Presidium Meeting Report 

The new elected IYNF board has come together for its first physical meeting in Prague from 17th to 21st October 2019.

In the end of June IYNF was in the urge to hold an Extraordinary General Assembly (EGA) to reelect the presidium, after two of the vice presidents started working for the IYNF secretariat. The EGA took place in the Naturefriends House “Le Loguy” in Pénestin, France.

About

The new presidium members are coming from Naturefriends member organizations in Italy (GIAN-Giò), Hungary (TFSZ) and Germany (NFJD). 

President Tilo Podstatny-Scharf (Germany) was re-elected after having the position one year.

Vice president Zoltán Lehoczki (Hungary) is entering his second legislature period in the presidium after serving the organization already from 2016-2018. 

Vice president Valentina Várhelyi (Hungary) is the first time in the IYNF presidium.

Vice president Pari BM (GIAN-Giò) offered herself as a presidium candidate as an act of responsibility for ensuring the decision making process of the organization. She is also for the first time in the presidium.

Vice president Lisa Hofmann (Germany) followed the need of serving the organization after completing her European Voluntary Service with IYNF.

Meeting in Prague

The new presidium met in the headquarter of IYNF in Prague, where its members spend their first day together with the secretariat staff. 

Catching up with the secretariat was framed as a getting to know each other, including a joint breakfast, which was followed by non-formal education methods and energizers. The agenda was designed to create new synergies between the secretariat and the presidium. Firstly the needs, expectations, and achievements of everyone were collected through partner interviews and presented to each other.

A creative task aimed at finding best practices in communication between the departments, which was completed by agreeing on suitable online tools for communication and project management. 

The agenda of the first day was closed with an overview of the IYNF Budget, which was introduced and explained by Finance and Office Coordinator Anna Mayfat.

Topics of the next days focused on the future of IYNF, in particular human resources solutions for relieving the staff members in the secretariat from their workload. Having Viktor Koren as project manager for the “Fruits of Activism” activity in November this year is showing already a lot of benefits of having this position. Besides that, IYNF will welcome two more long-term volunteers in the secretariat from November on. 

Membership organizations 

Each presidium member is responsible for the communication flow with member organizations of IYNF.

Therefore, the useful information for members of the network (with voting rights). In case of strategic questions, comments, advice for IYNF please approach the respective contact person:

You find the contact details here.

Working groups

Further outcomes during the meeting are related to the establishment of two working groups.

• Working group on structures and finances NFI

= This working group consists of the Secretary General of IYNF and elected members from NFI to find a sustainable solution for the long-term cooperation between the organizations. 

• Social Media working group

= Members of the presidium will update and develop the social media strategy for improving the visual identity and visibility of IYNF.

Presidium Training

To avoid issues from the past in lacking candidates for the IYNF presidium a training will be designed for educating interested and potential new presidium members in IYNF. The training will be created and conducted together with alumni from IYNF, which either have been in the presidium themselves or were part in the staff of the secretariat.

Last but not least, fun and creativity were not coming too short during the meeting…

…and adorable delicious food!

Trashy pictures neither…

…and a hostel room named after our former EVS volunteer <3

By: Lisa Hofmann, Vice president