In Person Once Again

Janine Minchin, Student Events Executive & Swati Sinha Bedi, CPD & Safeguarding Executive

FOBISIA PE & Sport Executive Committee Meeting

During September and October this year, FOBISIA HQ were delighted to host four of our Executive Committees, Drama, Music, PE & Sport and Safeguarding, for in-person meetings at our HQ office in Bangkok. The CPD Executive Committee is yet to meet in person, but will do so during the CPD Leaders Conference in Bangkok in November.

Whilst a few colleagues still had to join virtually, we were pleased to finally meet the teams we have been supporting and see Executive Committee Members, old and new, coming together for the first time in over two years. There has been a natural changeover of personnel during this time, with some colleagues simply moving on from a FOBISIA school to others reaching the end of their committee tenure, such that none of our Committees had ever met face to face in their current line up. After two years of Zoom calls, Google meets and Teams sessions, it was fantastic to give our Committees the time and space to re-establish relationships, bond with new colleagues, collaborate, laugh and plan together. The teams appreciated meeting in person and enjoyed having their dialogue face to face.

FOBISIA Music Executive Committee Meeting

Our Committees normally meet in person towards the end of each academic year to plan for the coming academic year, but with travel improving, the FOBISIA Board was very much in favour of bringing the teams together sooner rather than later to create that valuable in-person connection. The sessions were hugely useful in providing a platform for our committees to review the experiences of the last couple of years and make plans for the future. COVID brought many challenges to all our schools, and for many of our Region C schools these sadly still continue, but with those challenges have come innovation, new initiatives and ways of working. Discussions covered what to keep, how to build on successes and how best to support our communities as we move into the ‘new normal’.

FOBISIA Drama Executive Committee Meeting

HQ would like to thank all our Executive Committee Members for their attendance and the initiative they undertook to meet in person. We also thank the Heads of their schools for their continued support of FOBISIA.

FOBISIA Safeguarding Executive Committee Meeting