Day 2 in New York

Well today is over and I think that we did well in our presentations. In the morning the New Executive Director for UN Women spoke for about 1/2 an hour to a packed chapel. She is very inspirational and very faith based. She arrived in traditional African garb with several in her entourage and ended her presentation by urging us to sing again with enthusiasm.

As chair of the Advocacy Committee for Ecumenical Women I and amy committee were responsible for much of the content of our orientation day. Morning and afternoon worship were very rousing and we ended the day march in the Chapel to " We are marching in the light of God".

After the ED of UN Women spoke we all returned upstairs to hear a panel put together by Christine Mangale of the Lutheran. There were 4 speakers on various aspects related to beyond 2015 and the accomplishments and roadblocks that have been encountered. The chief of the civil society section  of UN Women was on the panel and gave a great talk on the challenges of post 2015.
Then I spoke for about 1/2 hour on severawl procedural items and our "talking point" and how to use them. The Talking Points are on a postcard size piece of card stock and are an abbreviated form of our original statement mto the Commission. We will use the talking points when meeting with other groups in negotiating around the concluding document.

In the afternoon we split into 3 workshops.
1. Mission Visits which was a 1 hour presentation on how to arrange and prepare for a meeting with a mission. Here they do not have embassies, but rather Missions by a country to the UN.

2. How does your Story fit into the Millenium Development Goals.

3. Looking at the Zero Draft of the agreed conclusions in light of our submission to the Commission in the fall and looking for gaps or overlaps in the document. Again I chaired this section and Alice and Lynaia helped facilitate small group discussions. People did not seem to want to stop talking so I presume that the discussion was successful.

OK the clocks change tonight and I have a sore throat so it is time to quit
Until tomorrow

Blessings Judy