Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.....If you wish to SEND a report...send to your ICA contact person OR...go to the members section on the ICAI website

Weekending: Saturday 2008 05 31

BANGLADESH:

Location: Dhaka

Office Manangement Taskforce team decided in their monthly meeting on 23 May 2008 to publish its official newsletter in June 2008. Aziz and Delwar will mainly be responsible for editorial work. Alamgir and Naimul will collect write up and provide logistics.The taskforce also discussed about the social artistry training offered by ICA Nepal in June. Based on Tatwa's confirmation 10 staffs are expected to join the course.

Aziz is now in the ICA National Staff Training Program in montréal, Canada attending 6 week-long event along with national ICA staffs. He greeted from there to all colleagues. He just finished 1st week ending with ICA history, philosophy, methods training facilitated by Jo Nelson from Toronto and Swamp Gravy with Joy and Karen from USA. The group is leaving on 1st June for New Burnswick for attending a conference in Falls Brook Center and community work in very rural areas. On 4th week they will be in work placement in Montréal. Aziz is expecting to be in the Mc Gill University Policy Institute.

Naimul           admin@ica-bangladesh.org

ICA ASSOCIATES INC. (Canada)

Location: Canada

Duncan Holmes traveled to Vancouver to teach Group Facilitation and Meetings That Work
to full houses.

John Miller facilitated a 2 day workshop with an Ontario Government department.

Bill Staples taught Group Facilitation with a group from a public health department.

Jo Nelson spent the week in Montréal where she taught ICA's methods and history to a group of people from ICA's around the world.

Wayne Nelson completed the first stage of a prototype website focused on ToP Facilitation. This is a global website to promote ToP facilitation around the world. Please visit at
http://ica-associates.ca/topfacilitation.

Please send your comments and ideas to improve it to wnelson@ica-associates.ca

Wayne Nelson           

NEPAL:

Location: Nepal

This week we have a huge change in the country. We are moving towards being republic from kingship after 240 years of rule of king. King has been replaced by the new system as we will have republican government. We are celebrating this even as the government has given 3 days of public holiday.

ICA Nepal staff are busy on facilitating local community in far western part of Nepal on constructing low cost toilets, soak pits and improved cookstoves. They are also conducting series of interactions on development and social mobilization issues. MISEREOR has been supporting ICA Nepal for the last 7 years to carry out a series of development activities in the country.

We are also observing World Environment Day coming week. ICA is also conducting some programmes on this occasion. Tatwa has been interviewed by a popular national fortnight magazine which has a circulation of 100,000 copies on Nepal's role on carbon issues since this year's slogan is related to carbon and its impact. This week we also submitted a proposal to IFAD. The two year long project has a budget of US  $240,000.

Tatwa           ica@icanep.wlink.com.np

UNITED STATES:

Location: Chicago

 
Karen Sims, Director of Resource Development  

The Institute of Cultural Affairs USA is pleased to announce that Karen Sims has joined the staff of ICA USA as its Director of Resource Development.

For the last five years Karen Sims has been the Director of Development for the Schools of St. Benedict. It is the only preK - grade 12 complex in the Archdiocese of Chicago. The Archdiocese has three schools, two boards, two Development Committees, two Parent Clubs, numerous and separate fundraising events, annual fund campaigns, major gift societies, and bequest planned giving efforts. Prior to that she started and managed a fundraising consulting firm since 1998.

For a decade prior to that Karen was the Vice President of Development for the 500 member Executive Service Corps. The Corps is an association of retired senior executives and is the largest nonprofit management consulting organization to other nonprofits, public schools, and government units in the country. In the Chicago area it works with more than 200 nonprofits a year. Karen was responsible for creating an environment that generated goodwill, clients, and both contributed and earned income from corporations, foundations, board members, individuals, friends and volunteers. She applied her trade at DePaul University where she was Director of the 56,000 member national alumni association.

Along the way she became an entrepreneur and was a partner in a consulting firm that specialized in financial marketing. Everywhere that Karen has worked has become more effective and more financially sound because of her tenure.  Karen is an active member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Archdiocesan Development Council, Donors Forum and the Association Forum. She is a trained and certified Lay Minster in the Archdiocese of Chicago. She has conducted Synectics' Innovation Workshops to solve nonprofit organizations' management dilemmas.

Karen has also written a regularly featured Development column for the newsletters of the National Association of Lay Ministers and the National Association of Women Business Owners. In addition, she is a graduate of Chicago's Second City Training Center in both improvisation and comedy writing and holds a BA from DePaul University.  Karen is married and they have one adult daughter.

Cheryl Zaleski           czaleski@ica-usa.org

ICAI:

Location: Montréal

 
Jo Nelson leading the group in Social Process  

This week kicked off the beginning of the 2008 International Training Program for Leadership in Human Development program. The team at ICAI had the pleasure of spending some time with each of the participants as they arrived, but we all got a chance to sit down for the first time together over breakfast on Monday morning. We’re so pleased that Meghan Cox from ICA Canada and Carmen Ruiz from ICA Peru could be here with the other international participants so early in their ICA careers. Welcome!

The past five days have been full of laughter and learning. Jo Nelson confidently took on the challenge of providing an overview of the rich history, philosophy and methods of ICA about community development. Joy Jinks and Karen Kimbrel from Swamp Gravy came up from Colquitt, Georgia to animate a story gathering workshop on Wednesday. The workshop was topped off by an evening meal with all the participants, staff, visitors and our cherished volunteers, followed by a performance by the workshop participants that combined all of their stories into one hilarious play entitled The ICA Play New Beginnings.

The participants are off on Saturday for the Falls Brook Centre in New Brunswick for the second week of their training. Those of us who are staying behind are definitely going to miss them in the office, but we know they are going to have a great time and learn a lot.

Just a quick reminder that if you would like to send messages or encouraging words to ICA members attending the participants please email us info@ica-international.org.  We will read out your message during the training sessions.  For more information, please have a look at the ILHD program webpage http://ica-international.org/training.htm

And here is one of the first pictures of the event.

Jane           jane.leeke@ica-international.org