On August 29th, the NGO DPI Executive Committee met for an all-day strategic planning session.  The meeting, which was led by a professional facilitator, a retired strategic planner from J.C. Penny, was productive and resulted in concrete steps for the Executive Committee, which were approved at its board meeting in September.

Particular attention was given to planning for the 2016 Seoul, South Korea, Annual Conference. A first step would be to identify best practices from prior conferences, emphasizing those held away from New York City.

Secondly, a modus vivendi involving both South Korean and UN Headquarters (DPI and NGO/DPI Executive Committee) must be established before any substantive decisions can be made. As the Conference topic is Education, speakers must be invited, workshops and roundtables organized and a myriad of education-related activities planned, all within a very limited time frame. We have a difficult task ahead.

The Retreat addressed many other topics and issues, too lengthy to detail in this article. For additional information, please contact Bruce Knotts (bknotts@uua.org) or Kim Quarles (kim.quarles@willis.com).

Kim Quarles

NGO/DPI Executive Committee

World Jurist Association