38th World Scout Conference, KOREA 2008 • FINAL REPORT
2. With respect to contacts with key stakeholders: I re-established immediately contacts after the Cairo meeting with the World Scout Foundation, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), the Swedish Guide and Scout Council, and The Scout Association/UK on the sad occasion of the funeral in November 2007 in Sweden of our friend Sven Erik Ragnar, former Treasurer and Board Member of the World Scout Foundation, a long time supporter of World Scouting. Since then, I have had regular contacts with our good friends from the BSA, from Sweden and from UK. The last were particularly supportive of the Bureau in seconding, free of cost, one of their senior executives to Geneva for three months up until the World Conference and in donating computer equipment to the Bureau. In early April, together with Chairman Philippe Da Costa and Vice Chairman Therese Bermingham, I attended in my ex-officio capacity the meeting of the Board of the World Scout Foundation in Korea. The progress reports both Chairman Da Costa and I delivered were welcomed and were an additional step towards renewing good relationships with the Foundation. Luc Panissod, who started at the World Scout Bureau in 1982, was appointed Deputy Secretary General in 1992. He has been Acting Secretary General since November. He was awarded the Bronze Wolf in 1996.
3. With regard to developing new working relations with the World Committee: it was critical for me to assist the World Scout Committee in its endeavours to reestablish mutual trust within our Movement by addressing different concerns, by better communicating and listening to the needs of NSOs with the objective to provide better services for their benefit.
•
End of April, I visited our friends of Uniao dos Escoteiros do Brazil, the Brazilian Scout Association, for a first formal working meeting on the preparation of the 2011 World Scout Conference.
•
The third week of May, together with several members of the World Scout Committee, we attended, at their invitation, the annual meeting of the Boy Scouts of America in California. This was an additional opportunity to strengthen links, to get to know more about Scouting in the USA and to present World Scouting to leaders of the Boy Scouts of America.
•
At the end of May I attended the meeting of the Africa Committee in Nairobi where our Regional Office has been deeply affected by the political crisis in Kenya and remained closed for several weeks. Despite the left over effects of this terrible period, we were able to think on and work towards the future of Scouting in that Region.
•
At the end of June, still as part of the process of rebuilding positive relationships with some major stakeholders of our Organization, Chairman Philippe Da Costa and I visited leaders of The Scout Association in UK for half a day. A very positive and productive meeting indeed during which we touched numerous topics relating to the life of our Organization.
•
Our Organization remains attractive and I am also glad to confirm that on 16 January 2008 we welcomed, as above, one new Member Organization - Kazakhstan (I am quite proud about this since I personally carried out the field visit in Kazakhstan to assess the operational effectiveness of this new member) and on 1 July we welcomed four new Member Organizations, namely Cambodia, Syria, Ukraine and Montenegro.
We established a tighter cooperation and coordination with our volunteers through regular meetings of the Steering Committee of the World Scout Committee with nearly one meeting per month, the last in early June 2008 – an order which never existed before - and we are very often in contact by phone or mails.
On this question of recognition of new members, I would like to mention here that the World Scout Committee approved a much more rigorous and methodical approach to recognizing new members designed by the Bureau in close cooperation with and thanks to Derek Pollard, Chairman of our Constitutions Committee.
4. In terms of renewing contacts with the Regions and showing the flag of the Bureau in the field: •
Immediately after our meeting in Sweden, I attended the Interamerican Regional Conference the last week of November with four other members of the World Committee which was not a very easy exercise. It was the opportunity for me to develop good relationships with the Interamerican Scout Committee and to agree to work together on a number of key issues in that Region.
•
I was in Belgium for an informal meeting on governance with some NSOs in January and traveled to the United Arab Emirates also in January to attend a Youth event.
•
Mid-March, I was in Ukraine to assess the level of development and the operational effectiveness of the National Scout Organization of the Scouts of Ukraine and work out with them the process which culminated in the recognition you granted to them as a new WOSM member on 1 July, a few days ago.
•
Mid-April, I was in Crimea to attend the Eurasia Regional Committee meeting and engage dialogue on a number of issues with that Regional Committee.
5. In terms of “business as usual”: •
We were able to deliver the World Scientific Congress mid-November 2007, the last world event of the centennial celebrations, which exposed top researchers in the field of education to the Scouting experience and offered an additional evidence of the contribution of hundred years of Scouting to non-formal education and to society at large. The Congress opened new doors of cooperation between Scouting and the academic world, which will contribute to enhancing the image and credibility of Scouting. A Summary Report of that event has been provided to you.
•
We were also able to complete the audit of the whole World Scout Bureau – a complex process – within less than 90 days and close the audit before Christmas holidays and to complete our 2007-2008 budget and have it adopted by the World Committee in a shorter period than that granted by the World Committee.
23
WSConfReport 08 EN.indd 23
27/10/08 15:20:41