A wave goodbye to the 12th IAVE Asia Pacific Regional Volunteer Conference

The closing ceremony of the 12th IAVE Asia Pacific Regional Volunteer Conference in Kaohsiung, Taiwan on November 28, 2009, saw the handover of the IAVE flag to Gyeonsangnamdo, Korea. Ms. Xu Huimei, president of IAVE Taiwan, handed the banner to Mr. Lee Je Hoon, the president of the Korea Volunteer Council.

The organizers of next regional conference, which will take place in 2011, gave a presentation to introduce the host city of Changwon. As an added bonus, Korean national representative, Ms. Park Yoonae, said there would be free taekwondo lessons for people who registered early!

2011 will also be the year of the next IAVE world conference, which takes place in Singapore on January 24-27. Tan Chee Koon, chairperson of the organizing committee, encouraged everyone to attend the event, saying that the IAVE conference will be going from “good to great."

Hot on the heals of Singapore is the 23rd IAVE World Volunteer Conference in September 2012 in Dublin, Ireland. Elaine Bradley, the chief executive officer of Volunteering Ireland, gave the popular “hundred thousand welcomes” phrase in Gaelic: “céad mile fáilte”.

On behalf of the 13th Asia Pacific Regional Volunteer Conference, Mr. Choi Jae Ho, the executive director of the Gyeonsangnamdo Volunteer Center, gave a replica of the Tripitaka - an ancient Buddhist scripture carved in wood - to the vice president of IAVE Taiwan, Mr. Lin Changjiang, to thank the hosts of the 12th Regional Conference.