Am back at work following the most fantastic and frantic trip home in the history of travel (email me if you didn't receive the link to my photo album)...but not for long! This time last year I was an intern in the UN Office of the Resident Coordinator; our two-day "Heads of Agency Retreat" took place in a sort of stinky claustrophobic (windowless) fluorescent-lit room in the Hyatt downtown. (can you imagine the good times?) But this year, I get to party with UNICEF staff...and we're going to Montenegro! Can't believe this is my first trip down south!Quick geography/history time-out: I live in Belgrade, which is the capital of Serbia and Montenegro (the only two states which stayed together following the break-up of Yugoslavia). Need a map? Ok, here:
So, we're going to Tivat, which is just across the bay from Budva (where mom and dad went). I'll be sharing a room in the lovely Hotel Palma with my friend Akiko from September 20-23, then Filippo is coming over for a five-day business trip, so I'll hightail it back home on Friday night. Sort of too bad that there won't be more time to play/sightsee (it would've been fun to spend the weekend there as well) but it'll just have to wait for next time!
Before you get too jealous, read the enthusiastic preparatory email that went out to staff today (and trust me that there's an accompanying minute-to-minute Agenda). As a parting gift, Mary (who moved to New York last week) assigned me the duty of Reporting Focal Point (I don't even know what that is) --so guess who gets to coordinate the Retreat Report?
Dear Colleagues,
Retreat time again.
Following the tradition from previous couple of years, we are going to organize and conduct a retreat using our own capacities.
Please find attached the Retreat Agenda, Draft 1, approved by the Serbian Country Management Team. Your comments and suggestions are welcome by Wednesday at 12:00 (it is far too ambitious, since that is a part of the tradition).
The general idea is as follows:
During the Day 1 all staff should work together in order to gain understanding of UN and UNICEF programmes in the wider context. Also, to focus on the lessons learned related to the new country programme, with particular focus on the programme content, structure, partnerships, planning and Monitoring & Evaluation --how it worked, what the positive aspects were, what the major concerns were and the most importantly, what the strategies to improve the implementation in the future are.
Day 2 and the first half of the Day 3, we will split on programme and operations, working on developing the Annual Work Plan.
The last session will be a learning session on the programme communication.
The facilitator and co-facilitator are selected for each session. They are responsible for developing the methodology (having in mind the objective of the session and objective of the Day) and preparing the necessary material. The Retreat Task Force will organize a short meeting with each pair of facilitators/co-facilitators to ensure that the objective is going to be met. Please be prepared for the meeting to be held on Thursday and/or Friday. Staff who are not facilitating the sessions will be selected as a reporter during the retreat. Their task will be to prepare draft report on the relevant session (using the given format) and submit to the Task Force half a day later.
The success of the retreat will depend on how we are prepared for the sessions. Please plan the adequate time for preparation of assigned tasks (to give you a hint: for a session of two hours a minimum of 4-hour-preparation is requested).
Good luck to all of us.
Retreat Task Force (Nenad, Zorica, Boban, Oliver)