Kia Orana and Welcome to the President’s Report on current progress of Cook Islands Business and Professional Women’s Association for 2008 – 2009.
Year 2008 started with a slow momentum and constantly accelerated to achieving high standards by the end of the year.
As President, my personal aim and challenges I would be facing at the beginning of the year was to further ‘empower and engage more women of all professions’ to attend Cook Islands Business and Professional Women’s Association events to learn more about our organisation.
Highlights and successes achieved in 2008 by the Executives and shared with existing and new members will forever remain in my heart due to the timeless contributions and efforts my executives have put into making 2008 a very successful year for women in the Cook Islands.
Guest Speaker Events
I would like to thank the guest speakers for accepting our invitations to share their personal experiences, personal and professional challenges and words of empowerment to open up further and new opportunities. Through these events, networking contacts, personal and empowering development for women has grown significantly leading to some great achievements for Cook Islands Business & Professional Women’s Association throughout 2008.
Holding the guest speaker events was to enhance our mission statement “Networking, Development and Leadership Skills” by creating empowerment through ‘meeting and greeting’ to share ideas, to build self confidence, and to engage women of all professions.
I would like to acknowledge Jo Akroyd, Helen Henry, the patron of BPW, Rhonda Smith and Jane Kittle for their kind contributions towards the association and the guest speaker events with “Empowering and Engaring Women of all Professions" through luncheon and dinner events
Highlights of Year 2008 for Cook Islands Business and Professional Women’s Association
a. BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections) Train the Facilitator (TTF)
In relation to submitting an application to Internal Affairs for “Women in Governance Programme” I received an invitation to attend a workshop which was co-sponsored by The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), UNIFEM Pacific, and Advancing Gender Equality in Political Governance Programme (GEPG) to funding a pilot Training the Facilitators (TTF) Course. The aim of the training was to accredit a high quality group of facilitators using the BRIDGE methodology. This is an excellent election administration training course using many adult learning techniques. The training was held from the 17th November to 28th November 2008 at the Community Education Training Centre (CETC) situated at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in Narere, Fiji where the participants were also hosted and accommodated.
I attended this training course as a representative of Non-Government Organisations of the Cook Islands and as President of BPW. It was an honour and privilege to be representing the Cook Islands at this training course where the use of the BRIDGE methodology can assist with conducting a more effective and efficient training in the Cook Islands to help empower women to become stronger citizens and leaders through participation in leadership roles and decision making bodies.
I and my fellow participant Coralie-Ann Bishoff Towgood from Internal Affairs : Gender and Development Division together with 18 other participants from around the pacific were successfully awarded a Partial Accreditation Completion Certificate Level 4 as a BRIDGE facilitator using the BRIDGE methodology at the end of the training course.
This training course will greatly contribute to achieving a successful launch of our intended 2009 programme “Women in Governance” to empower women of the Cook Islands to become stronger citizens and leaders in their respective roles.
b. Women in Business Award
Jane Kittle Asia Pacific General Manager of Westpac Banking Corporation had the privilege of meeting with BPW over a luncheon and to share her personal experiences and challenges as a successful woman throughout her career and in particular with Westpac Banking Corporation Limited. Through this networking ‘meet and greet’ with empowered guest speakers to share with the association that Cook Islands Business and Professional Women’s Association has been kindly invited to assist with a new programme Westpac Banking Corporation Limited has currently successfully implemented in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Samoa in the last two years and with their main focus of implementing the same programme in the Cook Islands in 2009. This is an excellent opportunity for our organisation to further empower women of the Cook Islands to be stronger citizens and leaders.
Upcoming Events / Plans for 2009 - 2010
BPW Executive Members have branched out to other Non-Government Organisations to closely work together in building stronger networking, development and leadership skills. It is through these networking events that BPW will further develop and enhance women to become stronger citizens and leaders.
For 2009, BPW has been successful in working together closely with other NGO’s Women Organisations to acknowledge the likes PPSEAWA, Cook Islands National Council of Women, PTI and Ministry of Internal Affairs: Gender and Development Division in implementing “Women in Politics Programme”. This is a great opportunity for us to further achieve our goals in successfully implementing our “Women in Governance Programme” to assist women who are intending to become possible candidates for the upcoming General Elections in 2010.
Furthermore, we will update CIBPWA members on the upcoming plans for launching “Westpac Women in Business Award” in the Cook Islands for the very first time which will further enhance our recognition within the community and the Cook Islands as a whole.
I would like to personally extend my sincere gratitude to all the lovely women of CIBPWA for your fantastic support throughout the year in enhancing Business and Professional Women’ Association in building a networking front as well as mentoring and encouraging the personal developments of a group of women as well as individuals.
I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank the following:
· CIBPWA members for your continuous support towards my year as President. I thank you all for your kind and encouraging words of empowerment in providing me support and continuous strive to achieving greater successes in personal and professional development.
· Thank you to the members for introducing your friends and families to CIBPWA and always encouraging other women to attend and witness the different events CIBPWA has to offer in building networking contacts, mentoring and empowering.
· To our guest speakers who have accepted our invitations to speak at our luncheons and dinners, your timeless contributions to empowering, mentoring, networking and development have opened windows of opportunities for women to further developments within our humble organisation.
Lastly, to my fellow Executives, I thank each one of you for your kind, warm and fantastic support throughout 2008. It was through each and every one of you, I have achieved great friends and a new family. All the successes we have encountered throughout 2008 will forever remain with me.
I wish each and every one of you all the best for the New Year.
Kia Orana e Kia Manuia
Angela Charlie
President
