Babacar, Mali (33) – commissioner in charge of training of Association des Pionniers du Mali Federal Bureau since 2013. I have joined pioneers’ activities since 1998. As far as IFM-SEI activities are concerned, I have started fully joining them in 2015. I attended many IFM-SEI events,  am an active member of IFM-SEI Africa, I am the current head of African Falcon Network Steering Team.

Tipsu, Finland (30) – A trained community educator of University of Applied Sciences and one of the presidents of Nuroet Kotkat (NKK), youth-coordinator on local level, member of NKK since the age of 8. I grew up in the organisation and soon international lifestyle through IFM-SEI started by participating in international camps and later on also seminars and International Committee meeting in Peru.

Thomas, Austria (42) – working in Kinderfreunde/Rote Falken national office but being member of Kinderfreunde/Rote Falken for more than 30 years, having been part of IFM-SEI structures for about 10 years (International Committee, Control Commission, Middle East Youth for Peace)

Carly, UK/Belgium (29) – General Secretary of IFM-SEI and formerly a IFM-SEI Presidium member 2013-19. I first got involved with IFM-SEI through the Global Village 2006 steering group when I was 15 years old (when I first met Thomas). I used to be the Deputy Chair of Woodcraft Folk and led kids’ groups as  member of Woodcraft Folk in many places across the UK.

IFM-SEI has been working for decades now - in general very successful, during the past two periods a bit more challenged, mainly by its own governance structures and regulations. It´s time to work through them and sort out together how fit they are for all our purposes and how suitable they are for nowadays requirements.  From outside view, for the last two Congress periods, the Presidium didn´t work properly. So far we have gone through two periods without a working, actively present President – Presidium members stepped back quite regularly. The decision-making processes were ineffective - lots of decisions were not getting through, and if only going halfway. There was a general lack of accountability and ownership in the highest decision-making body of IFM-SEI – nearly all the Presidium members didn´t engage or take responsibilities in a proper way. In order to meet new challenges and improve our weaknesses, to be relevant on the ground and suitable on members and partners eyes, we need the GRG.

Whereas the Secretariat was put into a situation where it had inevitably too much power – but it was the only chance to keep the „machine“ working by keeping contacts with its members as well as potentially new member organisations, dealing with finances as well as trying to get projects and activities 'on board'.

That´s not the way how it should work – it needs a good power-balance and above all an ownership of the organisation by the highest body of our organisation. The Presidium is so far the body to paint the huge guidelines and joint goals for their period´s work – the Secretariat is the one to put efforts into getting the decisions into action. Each is aheaded tasks to be done in coordination but not all on one shoulder.

The big red line was missing in IFM-SEI´s work and that makes some member organisations quite unhappy. The Presidium is not taking political decisions or taking stances on political matters, as is their role.  The general feeling from IFM-SEI as a whole was chaotic, although it would have been so important to have a strong international network in times of rising nationalism, and it´s much more in the future.

It´s absolutely necessary NOW to start a well-structured,  straight forward and above all honest process to work all together on a proper and modern way to form OUR common international network better and powerful.

The strength of IFM-SEI since the founding in 1922 are the values and principles– we can see and feel the values and principles, we share them on paper - but practical work of the Presidium is not making it effectively.

We have to look at structures and not individuals – we need a joint commitment to the organisation and a common idea how to work on our main tasks such as lobbying for children´s rights and advocacy work.  there are too many rules about what individuals should be in Presidium but not clear roles and competences why and how they should commit themselves there. It´s not about gaining one more title, it´s about forming our common work successful.We have to work through our rules of procedure,our code of conduct, our Statutes and state out where they are NOT practical anymore and where it needs bold steps forward. It needs a fruitful basis for discussion and analysis to take a step into the necessary CHANGE – and this CHANGE is our common CHANCE!

THIS CHANGE IS A OUR CHANCE

We want to have our work as GRG until the next Congress in 2019 as open, transparent and clear as possible.  We don´t want to be a secret society - we deeply rely/depend on your feedback as our member organisations, your opinions and your views are of high quality for our work – that´s why we are definitely and kindly inviting you to take over an active role in the process as well as addressing things straight forward to us. We are going to involve you into our work the coming year actively and report back the current status of our work as regular as possible. And we are planning to raise questions , some of them for sure a challenge to answer – but as we´ve stated out above – there is a change necessary, this change is a chance we need to seize all together.

We want to be of sustainable help to structure IFM-SEI procedures in a new modern and makeable way to help IFM-SEI getting the power in a more and more nationalistic, anti-social environment.

We define ourselves objective, honest and straightforward, we are not member of the GRG to fulfill a private mission – we are offering time, thoughts and work and commit ourselves to develop a prosperous, successful international movement all of us love being part of.

Written by Thomas Wengler 

You can contact us at any time if you have any contributions, thoughts or feedback at governance@ifm-sei.org.