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Good Evening,
I’m
delight to have chance to address the farewell
dinner for Young BPW International Meeting,
which is also a Grand Reception for Asia-Pacific
Regional Conference for BPW International.
I would like to thanks BPW Korea for their
warm hospitality and for hosting bowth events.
This
transition from Young BPW International
Meeting to BPW Regional Conference is quite
symbolic. It’s a transition from the
theme “Preparing Young Leaders for
the 21st Century” to the theme “New
Dimensions of Leadership”. It reflects
BPW strive to lead and continue make a difference
in the world of changes.
When it comes to make
a difference, I would like to tell you a
story.
Once
upon a time, a farmer saved a life of a
young boy by pulling him out of a bog (the
mud that acts like quick sand). The next
day, a noble man came to visit the farmer’s
cottage and offered him money for saving
his son’s life. The farmer refused
to accept the money. The noble man then
saw the farmer’s young son. So he
offered to send the farmer’s son to
school, to get education at the same level
of his own son. For this, the farmer accepted.
Years after that, the farmer’s son
graduated from a Medical school in the United
Kingdom. He went on to do research and discovered
Penicillin. Years later, Penicillin was
used to the save the noble man’s son
life.
This is true story.
The farmer’s son is Sir Alexander
Fleming.
The noble man’s son is Sir Winston
Churchill.
To me, a farmer and
a noble man have saved the world through
one act of kindness and one scholarship.
Many
people think that to make a difference in
the world we need to do some huge project
that requires a whole lot of money. I would
like to use this story to illustrate that
it’s not always true. In fact, limitation
and obstacles can inspire creative ways
to lead and to make a difference.
Young
BPW experiences also show this. Though young
BPW program was initiated in 1985 as “Young
Career Women” program, by 1996, the
young career women committee was still an
ad hoc committee. The chair of Young BPW
had no official status in BPW. The committee
had no budget. Despite that, this committee
organized the first Young BPW International
Meeting in Acapulco, Mexico. This committee
also successfully lobbied to upgrade from
ad hoc status of young BPW committee to
an official standing committee of BPW International
and for young BPW Chair to serve a member
of BPW International Executive Board.
Where
are the members of this young BPW committee
today? Christine Heinze, the European Young
BPW Regional Coordinator at that time, went
on to receive Outstanding Young BPW Leader
award and wrote a famous book on Mentoring.
Darla Campbell, the North America Young
BPW Regional Coordinator went on to become
President of BPW Canada. Martha Soto, the
Latin America Young BPW Regional Coordinator,
is now the Chief Organizer of BPW International
Congress in Merida, Mexico. Asia-Pacific
Young BPW Regional Coordinator was me. Under
resource too limited to visit to member
countries or holding face-to-face meetings,
I decided to inspire members to unite in
spirit by working toward a common goal by
initiating a competition called “Beyond
2000: Helping Women Help Themselves”.
From 1996-2005, this competition documents
BPW works to help over 45,000 women to sustain
themselves economically.
Today
Young BPW members not only have budget and
funding support, you have accessed to many
other services for BPW members such as BPW-SM
Global Leadership training that we enjoy
yesterday, e-Business training, access to
attend meetings at United Nations, opportunities
to publicize their business and profession
via Internet among many other things. Your
starting point is a lot more advance than
the starting point of young BPW members
a decade ago.
I
hope that BPW resources / services, plus
the creativity and innovation of our members
would enable BPW members of all ages to
contribute more to their communities, their
countries and to the world. In the next
2 days I look forward to interactively discuss
ways to reform our organization to strengthen
BPW in the 21st Century. I’m eager
to hear reports on work done by BPW Affiliates
to improve status of women in Asia-Pacific
region. Such BPW projects are always valuable,
whether each project is a big project or
a small one.
Remember the story
of a farmer and a noble man. One act of
kindness can save the world.
Chonchanok
Viravan
BPW International President
13 May 2007
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