Asia-Pacific volunteers meet at Singapore World Conference

In a discussion about upcoming conferences and expanding participation for Pacific islanders, members of IAVE from countries around the Asia-Pacific region met together at the IAVE World Volunteer Conference in Singapore, on Wednesday, January 26, 2011.

Minutes of the IAVE Asia Pacific Regional Members Meeting at the 21st IAVE World Volunteer Conference, Singapore 

IAVE Asia Pacific representative Amelita Go opened the meeting and introduced the VIPs including Dr. Lee, and introduced the different countries represented. Tim Burns from Volunteering New Zealand called for more representation from Pacific islands. IAVE Asia Pacific representative Indira Dasgupta added other south Asian countries who are also poorly represented. She said volunteers bring a huge value to whatever business they are in, whether government or corporate sector. IAVE had the foresight to consider volunteers as the spirit of society, and said she would like everyone to interact with the Asia Pacific board members to share ideas, add value to IAVE conferences, and increase membership. Indira asked anyone with any “ah-has” to let them know, and although the Asia Pacific is the strongest region in the IAVE family, more ideas were needed to further strengthen the region. 

Park Yoonae, national representative from Korea, introduced the A-P regional conference in October near Pusan, around two hours away from Seoul by train. The director of Gyeongsangnamdo Volunteer Center, Suk Soo Gn introduced Gyeongsangnamdo and Changwon City, saying his was honored to be here, and was very proud that he was Korean, like Dr. Lee! Mr. Suk introduced the beautiful city of Changwon and invited everyone to attend the regional conference.

Hassan Khan asked for speakers from the Pacific islands at the regional conference. Margaret Bell asked about funding for scholarships, to which Ms. Park said she would try to open the door to invite as many people as possible from developing countries. Debbie Huang asked about invitations to volunteers outside the region, to which Dr. Lee said the IAVE policy was scholarships only to people within the Asia Pacific. 

Amelita asked representatives to write country reports and contribute articles to E-IAVE.