Southeast Asian IAF alumni meet in Thailand
Alumni of the International Academy for Leadership (IAF) and staff of Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNS) from six countries gathered in the Thai western province of Ratchaburi for a network building workshop between August 18-20, 2010.
The worskhop was aimed at strengthening the network building among IAF alumni from different countries, evaluate the progress of each network, experience sharing and to chart the way forward for the network in different countries.
The workshop, the first of such FNS alumni meeting in Southeast Asia, gathered a total of 22 IAF alumni and FNS staff from Burma, Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, as well as Pakistan.
The workshop kicked off with experience sharing from respective countries, where they discussed about the current state of the respective network, their activities, successes and failures.
The sharing paved the way for the “FNS alumni cafe” and the “advisory teams” sessions on the second day of the workshop.
Using the “world cafe” technique adopted from the IAF in Germany, participants were divided to four groups and were asked to discuss on questions that include the challenges and success in building the network; sharing the best practices and the future plan.
After gaining some insights into the working of each network, participants group together with their colleagues from the same country to plan the strategy and their action plan. These plans include to have the network’s own publication, calendar project, revamp the IAF candidate selection process, replication of training project, among others.
On the final day of the workshop, Dr Carolin Mulverstedr, the director of the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD, or the German Academic Exchange Service) in Bangkok was invited to talk about the German centre’s experience in alumni network building. The DAAD has 164 alumni clubs in over 70 countries.
“This workshop gives me inspirations,” said Myrfi S. Gonzalez, an alumni from the Philippines.
“We learn from other countries, like Malaysia on their photo competition project. We can use the winning photos for the calendar project, and the calendar is not only for the network but also can be used as a mean to reach out to others.”
“It’s good to be with the like-minded people to re-learn and to re-energise ourselves,” said Myrfi.
Aye Mya Hlaing, the programme coordinator with FNS Burma — the newest network in Southeast Asia — was an opportunity for her to learn from the experience of others in establishing the fledgling network in her country.
“This is the first time that I get to meet other alumni and staff. We didn’t know our network is so extensive,” she said.
“It helps us to brainstorm some ideas. I am planning to have our training for trainers workshop after this,” Mya Hlaing added.
During the three-day workshop, the participants also took some time out to visit the picturesque Scenery Resort & Farm that features a sheep farm where some were having a good time feeding the sheeps, as well as a visit to a local candle-making shop.
