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Sunny Skies and Strategic Planning

NCIV Holds Annual Board Retreat in San Francisco, CA

by Jason Yarashes, NCIV Staff

From July 9 – 11, 2008, NCIV board members convened in San Francisco, CA, for their annual board retreat. Hosted locally by the Institute of International Education/West Coast Center (IIESF), guests stayed at the Hotel Nikko, which was centrally-located on Union Square and offered scenic views overlooking the city to the Golden Gate Bridge during breakfast and lunch and the San Francisco Peninsula during daytime meetings.

As the community member organization that receives one of the highest yearly number of participants coming on the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), IIESF is accustomed, and amply qualified, to host delegations of many types. Upon arriving to the Bay Area on Wednesday evening, NCIV board members attended a reception hosted by Karin Eisele (Executive Director), Katka Letzing (Program Manager, IVLP), and the rest of the IIESF family. Guests enjoyed conversation as well as hors d’oeuvres and libations while looking out on the San Francisco skyline from IIESF’s 10th floor downtown suite. The diverse crowd of nearly one hundred participants included IIESF staff, volunteers and members, U.S. Department of State representatives, NCIV board members and staff, and two visiting IVLP delegations from Brazil and Canada.

After a warm welcome to all guests by Ms. Eisele, Brad Minnick, Director, Office of International Visitors (OIV), U.S. Department of State, spoke about the importance of the IVLP, even including personal anecdotes from recent International Visitor success stories. He also thanked IIESF for their tremendous efforts throughout the years and presented awards to long-time volunteers. To add even a bit more local flavor, the following evening board members and families as well as various IIESF staff indulged at a traditional family style dinner at a favorite neighborhood spot, the E&O Trading Co., a Southeast Asian grill.

The receptions and local dinners provided a much needed mental break from the primary purpose of this year’s annual board meeting: strategic planning. At the outset, Mr. Minnick and Carmen Marrero, Chief, Community Relations Branch, spoke to board members about trends in the OIV and IVLP that would affect NCIV and the network. Both proponents of NCIV and embracers of the mission of promoting excellence in citizen diplomacy, Mr. Minnick and Ms. Marrero discussed topics with board members ranging from the geographic diversification of the IVLP to cost-saving techniques. Another poignant topic of interest was the importance of the impending U.S. presidential election to the field of public diplomacy. As has been emphasized by Mr. Minnick by the inclusion of an election component to each IVLP delegation leading up to the November contest, bipartisan advocacy for the cause of diplomacy initiatives and international exchange is of the utmost significance for the NCIV network.

Dale Tomrdle of the NorthStone Group facilitated, a strategic planning session with the intention of identifying collective goals and subsequently outlining specific action items to be undertaken by the NCIV staff and board as well as the network as a whole. After a day of frank and illuminating discussion, the board settled on a few “pragmatically idealistic” objectives:

1) Emphasizing the concept of “education” in NCIV’s long-term and day-to-day activities as a means to improve recognition of and promote excellence in citizen diplomacy

2) Continuing and strengthening advocacy efforts on both the federal and local level so that NCIV becomes a more active domestic constituency for the IVLP

3) Diversifying NCIV’s development efforts and providing resources for CIVs to do so on the local level via program support and board development

After the conclusion of the comprehensive strategic session on Thursday and reports, new and old business on Friday morning, many board members extended their stays to take advantage of the multitude of cultural opportunities abound in the Bay Area. Whether the next leg of their journey was to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge, explore the vineyards to the north in the wine country, or fly back to their respective areas of the country, the NCIV board left the conference room in San Francisco with not only a refreshed sense of what it means to be a leading a team of dedicated citizen diplomats, but also a strategic plan to help take the NCIV network to the next level.

(Top row, l-r) Larry Chastang and Al Durtka, Chair and 1st Vice Chair, NCIV Board of Directors, converse during the reception at IIESF; Brad Minnick, Director, Office of International Visitors, U.S. Department of State, with two members of a visiting IVLP delegation from Brazil; Nearly 100 guests gathered at IIESF's skyline-facing suite for a reception Wednesday evening
(2nd row, l-r) Sherry Mueller, Presidnet, NCIV, with Karin Eisele, Executive Director, IIESF; Citizen diplomats enjoying the cool weather and cooler conversation; Canadian IVLP participants strike a pose

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