We had a GLOWing time!

11 March 2005

Dear Colleagues,

First, let me thank all of you who have been dedicating your time, energy and creativity to the preparations for GLOW2005. We still have 9 (nine) weeks ahead of us to the Event, with much to do.

From the organizers, and some corridor chats - I am keeping up with the many things that are going on to organize the Event - in the spirit of the principles, objectives and goals set out for GLOW.

The project manager and project board will soon provide me with a "highlight" report, outlining the progress of each Functional Team. I also understand that we will soon see some innovative, internal "infomedia" - that will give us ALL --  including colleagues outside Bonn -- updates on GLOW preparations. The idea is to keep us all “up-to-the-minute” - without the overflow of emails or bulletins.

I am also pleased to confirm that our last SSM endorsed a proposal for having "GLOWing days" in the come weeks.  I asked that we consider a fixed weekday for that and after some consultations in-house we have settled on TUESDAYs.

What is a GLOWing day?

These are 9 days (all Tuesdays) to be reserved from next week onwards until the week before the GLOW - that will give us opportunity to focus on and attend to GLOW-related matters. Of course, work on GLOW matters will certainly go on outside those days...but these TUESDAYs  will be THE day, for example, that organizers call Team meetings, or we hold a general staff meeting around GLOW. These should also be days, for those not volunteering within Functional Teams, to support the completion and delivery of other important "products" that must be finalized before the "GLOWeek". The priority is to look into the many matters will impact GLOW programme and contents (as you may have noted from the Senior Staff Retreat report).

We should try to avoid externalities that can affect the focus of GLOW days. (e.g. scheduling meetings with outside visitors or other important or  last minute issues) Should such competing demands emerge on a GLOW day, we must try to involve the minimum number of staff possible, so that the focus on GLOW is maintained.  I realize there may be some inevitable clashes with prior commitments (e.g. Section Meetings or other routines), but please re-programme for these next 9 weeks to permit colleagues to participate in GLOW-related activities.

Thank you very much for your continued support, whether in the organizing teams or through work on other GLOW content. I am confident our collective efforts will make this event a real success!

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