ExCo Live Meeting through a Secretary’s Eyes
Hi guys!
For this blog post, I intend to tell you a little bit about “ExCo Live Meetings”. The principle behind this is fairly simple.
The ExCo has 5 live meetings in general:
– one just after their election at the Summer Congress
– one during the Winter Symposium
– one during the next Summer Congress, at the end of their term
– two between these different events
The last live meeting was held in Milan from the 6 th to 8 th of May. The location is first chosen and agreed upon by all members of the ExCo, and needs to be the cheapest, most reasonable one for the IVSA. This live meeting is also a great opportunity to promote a chapter/MO of the IVSA! IVSA members and the local board from Milan were amazing!
They arranged accommodation and food for us, brought us for tour of the clinic and their faculty with the aid of a professor, and even brought us for a sightseeing tour in Milan. They were, quite simply, amazing, and really charming hosts!
Another thing that the local MO can opt to do is to attend the meeting as observer or just ask the ExCo all the questions that they have about IVSA global. There were lots of opportunities for informal discussion over a pizza. Having all ExCo available and around at the same time is something that barely ever happen, even during the Congress or Symposium, because they’re always super busy.
But what exactly happens during this kind of meeting? The first day was just full of arrivals, feeling absolutely welcomed by the local hosts, checking in… And then we had the veterinary clinic and university tour.
Nothing too formal, and everybody was just so happy to see each other, just like old friends, but business started soon enough. IVSA was the clear main agenda of all discussions, and before long, everyone started talking about what we did or future project that we have. It felt like the meeting had already begun!
The second day was the real meeting, which comprised mostly of 13 hours of discussion, and a lot of caffeine. It really looked like the online meetings that the ExCo have quite often. There were some agenda points about ongoing projects, new ones, things to be done…
But live meetings (as compared to online ones), create the opportunity to debate more easily and clearly regarding sensitive points – and brainstorming is definitely way more efficient. You also have a lot more time (no, you would probably not agree to do 13 hours of online meetings) and are able to add a few hours of meeting to the next day if necessary.
We did not necessarily have to add any time for an extra meeting session on the third day (thankfully!), so instead, we had the opportunity to do some sightseeing and stuff ourselves with as much ice-cream as we could.
Secretaries are definitely more than welcome for these meetings, as they can add a new points of view and their opinion is as heard just as well as the other ones. It was also a great opportunity to me to learn a little bit more about how the ExCo works, and what exactly it means “to be an Exco”
One thing that I can most definitely assure you of, is that this team is a great one. These guys are deep friends and they are really capable of working together. They can discuss difficult issues without fighting, and listen to each other to figure out the problems that they are facing.
Good job, team. And good job, IVSA! Thank you.
