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ICAI Board Report:      February 01 2013

ICA International Board January Update

The new ICAI Board has met twice so far this year with a focus on completing its 2013 Business Plan and Budget.  The Business Plan, to be circulated by mid-February, includes historical and background information, overall strategic directions, objectives tailored to each Board role as well as general operations information for how the Board intends to run in the coming year.  The draft plan was circulated at the General Assembly in December where members voted yes to the Board proceeding with developing the broad strategic directions identified therein.

New ICAI Board President, Martin Gilbraith, and the Board have been actively working to set-up efficient communication and collaborative systems in an effort to set the stage for productive work as a new team and to assist the Board in achieving its 2013 objectives.  Tools such as DropBox, Adobe Connect, Skype, Google Drive and Doodle are all being explored and utilized to refine communications practices.  Board members are working to become more familiar with these tools not only for their work together, but also as part of the ongoing work to assist in improving peer-to-peer possibilities between ICAs.

The next monthly ICAI Board meeting will take place February 19th.

The Board would welcome contact from anyone with questions, comments or simply wishing to connect:

Martin Gilbraith, President: president@ica-international.org
Staci Kentish, Secretary: secretary@ica-international.org
Shankar Jadhav, Treasurer: treasurer@ica-international.org
Seva Ghandi, VP Communications: vp.comms@ica-international.org
Gerald Gomani, VP Africa, MENA, Europe: vp.eurafrica@ica-international.org
Isabel De La Maza, VP Americas: vp.americas@ica-international.org
Krishna Shrestha, VP Asia & Pacific: vp.asiapac@ica-international.org

Staci Kentish, Secretary: secretary@ica-international.org

ICAI Board Report:      January 01 2013

Happy New Year to ICAI members and ICA colleagues worldwide. I am excited and honoured to begin my term as ICAI President on January 1, and wanted to start the year with a brief message to the ICA global network on behalf of the new ICAI Board.

First of all, sincere thanks to my predecessor Larry Philbrook of ICA Taiwan, and to Kevin Balm of ICA Australia, Sabah Khalifa of ICA MENA in Egypt and Dick Alton of ICA USA, as they complete their terms and stand down now from the ICAI Board. Under Larry’s energetic and inclusive leadership over the past two years, ICA International has been transformed in line with the new ‘peer to peer’ approach agreed by the 2010 General Assembly in India. Also, that meeting’s decision to close the Montreal-based Secretariat has been effectively and responsibly executed. This has been no small or easy task, and I am grateful also to all those members and colleagues who have played their part – not least our colleagues in Canada who continue to provide invaluable financial and administrative support to ICAI, our creditors who have generously agreed to write off the loans they had made to support the Montreal operation, ICA Nepal for delivering an outstanding 8th Global Conference on Human Development in Kathmandu, and the publications team and Sisters of Virtual Facilitation who have done so much to renew and revitalise our global relationships through innovative new online forms of meetings and communications. ICAI now enters the New Year not only with a new President and Board, but with a clean slate and in a very strong position to consolidate and build on these achievements – in order to better advance human development worldwide through the efforts and activities of our members and wider network.

At the online General Assembly in December we presented the roles of the new Board, and a strategic framework and outline budget that were approved by the Assembly to guide the work of ICAI and the Board over the next two years 2013-14.

Shankar Jadhav of ICA India, Isabel de la Maza of ICA Chile and Gerald Gomani of ICA Zimbabwe will continue on the Board and serve respectively as Treasurer, Vice-President for the Americas and Vice-President for Africa, MENA & Europe. Newly elected Board members Saci Kentish of ICA Canada, Seva Gandhi of ICA USA, Krishna Shretha of ICA Australia, and I will serve respectively as Secretary, Vice-President for Communications, Vice-President for Asia Pacific and President.

The strategic framework identifies eight key areas by which we shall structure our own work, and facilitate and communicate members’ contributions by means of ICAI’s decentralized “peer to peer” approach:

1. Support & encourage existing & emerging ICAs to achieve & maintain statutory membership where possible, otherwise associate
2. Develop, maintain & promote effective means for online networking & collaboration among members & colleagues, synchronous & asynchronous
3. Facilitate peer to peer support & collaboration among members, including face-to-face networking, staff, programme & curriculum development, resource mobilization & institutional sustainability
4. Oversee & support global initiatives of members, eg: global conferencing, ToP worldwide expansion, journal & policy advocacy
5. Focus the messages & expand the reach of internal & external publications including website, Global Buzz and Winds & Waves
6. Renew & maintain global relationships on behalf of members, eg: UNICEF, ECOSOC, CIVICUS
7. Clarify and strengthen inclusive ICAI governance and operations - inclusive relative to geography, language, age, technology etc.
8. Engage members & colleagues to develop longer-term vision & strategy for global ICA movement & ICAI.

The simple and prudent budget shows income from membership dues rising gradually to $15k in 2013 and $20k in 2014, and basic governance and administration expenses from $5.5k to $5.8k over the two years. Coupled with the small surplus accumulated through very prudent financial management of the past two years, this allows for $11k and $14.2k in 2013 & 2014 to support members’ peer-to-peer initiatives.

The Board is now developing a work plan to translate this strategic framework into priorities and objectives for each Board member’s area of responsibility, and we will share this with the network next month. We would very much welcome your feedback and input as we work on this, so please do get in touch with any of us to share how you would like to see the strategic priorities of ICAI and the Board. I think that ICA International is now again in a position to be bold in its ambition to the extent that our members are ready and able to be bold in their ambitions and contributions.

Finally, a little about me for those that don’t know me. I have been involved with ICA in a variety of roles for most of my career, since first training through the ICA:UK volunteer programme to work with ICA India in 1986-87. After a couple of years involved with ICA’s returned volunteer network in the UK I then spent six years with ICA in Egypt. Since 1997 I worked with colleagues in Britain to re-establish and grow ICA there, and after 16 years I have just stepped down as Chief Executive of ICA:UK in September. I am therefore delighted to have this opportunity to continue to serve ICA and our global mission now as ICAI President. I previously served on the ICAI Board from 1998-2006, including six years as Treasurer. I have since served for four years on the Board of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF), and have just now completed a term as IAF Chair. I am now working on a freelance basis as a facilitator, trainer and consultant based in London, and would welcome opportunities to be of service to individual ICAs and to work with ICA colleagues in that capacity. To find out more about me, and to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on twitter, please visit www.martingilbraith.com.

Martin Gilbraith           martingilbraith@aol.com

BANGLADESH:      February 01 2013

Aziz returned on January 28th. He is now preparing a work plan for ICA Bangladesh activities to be accomplished by the local team. On January 31st he met Zaki and Muksud to discuss the plan.

The new year started with a new roster for faculty development. Two faculty sessions were held, one on January 16th and one on 26th. It was decided that one of the faculty members will coordinate the sessions.

Two proposals were submitted to the SSRC for research. Another proposal is under review of the US Embassy.

A student survey was conducted for 2013 at the Phulki street children project. School teacher and program officers visited the community. Muksud also consulted with the Phulki rickshaw beneficiaries for new arrangement.

Our Phulki rickshaw donor, Mr. Kaiser Ahmed was sent a report about the rickshaw distribution made in November. He has contacted COO regarding another working gift for GHDP.

Zaki           admin@ica-bangladesh.com

BANGLADESH:      January 01 2013

Happy New Year!

On the eve of the new year we would like to share some events about ICA Bangladesh.

We introduced the Rickshaw project in November to help, 'Improving the Quality of Life for Street Children in Dhaka City' (Phulki). We started the project in 2009 with the support of TUC Japan and with the generous donation of an US-Bangladeshi named Mr. Kaiser Ahmed. We first introduced the Rickshaw project in Chandpur Ghoramara Human Development Project back in 2007 under the Working Gifts program with a view to empower disadvantaged families by giving a Rickshaw - a means of earning a livelihood for a family of 3 to 5 members. The community formed a supervisory committee for the management and administration of the rickshaw project, facilitated by ICA colleagues. In the Phulki, the rationale of the project is the same - empowerment. But one major goal is to have the parent of slum children not engage them in child labour, which would result in them dropping out of the Phulki educational and life skills program. Abul Kadir, who is the father of one son and one daughter and who attend ICA Phulki's educational and life skills training project, funded by TUC Japan, is the first puller of the ICA Phulki Rickshaw Project. Abul, from Kishoreganj, aged around 40, has been in Dhaka for the last 5 years and has been struggling to earn an income for the family, which had no alternative but to depend partly on the income from a child. Abul is glad to have a rickshaw and thanked ICA Bangladesh for the initiative. We thank Mr. Kaiser Ahmed for his generous donation of a rickshaw.

We had our 8th(2012) and last 2012 Board Meeting in December. We reflected on the whole year at the meeting. Importantly the Board decided about the members active engagement, especially the new Board member's role. The Board also hopes three core members: Zaki, Fuad and Alam who attended the 8th Global Conference and Capacity Building training in Nepal to make difference. The Board thanked ICA Australia and the Maguire's for their generous financial support enabling their participation. The financial statement of 2012 was presented at the meeting. The Board acknowledged with appreciation two foreign funders - TUC Japan for their funding the Phulki project and ICA Australia for their office and staff support in 2012. ICA Bangladesh hopes they will continue their support in coming years.

Aziz attended the General Assembly online and shared a brief report. ICA Bangladesh believes in the great leadership of the new Board of ICA International.

November was a busy but great month for ICA Bangladesh. Following the return of the Nepal conference delegates, Maria and Richard visited us. They were engaged in capacity building of ICA members, and they spent one day with the Phulki street children project, and two days with the Chadpur Ghoramara village human development project. ICA Bangladesh appreciates Fuad, Tahmina and Sharful for committing in regard to ToP faculty development and income generating training in May next year.

Good to all in 2013!

Staff           admin@ica-bangladesh.com

PERU:          February 01 2013

Report: Happy New Year to everyone, and we are off to an exciting new year here in Peru. We are pleased to welcome Bernardina Gonzales, Fanny Ichpas and Pamela Alvarado to our permanent staff as we expand our field teams in response to increased programming projected for 2013 and beyond as our leadership formation projects are extending from 6-months to 12-months for a number of clients. Our clients are growing in their understanding of the time it takes to develop young leaders who are ready for the challenges of community consensus forming and who are also accepted by their communities to play the needed facilitation role.

Maryann Philbrook from the US has also joined our staff this month to work with us for a year or more in developing a national movement of community leaders, starting with the 250 communities where we have formed new leadership teams in the last 6 years. She's excited about being here and we're excited to have her energy and creativity moving us forward with this next challenge for our service to the rural sector of Peru.

We've now outgrown our office space so we will be using a "cool seat" ap roach to desk space for our field staff when they hit the office for a few days each month -- you take the desk with a cool seat -- not in use at the time. From there on we will just have to see where the future takes us!

Staff          admin@ica-peru.org

PERU:          January 01 2013

The ICA-Peru staff is closing out 2012 with a two-week vacation for the holidays and a lot of excitement about the promise of 2013. Today we finally received approval for our January program and have four major projects in the approval process, most of which are longer term projects which will place new demands on our staff to produce visible results of our leadership formation programs.

Karina Yactayo has left our staff to have her baby and we are searching for a qualified woman to replace her, plus another male/female team to expand our capabilities. Maryann Philbrook will join us in a week or so to spend a year (or more) with us to work with Gloria Santos to link together our many contacts into a viable network of collaborating colleagues. We now have active leaders working in about 250 communities located in 15 of the 24 Departments of Peru, and we are on the hunt to leverage our presence and resources to add another 1,000 communities to our service list in the coming years.

We wish our colleagues around the world a most joyful and fulfilling year in 2013!

Staff          admin@ica-peru.org

TAIWAN:        January 01 2013

Events

• Continue Creative Collaborative facilitation training in Shanghai for Module 2
• Met with old colleague Bill Wong
• Truth about Life on Healing
• Committed to UN programs for 2013
• Worked with colleagues to schedule public programs in Hsinchu 2013- Received work permits for 3 more years
• Larry was very involved in Global Leadership team turnover and GA prep
• Lloyd and Lela Philbrook are visiting for the holidays

Peer to peer

• Met with Nepal conference themes virtually - Education, Leadership and Peace Building
• Hosted General Assembly (Evelyn was one of the Technical support along with Sunny Walker from the US)

Concerns

• Larry shifting role from global president to regional and local focus without losing the global learning or disconnection with colleagues
• Still unclear on our strategy for supporting expansion across China. Lots of opportunities but how to use these to build community and a Chinese owned network

Coming events

• Larry steps down from President of ICAI - Jan 1
• Mar 17-22 UN program in Entebbe Uganda
• Shang Hai Creativity Facilitation Module 3 Jan 19-20

Public courses

• April 6-7 Hsinchu GFM1
• May 25-28 Hsinchu GFM 2
• July 6-7 Hsinchu Dialogue
• Aug 17-20 Hsinchu PSP & mentoring
• Sept 28-29 Hsinchu Imaginal Learning
• Nov 9-10 Hsinchu Spirit of Facilitation

Larry          larry@icatw.com

UNITED STATES:         January   01 2013

Service Learning Program to Grow in 2013
ICA's Service Learning team has announced its spring and summer sessions for 2013. The two opportunities will take place during May, June and July.

The 2013 program will build on the successes of previous years, especially with the work done by the 40 interns as part of the Accelerate 77 project in 2012. The first session will be three weeks long and is scheduled for May 13 through 31. The second session will be a six-week period from June 17 through July 26.

Participants will balance challenging academic while experiencing purposeful civic engagement and intentional community life. The program is centered around three modules: creating a just and equitable society, shaping sustainable communities, and building the foundations for peace. Both sessions this summer will be residential, and participants will experience community life at the ICA's building at 4750 N. Sheridan Rd.

The program aims to enhance the leadership capacities of the students, while providing a systems perspective on social issues, and training them in methods for social change. The students will spend their civic engagement hours contributing to ICA's resilient communities program, more specifically, the Accelerate 77 project.

Each session offered is eligible for university credit: three credit hours for the three-week program and six credit hours for the six-week program. ICA has a partnership with Oklahoma City University to provide open enrollment for credit hours to students that are interesting in participating in the program, bearing the fact that their home institution will accept the credit transfer. For more information, go to the Service Learning on the ICA website or email: servicelearning@ica-usa.org.

Advisory Committee Meets to Discuss Phase III
The Advisory Board for Accelerating Green Initiatives in Chicago's 77 Community Areas (Accelerate 77) met on December, 6, 2012 to discuss the start of the project's Phase III.

The event brought together the Advisory Board for Accelerate 77, community activists and ICA staff members to discuss how to build on the success of the first two phases of the project, which included the Sharing Approaches That Work Conference at Truman College on September 15, 2012.

The goal of Accelerate 77 is to accelerate green initiatives at the local level. By engaging community-based leaders from each of Chicago's 77 community areas to share and apply their green efforts on a larger scale, the project will build and expand a tight network of collaborative leaders who will leave an invaluable impact on every community involved.

Phase III will encourage and accelerate local efforts while catalyzing follow-up work in all of the city's communities during the next two years through networking, planning training workshops, local share fairs, and new collaboration efforts between neighborhood groups to build a common vision. The anticipated result will be multiple local initiatives that will significantly accelerate their contribution to the success of the Chicago Climate Action Plan by 2020. Progress, learning and activities will be tracked, shared and managed by the website co-created by university and corporate partners.

Representatives from the Center for Neighborhood Technology, the Retrofit Chicago Commercial Buildings Initiative, the Edgewater Sustainability Project and Chicago State University, among others, discussed implementation of methods of facilitating change. The methods examined were the Community-Led Sustainability Roadmaps, creating a Chicago Sustainability Leaders Network, developing a Sustainability Resources Database, using the "Greenrise Uptown Learning Laboratory at 4750 N. Sheridan Rd. in Chicago as a model and facilitating the intergenerational learning and engagement in addressing local challenges. The database will be available online.

During the next three months, Accelerate 77 staff and volunteers will have community gatherings in each of the three major geographical areas of the city: north, south and west. The south side event is Saturday, January 26, 2013; the north side meeting is Thursday, February 21, 2013; and the west side gathering is Thursday, March 14, 2013. Locations and times will be announced closer to the dates. For more information, go to www.accelerate77.net.

Tom Wray           twray@ica-usa.org