Hello Region 10 - It has been a long week in here in Trinidad and Tobago. Many firsts encountered. My first Board of Directors Meeting, Region 17's (the Caribbean Women's) First Regional Conference. It was very exciting attending and seeing all of the Caribbean Women here. The Region 17 Women have raised the bar, for many years Region 10 was the largest Region but I believe Region 17 as unseated us with the 90+ women who joined the IAWP at these past two days. There were many items on the agenda for the Board to consider, when I return home next week I will write the minutes from the meeting. One of the most controversial agenda items was regarding Policy 4 and the naming of awards, specifically the Mary Jo Blahowski Leadership Award and then the Lois Higgins-Grote Heritage Award. It was brought before the Board the awards should not be named after members of the Board but should just be titled for the type of award, i.e. the Leadership and Heritage awards. The reasoning spoken at the meeting was that many members do not know who these women were, how do you choose which members will be recognized, and who makes those decisions. These were very privatize and thought inducing questions. After reading the Policy I realized that we have no criteria to show why these women were chosen. There is only information on the award itself and not how it relates to the women named after the award. Criteria is necessary so that new Board Members and new Members will understand their contributions and relevance to the award itself. I abstained from voting on this agenda item because the proposal was confusing. Please remember that this will not be finalized until the AGM Meeting in South Africa,because all policy changes Must be approved by the members and I will be there. Meanwhile, I will be speaking with other Regional Directors and Robin,maybe we can formulate a better Proposal and/or create criteria. Standby for more. Please do not hesitate send me your ideas and feedback on this issue or for what should be included in the criteria or proposal. Remember Don't Shoot The Messenger! :-)