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Board Meeting Report - International


IFUW Creates, Sustains Global Connections

Shirley Quisenberry
AAUW NC International Affairs Director

"What attracts women from throughout the world to travel to the IFUW conference every three years?" wondered a young member and first-time attendee at the International Federation of University Women Conference in Ottawa, Canada in August. Two days later she said the "attraction is networking and friendship." Seeing women from 70 countries working together, laughing together and voting together and planning future communications strategies is what it is all about.

The friendships and caring through IFUW are very real to me on this day as I write this piece, because my e-mail has a message from Roberta Brooks, the President of the Canadian Federation of University Women, offering condolences and best wishes to us in AAUW for the horrible tragedy of Sept. 11. The 959 people who were at IFUW each now have a more personal view of each of the countries represented there. Now we have faces and friends to identify with a country.

Globalization: Connections Through Education, the conference theme, was addressed through workshops, academic papers, excellent speeches, an interfaith service featuring the diversity of the city of Ottawa, and most especially through human interactions. It was exciting to see many young women participating. I had dinner with a graduate student from Germany and had my picture taken with a young person from Taiwan. Even I, with very limited ability in French, participated in a seminar about the results of academic research on the role of women in peace education, conflict prevention, and resolution in the Congo.

An all-day discussion, "The Adolescent Girl - Strategies for Empowerment, "included papers from Cameroon, Belgium, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Argentina, and South Africa. To hear different approaches to this topic in other countries gave an important world outlook to how we in AAUW deal with it. Members of AAUW were frequently made aware of the importance of UNESCO in the educational works of IFUW members and regret that our country is not part of this organization which plays such an important role for our fellow members. We have a project to do. Over 100 AAUW members and many spouses and daughters attended the conference. AAUW had 17 votes, but in the interest of economy there were only 9 voting delegates so we were able to cast our full voting strength. Reiko Aoki of Japan was elected IFUW president. Two AAUW members were also elected to significant offices. Kathleen Laurila of Minnesota is the new second vice-president and Yvonne Condell, also of Minnesota, will serve on the Finance Committee.

Although the next conference will be far away in Adelaide, Australia, if that country has been on your list of "go see," plan now for August 2004.