200 km/h

At 8 am in the morning in Bogota, Colombia Enrico Quaroni signs into his msn. He has just woken up. It is Sunday morning and he is tired. At the same time, it is 11 am in the morning in Halifax, Canada. Alex Neuman is preparing to go to thanksgiving dinner with his family. He has some time left and also logs into his msn. Sofia Mexia living in Lisbon, Portugal. She is really at a weekend meeting with her job, but manage to capture a wireless network and log on to her msn. In Sweden, its 3 pm. I sit on a train between Gothenburg and Stockholm. 200 km/h. Internet. Msn. At the same time, 10pm in the Philippines where Jali is and it is midnight in Canberra, Australia, where Chris Stokes lives. They also log into their msn. The last thing they'll do before they go to bed. A further five people, in different places, in different time zones log on. It is time fo a committee meeting of CISV International Mosaic Committee. 

Context. I think that is why we engage. It gives you context - a sense of belonging. In my context, there is not time. During an hour's time, we discuss the development of Mosaic Projects in Asia and Europe, the network of trainers in North America and the financing of the upcoming training in France. The word going around. When you are meeting via msn can not do as in a normal meeting. Body language and eye contact is not there. Words like "he" or "she" can not be used, because it is not possible to know who "he" is referring. We apply silent agreements, only disagreements needs to be typed in. During my six years in the International Mosaic Committee, we have developed methods to coordinate ourselves and communicate with each other so that time does not matter. Regardless of when I send an e-mail, I get a reply within an hour. It is always someones' time to check e-mails. After a day I have twelve replies. 

Our vision is our most important tool. For we can not be motivated and have fun hanging with the gang. Because we don't meet. . So when you lose power and motivation you need to go back to the root. Why am I doing this? Why are we doing this? 

I like the idea of a world without borders. On Sunday when we were meeting over msn, it was not just time that disappeared. It was also the world's borders. There we were, committed to a more peaceful world. Early in the morning or late at night. Or at 200 km/hour. We are committed to our vision.  

The more people who may grow up with a context where borders do not exist, the closer to an open, fair and peaceful world we become. CISV creates context and we all continue to grow.

//Per

Where will we have projects next year?

CISV international have chapters in 200 communities worldwide. The following are to do Mosaic projects next year; 

Fredericton, Cairo, Madrid (x2), Firenze, JB Italy, Milano, Modena, Padova, Lisbon (x3), Philadelphia, Campinas, Sao Paulo, Abidjan, Agnibilekrou, Quito, Galicia, Madrid, Jakarta, Bologna, Jacksonville, Maine, Buenos Aires, Perth, Araraquara, Bel Horizonte, Victoria, Costa Rica, Savoie, Hordaland, Oslo & Akershus (x2), Sor-Trondelag, Bucharest, Malmö (x2), Helsingborg, Gothemborg, Mölndal, Columbus, Dallas - Ft Worth, San Francisco, Vienna, Rio de Janeiro, Vancouver, Victoria, Bogotà, Isere, Sheffield

Nuuk, Budapest, Tokai and Vilnius

We are looking forward to a new year. 

What are we doing for next year?

Earlier today at the annual international meeting of CISV the plan of action for the International Mosaic Committee. It was approved by the board of trustees without any changes. 

In short next year will be about:
- We will during the year take the first important steps to reach hosting stability with a growth of five projects a year for the coming years. The goal is to have 50 approved Mosaic projects by 2012
- We will take the first steps to make the committee financially independent at the international level
- We will put extra efforts into evaluations, both at a project and programme level
- Implement the revised Mosaic programme goals in the programmes guide and training curriculum
- Train Mosaic Coordinators and trainers in Asia Pacific and Europe
- Develop a best practise for giving support to project coordinators and hosting chapters

But also concerned with the profile of CISV and Mosaic in the communities we will:
- Develop the concept of our magazine, and continue working together with IPP, so that the magazine even more fits an external audience, still reflecting the out put of Mosaic in our communities and creating a feeling among CISVers of beloning to a bigger movement
- Make sure all project coordinators recieve a certificate, identifying the competence needed and experience gained through the projects

Budget spending on this estimated to approx 14, 334 GBP

We are convinced that peace education is most efficient when the peer group, the family and the values of the community is a integral part of the process. Worldwide we now have more and more volunteers ready to do this and go about Mosaic. Without them and their capacity and creativity there would be no Mosaic. We are thankful for the growing support we get from the International Office. This is of course key inorder for us to keep developing the programme. The team is still very dedicated and the results we see in our chapters and communities all over the world keeps our motivation high.

Looking for a Education trainee to join the Mosaic Committee!

The International Mosaic Committee is looking is looking for a motivated, committed and Mosaic-experienced CISVer to work as a trainee in the committee during the year 2008/09. The responsibilities will be in the area of education and more specifically facilitate the adjustment of our educational and training curriculum to new program goals and CISV general education. Also the increased focus on project and programme evaluation for the coming years will be an area we would need help with. The traineeship is also a good way to learn more about the Mosaic programme and the work done on the international level.

The Mosaic Programme
Mosaic is a project based programme which empowers individuals and chapters to be agents of change, reach out, and involve as many people as possible. Each project is a separate experience that relates to a local need and interest and involves a different target group. It does not have to be in a camp setting, as with many CISV programmes, but is designed according to the needs and abilities of the CISV chapter. Using the three phase educational approach of discover, understand and create, local members develop projects in conjunction with like minded organizations or community groups. The aim is to create an authentic learning experience for participants and deliver a benefit to the wider community. The last years we have since an immense development of projects in all regions of the world.

About The International Mosaic Committee:
The International Mosaic Committee (IMC) draws its members from all across the world, from Canada to Colombia, from Austria to Australia, from Stockholm to San Jose, to name just a few. We divide our work in different sub teams, focusing on training, educational development, communication and project operational relations. Except from being responsible for the strategic development of the programme we also provide support to all mosaic projects taking place worldwide. We are a team of dedicated volunteers, convinced that peace education is most efficient when targeting the values of the local community. For the year 2008/09 we have recruited one trainee in the field of training and are now looking for one (1) more trainee in our education team.

Your Role:
Together with the IMC education team review and adjust our educational and training curiculum.
Collect and analyse project reports
Together with the IMC education team assess the way do programme evaluation
Together with a IMC mentor give support to some mosaic projects hosted during 2009
Participate and actively contribute to the development of the Mosaic programme
Participate and actively contribute to the work of the International Mosaic Committee

Your Qualities:
You have experience relevant to the tasks given, preferbly in the Mosaic Programme
You have an interest and experience in the field of formal or non-formal education
You are a good communicator who is able to network and develop contacts.
You live in any part of the world
You are open minded

What's In It For You:
We offer a fun and inspiring year with one of the most productive teams in CISV International. We assure a challenging year with lots of potential in terms of leadership and organisational development. The position as trainee is a one-year position but depending on future committee plans there are good opportunities for a continues position in the mosaic team!

For more information, or to register your interest, please contact Per Olsson on mosaic@cisv.org before midnight August 9th 2008.

From 2012 to tomorrow

Pre-AIM is up an running. The committee has since yesterday been working with identifying the vision for the programme; in terms of where we want to be in 5 years. We broke it down into more concrete objectives for 2010 and 2009 and then transformed that into tasks for next year. 

It's been fruitful discussions and now we need to get these tasks into our workplan and get it approved by the board of trustees. Whooha!

//Per 

Chair's Summary of the Year

The year of 07/08 is coming to an end and in August CISV International assembles in Florence to have its Annual International Meeting. So as you can imagine, there are a few things to do before everything is ready and we can present our past year to the board at the same time as we ask to be given (entrusted with) new responsibilities for the coming year.

I was just at the International Office in Newcastle to work out the new mosaic programme goals and indicators together with our educational officer Kiran Hingorani. I also discussed the administrative procedures with our admin officer Helen Pringle. Two great and productive days. Newcaste was showing his or her best side as well.

But I will try already now to make a summary of the year:

To start off with, IMC have met all strategic objectives of the committee, as said in the plan for 07/08. This includes
- Continuous support to hosting NAs
- Increasing hosting NAs
- Maintain NGO database
- Increase the number of qualified project coordinators

The plan of the year was to consciously move from ‘performing’ back to ‘norming’ to ensure that everyone in the committee shared the same picture of the vision of Mosaic. That job was very successful during AIM 2007, which allowed us to again during the year move up to ‘performing’ again. This applies specially to the training field and we hoosted two big trainings in the americas, USA and Brazil bringing many potental trainers and project staff together. Adding to that we have had seven first time and return visits to chapterns and NA’s. As a result of the trainings we’ve done the amount of approved projects have increased and for the two first rounds of proposals we have 23 approved projects. It should be compared with 27 alltogether for the whole of 2007. At AIM we will probably be beyond that. Worth noting is that the quality of projects doesn’t differ anything in the differet regions. Mosaic, as a programme, is capable of showing increased growth and quality worldwide.

However, lots of focus has been put into creating good ‘norming’ instruments during the year which garantuees certain standards and delivery. Here, most developments have been on support and approval of projects as well as training tools. This allow us to have more unity in our feedback to project coordinators and chapters. The job to get more efficient on this feedback is ongoing. On the support and approval development we are piloting, during all of 2008, a project to balance growth and quality. We are, at this point, half way there, and at AIM necessary changes will be made to ajdust the original idea to our present situation.

Lastly, I would like to highlight the new IMC website at resources. Our communication with project coordinators, mosaic trainers and chapters now have an excellent comunication channel, that will increase the quality of our communication of course. And adding to that, I hope you will read the Mosaic Magazine : )

A big thank you to all project coordinators out in the chapters, to all volunteers helping out with training and support and to my committee-members, who are hard working, committed and constantly ready to take on leadership, when their chair might lack the time, which sometimes happens.

//Per