Bimonthly Board Reports

October

Board’s work between August and October 2021

Internal Department

Events organised

  • Officials Welcome Meeting (19/09 online)

After most of the Officials were appointed, the first official meeting took place to get to know each other.

  • Internal Department Meeting (2/10 online)

The Internal Department had their first Bi-monthly Internal Department Meeting on October 2, 2021. The team discussed their plans for the remaining months of 2021 in coordination with the other Commissions. 

  • Board to Board Meeting (5-10/10 Vienna, Austria)

For better planning of the term, 5/7 of the current Board members met with several representatives of the last-year Board. They had five days of a busy agenda to discuss and plan the most important issues regarding the term, but also some long-term plans. Below you can see some of the topics dealt with.

  • IFSA Workplan and overview of the Departments

Each Councilor presented what plans have been made in their Departments and/or Commissions so far to keep everyone in the loop. Then the recommendations were made for slight adjustments of the plans or where to focus more in depth for a common benefit of IFSA.

  • Interim

Interim is an annual meeting of the Officials in the middle of the term, to summarize and give feedback on the past half-term and to make plans and discussions for the half-term to come. In the session at the Board to Board meeting, the Open Call for hosting Interim this year was made, and the Board started to prepare the programme points and structure.

  • IFSA Strategy and Indicators

The current IFSA Strategy applies to the period 2018-2022. Hence, it is necessary to review the current version and prepare a follow-up one for the next period. The Board started this process suggesting some objectives based on new emerging issues, while removing the ones that do not apply anymore. At the same time, the Indicators for monitoring the objective achievements are being revised and restructured.

  • Coffee Hours structure

Coffee Hours are an important tool of communication within the region. On one hand between the Regional Representatives and the LCs, on the other hand among LCs with each other. At the same time, making some important regional decisions is possible there as well. Hence, to optimize the way of doing it is desirable. The Board discussed this topic and the follow-up will continue together with the Regional Representatives.

  • Discord

Discord is a strategic communication and exchange platform where IFSA wants to focus its communication energy. Hence, making its structure reasonable and clear for its users is necessary. This is what was discussed and planned through.

  • Meeting IFSA-SAN

IFSA Supporter and Alumni Network (SAN) was established in 2017 and it is a community of IFSA enthusiasts no longer able to be regular IFSA members. But they are keen to help with economic and functional issues in IFSA as much as they can (e.g., organizing Career Dinners, working on the IFSA merch etc.). The Board met with the representative of the SAN Board to synchronize the mutual activities.

  • TreE-Learning

Alina, the ex-President and the current Head of the TreE-Learning Sub-Commission, summarized the state of the art of the platform and together the Board discussed the proceedings of this great long-term project.

  • New regions update

The topic of restructuring the IFSA regions has already been discussed in IFSA for a longer time. The Board tries to bring the discussion forward. As a part of the IFSS 2021, it was also discussed with all members. They have now been working on a proposal, to bring the discussion afterwards to the Regional Representatives and all IFSA members in general.

  • COP Planning

As the COP26 is approaching, the IFSA delegation activities had to be planned to assure the best possible experience of the delegates and to bring COP26 closer also to the IFSA members who cannot participate in this event. 

  • IFSA Awards

One of the goals is to positively motivate LCs and IFSA members to get involved in its activities, and to organize their own projects and/or events. And since it is planned for this year to collect data from the LCs at the end of the year, there will be a good overview of this issue on the LC level. Hence, the Board would like to organize Awards – on a monthly and annual basis – to showcase the achievements and activity of our members.

  • Member Accounts on the Website

Having members’ accounts on the IFSA website should make it easier for the members to apply and register for IFSA events, run for the official positions and so on. It is, though, a complex long-term issue that needs to be well-prepared.

  • Code of Conduct

In IFSA, there have been some complicated situations of people overstepping their boundaries, that should have a stance on and a document on how to deal with these situations and to these members that overstep. This Code of Conduct should be a guideline on how to behave and what is and isn’t acceptable to do in interactions between IFSA members at events or outside of events in the official channels. At the meeting, the Board discussed who should be responsible for its creation, and they started to prepare the Open Call for the Code of Conduct Committee.

  • IFSS OC-Board Meeting (22/10 online)

This year has a very special place for IFSA. The 50th General Assembly will take place in the International Forestry Students’ Symposium 2022 in Chile. The Board had the first meeting of the year with the IFSS 2022 Chile Organizing Committee. The current state of the event, ideas and goals were discussed during the meeting. Monthly meetings will take place between the OC and the Board in the upcoming months.

Decisions made

  • Selection and Appointment of new IFSA Officials

Right after the Board was elected, the Open Call to fill all the official positions was released. As the applications were coming, the Board reviewed them and selected the most suitable candidates.

  • Releasing of the Open Call to host Interim (8/10 online)

Interim is an annual meeting of the Officials in the middle of the term, to summarize and give feedback on the past half-term and to make plans and discussions for the half-term to come. The Open Call was released to find the host LC for this occasion.

  • Appointment of the Official of the Month (18/10)

Every month, an Official showing an outstanding contribution to IFSA is awarded. In October, the Official of the Month was elected Elivis Omoit, the current Head of CIFOR / YIL Sub-Commission. You can view the award here.

Plans for the next bimonthly period

  • IFSA Virtual Job Fair

The IFSA Virtual Job Fair is a 1-day event where job-seeking IFSA members are given the avenue to network, communicate, and learn more about the employers, organizations, and/or companies in the forestry sector and related fields from different regions. 

  • Internal Department Meetings

The Internal Department Meetings will keep taking place once every 2 months together with the Communication and Capacity Development Commission officials.

External Department

Events organised

  • External Department Meeting (20/10 online)

The External Department Team had their first department meeting where the main topic of discussion was the Workplan for the term 2021/22. The team discussed joint commission projects as well as individual projects and plans for sub-commissions. 

IFSA representation

The Board has represented IFSA in various events of its partners by giving speeches or attending their Board meetings and more. Here you can see a list of most of them from the period August-October 2021:

  • Building a successful forestry career in Africa – a book launch (12/08)
    The Incoming President of IFSA, Magdalena Jovanović, gave a speech on the future of forestry education in the African region. 
  • PEFC Sustainable Wood Furniture – Awareness campaign launch & Panel discussion (15/09)
  • The outgoing IFSA President, Alina Lehikoinen, joined the Panel discussion organised by PEFC.
  • 20th Commonwealth Forestry Conference – judges of the 3-Minute Talk Challenge
    IFSA Board members, Isabelle Claire and Jonas Sitte, joined the 20th Commonwealth Forestry Conference as judges at the 3-Minute Talk Challenge where students had the opportunity to share their thesis in 3 minutes.
  • IUFRO Enlarged Board meeting
    The IFSA President, Magdalena Jovanović, and Head of IUFRO Sub-Commission, John Kimber, were invited to participate at the IUFRO Enlarged Board Meeting. Additionally, Magdalena was asked to give a short speech on the collaboration between IUFRO and IFSA.
  • CBNE Forum
    The IFSA President, Magdalena Jovanović, has been invited to give a pre-recorded speech on the topic of IFSA, youth and Non-Timber Forest Products, and Community-Based Non-Timber Forest Products Enterprises (CBNEs).

Decisions made

  • Selection of COP26 delegates
    The Board was in charge of selecting a limited number of delegates, among many good applications, for the upcoming COP26 in Glasgow. 
  • GLF Amazonia delegation appointment
    IFSA Board members were actively involved in organising the GLF Amazonia delegation, and with assistance from Head of CIFOR/YiL Sub-Commission selected the delegates for this event. 

Plans for the next bimonthly period

  • GLF Climate
    IFSA Board and the Sub-Commissions in the External Department, will be working on the GLF Climate delegation which will have IFSA participants both in person and digitally. 
  • COP26
    In the next bimonthly period, IFSA will have an in-person event at COP26 in Glasgow which will be coordinated mainly by the IFSA Board, especially the External Councillor, Aditi Mishra. The Board, with the help of the External Department Commissions, will be working on activities that will be carried out at this event. 
  • EIP-AGRI Seminar
    An IFSA representative has been invited to join this Seminar which will be mostly centered around networking, providing the opportunity for IFSA to promote its activities.

Membership Department

Events organised

  • Membership Department Meetings (17/09 + 29/10)

This year, the Membership Department started with regular monthly meetings, where all the Regional Representatives meet with each other and with the Board to plan activities, discuss the progress, share ideas and news. So far, two meetings have taken place, in September and October.

IFSA representation

  • Meeting with three LCs in Northern America to boost the activity (14/10 online)

In mid-October, the Board met with three of the U.S. LCs to discuss their situation and what both sides, IFSA and the respective LCs, can do to get the members more involved in IFSA.

  • Meeting with the Chairman of the International Committee for the National Association of University Forest Resource Programs in the USA (14/10 online)

The Board met with the Chairman on behalf of the deans of most of the forestry faculties in the USA, to discuss the promotion of IFSA at the U.S. faculties currently without a Local Committee – on one hand for the deans, on the other one for the students of the respective faculties.

Decisions made

  • Expulsion of IFSA LC DU, IFSA LC KPNU, IFSA-CBNU (Korea, Rep.) and AUSF Reggio Calabria (Italy) (20/08)

Sad duty of the Membership Department is to expel members. In the beginning of the term, four LCs were expelled for different reasons – whether it was own desire of the LC, or long-term inactivity even after various attempts to get in touch, and not paying the membership fee over three years.

  • Revision of several membership applications

Since the end of the last term, several applications for Ordinary and Associate membership have been received and the Board has worked on its revision. New LCs are coming soon…

Plans for the next bimonthly period

  • Review of new membership applications

New applications are continuously received. The Board will keep reviewing the new ones and stay in touch with the applicants to expand the IFSA network.

  • Membership Department Meetings

Membership Department Meetings with RRs and the Board will keep taking place every month.

  • Meeting with LCs in Southern Africa

The same that was done with Northern American LCs, the Board plans to do in Southern Africa in the coming period, together with the Southern African Regional Representative.