Dear Friends, It is the end of another hectic but successful year for IAWRT, one in which you have each played a very important part and I thought I might run through it a bit to remind you how much we have collectively achieved.
Although it wasn't exactly the beginning of the year, I feel our big spurt of activity started at the Nepal Regional/International Conference where we first met as an almost whole board (minus Liz) after the elections and talked about what we wanted to achieve. I feel it was a very important time for us as we bonded as a group and got to know each other as friends as well as colleagues.
We had a sustained period of activity with either full or partial Boards attending our two Regional meetings - in Bangkok and in Cape Town, as well as Board representation at a number of International meetings which included CSW, Asian Media Summit, DPI-NGO, two FOKUS networking conferences in Cape Town and Nicaragua, Women in the land of conflict conference in Oslo and the Climate Change Conference in Poznan. It should also be noted that our Board members attended a number of other meetings around the globe and have pushed the IAWRT flag ever upwards during their travels, not to mention brought members into IAWRT following those. For that I am very thankful.
On top of all that, five of our Board members run, or are office holders, in very successful chapters which continue to work and promote IAWRT in their countries. Bandana, Kirsten, Elizabeth, Madeleine and Racheal - I am in awe of your efforts and dedication to both the International Board and your Chapters. It is not always easy to balance what are sometimes competing needs of each, but you all do it with such grace and goodwill that it makes it a pleasure to work with you. I would also like to thank Gunilla for keeping us all informed and in touch - and in such style! We have been blessed with a Secretary who not only knows every member on our list, but also can recite when where and how they became our members and the last time she/we were in contact. Your energy is truly amazing!
The road has not been without its frustrations and challenges as you know. We've had our ups and downs and ups again with the website and I am happy to say that we have ended the year with a new website and a new website editor!!! Hooray for all the work that has been done by Liz and the Website Committee. We have "groped in the dark" for ages - some more so than others- but I think we have a great outcome and one which we can take forward as we grow and prosper. For those of you who don't yet know, Thida has agreed to work as the website editor to get us up and running with everything we need to transfer from the old site and start loading new information. She is working at the Democratic Voice of Burma and is a website editor there. Its wonderful to have one of our members do this and be so enthusiastic about it!!
We have also succeeded in gaining more funds from FOKUS but that comes with added responsibility and pressure on already stretched resources - all of us! At the same time as having an increased budget overall, we have not been able to fund some of our projects and feel very strongly that we need to find ways to make those project work within our budget framework, even if they are scaled down somewhat. But I will leave that as a task for us after the New Year.
Another challenge of success is maintaining focus on our main aims & goals. The more "visible" we become, the more members and chapters start up, the more we will be asked to participate in events, projects, partnerships and the like, not all of which work in with our goal which is to support women in the electronic media to reflect and promote a more balanced picture of women's diverse lives and contributions to society. There will always be tensions between the advocacy part of this mission and the media part and I belive we all understand the interplay between the two very well - that is, it is difficult to do one without at least dipping your toes into the other. But I feel strongly as I believe you do, that the big difference between us and all the other NGOs we come across in our work is that we are the media. We don't just work with media people to further our aims, we are the media and we use our power, our media, to meet our organisational mission and goals. This makes us very unique in the NGO landscape and I for one would like to keep our focus there and keep building on that.
I look forward to the year ahead - to our first regional meeting in Eastern Europe for some time, to our 2009 biennial conference and to seeing through the exciting projects we have put forward in our budget submission. And for all of that, I am counting on your continued active support. As you know, I am an eternal optimist and believe that the New Year brings opportunities for consolidation as well as growth. IAWRT needs to continue on its path as a strong, unified, professional and well-governed organisation – and with your help and support, it will continue along that tragectory. That is my hope for IAWRT in 2009.
Please allow me one last indulgence - to thank you for your dedication, commitment and friendship. We work for IAWRT as volunteers but often spend more than one would at paid work, working for IAWRT. And I know I expect a lot from all of you but you are such a high quality board, it is not easy keeping up with you! Our greatest strength is our diversity. We talk about it a lot and sometimes I feel its almost a cliche, but that is exactly why IAWRT has grown, prospered and succeeded all these years, that we all come from different places and bring our unique skills and experience to what we do. We don't always see eye-to-eye; we don't always have the same priorities; I rush into things sometimes and find myself making mistakes but I am always inspired by how we get through those times. We discuss, we challenge, we disagree, we agree to disagree, but we continue to value each other, learn from each other and take this organisation forward in the process. I have an enormous amount of respect for each of you and am truly grateful for your support.
I wish you all a Happy Christmas and New Year. Drive safely, read lots of books, watch lots of movies, eat lots of seasonal delicacies and have the odd glass (or three) of champagne! Enjoy your families and remember your friends.
With greatest respect and admiration,
Olya
Olya Booyar
