A report on the ISGF World Conference Bali October 2017.

Monday 9th Oct.

The delegates and members attending the conference were collected from the airport

efficiently. Registration for conference at the hotel ran smoothly although the organisers did

close the registration reception for lunch. The hotel rooms were a good size with a balcony

but the fittings and decoration of the room was very dated especially the bathroom. The staff

of the hotel were very helpful and polite. The food was plentiful provided you liked rice 3

times a day. Breakfast was ‘help yourself’ in the hotel dining room. Other meals were taken

outside in the gardens in lovely warm weather and around tables of 8 or 10 seated. This

made it easier for people to move around the tables at each sitting to talk to different

members. Sue and I made a point of this to get to know members from different countries. A

good handbook was produced for the conference for each member.

The first meeting Allan attended was the "Heads of Delegates" mainly to discuss procedures

of voting at the conference. The UK delegation team were also carrying the proxy vote for

Uganda who were not present at the conference. There followed Regional meetings to bring

all delegates up to date with regional matters. Dinner at 6pm first day was followed by the

Opening Ceremony.

Tuesday 10th Oct. 8am.

The conference started with morning reflection followed by a roll call. The opening session

was taken up with procedural matters. The first report was the Triennial Report from the

World Committee. Then voting on membership of countries who were applying to be elected

as full members of ISGF being Nepal, Qatar, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Zambia. All

5 countries were elected. Agenda item 8 discussed finances and accounts, International

Development Fund. Agenda item 9 was the presentation of the candidates for election to the

World Committee. Each candidate was given 5 minutes to present why they should be

elected. The afternoon was taken up with Workshops on the future Action Plan.

Wednesday 11th Oct. 8am.

After Roll Call agenda items 10 and 11 were Motions for changes to the Constitution,

proposed by ISGF World Committee, these were all accepted. Then motions proposed by

NSGF’s. Australia's late motion was not accepted as being urgent and they were advised to

put the proposal forward with the usual notice to the next World Conference. All other

motions proposed by member organisations were rejected. After lunch voting took place for

the 3 members to be elected to the World Committee, it having previously been decided to

reduce the number of members of the World Committee to 6, with the opportunity for Region

Chair’s to attend in a non-voting capacity at their own expense. There were then

presentations by the IAG and UNHCR. Then followed the announcement of elected World

Committee members: Elin Richards (from Iceland) Mario Bertagnolo (Italy) and Zaillah Mohd

Taib (Malaysia) who were all elected for 6 years they join Wahid Labidi, Alf Runar Bakke and

Mathius Lukwago. The International Fellowship Dinner was followed by the World Market.

Thursday 12th Oct. 8am.

Day out. Cultural Visit. 15 buses were used to take the members to 5 different destinations.

We travelled on bus No 2 to a village school in Banjar and then we all met up for lunch. We

were then taken to a ‘souvenir shopping centre’ in the town of Kuta. The afternoon was a visit

to Uluwatu Temple and to watch Kecak Dance during sunset. Back to the hotel for Dinner.

Friday13th Oct. 8am.

Morning Reflection with a roll call was followed by the Election of host country for 2020 World

Conference. Ghana withdrew its application but a vote was still taken before the

announcement of Spain as the host country for the 2020 World Conference. The Action Plan

for 2017 to 2020 was presented by Mathius and Runar. The budget for 2018 to 2020 was

accepted and the Appointment of auditors confirmed. Following coffee break a workshop for

International Secretaries was taken by Jane Wardropper, Vice Chair of the Conference as a

new job description for I S has been published by the World Committee. The group

photograph was taken. In the Open Session, Comments and Questions to the World

Committee were taken and Invitations were given to all forthcoming events, except for the

Western Europe Sub Region Gathering. The new Chairman of the World Committee is

Mathius Lukwago from Uganda.

Saturday 14th Oct. 8am. Checkout and departure.

For those who did not attend this conference this gives you a basic overview on a daily basis.

Both Sue and I have put together our thoughts of the good and not so good points about the

organisation of the conference in a different report. This report can help us with the general

organisation of our own 2018 Gathering.

Allan.