ASE International affairs

Bees

What have bees to do with International Affairs you will be asking yourself! The Bumble Bees may also have come to mind which is one reason why I have opened with ‘Bees’. When Roger Alm handed over the chairmanship of the BBC, he very much wanted it to continue as an internationally minded group who enjoyed fun and fellowship. Roger was also an ASE Ambassador back in 1986/87 & 1987/88.

The other reason I opened with bees is that honey bees are essential for our wellbeing – they are the world’s most important pollinator of food crops and my hope is that the International Affairs team will be the pollinators of the European Senate.

What do I mean by pollination?

The ASE has a purpose but it will not just happen – we need to work together to achieve the objectives that will underpin the purpose. Working together as a team and also working together with the leadership team in each national Senate.

Just like bees carry pollen between the flowers the Chargé d’Affaires and Area Ambassadors – our ‘goodwill ambassadors’ will carry ideas and good practice between countries and JCI Areas/Zones. That pollen will also come back to the ASE hive where we will make the honey that will feed the ‘Orphan Senators’ and help new National Senates to be born and develop when the time is right.

The Hive

While bees only have a physical hive where they can work together, we have the advantage of having virtual opportunities to meet and talk on Skype etc. as well as the physical opportunities like world congress, European conference, ASE board meetings and national Senate events. My plan is that we will have Skype or similar meetings for the team to share experiences and help each other. That will mean that when we actually meet up, we will have more time for the other thing that Senators enjoy – experiencing other cultures while having FUN

FUN

Senators have always had fun but Jacques Arnal coined the FUN acronym and, while it could be misconstrued, in the ASE sense I equate goodwill with FUN so that the international affairs team will be FUN ambassadors!

Fellowship – developing supportive friendships,
Unity – working together,
Networking – developing work, Senate, JCI & social contacts.

As ASE’s goodwill ambassadors, it is important that we remember to have fun while working towards FUN.

Dinner & Dancing

Did you know that dancing is essential for bees’ navigation? While many Senators enjoy dancing, I am not sure that is essential for us but navigation is if we are to find the nectar we need for our honey. That is why I am introducing some standardised report formats and role descriptions – they are our dance instructions that will help us find the best bits to share and be able to spend more time on what matters to us.

As well as the regular reports, which will help us dance together, later in the year we will also be carrying out a Mapping exercise led by Véronique Bonhomme to see if there are any patterns which can help us better achieve our purpose and objectives.

Understanding the Dance

The bottom line is that for the ASE to be relevant we need to understand the Senate throughout Europe and individual countries need to be aware of what the ASE is doing to facilitate them.

We have had several successful Presidents’ forums and summits in recent years but I have also had comments about where they could be improved so I think now is the time to review where we are and develop a structure and timing that fits where the organisation is now.

To do that I am putting together a small working group to look at what the national Senate presidents and their deputies want from such a meeting and what timing would work best.

Royal Jelly

Each new colony starts with royal jelly – we need our form of royal jelly to help new national Senates get established as where there are Senators who would like to stop being ‘orphans’ and establish their own senate organisation we will be providing that royal jelly

Honeybee colonies are perennial

Unlike bumblebees whose nests are annual. For most of its 50-year history the ambassador role has been key to the ASE and has made a major contribution to its development. Likewise working with Senate organisations outside Europe was the major catalyst in establishing the Joint Boards and agreeing the Senate expectations with JCI. Last year we entered a new phase when the Chargé d’affaires role was introduced and put under the leadership of a single member of the ASE board. It now falls to the International Affairs team to continue to be the glue that holds the ASE together and build on the work that has been done in the last 50 years to make sure that the ASE is relevant to our members.

Beekeeping

The beekeeper in chief 2019-2021, Reynold, created this space on the web and suggested I put something here – that is what prompted me to write this article on my thoughts for developing the International Affairs role after Aud’s good work last year establishing this new way of working.

That may do as a start but if the International Affairs web page is going to be useful, I need to know what you would like from this section of the ASE web site.

Peter Browning # 49104

PS – I have learnt a lot about bees while writing this article! If you would like to know more, look at
https://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/bee.htm

ASE Purpose

To promote friendship amongst JCI Senators,
To maintain and encourage the formation of contacts among them,
To help create national groups of JCI Senators,
Whenever possible to assist organisers of multinational JCI conferences in arranging special programmes for JCI Senators,
To provide support to LOM and NOM members of JCI whenever it is sought,
To encourage greater participation of members in the activities of the Association.

International affairs team

Area/Zone Ambassadors

Jacques Arnal (# 55945 France)
> Africa & The Middle East (AMESA)
Daniela Drabert (# 77017 Germany)
> Asia & The Pacific (ASPAC)
Serge Granata-Goldman (# 63281 Monaco)
> Americas & The Caribbean (ASAC)
Jonathan Nicholson (# 62400 Britain)
> USA & Canada

Ambassadors / Chargés d’affaires

Andreas Zeitz (# 75948 Germany)
> Ireland, Scotland
Charles Eder (# 69491)
> France, Greece, Moldova, Malta, Ukraine
Eric Brouwer (# 69941 The Netherlands)
> Catalonia, Denmark
Gabi Stauss (# 66536 Germany)
> Austria
Geva Johänntgen (# 77875 Germany)
> Cyprus, Lithuania, Netherlands
Heinrich Wittmann (# 58543 Germany)
> Czech Republic
Igors Djacenko (# 77793 Latvia)
> Finland, Norway, Russia, Serbia
Jamila El Abed Karlberg (# 62370 Sweden)
> Iceland, Romania
Jonna Engblom (# 74115 Finland)
> Estonia, Latvia, Sweden
Milan Vujičić (# 72599 Serbia)
> Croatia,Germany, Slovakia
Patrizia Ronconi (# 49289 Italy)
> Monaco, Turkey
Pelin Kadilar (# 71534 Turkiye)
> Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg
Remco van der Kuijp (# 7362 The Netherlands)
> Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland
Thomas Meier (# 69797 Switzerland)
> Britain, Portugal
Tom Commeine (# 72473 Belgium)
> Switzerland

Roles

If you would like to see the team’s role descriptions you can view them here:

ASE Area Ambassador

Websites & Facebook pages

– Austria > Website & Facebook
– Belgium > Website & Facebook
– Britain > Website & Facebook
– Croatia > Website
– Denmark > Website & Facebook
– Finland > Website
– France > Website & Facebook
– Germany > Website & Facebook
– Hungary > Facebook
– Ireland > Facebook
– Latvia > Facebook
– Monaco > Website & Facebook
– The Netherlands > Website & Facebook
– Norway > Website & Facebook
– Poland > Facebook
– Russia > Website & Facebook
– Scotland > Facebook
– Sweden > Website & Facebook
– Switzerland > Website & Facebook
– Turkey > Facebook