Maggie: FAWCO Conference in Brussels - detailed report

  
As everyone knows, the 2014 FAWCO Interim Conference was held in Brussels from 13 to 15 March.  Forty-one clubs from 22 countries were represented, including AWC Lagos (Nigeria) and AWC Qatar for the first time.  Seven of the 10 UN Reps were there, as was a group from FAUSA, the organization of former FAWCO members who have returned to the US.  AAWE Paris had the largest representation, with 9 members present, but AWG-LR, with only one member at the conference, was very much in evidence.  We were mentioned as one of the first clubs to sign up for Clubs in Motion, and the photo on the flyer that was handed out to all attendees was one from our Castries aqueduct hike.  The more members who come on the monthly hikes, the more km we will be able to add to our tally.  Another report noted that the Region 3 (all the French clubs) coordinator remains a member of AWG, since Kim has replaced Linda, and that Kim is also on the Finance Committee.  The Foundation President’s report included a slide with a photo of the fundraising dinner chez Orla. 

The 10 items donated by AWG members for the Foundation Night silent auction brought in a total of $212.  The FAWCO Friendship Quilt, for which we contributed 5 blocks, was too big this year to be hung anywhere at the conference where a full photo could be taken.  Roberta from IWC Munich has been putting the blocks together to make the quilts for 19 years.  She and her friends had to take the finished 2014 quilt to a local clinic since that was the only place they could find a high enough wall on which to hang it for a photo. 

There was a large notice board dedicated to Women Who Inspire Us outside the doors to the main meeting rooms, and Peggy R is one of the women whose plaque was on that board.  There were also plaques that mentioned AWG-LR as having participated in the Half the Sky book discussion and film viewing, and as having donated bras for the Free the Girls project.  On Saturday morning, Free the Girls: Fight Human Trafficking was announced as the Target Project for the next three years, so we are among the very first participants in the new Target Project.  A matching donor Challenge was also announced.  Individual donations of $10 to $250 made by 30 June 2014 will be matched by a sponsor, as will Club donations of $500 or more made by 31 December 2014, so the more than 1000 euros that we collected at our FUNdraising ceilidh on 22 March will be doubled.  A picto-meter on the FAWCO website will be painted in little by little as the donations flow in, but, as in the jug for the Cambodian wells Target Project, there will be room for overflow.  The painting that will take form is part of the new Target logo, FAWCO Backing Woman.  It was done specifically for FAWCO, and is part of a series called “The Necks” by Christian de Laubadère, the brother-in-law of Nan de L from AAWE Paris and now FAUSA.  You can visit the on-line backingwomenboutique on the FAWCO Foundation website www.fawcofoundation.org (click under Quick Links) and purchase a beautiful scarf, bags, towels, etc.  There will be a photo contest for the Target Project.  The deadline is 30 October 2014 for submitting a maximum of three photos, and, as for the water Target Project, there will be a book with a compilation of all the photos.  Details will follow.

You can read reports of all the conference sessions and see photos on the FAWCO website www.fawco.org.  You will also find the list of projects that won the 8 Development Grants that were offered this year.  A record number of 39 clubs voted.  Of course, AWG was one of them.  Unfortunately neither of the projects we nominated won a grant.  If you know anyone in the Munich club, be sure to congratulate her.  Although we all came away winners from the conference, Munich IWC took home its first Education Grant, its first Development Grant, and its first Friendship Quilt.

AWG’s new cookbook Season was on sale at the FAWCO Face-2-Face session and is now in kitchens all over the world.  Other books by FAWCO clubs and individual members of those clubs were also on sale, so AWG has decided to make some of those books more easily available to our members.  One of the books which you can now borrow is current FAWCO President My Linh Kunst’s photojournalistic Beyond Borders, which contains a portrait of Carol M, who was nominated by AWG.  Another is Subtle Differences, Big Faux Pas – Test Your Cultural Competence, by Elizabeth Vennekens-Kelly of the FAWCO Sharing Cultures Task Force.  Susan Van Alsenoy donated a copy of her book Learning Without Boundaries, and we already had a copy of the autobiographical Waltz of the Asparagus People, by pianist Robin Meloy Goldsby, which was donated by PeggyR, who enjoyed it and wanted to share.  Harvesting Stones, by Paula Lucas of AODVC, who spoke to AWG after the Marrakech conference, was on sale at the conference and is available on Amazon.  Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels gave one of the parallel sessions at the conference, and provided a 50% discount voucher for ordering her book Migrants or Expatriates? Americans in Europe.  Contact Maggie if you would like to buy a copy from the internet site. 

You can find a list of other books by FAWCO clubs and authors on the FAWCO website.  Just click where it says FAWCO books.  Of course, they cost more than AWG’s “FAWCO Books.”  If you would like to buy some of our used books at one euro each, contact Maggie either to arrange a time to stop by and browse, or to ask for an alphabetical list to be sent via e-mail.  Also contact Maggie if you would like to borrow a book from the new mini-lending library.

In March 2015 the FAWCO Biennial Conference will be held in Rome.  A Task Force gave a report on redesigning the interim meetings to last only two days, over a weekend, in smaller hotels outside smaller cities in order to bring down the costs.  Regional meetings are also a good way to catch FAWCO Fever.  We are all invited to a Region 2 Conference in Oslo, Norway, from 10 to 12 October, when they will also be celebrating their 80^th anniversary.  The theme is “Come Out and Play.”  Even if you cannot go to Oslo, you can participate in their photo contest.  The theme is simply “Play.”  Contact Maggie if you would like details.  If you are planning a trip to the US, you could sign up for the FAUSA getaway in Colorado Springs from 9 to 12 October.  The FAUSA cards say “You have a friend in FAUSA,” so please keep them in mind if you are returning Stateside, whether temporarily or permanently.    FAWCO would like all the clubs to consider sending representatives to the United Nations in Geneva from 3 to 5 November for the NGO Forum Beijing + 20, hosted by the NGO Committee on the Status of Women and its partner organizations.  The NGO Forum will examine the 12 critical areas of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, to review progress made, remaining gaps and existing challenges.  It will also identify emerging women’s issues brought on by a changing world and seek government accountability for their commitments made to women’s rights, equality and empowerment initiatives.

The 2014 FAWCO Youth Cultural Volunteers Program in Shanghai will take place from 18 to 27 July, with weekends planned as arrival and departure days. The Program will be available for up to 15 FAWCO teens between the ages of 15-18.   Applications are due by 15 May.

You can sign up to receive FAWCO publications by e-mail and get all the information as it is released.  Just click on FAWCO Publications under Quick Links on the FAWCO website and choose the ones to which you would like to subscribe.  There are general FAWCO news e-newsletters and special interest e-bulletins (UN issues, global issues such as environment, human rights, and the target program, and US issues such as voting, citizenship, taxation and banking).  The US Liaison would like a voting advocate in each club.  Please contact Maggie if you would like to volunteer.

By the way, some FAWCO clubs charge a fee for members to attend meetings.  So just think how lucky we are not to have to pay for each meeting, and try to participate in more of our club’s great activities.