 
1. WELCOME The President of the PGWNet
and Chair of the meeting, Lily Vesikula welcomed members and observers
of PGWNet to the inaugural meeting of the
Pacific Graduate Women's Network and acknowledged the presence
of the IFUW President Professor Reoki Aoki who opened the Triennial
Conference. She said it was
an honour to chair this historic first meeting of the Council
of the Pacific Regional Grouping and to see that all of the Pacific
NFAs were represented. It was satisfying for both her and the
Interim Convener to see the culmination of months of planning,
networking, countless meetings
etc in the presence of the Pacific NFA representatives. Their
attendance had been made possible with the generous assistance
The Chair noted the presence
of founding members of PGWNet from the Australian, Fiji and New
Zealand NFAs who had attended the inaugural meeting
hosted by FAWG in July 1999. From the 3 NFAs in 1999, the Pacific
members had grown with the addition of NFAs in Samoa, Vanuatu,
Tonga and Solomon Islands and Group Member - Papua New Guinea.
Some interest has also come from individuals in Niue, The Chair thanked Beverley
Turner for the key role played by her while Interim Convener of
the PGWNet Steering Committee. She had also continued
to play a vital role in keeping members well informed of the various
issues and developments with respect to IFUW and women's concerns.
This role had enabled PGWNet with such a diverse and widespread
membership to function effectively this far. 2. ROLL
CALL Council members - 2 members
for full NFAs and 1 for Group Member Observers: Apologies were received
from:
The Chair explained that
Beverley Turner was the former Convener of the PGWNet and a representative
for NZFGW and would also serve on the
Executive in the role of Immediate Past President as agreed at
the last meeting of the Steering Committee.
The Chair explained the rationale for the order of business as given in the Agenda. Motion: That
subject to this understanding the Agenda be adopted.
The Minutes of the PGWNet Steering Committee meeting held in Brisbane, Queensland, 27 July 2002 had been approved by all members of the Steering Committee or their proxies who had been present in Brisbane. Adoption of those last Minutes of the Steering Committee was by consensus. 5.1 Matters arising from the Minutes, and not incorporated in Agenda: Election
Bylaws Application
form for PGWNet membership Recruitment
Review The meeting was informed of another avenue, the Pacific Island Mentoring Schemes in New Zealand or at Australian Universities as a means for recruitment of women graduates. The
meeting noted the suggestions that there should be PGWNet information
in NFA's newsletters and regular information bulletins on updates
of membership details. SAWG President Emma Kruse Vaai suggested
that such information be sent to regional net links. Beverley
Turner
who was designated to look after the monthly news send-out to
regional net links suggested the need for standard protocol for
her overseeing
the dispersal of related news to national representatives. It
was suggested that the newsletter go to two representatives for
each country
who would then be responsible for forwarding it to other members. 6. CORRESPONDENCE AND COMMUNICATIONS The Chair informed the meeting that a message of support was sent to SIGWA following the civil unrest and subsequent crisis in the Solomon Islands. An e-mail message of good wishes from Dorothy Meyer, the Coordinator of the IFUW Interdisciplinary Seminars for the 2004 Triennial Conference was also received.
7.1 President PGWNet [Chair] The President's written report was circulated to all members. It reaffirmed FAWG's delight at being given the honour in July 2002 of being home to the Pacific Graduate Women's Network for the first two years of its official and formal establishment as the youngest of the seven regional groupings of the International Federation of University Women. The report noted the dual role played by the PGWNet Executive which proved a challenge for her in particular as virtually full-time Secretary of FAWG. She cautioned against PGWNet executives being also active members of the NFA Council and urged members to learn from the experience of FAWG - all of the Executive were on the FAWG Council which meant that all of their energy tended to be channeled towards the work of the NFA. The current Executive members in fact hold pivotal posts in the NFA [Secretary, Treasurer, Publicity/Advocacy and Younger Members Convener]. Lily was pleased to report however, that their major achievement to date has been the securing of funding for the FAWG members from AusAID and for PGWNet members from UNIFEM Pacific to attend this conference and the organising of the conference, workshop and inaugural meeting of the PGWNet Council. Beverley Turner had continued to a be tower of strength throughout and had facilitated the obtaining of a further sum of F$1000 from NZFGW to meet registration fees and some local transport cost for some of the Pacific members. In summary Lily said "It has been a learning process for all of us and now with this conference preparation and organization behind us we will be able to concentrate on taking PGWNet forward. We are grateful to the Director of PCRC for her invitation to PGWNet to join the regional associations of NGOs and I am sure that with this new team we will certainly be in a better position to focus our energy towards implementing the resolutions of the last as well as of this meeting." Vote
of thanks 7.2. Financial
Report Some administrative costs had been incurred in preparation for this first inaugural Council meeting for which approval was sought and given. US$20 was received from Australia as its subscription dues for the coming 2003 - 2004 year. [AFUW is a full member of PGWNet]. Members were reminded to pay their subscriptions for the 2003 -2004 year which was now due. Motion:
That the Financial Report is accepted and payments
approved for any expenses incurred. 7.3. IFUW Membership Adviser's Report The report had been circulated to all and included a job description of the role of IFUW Membership Adviser. The report emphasized that the important role of the CIR in national associations and their branches is a critical one as they are the communication link people within an association and to the rest of the regional network. As an illustration, the IFUW membership adviser referred to preparatory work done for the triennial conference where much needed funding had to be sought and emphasized the usefulness and freedom of linking with other 'connections' when needing assistance and in this case, funding. PGWNet had a role to play in creating that link between all other regional affiliates. Discussion Attaining
membership of IFUW: It was further noted that it is only an individual association formally affiliated to IFUW e.g. Vanuatu /VAWG which is eligible to receive funds from the Bina Roy and Virginia Gildersleeve Funds etc. The
meeting was reminded that PGWNet is all about networking. The
IFUW President would provide information to the members through
the IFUW
Membership Adviser on the proposed changes to membership status
upon her return to her home base. PGWNetlinks
8.1. VAWG: The Vanuatu Association of Women Graduates' report was presented to the meeting with a written report to be later submitted to the PGWNet Executive. The VAWG President Jeanette Bolenga thanked the committee for the organization of the triennial conference. VAWG had a new secretary (Jocelyn Mete) and treasurer (Selina Haggai). The problems faced by VAWG were: a lack of attendance during its VAWG monthly meets with membership for 2001 (22 members) 2002-15, 2003-7 financial members. In terms of development under scholarships, an applicant received a fellowship from IFUW to pursue a career in veterinary science. Since last year, workshops were run in Vanuatu where the posters launched by Professor Reiko Aoki were taken to the 16 provinces. There was the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for the publication of the 'Girls Can Do Anything' project; a regular monthly newsletter and a database of the graduates upon consultation with government and donor/scholarship agencies who support the graduate study. Membership is scattered as most graduates are teachers and visits to several provinces to boost membership are planned. The Vanuatu Association hoped to coordinate a Triennial Conference; however, the timing must be scheduled to coincide with the school term holidays so teachers could attend. 8.2. UPNGWA: The University of Papua New Guinea Women's Association representative told the meeting that as at its last meeting there were 20 potential members. As interim President, Rosa Au hoped that the PNG Association would formalize its constitution and registration as an IFUW NFA before the Triennial Conference in Perth next year. She is based in Port Moresby and there are future plans to establish a provincial set-up to cater for the widely dispersed number of women graduates living and working all around PNG. At present, UPNGWA consists of university women who work at the University but there are plans to rename the association as PNGWGA. A written report will be submitted later to the PGWNet executive. Note: Members were advised to access the IFUW website which had excellent training materials which could be downloaded and used by NFAs 8.3 ATUW: The Association of Tongan University Women has a total of 51 members. Its holds monthly meetings and its structure includes social, media and scholarship committees. It also publishes a regular newsletter. Major projects include a conference and an initiative which sponsors students who are presently studying at the USP's Distance and Flexible Learning Support Center in Tonga. The Association however notes the low turnout for its meetings and luncheons. 8.4 SIGWA: The Solomon Islands Graduate Women's Association was pleased with its efforts in getting registration approved as an IFUW Associate Member. Janine Simi, its President thanked FAWG for the preparations of the conference and its assistance in funding travel and accommodation. SIGWA has a quarterly newsletter which is distributed to 20 financial members. It was working on a number of projects and had submitted a seminar paper for the IFUW Triennial Conference in Perth next year. 8.5
SAWG: The Samoa Association of Women Graduates
has 40 members of which there are 10 active members. An oral report
was presented
in which the meeting was informed of SAWG's efforts with the Ministry
of Women's Affairs and other non governmental organizations
for celebrating International Women's Day which has become an
annual event. Lunches are organized and women graduate members
of SAWG are invited to speak at the lunches about their respective
fields and careers. 8.6 AFUW: The Australian Federation of University Women's representative informed the meeting that it has 1100 members distributed in all states and that AFUW is 'asset rich but cash poor'. Daphne Buckley a long- time member of AFUW was acting CIR until 1 November 2003. The meeting was updated on several issues from the recent Triennial AFUW Conference and its resolutions which include e.g. to lift substantially the value of aid to be directed to women and children; also refugee issues. There was a move to change the name of the AFUW to AFGW but this was defeated. The Conference details can be accessed from its website www.afuw.org.au . The meeting was informed that Graduate News will be electronically circulated twice a year to the PGWNet. IFUW Conference in Perth. The AFUW President, Associate Professor Jennifer Strauss provided details on the conference and indicated the wish of AFUW for a big representation from the Pacific, namely all the PGWNet representatives. It was noted that according to the conference program, a national/Pacific night will be coordinated. There would be no Base Camp but there will be some training programme/workshop prior to the conference. The AFUW President informed the meeting that upon her return, a letter would be addressed to respective consulates or high commissions of Australia in delegates' countries lobbying for support. Daphne Buckley would provide the AusAID guidelines to assist PGWNet members in attending the Perth Conference and she would approach UNESCO for assistance. 8.7 NZFGW: The New Zealand Federation of Graduate Women National Executive holds monthly meetings followed by a newsletter to all branches throughout New Zealand. A selection of N.Z. newsletters are sent to members of PGWNet and NZFGW matters are available on: www.nzfgw.org.nz Graduate Women is included in 6-monthly mail-outs from Beverley. The NZFGW Triennial Conference will be in Christchurch, 26 - 28 September, 2003. The next National Executive will be drawn from the Central region. NZFGW
hopes to work in co-operation with PGWNet members in offering
touring opportunities for IFUW delegates before or after 8.8 FAWG: The Fiji Association of Women Graduates provided monthly newsletters and held monthly luncheons for its members with a speaker on a wide range of topics. It was currently running a number of projects which included its Books for School project, Girls in Science Workshop funded by Virginia Gildersleeve Fund, Gender Awareness Workshops for high school girls with 5 high schools taking part in the workshop, joint luncheons with NGO groups such as the Fiji Women's Crisis Center and Fiji Women's Rights Movement, and gave a donation to VAWG for the Grace Molisa Memorial publication. A
new set of FAWG executive members was elected at the end of March
and the new President is University of the South Pacific academic,
9.1. PGWNet as an entity The Chair acknowledged the value of PGWNet and suggested that all members of PGWNet do their bit to inform their various NGO groups about the regional group. The value and importance of PGWNet working with other regional NGOs was raised -i.e. to gain recognition of PGWNet as a Pacific NGO. This was obviously an area the current as well as future executives will have to work on and it would most likely remain a priority for some time. 9.2. Virginia
Gildersleeve Fund 9.3. Next
Council Meeting 9.4.
Acknowledgement The PGWNet Council Meeting concluded at 6.45pm
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