World Council News #7, 25 May 2022

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Logistics I Programme I Governance I Denmark I People I Communications I Archive I Contact

World YMCA Secretary-General Carlos Sanvee writes:

There are 40 days to go until we see you at World Council – either in-person in Aarhus, Denmark or online. Busy as we are, we are on track as more and more things fall into place. A new feature of this May news bulletin is the first Online World Council programme and - with it - more of the details on how we will engage the online audience of up to 1800 people over the course of the week, with everything from online Co-Labs to online yoga... Meanwhile in-person registrations stand at 1100 and the In-person World Council programme is now fully established, with the first tranche of Speakers announced. We are also excited to be able to announce the full list of candidates for the Executive Committee elections which will take place at World Council: the Nominations Book is below.

For the June newsletter (the last before the event, hopefully around 20 June), we will assemble a Guidebook for all participants, drawing together existing and new information. Keep following us on the World Council website, and get ready to use the Cvent platform for the Online event. Read on!

Logistics

INFORMATION WEBINARS

Join us for five information webinars on 7, 8, 10, 14 and 21 June.

‘Meet the Candidates’ (3 Officers: President, Deputy President, Treasurer) – Tuesday 7 June at 14:00-16:00 Geneva/CEST time – register here
‘Meet the Candidates’ (11 Executive Committee members) – Wednesday 8 June at 14:00-16:00 Geneva/CEST time - register here
Instructions for all voting delegates – Friday 10 June at 14:00-16:00 Geneva/CEST time - register here
Information webinar for all in-person participants - Tuesday 14 June at 14:00-16:00 Geneva/CEST time - register here
Information webinar for all online participants – Thursday 21 June at 14:00-16:00 Geneva/CEST time - register here

MAKE YOUR CHOICES IF YOU HAVEN'T YET DONE SO!
For the in-person programme, many thanks to all of you who have already made your choices for the Excursions (4 July), the Co-Labs (6-8 July), the Women’s Leadership Lunch and the 'Dinner-with-a-Dane' option (both 7 July). Two-thirds of registrants have signed up for Co-Labs: a great start ... but also a long way to go for the central element of World Council which occupies eight hours over three days. If you haven’t yet signed up, please do so using your Cvent reference number by (the extended deadline of) 25 May at the very latest.

SUBMIT YOUR ARRIVAL INFORMATION
Please make all your travel and hotel bookings now, and update your registration page on the Cvent platform, so that we can collect you on arrival and know where you are. We still recommend arriving at Billund Airport, where you will be met and transferred to Aarhus. If you arrive in Copenhagen, please take a train to Billund (at your own cost), and you will be met there.

If you have to arrive in Copenhagen and travel onward to Aarhus by train, we
highly recommend pre-booking both your train ticket and specifically your
seat reservation in advance. Due to the presence of the Tour de France in
Denmark at that time, demand is expected to be high.

REGISTRATION
Registration deadlines are fast approaching: 31 May for in-person delegates, and 20 June for online. Fees are USD 1300 and 100 respectively, (online discounted rates may be available as part of block bookings made by your YMCA National and/or Region/Area Movements).

SUBSIDIES STILL AVAILABLE
Please remember that thanks to the generosity of some YMCA National Movements, World YMCA and YMCA partners, subsidies may be available to encourage participation from smaller YMCA Movements with less financial resource, especially young people. Requests should be made via YMCA National Movements to worldcouncil@ymca.int.

VISA & VACCINATION
On registering you will receive your Visa invitation letter, with which you then apply to the Danish embassy in your country. If need be, contact worldymca@ymca.int. Covid vaccination is a condition of entry for participation in the in-person event. For more visa and vaccine information (including a list of approved World Council vaccines) please visit the World Council website.

VISIT THE AARHUS VENUES
Thanks to our friends at YMCA Denmark for this short video piece showing the different locations for the different activities in Aarhus.

World Council website

Programme

The latest In-Person programme is here and the first Online Programme is here. On each, ‘hybrid’ events available to both In-Person and Online audiences are marked with a red circle 🔴.

ONLINE PROGRAMME
Please visit the new 'Online experience' page on the website housing the Online programme and descriptions of its main components.

SPEAKERS (In-person, online)
A first wave of Speakers is now available to view online, and we are delighted to confirm that Ban Ki-Moon, 8th Secretary General of the United Nations and Co-Chair of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, will be our keynote speaker at 11:00-12:00 CEST on Tuesday 5 July. More

ENGAGEMENT PANEL & PLENARY SPEAKERS (in-person, online)
There will be six ‘Engagement Panels’ on 5-6 July, followed by an Engagement Plenary on 7 July. Speakers are already confirmed from the UN’s Generation Unlimited, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, the World Economic Forum, the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and the Global Youth Mobilization.

ENDNOTE SPEAKERS (in-person, online)
The ‘Endnote’ session on ‘Leading with purpose’ on 8 July will be addressed by two national YMCA leaders, and an external Head of Global Risk and Geopolitical Agenda.

DEVOTIONS (in-person, online)
Devotions will take place for half-an-hour each day on Tuesday 5 to Friday 8 July. They will promote reflection on the spiritual values linked with the four pillars of YMCA Vision 2030, with focus on ‘Wholeness’ (for Community Wellbeing), ‘Hope’ (for Meaningful Work), ‘Responsibility’ (for Sustainable Planet), and ‘Dignity’ (for a Just World).

CO-LABS (in-person, online)

In-person
Co-Labs are at the core of World Council. Over three days, some 30 groups of some 30 people each will debate the ways in which we will bring YMCA Vision 2030 to life through our practical actions to benefit YMCAs, the communities they serve, and the world. There are twelve topics available, three under each of the four pillars.

Vision 2030 Pillar 1: Community Wellbeing
Co-Lab 1. Building a culture of wellbeing in the YMCA
Co-Lab 2. Creating safe and inclusive spaces in our communities
Co-Lab 3. Becoming safeguarding champions at a local, national and global level

Vision 2030 Pillar 2: Meaningful Work
Co-Lab 4. Building a YMCA employee value proposition
Co-Lab 5. Creating sustainable education, upskilling and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people
Co-Lab 6. Amplifying the voices of young people on equitable access to employment

Vision 2030 Pillar 3: A Sustainable Planet
Co-Lab 7. Building a climate-neutral YMCA
Co-Lab 8. Creating a Movement that inspires members, staff, volunteers and communities to champion environmental responsibility
Co-Lab 9. Championing global solutions to support a just transition to a Green Economy

Vision 2030 Pillar 4: A Just World
Co-Lab 10. Building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive YMCA
Co-Lab 11. Creating the next peacebuilders, activists, leaders and advocates for social change
Co-Lab 12. Becoming advocates for a world where everyone is treated with dignity

See above: all in-person participants must make their top two choices for the Co-Labs they would like to attend, by the extended deadline of 25 May.

The Co-Labs will be led by some 60-70 Facilitators from across the YMCA Movement, who will be onboarded on 31 May and trained on 9 June and 3 July. Contact razvan@ymca.int.

Online
There will be three 90-minute Co-Lab sessions in total for online participants, which will be run twice to allow every time zone to participate. Track 1 will be run on Tuesday, July 5, Wednesday, July 6 and Thursday July 7 at 20:00 CEST/Aarhus time. These sessions will have translation provided. Track 2 will be run on Wednesday 6, Thursday 7 and Friday 8 July at 09:00 CEST/ Aarhus time - these sessions will not have translation provided. Attendees pick which Track they would like to participate in according to their time zone, and then remain in that Track for all three sessions.

Governance

We are pleased to confirm that we have received:

two candidatures for the position of World YMCA President
two candidatures for the position of World YMCA Deputy-President
two candidatures for the position of World YMCA Treasurer
19 candidatures for the 11 available positions of World YMCA Executive Committee member.

All are included in the Nominations Book (already sent to all YMCA National Movements), which include biographies, photos and short videos recorded by each of the candidates. We present the Nominations Book here.

As above, we will run two ‘Meet the Candidates’ webinars: for the three Officers on 7 June, and for the 11 elected Executive Committee members on 8 June.

Denmark

We are honoured to be hosted by YMCA Denmark and YMCA Aarhus. YMCA has a huge presence in the town, in schools, colleges, hostels, youth clubs, even a popular student bar. Enjoy this short video piece on the work of YMCA Denmark (in Danish, with English sub-titles.)

There are a number of exciting elements to the Danish cultural activities on offer at World Council. These include Aarhus walking tours and a ‘Welcome to Aarhus’ event at the Cathedral on Sunday 3 July, a superb selection of Excursions on Monday 4 July, a Danish cultural evening (with dinner) in the Old Town of Aarhus on Wednesday 6 July, and the option of having ‘Dinner-with-a-Dane’ on Thursday 7 July. More

People

Meet Mike Bromfield, who has been with the YMCA since he was a teenager. A former World YMCA Change Agent, he is the manager of the first ever Online programme for a YMCA World Council, in 2022.

‘The online experience is going to provide a whole new dynamic to the event’ More

Communications

Keep following the World Council website and the World YMCA Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn channels. Always use the hashtag #YMCAignite2022. Feel free to use the logos and 12 official World Council images here.

Calling all communicators! There will be a fully-equipped Studio at the Music House in Aarhus, allowing live and recorded filming. The 'World Council Daily' chat show will be available live and exclusively to Online participants at 19:00-20:00 CEST on 4-8 July. YMCA National Movements are welcome to make use of the facilities for their own recording. Contact John@ymca.int.

Archive

Look back with us at the highlights video of the 16th YMCA World Council in Durban, South Africa, in 2006. We were ‘Striving together for peace’, and the theme was ‘Ubuntu – I am, because you are’.