Digital BABA

The 4^th batch of the Building A Better Asia retreats, held at Beijing, China, last October 26-November 2, 2008, identified the establishment of a BABA Volunteer Community as its concrete action step towards a better Asia. While the discussions covered substantial topics including the priority focus areas and potential projects, the work of BABA4 is incomplete. There is a need to reconvene a smaller group of BABA4 fellows to thresh out the finer details of the formation of the Volunteer Community, including the mapping out of its critical first steps.

Thru a proposal entitled “Project #08.01: Priority Action Initiatives for ASEAN” BABA4 has formally requested the Information and Resource Center (IRC) to sponsor this reconvening, providing both financial resources and, more importantly, the guidance in ensuring that BABA_vC does “more action, less talk.” In this light, IRC is now calling for applications from BABA Batch 4 to be members of the BABA_vC working group to reconvene in Jakarta, Indonesia, on January 23-25, 2009.

Concretely, the working group to reconvene in Jakarta will produce the following output:

1. The BABA_vC charter; and,

2. A 12-month detailed action plan — that will include, among others, the following critical activities: registration as a legal identity, formalization of role in the ASEAN system, constitution of the implementation structures at the organization and project levels, recruitment of volunteers

BABA4 fellows who are interested in investing their time and expertise in this follow-up activity are advised to email M. Rajaretnam at ircenter@singnet.com.sg, indicating your intention to be included in the competitive selection process. The deadline is on November 21, 2008.

The chosen members of the working group are expected to contribute the following:

1. Participate actively in pre-meeting collaboration that will be held via the BABA Wiki at http://volunteers.wikia.com/wiki/Building_a_Better_Asia_Volunteer_Community. The purpose of this reconvening is to produce the needed draft documents to be used by the working group in Jakarta.

2. Participate actively in the conduct of on-line discussions and consultations with all BABA1-3 fellows, soliciting their inputs and ideas to the formation and action plan of the BABA_vC.

Thank you for your continued passion and commitment to work towards building a better Asia.

By: Information and Resource Center Pte Ltd
35 Selegie Road #09-14/15, Parklane Shopping Mall, Singapore 188307