Anne-Marie Carlson was honored to be elected as Vice-Chair (2009-present) and to be appointed to chair the following subcommittees – Bylaws (2009-2011), Resource Center (2007-2008) and Nominations (2005-2006) and to serve as a member of the Outreach (2006-present), Future Conferences (2009-present), Bylaws (2008-2009) and Fundraising subcommittees (2010-present).
She has found that her participation in the NGO/DPI Executive Committee has given her the opportunity to learn more about the other 1300+ NGO groups particularly interesting. As a member of the Outreach Subcommittee for several years, she has also served as the Executive Committee Liaison for the Middle East, encouraging more dialogue among NGOs, the growth of more NGOs and the possibility of one of these countries being chosen as the site for a future conference.
Attending the four annual NGO conferences held abroad – Bonn (2011), Melbourne (2010), Mexico City (2009) and Paris (2008) in addition to those held at the UN (1995 -2007) have been particularly rewarding for her while focusing on Executive Committee priorities along with being able to meet and network with the many other NGOs in attendance.
To strengthen the NGO/DPI Executive Committee’s leadership role in promoting a closer working relationship between the UN and NGOs associated with the UN DPI Anne-Marie would suggest that NGO representatives be called upon more often to share their individual expertise and that of their NGO organization and related groups in which they are active. This could and should be encouraged to more often occur.
In Anne-Marie’s case, she is a representative of The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, the professional organization of 100,000 educators in 17 countries. A special passion of mine is the Committee on Teaching About the United Nations (CTAUN) of which she has been Chair since 2000 and have chaired their annual conferences at the UN since 1999. These conferences have focused on diverse topics such as human rights, peace, literacy, water, poverty, and global-local partnerships.
She would also encourage the Executive Committee to search for new ways to address issues such as the current cutbacks in UN Briefings for NGOs and NGO Resource Center hours, difficulties in securing UN rooms for these briefings and other meetings and the lack of sufficient funding for NGO annual conferences and other events.