| Dear Members & Community, On behalf of the Executive Committee (EC) of IODA and my own, I bring you greetings from Accra and welcome you to this new edition of the IODA Newsletter. Following my ascent to the helm of IODA as President in September 2022, the EC and I have gradually settled down to business, attending monthly EC meetings, members’ meetings, recruiting and onboarding new VPs, supporting this year’s conference scheduled to take place in September, and much more. We hope this newsletter will show you a bit of what has happened at IODA and what activities are coming up that will benefit our members and our community. We look forward to catching up with a lot of you at the IODA Conference 2023 Australia. Noble Kumawu IODA President |
| A WARM WELCOME TO OUR NEW EC MEMBERS We are delighted to have welcomed three new VPs to the Executive Committee last month who have joined us to help IODA achieve its mission and strengthen the organisation. We know their support will bring new beginnings and more milestones for IODA. To find out more about each of them click here. – Carmina Taylor as Vice President of Strategic Projects – Lakshmidevi Vasudevan as Vice President of Memberships & Communications – Ron Banerjee as Vice President of Affiliations and Partnerships THE IODA CONFERENCE 2023 AUSTRALIA Have you bought your ticket for our Annual Conference yet? There’s a special discounted Early Bird rate until 30th April! The conference aims to identify key emerging themes and consider their implications for OD practitioners in the present and future. It’ll be an opportunity to collaborate, share and re-imagine the role that OD could play in the world. Visit the conference website for more information. – SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES We want to involve our community in the conference program, so if you’ve been involved in a project that could benefit your peers, please reach out. Have a look at the conditions and send in your application here. – SCHOLARSHIPS Each year, IODA works with the host country to provide scholarships for attendance at the conference. If you cannot afford the event fee, are an IODA member, and would like to participate, please apply using this form. The deadline is 7th April. INVITATIONS TO PARTNER EVENTS Our partner ODN Europe invites our community to partipate in their Conference on Embracing Chaos: OD in Ongoing Disruption, which will take place in The Hague, Netherlands, from 14 to 16 June. The focus will be on ways to get to a place of stability post pandemic and the impact of Artificial Intelligence on human relationships. For more information about the event, their top keynote speakers, and to benefit from their Early Bird rate, click here. You are also invited to the ODN Summit 2023 in Raleigh, USA, from 11 to 14 June around the topic of Social Impact: Addressing the Challenges of Now. IODA Members benefit from the discounted member rate to attend. This year there will be more time for practice and connections amongst the attendees to make a real impact. Find out more here. YOUR INPUT IS NEEDED We know how much people in our community learn from each other. At our last members’ meeting, we listened when you said you wanted a place to find out more about current OD projects people in the community are active in. We are always happy to share interesting projects on our platform, and there are a few ways for our members to do so: – RUN A WEBINAR: As we are putting together our events plan for 2023 with programs run by IODA members, we’d like to remind you that if you’d like to volunteer to lead one this year we’d love to hear from you! Visit this page for more details. – IODA BLOG: If you’re a member and you’ve recently written an article, a book, or if you’re simply interested in sharing your view about a specific topic with our community, we would be happy to publish it in our blog. Get in touch here. THE SAUL A. SILVERMAN AWARD The selection process for the yearly Saul A. Silverman Award for the Development of Innovative Tools and Theory towards Healing and Conflict Resolution is open and you have until May 1st to send in your nomination. This award is given to Change Agents (IODA or non-IODA members) who have developed excellent tools and theory in alignment with OD values and approaches. If you’ve recently been involved in an outstanding OD, conflict resolution and healing project that qualifies or if there’s someone you know that has, get in touch! More info here. TRANSFORMATION HORIZON PODCAST SERIES We have the privilege of having the creator of this podcast series on the EC! Sasha Farley, our GVP, and our member Judy Oyedele, have released four new fascinating episodes in their Transformation Horizon series. Next time you go for a walk or a jog, why not listen to how other people are applying OD to positively impact society? Click here to listen. AND FINALLY… A MOMENT OF GRATITUDE In the last years, a few people have worked so hard to keep the IODA pot boiling and we want to take this opportunity, on behalf of the whole of the EC, to thank Michelle, Vinaya and Enrique our immediate past President, General VP and Election Committee member, respectively, for their efforts, contributions and achievements. And to our cherished members and EC, we wish to thank you all for supporting IODA in various ways. You have all contributed and continue to do so in diverse ways to give energy and presence to the organisation. Whether your contribution is in organising a webinar or participating in one, organising virtual/in-person conference or attending one, planning and/or participating in EC or members’ meetings, whether it was your regular payment of membership dues or bringing on board new members, they all count towards keeping IODA what we want it to be and we are very much appreciative of your efforts. |
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