IGoRC
From JBPedia
This is a JB Essentials page, it relates to the idea of JB as a Global Movement. To understand it better, you might want to visit that corner of JBPedia!
IGoRC are the IJB Guidelines on Regional Cooperation, a document created in 2004-2005 that clarified goals, purposes and limits of regions, while reforming the structure of the IJB. This document was a product of the Regional Cooperation Taskforce 2004, composed by later IJRs Astrid Naver and Marcos Tourinho, and the IJRs Matteo Zanella and James Schaffer, after over 20 drafts.
The main principles of the document include:
- Regions are based on the will to cooperate.
- All regions are open for participation and membership.
- Flexibility in structure, membership and leadership of regions.
- Regions are defined by its Goals (see below).
Contents |
Introduction
The purpose of this document is to clarify the role of the regional structure within the International Junior Branch (IJB). The need for this clarification came up in order to avoid overlap between the content of International Junior Branch Conference (IJBC) and of the regional meetings, as well as between the work of the International Junior Representatives (IJRs) and of the Regional Coordinators (ReCos). Since the future of IJB is Regional Cooperation, as stated by the first taskforce in 1998, it is also important to avoid having another layer between National Junior Branches (NJBs) and IJB and to avoid doubling the structure of CISV International as we move forward. It was also necessary to make clear conditions for membership and participation in the regional structures of IJB.
During IJBC 2004, a taskforce took on the job of understanding and explaining how Regional Cooperation developed in the International Junior Branch in order to define better the different goals and responsibilities of the regions. There is no proposal to change regional structure itself. The task is to rationalize the roles of each one involved in International Junior Branch. During this process, only the structures common to all the regions, and not specific solutions have been considered.
The taskforce started with a study on everything that has been written about Regions and Regional Cooperation, going through all ARMM (American Regional Meeting), EJBM (Europan Junior Branch Meeting), JEMM (Junior Eastern Mediterranean Meeting) and JASPARC (Junior Asia Pacific Regional Conference) reports available, a part of the History of International Junior Branch (HIJB) and all the relevant paperwork. Besides that, the ReCos and some juniors that previously had a leadership role in the development of Regional Cooperation were interviewed. After a draft was completed with all the ideas generated, the IJRs, in cooperation with the Task Force, took the task of re-elaborating and consolidating the document.
Before continuing reading this document, we suggest that you read the Infofile O-15 as it has been revised by the IJRs Matteo Zanella (ITA) and James Schaffer (USA) during the IJRs’ Mid Way Meeting (MWM) 2005. That document should be fully understood before going any further, since you will find many references to it in the following pages. The purpose of referring to this document is to eliminate potential confusion arising from defining things more than once with different words in different places.
In defining the regions, the differences between goals, definitions and responsibilities were considered carefully. Like any good CISV activity, the goal comes first. The specific goal comes from the name that has always been used to define the structuring of IJB: Regional Cooperation. Cooperation between NJBs is one of the goals of IJB as a whole, and it is what regions do in the name of IJB. For Regional Cooperation to work optimally, Junior Branches should be willing to cooperate.
The definitions and the responsibilities identified for Regions maintain space for creative freedom and internal regional structures like the promotional network in Europe. In particular, the word "responsibilities" contains the idea that there are some minimum functions that IJB relies on the regions for. Responsibilities should not constrain regions but be a common basis to cooperate with each other within IJB.
The reason that ReCos are full members of the IJB Committee is that IJB and regions are part of one another. ReCos are not, however, to be considered representatives. Another bureaucratic layer between IJRs and NJRs (National Junior Representatives) is not needed and also single JBs might be members of multiple regional communities.
Participation and Membership the ways an NJB can be involved in a region. In the spirit of cooperation and the inclusiveness inherent in the goals of CISV, participation in multiple regions is allowed. Participation is the most important way of contributing to a region. There is no reason to not allow JBs to have multiple regional memberships if they feel they need it: the Regional Cooperation structure is a tool to develop and not a tool to constrain. On the other hand JBs should be responsible enough to modify their membership status in the regions on their own, fully understanding the Regional Cooperation structure and caring about IJB as a whole. It is important to keep in mind that regions are communities, and not just geographically based portions of the world.
Overall, the document contains a minimum standard of responsibilities and of positions needed to organize the work of the Regions. This is the only way to have global and effective Junior work within CISV and not just individual initiatives. With Regional Cooperation the International Junior Branch is able to be closer to Junior Branches at the local and national levels, thus creating a more productive community. The document is not just about minimum standards for the region; it is also the minimum amount of guidelines needed to establish clarity. Any regional document in contrast with the following has to be changed.
Thanks to the members of the Regional Cooperation taskforce 2004, Marcos Tourinho (BRA) and Astrid Naver (DEN) who did an amazing job and to the people interviewed for their wise comments (Gian Taralli, Juanca Lozano, Nick Trautmann, Carla Jimenez, Sarah Montgomery, Basti Merz and Saiko Shimada).
Historical Perspective
In a short story…
The first records of Regional Cooperation are from 1988, when the first ideas of regional work shops appeared (a South-American workshop in Argentina and a European Workshop about immigration in Germany). Following that, general regional meetings began to take place and a few juniors were participating. Nothing significant happened regarding this issue until around 1994. At this moment, Regional Cooperation was beginning to happen simultaneously with the Juniors in the Americas and Europe but with very different methods.
Even though both meetings started simultaneously and based on regional cooperation, they developed in a very different manner. While ARM decided to build a regional structure that would support and coordinate the regional cooperation throughout the year, Europe had the more experienced juniors doing regional cooperation at EJBM.
European JBs decided first not to have a bureaucratic structure because they believed that more could be done if the region didn’t spend time designing a budget, writing newsletters, having elections etc.… and everything worked naturally with the initiative of these experienced European Juniors.
A while later when these two models were developed regionally, IJB decided to set Regional Cooperation (or Regionalization, as said before) as a priority on Junior Branch development. During IJBC 1998 the process of studying the methods of regional cooperation became organized and fruitful when “Division of International Work” Task Force (coordinated by Nick Trautmann) was created and they designed the basis of International Work as we know now.
During the whole year of 1998 the task force followed up and evaluated the new structure and proposed several changes to make the structure possible. The Task Force was approved to continue at IJBC 1999 (coordinated by Juanca Lozano) with goals of working, on regional communication and development, for the very first time. As you can see, our studies are based on ARM and EJB experience. The reason is that we only have records from JEMM and JASPARC development dating back from 2001, when the concept of Regions in Junior Branch was already settled. After analyzing this info, we came to the conclusion that ever since the two regions were created they developed in very different directions, compared to where they started. These changes in direction, has been obviously under the direct influence of the NJRs present over the years, but it also seems as though they are a result from a natural cyclic process. Nowadays, regional cooperation, understanding and improvement is still one of the main focuses of the International Junior Branch Work. What has it meant to be in a region?
Regional Work has been developed with the objective of being a supporting structure for JB development, giving the opportunity for JBs to cooperate with others, and allowing JBs to do more together than they could do alone. This cooperation has basically been organized geographically for seemingly practical reasons (low travel costs, similar cultural background, and preconceptions of political and socio-economic areas of the world) and is mainly based on making personal connections. Within each region there are JBs with different “skills” (i.e. structure, human resources and experiences) that can be shared; sharing these skills and thereby helping the others, is the most important action taking place in every region.
1. What is a JB region?
Goal (Same as responsibility 3 of IJB, see O-15 revised)
- Cooperation and communication among member JBs to achieve the following:
- A. Perpetual JB development of member JBs (meaning: improving the quality and increasing the quantity of JB projects and JB volunteers' work and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the JB administration).
- B. Inter-JB projects that achieve the goals of JB in ways that a single JB could not do alone.
Definitions
- A region, in the IJB context, is a community of cooperating JBs that develops according to the needs of those member JBs and that is recognized as a region by the IJB. Currently, there are four regions recognized by the International Junior Representatives: ARM (Americas Regional Members), EJB (European Junior Branch), JASPAR (Juniors Asia Pacific Region) and JEM (Juniors Eastern Mediterranean).
- Regions have Regional Coordinators (ReCos), who have the duties of coordinating and facilitating the member JBs towards the goal of the region. They take care also that regions accomplish their responsibilities.
- A participating JB of a region is a JB active in pursuing the goal of that region by having juniors doing tasks for the region (including running for positions), observing the events of the region, communicating with the region, participating to Regional Meeting or hosting meetings. JBs may participate in as many regions as they feel that they can effectively.
- A member JB of a region is a JB that has voting rights upon issues decided by the region. Only a participating JB may become a member of a region; a participating JB does so by making an explicit request to that region's ReCos before each regional decision making session (supposedly every year). This statement does not require any approval by the region—it is self-approved. A JB participating in more than one region could be member of all of them.
Responsibilities
1. To promote and to consolidate JBs, in cooperation with Organizational Development Committee (ODC).
Rationale: Regional Coordinators and the regional structure as a whole are close enough to be capable of giving the necessary support and advice to struggling or new Junior Branches. Cooperation with ODC is very important to achieve the goals of CISV within the region / NA: juniors can promote CISV by starting JBs and with the help of ODC, from a JB an NA can be developed or in an NA with no JB, ODC should help with the creation of Junior Branch.
2. To encourage juniors to use the External Relation Committee's Non-Governmental Organization Relations team (ERC's NGO-relations Team) to find and to cooperate with NGOs that works within the region.
Rationale: We should not double the CISV Int. structure but use the tools that are available.
3. To share experiences.
Rationale: Since there is a very broad range of JB’s in IJB, it is hard to provide useful and specific sharing of day-to-day-work experience. Therefore we will benefit the most if the regions focus more on the concrete experience sharing and the IJB on more philosophical issues. Experience sharing is a way for the regions to strengthen the less developed JBs with the help and experience from the strong JBs (that will also naturally develop from this process).
4. To record participating JBs list and member JBs list annually.
Rationale: It is important to keep an historical record of how regional cooperation develops for any future changes to the structure.
5. To inform about regional meetings, workshops, activities, projects, minutes and reports the whole of IJB in a timely fashion.
Rationale: It is important that the whole IJB is aware of what is happening in every region so that everyone has the possibility to gain from other regions' experiences.
2. Official Positions
In order to guarantee quality and continuously improve quality within Regional Cooperation it is necessary to maintain a basic structure that can be easily applied to all regions and easily recognized internationally.
- One ReCo per Region will be a full member of the IJB Committee. Each year regions should appoint which ReCo will be the full member for the current year.
Rationale: Since ReCos coordinate NJBs towards the goal of the region on behalf of the IJB and liaise between International committees and NJBs (in particular ODC and ERC's NGO-relations team) they are considered integral part of IJB Committee. As full members of any other committee IJB full member will have their IJBC fees paid. ReCos from a region could share their fee if agreed.
- ReCos should facilitate the cooperation between the regional groupings of NAs (where they exist) and the JB regions.
Rationale: ReCos facilitate the coordination of efforts of the bodies that aims to develop CISV in the NAs they coordinate.
Rationale: IJRs are already responsible for overseeing the work within International Junior Branch and coordinating the International Structure of JB. While Regions are defined as self-assembling bodies of cooperating NJBs, the IJRs have a responsibility to ensure that the content of Regions' work is consistent with the larger goals of IJB as a whole (as well as its effects on other parts of the IJB community and workload). IJRs should participate to all regional meeting every year.
3. Cooperation Between Regions
In this section there are some strategies that will guarantee relevant communication and interaction between the regions.
- Regions decision making procedure regards just internal regional issues. In any other circumstance IJB moderates the discussions.
Rationale: Problems regarding IJB or other regions should be addressed by the proper representatives since the work will affect them in the long run.
- Being participating JB of a region is open and encouraged to any JB and any individuals.
Rationale: It’s important that a global perspective is always considered in every CISV project: the awareness of what is happening in other regions is very important for regional / international JB development and it a way to stifle possible tendency to become too territorial about your own. Thus every opportunity of having juniors from other regions involved on a regional project should be profited encouraging this way the cooperation and sharing of experiences between regions. Even if, especially in taskforce works sometimes is better having small groups, observers will not disturb the development of the idea and their inclusion is much more profitable than their exclusion.
4. International Meetings
Meetings in person are probably the most significant tools to reach the goals of Junior Branch (Refer to Infofile O-15). Regional meetings in particular are a tool to reach Regions goal (See section 1) and not a goal itself. So depending on which is your primary goal as a participant of an international meeting we suggest you to consider the goals of regions versus IJB.
In this section you will find some suggestions on the content of those meetings which were made to avoid overlaps between regional and international structures of Junior Branch.
Workshops and other events are encouraged since are very beneficial cause they let National JBs can interact. Responsibilities for these meetings, including the contents, are considered to be of hosting NJBs. Suggested minimum for Regional Meeting content:
- Sharing of day-to-day-work experiences, practicalities and basic training (training sessions regarding common CISV skills as leadership, activity-planning etc and regarding the CISV programmes as MOSAIC, IPP etc.).
Rationale: This is really important for JB development which the a goal of IJB shared with regions. Therefore is not going to happen much at IJBC in order to fulfill more the goals that are not shared.
- A session about “What is happening in every region”
Rationale: It’s is important that every JB know what is happening in the regions.
Suggested minimum for International Junior Branch Conference Content:
- Activities about cultural diversity of Junior Branches
Rationale: As Junior Branch we have defined goals (See O-15), but there are different ways of pursue them as diverse as the backgrounds we come from. It is a goal of the organization as a whole not to loose sights of our differences and to learn from each other while we work towards the same goals.
- Advanced Training Sessions
Rationale: IJBC is a place where juniors receive training for them to bring back home, thereby strengthening the development of IJB.
- A session about "How to interact with other regions"
Rationale: This will encourage inter-regional cooperation and awareness, besides the fact that this would also give some ideas and inspiration for the different regions.
Curiosities
- On the first public draft of IGoRC, there had a little "test" to check if people were reading the text carefully enough. By mistake, that little test was kept on the official version sent to the whole IJBC and not many people noticed.
- Until today, IGoRC is said to be iGorc, on a reference to the computers of most IJRs.
