Dear Friends of ICEVI:

It is a beautiful summer morning here in Maine as I sit at my computer to compose this letter for the 3rd issue of the ICEVI Newsline. Both the lake and my much neglected garden are calling me; but I will let them wait a bit longer while I share with you some news from ICEVI.

11th World Conference:

In just a year we will meet at the Leeuwenhorst Congress Center in the Netherlands to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ICEVI at our 11th World Conference. I hope to meet many of you at this historic event. The theme of the conference is "New Visions: Moving Toward an Inclusive Community". If you are interested in presenting a paper at this conference I urge you to submit an abstract for consideration of the Program Committee. The deadline for the receipt of abstracts is October 1, 2001. All communications concerning the conference should be sent to:

11th ICEVI World Conference
Van Namen & Westerlaken Congress Organizations Services
P.O. Box 1558
6501 BN Nijmegen
The Netherlands

Tel: 31-24-323-4471 Fax: 31-24-360-1159
E-Mail: icevi2002@congres.net 

You will also find information on the ICEVI World Conference on our website www.icevi.org.

Host Committee:

Under the able leadership of Hans Welling, Director of Visio (Netherlands) the Host Committee is working hard to make the 50th anniversary of ICEVI a memorable one. The Host Committee has been formed for some time now and consists of representatives of three major Dutch organizations, Bartimeus, Sensis (formerly Theofaan) and Visio. I know that all of you join me in thanking this hardworking group for all of the effort that they are making on our behalf.

Program Committee:

This week, I spoke with Heather Mason, Chairperson of the Program Committee who reports that the program is developing well and promises to be excellent; one fit for the 50th anniversary of our organization. Please make a special effort to be with us in the Netherlands next summer (July 27-August 2) to celebrate this historic occasion. Remember the deadline for receipt of abstracts by the Program Committee is October 1, 2001.

Sponsorship Committee:

I am very pleased to announce that Mrs. Grace Chan, J.P., Director of the Hong Kong Society for the Blind and the ICEVI Regional Chairperson for East Asia has agreed to serve as the Chairperson of the Sponsorship Committee for the 11th World Conference. As some of you know Herman Gresnigt was chairing this committee. However, because Herman is devoting so much of his time and seemingly boundless energy to fund raising efforts with the Host Committee, he felt that undertaking both tasks simultaneously was not advisable. We are pleased to say that Herman remains a member of the Sponsorship Committee and I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the incredible work that Herman is and continues to do on behalf of ICEVI. Thanks Herman!

ICEVI has already set aside a small amount of funding to assure that we have good representation at the 11th World Conference and the task of the Sponsorship Committee is to try to leverage those funds to secure as much additional support as possible for equitable regional representation. The other day I spoke with our good friend and Executive Committee member Arne Husveg (Norway) who has agreed to include in his upcoming request to NORAD a request from ICEVI to support participants from developing counters.

All sponsorship requests should be directed through the office of your Regional Chairperson. Grace Chan asks that you not send requests directly to her as she has created a process for working with ICEVI's regional chairpersons in allocating support funds for the World Conference.

Nominations Committee:

In just a year we will be electing the Principal Officers of ICEVI at the World Conference. At our recent Executive Committee meeting in Mexico, Richard Porter agreed to serve as Chairperson of the Nominating Committee.

Richard Porter- Chairperson
Herman Gresnigt - Regional Chair, Europe
Lucia Piccione - Regional Chairperson, ICEVI, Latin America
Dr. M.N.G.Mani - Regional Chair, Asia
Jill Keeffe - Regional Chairperson, ICEVI, Pacific
Gladys Nyaga - Deputy Regional Chair, Africa
Mike Collins - Perkins School for the Blind & Deafblind International
Susan Spungin - American Foundation for the Blind

The Committee is open to inputs from all members and communications regarding nominations should be sent to:

Mr. Richard Porter
ICEVI Nominations Committee
c/o Sight Savers International
Grosvenor Hall, Bolnore Road
Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 4BX
United Kingdom
e-mail: rporter@sightsaversint.org.uk 

Executive Committee Meeting:

The most important occasion for ICEVI since the last issue of Newsline was our Executive Committee meeting in Chihuahua, Mexico. Carla Herrera, ICEVI Treasurer and her staff at CEIAC did a wonderful job in organizing this meeting which was both enjoyable and productive.

Let me share with you some of the highlights of that meeting:

Finance Committee: The Finance Committee met just prior to Executive Committee meeting and while we still face significant challenges the news on finances is improving.

Carla Herrera, ICEVI Treasurer; Chairperson
Bill Brohier, ICEVI Past President;
Larry Campbell, President
Grace Chan, Regional Chairperson for East Asia,
Johan Gerestein, Bartimeus/ICEVI Past Treasurer;
Neville Lawson, Royal National Institute for the Blind and
ICEVI Past Secretary/Treasurer,
Rosario Pérez, Chase Manhattan Bank, Head of Latin America and Latin American Investments in Europe and
Victor Siaulys, Founder of Laramara, Brazil

The Finance Committee has developed a three-pronged approach that we hope will help us achieving our goals:

-INGO support: We are very pleased to report that support from our INGO partners has improved significantly during the past year and we now count among our supporters the Asian Foundation for Blindness Prevention, Aurora Ministries, Christoffel Blindenmission, Foundation Dark and Light Blind Care, Helen Keller Worldwide, ONCE, Perkins School for the Blind and Sight Savers International.

This support is now coming to ICEVI in two forms; general support and support for specific projects that have been put forth by our regional chairpersons. As you will recall when I spoke with you through the 1st issue of Newsline; stabilizing finances was one of the top priorities of the Principal Officers. Since that time we have seen steady improvement. While we are still far from our goal of financial self-sufficiency, I do feel we have "turned the corner" and are heading in the right direction. I want to use this opportunity to thank all of the international non-government organizations who have rallied around as ICEVI has made efforts to turn the rhetoric of the plan of action adopted in Sao Paulo into action.

There are a few other points that I would like to share with you on the subject of finance. Carla Herrera, Chairperson of the Finance Committee has worked hard to strengthen this committee and reported at the Executive Committee meeting that Rosario Perez (J.P.Morgan Chase Bank/NY) and Victor Siaulys, (Laramara/Brazil) have agreed to join the Finance Committee. Carla also reported that Victor Siaulys has agreed to personally support the translation and publication of public relations materials that are designed to both disseminate information and project the image of ICEVI. To Carla, Victor, Rosario and all of the other members of the Finance Committee we are grateful for your efforts on behalf of ICEVI.

Before ending this section on Finance let me also single out for recognition Mrs. Grace Chan, J.P. our East Asia Regional Chairperson. Those of you who know Grace, know her track record as a fund raiser. Grace has recently helped ICEVI to establish a connection with the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation (HKSB). In May, Grace and I met with a senior staff member of that bank and presented a concept paper for support of ICEVI activities. It is too early to report what success we will have but I wanted to share this with you and acknowledge Grace's efforts on behalf of ICEVI.

Publications:

Harry Svensson and the members of the Publications Committee have been working hard to develop an "new and improved" version of our magazine "The Educator". Harry reports that the first issue on Literacy should reach you this Fall. As our readers in Latin America will know, thanks to the Hilton/Perkins program the Spanish language version of The Educator is available in both inkprint and braille. We are pleased to report that Dr. M.N.G. Mani, ICEVI Chairperson, Asia has agreed to produce the English language edition of The Educator in Braille at no cost to ICEVI. Thanks Mani!

The Publications Committee has also produced a new ICEVI brochure which provides some basic information on our organization and comes in an easy-to-mail format. So if you would like to spread word about ICEVI to your colleagues you may contact Nandini Rawal, Secretary, ICEVI at bpaiceviad1@sancharnet.in for a supply of these new brochures.

Both Harry harry.svensson@sit.se  and our webmaster Victor Tsaran webmaster@icevi.org  would welcome your contributions to the ICEVI website. As you will know "revisits" to a website only happen when people regularly find new information. We need your help to make our website as rich and interesting as possible. So do take the time to consider what news you might be able to share with colleagues around the world via the ICEVI website.

ICEVI Secretariat in India:

The Executive Committee made a decision in Mexico to strengthen the ICEVI Secretariat in India. We are most grateful to Christoffel Blindenmission for their financial support of this work. In the future the layout, printing and mailing of all ICEVI publications and the maintenance of the ICEVI databases will all be coordinated through the ICEVI Secretariat in India. Please direct all communications regarding address changes directly to Nandini at the Secretariat at bpaiceviad1@sancharnet.in.

ICEVI Constitution:

The Executive Committee endorsed the fine work that has been done by Colin Low (Royal National Institute for the Blind) on the ICEVI constitution. Colin is now working on the final details of a revised constitution with Nandini Rawal, Secretary and Bill Brohier, Past President. A copy of the revised constitution will reach you via this publication and will be printed in a future issue of The Educator.

Regional Realignment:

Bill Brohier, our ever vigilant Past President has put in great efforts in studying the regional alignments of various international bodies. He then put forward a plan for the realignment of the ICEVI regions to the Members of the Executive Meeting at Chihuahua who endorsed this plan. While there are never simple and easy answers to such questions we were very pleased to have with us in Chihuahua the newly elected President of the World Blind Union, Mrs, Kicki Nordstrom. WBU had spent a great deal of time grappling with the same issue and we were happy that we were able to take full advantage of the research that WBU had already put into this matter. The Executive Committee agreed to a realignment of the ICEVI regions along the same lines as the WBU, with the exception of the fact that ICEVI will continue to maintain a Pacific Region. So with the adoption of the revised constitution which is expected within the next few months ICEVI will move from 8 to 7 regions as follows:

-Africa, East Asia -Europe, -Latin America, -North America/Caribbean, -Pacific and West Asia (which will include the Asian countries of the former USSR and the current countries of the Middle East).

This realignment which has the backing of our current Middle East region will not only resolve some of the difficult challenges currently facing the Middle East but has the additional advantage of making collaboration between ICEVI and WBU much easier. A full listing of countries by region will be published with the revised constitution in a future issue of Newsline and The Educator.

WBU, IAPB and ICEVI:

I am pleased to report that collaboration with our sister organizations World Blind Union and International Agency for Prevention of Blindness is moving in what I believe, all three organizations feel, is a very positive direction. A meeting of the Presidents of all three organizations is planned for the near future as we all strive to work together more closely to achieve of mutually shared objectives. However, the real benefit of such collaboration will be obvious at the regional level. I urge each of you to reach out to the WBU and IAPB committees in your region to work together on issues of mutual interest and concern.

Strategic Planning:

One of the most important issues discussed at the recent Executive Committee meeting was planning the future direction of ICEVI. If ICEVI is to fully implement the poleces adopted at our 10th World Conference in Sao Paulo we must strengthen our regions, by engaging and involving our members, and develop the untapped potential that ICEVI has as an advocate for equalization of educational opportunity at a national, regional and international level. There were many excellent suggestions that came out of the discussion in Chihuahua, including one that resulted in a Strategic Planning Work Group which over the next several months will articulate a process for moving forward a strategic planning process. M.N.G. Mani, Jill Keeffe, Meredith Tilp and Carla Herrera have volunteered their services to this working group. Earlier this month Carla and I met with one possible professional facilitator who may be able to help us with this process. The Strategic Planning Work Group will meet electronically for the next few months on a discussion list created by our webmaster. The group also hopes to meet in Germany in February. We will keep you posted on the work of this group in future issues of Newsline. In the meantime, the working group welcomes any input that you might wish to make which should be sent to larry@obs.org. Please caption any of your communications on this matter "ICEVI Strategic Planning".

The weed filled garden and the cool clear lake are raising their voice louder and louder on this beautiful summer morning. Somehow I feel I will answer the call of the lake, first. Thanks for your continued involvement with, and support of ICEVI.

Sincerely,
Larry Campbell, President