CONGRESS 2002
STATEMENT by the PRESIDENT
GENERAL MEETING
This
time it is not an acceptance speech by the incoming President,
as I shall continue for another two years, till the halfway
evaluation of the Strategic Plan in 2004. It enables me to
highlight a few points, as well as look back upon this Congress
and the past three years.
You
have just elected a new Council to serve for the period 2002-2006.
The new Council has undergone considerable change: 12 people
are leaving the Council and 8 new names appeared on the slate.
In addition you elected 4 new people. So we are saying goodbye
to Norio Sakai, who acted as Honorary Treasurer, John Buehrens,
Polly Guild, Kayoko Yokota, Anne McClelland, Tatsuo Miyake,
Creamlimon Nongbri, Manfred Paul, Mohinder Singh, Arpad Szabo
and Sebellon Wale. On behalf of you all I would like to thank
them for their service on the Council and their support of
our organization.
Yesterday we remembered Yukitaka Yamamoto. His term of office
would also have ended today.We owe him many thanks for all
he did for IARF over a long period. I welcome the new members
of the Council. We have to form a new team and I look forward
to working with you. We have a lot of plans and you will be
actively engaged in implementing them.
This
General Meeting has not only dealt with the usual agenda of
Reports by the Secretary and the Treasurer, but some important
decisions were taken. In endorsing the Strategic Plan 2001-2007
you have set the IARF on a new course at the beginning of
its second centenary. It should enable our organization to
develop further into a programme oriented activity, attractive
for young people to participate in and recognized for the
quality of its work. However, we will only be able to run
programmes for which we can find funding. Some funds will
continue to come from our membership who are supporting the
new Religious Freedom Programmes; for some activities we will
have to find sponsors. But sponsors will only consider a request
from us if we have demonstrated that our work is making a
difference in the field of religious freedom. So to build
up a "track record" we are presently using some
of our reserves to get things started. In that sense this
Congress is an investment for the future.
And
then, of course, we will need money for our operating costs.
This will have to come from our own membership. At present
two-thirds of the money needed to run the International and
Regional offices comes from only two membergroups. We want
to redress this askew situation and I am using this opportunity
to ask all the membergroups and chapters represented here,
to discuss within your own organization whether it is possible
to increase the annual contribution to Oxford.
The
draft Voluntary Code of Conduct to be adopted at the Council
meeting in 2003 or 2004 should lead to a major contribution
in the struggle to safeguard religious freedom. It will enable
us to enter into dialogue with many religious communities
and faith traditions about the fundamental issues underlying
the precious human right of religious freedom.
The
31st Congress
This first congress in the new millenium has been different
in many respects. Of course we kept essential elements like
devotions and Circle groups. But the Strategic Plan called
for more active participation in designing programmes that
people can take home and implement. The Council realized it
was taking a risk in making certain changes. Changes need
time to be absorbed and internalized and not everybody finds
this easy. It has been an exercise in finding the right balance
between the expectations of the older generation, many of
whom attended previous Congresses and the ambitions of the
younger generation who want to participate actively in new
programmes. I urge all of you to fill out the evaluation forms.
We have been listening to you in the past week and we will
carefully review the lessons from this Congress.
Then
finally looking further back for a moment, a lot has happened
since Vancouver August 1999. We had to say goodbye to Bob
Traer, who served our organization for 10 years. I consider
us fortunate that we found a successor in Andrew Clark. Under
his inspiring leadership we have developed the Strategic Plan,
which will guide us in the coming years. New faces appeared
in the Office in Oxford and the regions. We have a dedicated
team who work hard. The report by the General Secretary has
already given you an impressive list of the 14 Religious Freedom
Programmes which have been set in motion in a relatively short
period.
I
hope that you find on balance that the Council 1999-2002 has
looked after the interests of IARF in a responsible manner.
We have set ourselves ambitious goals for the coming term
2002-2006. We will need all the support we can get, not in
the least from our membergroups and chapters. Let me conclude
with a quote from my acceptance speech in 1999, which I think
is still appropriate today. "We live in an exciting period
of time. There will be problems, but I hope we can see them
as opportunities to find new ways of moving forward."
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