As many of you know by now, this is the motto of the fast-approaching General Assembly we are going to hold, hosted by our Portuguese member ACAPO, in February next year. So, with roughly three months to go, preparations are in full swing! This applies to all aspects that need to be in place by the time of the assembly: logistics, constitutional matters, the renewal of the EBU leadership and, of course, the programme of the event. Please have a look from now onwards at the dedicated section of our website to find out the latest about the General Assembly.
In October, there were two important stepping stones on the way to the GA: Around 25 participants from within our national members met in Paris at our second Leadership Exchange Forum. This provided an excellent opportunity to go through the overall GA programme and, most importantly, to gather input into the next 4-year EBU strategic plan. In fact, over 2 thirds of our membership had provided valuable insights into their work and what priorities they hope EBU to tackle jointly over the next four years. This feedback, collected in a member’s survey earlier this year, was discussed, analysed, enriched, and structured by the Leadership Exchange Forum.
This process was facilitated by Dominique Danau, who has been helping EBU with evaluations for many years. Just a few days later in October, the outcome of the Leadership Exchange Forum was then brought to the EBU Board that held its last ordinary meeting of this term in Ankara, Turkey. As can be imagined, the General Assembly was also the dominant feature of the Board meeting, and the content of the 4-year strategic plan a key component of that work. Some of you may ask at this stage: when can we as members see the draft 4-year plan and can we still comment on it before the GA? Indeed, the comments made by the Board will now be incorporated into the plan and then it will be shared with all of you for a final round of feedback and input. You can expect to receive the draft plan around mid-November and you will have time to provide your feedback by the end of the year. The document then enriched with your observations, will be the version submitted, for final discussion and approval, to the General Assembly.
As you can see, the months ahead will be very busy, but also decisive to determine the course of action for many years to come. So please take the time to participate in these processes, so the EBU of tomorrow reflects your realities, and thus becomes an ever-stronger voice of blind and partially sighted people in wider Europe!
Lars Bosselmann, EBU Executive Director