The International Executive Officers (IEOs) and International Council Members (ICMs) have been installed during an online ceremony on Saturday.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Council will not meet physically this August, which made it necessary to find an alternative format to appropriately induct and recognise our incoming International Officers. Using the popular video conferencing platform Zoom, the webinar not only brought together the IEOs and ICMs in one virtual space, a live stream of the event to our Facebook page and YMI Live allowed the worldwide family of club members to witness an event usually reserved for a local audience. Interpretation services were provided from English into Danish, Japanese, Korean and Spanish through the extensive efforts of our translators.
During the ceremony, Immediate Past International President Mrs Jennifer Jones announced the recipient of the Harry M. Ballantyne Award. In 2019/20, this top honour has been bestowed upon Mr Murry Stevens, the devoted editor of the International Brother Club (IBC) Directory since its introduction in 1983 when he was the International Service Director for IBC. Mr Stevens learned of announcement as he sat with fellow club members watching the event at a function organised in his hometown of Ballarat in Australia.
International Secretary General Mr Jose Varghese gave a comprehensive report entitled Our Journey Together: 2018-20, highlighting many topics, some of which included the Challenge 22 operational plan, perception change, brand clarity, YMCA engagement, Paul William Alexander Legacy Project, the multilateral partnership to tackle malaria, membership growth and extension, training resources, and our response to COVID-19.