A true success story, hardly ever told.
Around 2005 CISV international merged the IPC (International Promotion Committee) and the NADT (National Association Development Taskforce) into a new committee, called ODC. (Organizational Development Committee). Besides flipping around acronyms, the idea was, that CISV needs a general strategy to support promotional associations (PAs) as well as existing national associations (NAs) likewise.
One of the ODCs big projects was to consolidate different training workshops held around the world into "Regional Training Forums" - the "RTFs". Besides the "Train-the-trainer" workshops, that focus on leadership trainers, also training for executives, village programme co-ordinators, etc. are held in those "multi-workshops".
Last year, I visited the RTF held in Hamburg, and was quite impressed by a couple of things: First of all, the RTF was huge - I guess there were more than 80 people attending. Then there was a concentrated, productive, yet relaxed atomosphere, and furthermore, I felt, that most of the people were attending the meeting for a very specific purpose, i.e. to become trained in their personal specific area of work inside CISV. Finally I could sense a bit of the "synergistic karma" (well known to anybody who ever attended an AIM) that appears, when a lot of people with a lot of CISV experience come together. Speaking of which: We've been evaluating and wanting to restructure AIMs a lot in the past years, and it seems that one of the problems of AIMs - no time for training, no room for observers - may be solved by a new structure outside of AIM: CISVers can now attend a low-cost, not-so-far-away workshop instead of attending an expensive AIM that is everything but curtailed to their needs.
Also interestingly, when I created the CISV & Me Application on Facebook a few months ago, one of the first features people requested, was an RTF category, besides the programmes Villages, Summer Camp and so on. It seems as if this fairly new thing has already become an institution.
I have to say, I'm really impressed by the ambition to bring RTFs to all corners of the world, and cover every possible area of training, such as "training for treasurers" and even a "profile rising workshops".
Just sad that the website that promoted the RTFs in 2008 was never updated since, and you'll have to look into this spreadsheet to find out when the next RTF will come to a chapter near you...
Around 2005 CISV international merged the IPC (International Promotion Committee) and the NADT (National Association Development Taskforce) into a new committee, called ODC. (Organizational Development Committee). Besides flipping around acronyms, the idea was, that CISV needs a general strategy to support promotional associations (PAs) as well as existing national associations (NAs) likewise.
One of the ODCs big projects was to consolidate different training workshops held around the world into "Regional Training Forums" - the "RTFs". Besides the "Train-the-trainer" workshops, that focus on leadership trainers, also training for executives, village programme co-ordinators, etc. are held in those "multi-workshops".
Last year, I visited the RTF held in Hamburg, and was quite impressed by a couple of things: First of all, the RTF was huge - I guess there were more than 80 people attending. Then there was a concentrated, productive, yet relaxed atomosphere, and furthermore, I felt, that most of the people were attending the meeting for a very specific purpose, i.e. to become trained in their personal specific area of work inside CISV. Finally I could sense a bit of the "synergistic karma" (well known to anybody who ever attended an AIM) that appears, when a lot of people with a lot of CISV experience come together. Speaking of which: We've been evaluating and wanting to restructure AIMs a lot in the past years, and it seems that one of the problems of AIMs - no time for training, no room for observers - may be solved by a new structure outside of AIM: CISVers can now attend a low-cost, not-so-far-away workshop instead of attending an expensive AIM that is everything but curtailed to their needs.
Also interestingly, when I created the CISV & Me Application on Facebook a few months ago, one of the first features people requested, was an RTF category, besides the programmes Villages, Summer Camp and so on. It seems as if this fairly new thing has already become an institution.
I have to say, I'm really impressed by the ambition to bring RTFs to all corners of the world, and cover every possible area of training, such as "training for treasurers" and even a "profile rising workshops".
Just sad that the website that promoted the RTFs in 2008 was never updated since, and you'll have to look into this spreadsheet to find out when the next RTF will come to a chapter near you...
You wrote "CISVers can now attend a low-cost, not-so-far-away workshop...". RTFs are less expensive than AIMs, but they're far away from being low-cost. Even if the RTF is in ones own country the cost rise easily up to more than 200 Euro for training and travelling. For example: The RTF in Hamburg in 2009 was 130 Euro, the one in Sweden this year was 140 Euro. If I remeber rightly there were more expensive ones as well this year.
Money doesn't matter so much for the participant if the NA or chapter is paying for attendance, but I think many people couldn't participate because of the expense when they have to pay.
Compared with an AIM a RTF is low-cost, but not in general.
But still, RTFs are a big and fruity step forward.
you can find the next rtf in your region by clicking on the region on the training website and then you end up, f.ex. here http://resources.cisv.org/training/regions/europe_central.html
Just about to say the same as Aninia.
The page on Resources IS updated thanks to the work of the ReCos ;)
On another note, what about adding JUNIOR BRANCH into the options of CISV&ME?