Chairman's Letter March 2008

Dear Friends,

We have just returned from a busy Asia Pacific Regional Committee Meeting in Singapore, where we welcomed Ruchira Jayasinghe, Febe Marl Paat and Normala Baharudin to the Team, but sadly said farewell to Mei and Nirmala from the staff.

We wish them well as they move on to take up new challenges and thank them for the contribution they made during their time with the Committee.

The process of appointing a new Regional Director by the Bureau is occurring and the applications for Development Executive will also be called for in the coming weeks, so do keep an eye for these and tell others if you know of anyone who meets the requirements.

Until these positions are in place Ching Ching is Acting Regional Director, although she too is in the process of relocating as she is moving with her family to Australia. So, if we do not respond
quickly enough to your enquires in the next little while please bear with us.

We were all warmly welcomed by Singapore Girl Guides and we thank Yvonne Lim, the Chief Commissioner and Jessie Tan, Deputy Chief Commissioner and International Commissioner, for
ensuring we were well cared for during our stay. We felt very privileged to have been able to share with 8000 members of Girl Guides Singapore at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on World
Thinking Day.

We also joined with the International Award Association (IAA) one afternoon for A Forum for Girls in Leadership organised by the National Youth Achievement Award which took place after the signing of a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the Asia Pacific Region WAGGGS and the Asia Pacific Region IAA where we have agreed to support each other and facilitate
access to the award for the benefit of the girls in the age range from 14-25.

During the meeting we did considerable work on the Asia Pacific Operational Plan, using document 7 from the World Board papers. This was to ensure our objectives will continue to support the goals of WAGGGS in the coming Triennium.

Unfortunately due to budget restraints not all actions agreed at the 9th Asia Pacific Regional Conference can be carried out and we had to agree objectively which ones to remove. In order to fund some activities we have to use some of our reserves. You will receive a revised Asia Pacific Operational Plan and understand more clearly when you receive the WAGGGS Strategic plan document for discussion at the World Conference.

Our Region is so fortunate to have the Support of Friends of Asia Pacific WAGGGS, and their amazing fundraising contribution that continues to enable us to support so many activities and projects in the Region. Thank you Friends, on behalf of everyone, for all the work you have done and the support you have given throughout this triennium. Mariko and I are looking forward to the opportunity to thank you in person when we share with you at the General Assembly in Taiwan in April.

Cluster Contacts

As a result of the comments many of you made in our survey on Clusters it was decided that we will no longer operate in Cluster groupings. However we will continue to have a designated contact person appointed from the Committee, but as you will see by the list that follows we have endeavoured to broaden the horizon of the Committee members as well and not restrict them to similar groupings of Member Organizations. In this way we believe that we, as Committee members, will be able to contribute more to the discussions and decisions that need to be made across the Region.

The Contact person also may not be the people doing Partnership Visits (PVs) in the country, thus allowing us to make better use of the skills of the Committee members. We will still endeavour to have two people attending Partnership Visits wherever possible.

Contact person are as follows:
Nighat: India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Cambodia, Pacific Islands (shared with June)
Mariko: Australia, Thailand, Brunei, Maldives
Febe: New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka
Normala: Nepal, Pakistan, Korea, Philippines,
Ruchira: Japan, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Hong Kong.

I hope you will stay in close contact with your Cluster Contact as it is our commitment to support you in any way we can, so we need to know what is happening in your Member Organization in order to be able to do this, and although an annual report is no longer required by the World Bureau, we would appreciate an update of activities prior to our annual Committee meetings.

Partnership Visits

These visits will continue in the next triennium and we have extended the time frame to be at least 4-6 days, as many of you asked. The Partnership Visits in Nepal and India will continue to
be done in partnership with Asia Pacific WOSM.

In the Pacific Islands the Board approved a trial of what we are calling the Pacific Strategy which will mean a change in the way visits are conducted and hopefully allow greater contact and support in the area. Thank you to Kiribati and Papua New Guinea for replying and making contributions for us to consider in our discussion.

Asia Pacific Leaders Awards

275 Asia Pacific Leaders Awards were ratified for Unit Leaders and Commissioners and a new category added for the next triennium to recognize the exceptional service given by staff and
volunteers who are not leaders or Commissioners. New guidelines will be emailed to you and also uploaded on to the Asia Pacific micro site.

However please remember that 30 November is the closing date for ALL Nominations to arrive to the Bureau.

It is also important when applying for awards, scholarships, etc. to ensure that the criteria are being met as it is disappointing to have to refuse when it is not.

Asia Pacific Young Leaders Scholarship

The Asia Pacific Young Leaders Scholarship 2008 has been awarded to Sumera Yunus from Pakistan and Caroline Moana from Cook Islands and we congratulate these young women.

Due to continuing poor response this Scholarship will be discontinued in the next triennium, but providing financial assistance will still be considered for young women under the age of 35 to attend International Events.

Asia Pacific Project 3L

Two projects will be funded this year - Cambodia and Mongolia, but again there is concern regarding the lack of applications, and not meeting the criteria required.

AP Resource Pool

A Resource Pool of people with specific skills will be established for the next triennium and will replace the existing Training Pool as it is hoped that a wider pool of skilled people will be able to
provide even more support. Nominations will be called for later in the year so please nominate people according to the criteria for this exciting opportunity to share all manner of skills. We of course are indebted to our Training Pool Members who have worked so hard this triennium and I thank Cathy Chiu, Norma Valencia, Tek Mohamad Noor and Tahira Ahmed, for the great contribution they have made during their term.

We also thank Valaikorn Phromyothi who has worked closely with Mariko as the WAGGGS ECOSOC Liaison. Her term has been extended until December 2011.

Friends of Asia Pacific WAGGGS (FAPW), 30% benefit FAPW Hong Kong and FAPW Taiwan have collected over US$10,000 in membership fees and their respective proposal to use 30 per cent of the amount for their Member Organization’s project was ratified by the Committee.

Still to come

This year...
The World Conference in July with the documents arriving now. REAP Seminar for girls 14 to 16 years old is in December. Circular 1 has been distributed and Circular 2 will be going out in May so it would be wonderful if we could have every country in Asia Pacific represented.

In the coming triennium...
The Asia Pacific Region will celebrate its 40th anniversary and we are planning to hold the Asia Pacific Regional Summit cum 40th Anniversary Celebration in 2009.

We hope to share more information with you at the Regional Gathering at the World Conference and answer any questions you may have. If you have any topics you would like included in this time then please let one of us know.

We also hope to hear how you plan to celebrate 100 years of  Guiding. The WAGGGS’ theme for this will be launched at the World Conference. Sadly, because of financial constraints all of our Committee will not be there, but we hope that you will have the opportunity to meet the new Regional Director when we share together.

Looking forward to seeing you at the World Conference.

Best wishes