – Australia, Canada, Italy, Nepal, Turkey and USA. Our main communication is by email but we can 'teleconference’. We held our first ‘face to face’ meeting 3rd to 9th November 2004 in Paris. I believe our meeting in Paris was a most successful one. Many issues were discussed and resolved. There are still issues that require the attention of Exco over the coming months and with that in mind we have formulated an ‘Action Plan’. Some plans include:
- To introduce an International Peace Plan for Servas in
consultation with Servas Member Groups.
- To develop an outreach from Servas to members of the
United Nations non-government organizations.
- To specify clearly, the scopes, motivations and guidelines
and principles for the General Assembly.
- To introduce an Educational Plan so all National
Secretaries have enough preparation concerning issues to be discussed and voted on for the next General Assembly.
- To address and solve the issues raised by the Audit
Committee of Servas International and for Exco to work efficiently within the guidelines set out by the various Servas International Committees.
- To set up a ‘legal panel’ of Servas members whose
responsibility will be to examine the Statutes of Servas International, provide Exco with a clear, consistent set of Statutes for Exco to send out to all National Secretaries for evaluation, have it voted on at the next General Assembly. There is a lot of work ahead for us and other members of Servas but with the continued spirit, dedication and enthusiasm we have encountered in our short term on Exco, then I sincerely believe that there is a great future for this organization that we all love, called ‘SERVAS’.
General Secretary - Honora Clemens
As the General Secretary, I want to have a forum available to express openly the diverse opinions of Servas people, because I believe that only with open correspondence can we grow, only with open communication can we work together, only with harmonious understandings developed through exchanges of thought can we build peace. Therefore I am pleased that as a member of the EXCO team we have a new website which is open to the public. Members are encouraged to visit it to learn many kinds of important information. Currently the past EXCO Newsletters are on the site. The November and December EXCO Newsletters will be there soon. The minutes of the meetings in Paris, the Audit report and the results of elections are only a few of the items people will be able to read when they visit www.siexco.org . It is even possible the "Distant Vote", (a procedure for making delegate decisions between conferences) will be handled on this website. I am excited by the potential of such a positive vehicle.
Vice President - Bibendra Pradhananga
As Vice President and Development Coordinator the statue of SI indicates the following responsibilities.
- a. Perform the functions of the President in the
absence or incapacity of the President;
- b. Be responsible for the development and
strengthening of national Servas groups;
- c. Keep broadly informed about the work of the
Area Coordinators, represent their interests in the Executive Committee.;
- d. Perform such other functions as shall be
delegated by the President or General Assembly. During my tenure as VP in last thee years, I was able to achieve most of that. Of course during that time we had our ups and down. I made good friends on the way, many came forward to support & came up with very good and useful suggestions. In my second term I hope to improve Servas in all ways possible but for that I will need all of your continuing support and valuable suggestions. I want to emphasize on involving more young people in work camps & other Servas activities. I am also concentrating in delivering on this task, which the voting delegates of the Servas world have entrusted to me.
Host Secretary - Claudio Pacchiega
My primary task has been to phase into the tasks of new EXCO, the specific role of Host List Coordinator.
- 1.Ordinary Administration (Key list and Host list))
The Key List group is keeping note of all references and exact addresses of each Country. This important task needs a lot of resources but is vital to keep contact with every country in the Servas International Network. The Host List Quality group is trying to promote a good level of accuracy and reliability of the host list in each country. I started the annual Host list Request Form for helping the production and distribution of Host lists among each country. We helped some countries to have proper host lists and are studying a way for helping African and South American countries in producing and distributing their lists with a buddy project. Projects are in their initial phases, and we will report in the next year.
- 2.Paris Action Plan, information and “education".
From the consultations taken in Paris at beginning of November an interesting activity plan has been devised for improving Servas and helping find a good way for dealing with current problems without open confrontation but instead using sensitive cooperation and team work. My personal contribution is setting up the www.siexco.org/wiki website which will use cooperative tools like wikipedia for spreading information (like Statutes, assembly operations, documentation) and promote cooperation. Neither of these tasks can be accomplished by the limited number of people currently working on it. I’ll be glad if anybody with time, interest and capacities, can volunteer to help specifying which area he/she is willing to promote. Things can be done in Servas only when decided and worked collectively and not just bottlenecked by one person.
Peace Secretary - Gary Sealey
Many in Servas distinguish us from the friendship and travel clubs by our commitment to Peace. Are you surprised that only one in four Servas groups have appointed Peace Secretaries? Servas has UN observers in only three countries, although there are UN programmes/agencies in most Servas countries. Would you volunteer as Peace Secretary or Servas UN ambassador? This builds a team for a welcoming face on Servas. I can send you a suggested job description. It is flexible, every country and every region is different, I respect those differences. I discovered 5 different Peace approaches in Servas:
- First, are peaceful Servas individuals, working
toward a kind of interior Peace.
- Second come individual travellers and hosts, whose
friendship produces mutual understanding.
- Third, Servas community activists promote
sustainable pathways to peace, such as at the UN, in Human Rights, and Disarmament.
- Fourth, very few focus on Peace-Building, changing
human relations, a founding concept for Servas.
- Fifth, many opposed to peace activism in Servas,
several do not even want an SI Peace Secretary! Servas could grow by attracting as Servas travellers and hosts individual members of peace and justiceseeking organizations. About 3,000 volunteer groups watch the UN, like Servas (Roster Status). Servas should welcome the interns, co-op students, travel staff who work for these groups, many of whom have never heard of Servas. As SI Peace Sec, I encourage this outreach. To support it, we need help and teamwork. Your suggestions for a global campaign to focus these invitations are welcome.
To all: thank you, for your encouragement -- your help is welcome and valued.
Treasurer - Ömer Özkan
Ömer's job as treasurer involves ensuring that the stamp fees are collected from every country, keeping the bank accounts in order, ensuring that payments are made when needed. To do this he needs to anticipate the income for the oncoming year and prepare a budget for that year along with potential budgets for future years. As part of his job he works with the Audit Committee to ensure that everyone is satisfied as to the way the Finance is run. And for the future Ömer says 'I hope to see Peace and “young” (All those who are reading this, you are all young) activities in the Center of Servas. We are trying to create a strong organization with its principles, a well organized and educated organization. the Spanish conference shows us we need an education plan.'
Peace in Servas Peace in the World,
