Your new Committee in serious deliberation

Wow! What a week!!

It was quite a baptism of fire for the newly elected committee members of the UNAIDS Staff Association. Being patted on the back by colleagues for our election success (we can all use the strokes) and we were straight into an intensive four-day meeting. The purpose of the meeting was primarily to plan ahead for the next 12 months to address the critical issues that affect UNAIDS staff members. In order to create the plan, we reviewed achievements from the last year, identified priority activities for 2009-2010, elected officers, met with management from the administration and of course met “face to face” with Michel.

One could be forgiven for thinking that such a tightly packed schedule, bringing together people from Brazilia to Myanmar may have been a bit too much. Well, it was certainly ambitious, but team spirit and character somehow got us through. One thing the committee is not short of, is character(s)…

I think I can say (without being too self-congratulatory), that the new committee members made a substantial contribution to a successful meeting: Alistair, ever good humoured yet wise to the dark arts of UN internal politics ; Jason, calmly and quietly insightful, always making me think ‘I wish I had thought of that…’; Souad gently but consistently advocating for the voice of “the forgotten region”, Sophie insisting on behalf of the field and making me wonder what the French for SSA is….

Thanks to all comittee members for organizing an excellent meeting, and especially to the USSA secretariat staff, Tanya and Cinzia. Thanks most importantly to UNAIDS staff members who have placed their faith in me and the rest of the committee to represent your views. As we have said before we are here for you. After such a well managed meeting, I am confident that your trust is well placed.

Looking forward to a busy and interesting time as a USSA committee member!!

Matthew

group photo with participants to the EECA Regional Management Meeting

Manuel Da Quinta, Chair of the UNAIDS Secretariat Staff Association, and Jason Sigurdson, member of the USSA Executive Committee, provided a brief presentation highlighting key advances made in 2008 and priority issues to be addressed in 2009.  In the interactive break-out session, Meeting participants noted their priority issues for the region, in four key areas: 1) training, learning and development; 2) staff empowerment and inclusiveness; 3) transparency in change and decision making ; 4) change management – motivation and anxiety.  (more…)

The same week as our annual Face to Face, the Staff Association was given the opportunity to present some conclusions of the retreat and present the new USSA Committee. (click on the play button to view the video).