July Forum update: Temporary Changes to IC and Regional Meetings

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to share with you an update on our preparations for the Forum this October in Cluj-Napoca, Romania between 10 and 14 October.

The teams in Romania and the Foundation are working hard to prepare the arrangements and I am pleased to tell you that we are making great progress. You will find below further information which will help you with your planning and preparations and some items for consideration by your NAO.

Bookings

The booking system is live! If you missed our email on 12 July, the registration system can be found at https://forum.intaward.org/register and it would help us plan if you could register as early as possible. There is an invoice option to pay later but knowing the numbers of people  attending will help us a great deal. In order to complete your registration, you will need to create a password. More than 30 countries have booked places already, so Forum 2022 is looking to be a really diverse event with great representation from across the world.

Remembering HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

As part of the welcoming ceremony on Tuesday evening, we are preparing a short moment to
celebrate the life and legacy of The Duke of Edinburgh. This will be a mixture of video, memories, and personal recollections. If anyone who will be at the Forum met The Duke of Edinburgh and has a story to tell we would be very interested to hear from you. We want this moment to be as personal as possible so please do get in touch with Emma Brown at [email protected] if you have a story or pictures to share.

Regional meetings

As you will have seen from the outline programme, Regional meetings are due to take place on
Tuesday 11 October starting at 9am. We have now agreed an outline agenda as follows:

1. Opening remarks (Chair)
2. Welcomes to new Chairs and National Directors (Chair)
3. Highlights of last four years and statistics review (IAF)
4. Discuss proposals being presented to IC and Forum (Chair)
5. Run through and discuss Forum programme and sessions (IAF)
6. Items raised by NAOs
7. Future meetings – pattern of meetings, locations and dates.

For item 6 above if you have any matters you wish to be discussed by the Regional meeting, please do let us know by 1 September. You can send items to your Account Manager, Global Operations Director or direct to your Trustee Chair. Please send a clear explanation of your item and any supporting papers.

Workshops

Following our request in April for suggestions and volunteers for workshops the following five
workshops will take place on the afternoon of Wednesday 12 October.
a. Advocacy – how to position your NAO as a voice at national level
b. Partnerships – how to work effectively with corporate partners
c. Youth Engagement – building and implementing an effective youth engagement strategy
d. Critical business processes for a sustainable NAO
e. Virtual Award Centres – opportunities and challenges

All the above will involve a variety of NAOs sharing good practice and experiences on these subjects. Workshops will run once or twice depending on demand. Once the details are agreed we will open bookings for all workshops, so the facilitators know how many people to expect.
Thanks to everyone who responded with your ideas and particular thanks to the UK, Canada and USA which have volunteered to run three of these workshops and work with other NAOs to share best practice.

Temporary changes and Gold Award starting age – proposals

You will find attached to this update the first of several proposals which will be considered by the International Council. These are an outcome of the various NAO working groups which were commissioned at the last IC meeting or subsequently. The five working groups are:
• Temporary changes to the Award Framework
• International Council and Regional meetings Review
• Global licences
• Adventurous Journey review
• Emerging Leaders – the proposals from this group to implement the decision of IC are
currently in progress and the call for new Emerging Leaders and the election process will be
communicated shortly.

The Temporary Changes group have completed their work and have developed several proposals for consideration by International Council. These are being shared with you so they can be considered by your NAO in good time. In summary the group are recommending that the temporary changes introduced in response to the global pandemic should remain in place and the age restriction for the Gold Award should be removed. More details are in the attached. Please take the time to read, consider and consult on the proposals.

Online participation

We are aware that due to ongoing travel restrictions in some countries and the global economic
situation not all colleagues will be able to attend in person. Whilst we cannot offer the fellowship, friendship and fun of attending Forum in person, we will be able to offer some opportunities to virtually visit and contribute.

Plans are now in place for all the plenary sessions to be streamed live. This means you will be able to watch the Opening Plenary and Welcoming Ceremony, Gold Award presentation, Closing Plenary and some of the Closing Ceremony. These sessions will be streamed live on YouTube and links will be shared nearer the time on the Forum Registration platform.

Plans are also in place to enable some sessions to be interactive in a limited way. The sessions on our strategy and the workshops will be streamed via Zoom. This will enable online discussion groups to take place, like those in the room. Online participants will be able to use the chat function to make contributions and ask questions.

If you wish to join the Forum virtually you will still be asked to book in the normal way via the online platform during August and September but there will be no fee. This will enable us to send you the links to the sessions and ensure you are briefed ready to take part. We hope this helps to ensure that everyone can have a say in our future and in a limited way enjoy some of the Forum.

Dress code

Some colleagues have asked for guidance about dress code. For the formal parts of the Forum (mainly the ceremonies) the dress will be business suits for men and for women either business attire or cocktail dresses. If you have a national dress, please do bring it with you instead of business wear so you can share your culture and have a talking point for your colleagues. For our normal working sessions, the dress will be smart casual.

And Finally, copies of all previous updates and practical information can be found in the More Information section on the dedicated pages at https://forum.intaward.org

Please find further information on Temporary Changes here.

Please find the above in PDF format here.