At The Vetiver Network International board meeting on January 30 several new board members were elected along with the awarding of some well deserved technical recognitions. I am very pleased to report that the board honored me with an appointment as Associate Director in recognition of my activities in support of the Vetiver Network and of Vetiver users in the Caribbean and for finding ways of improving TVNI's image and communications via the Internet.
Before becoming a nurseryman (and I thought that I was retiring), I had a long career in information technology. Parlaying that experience into my Vetiver endeavors, I first created this blog that you, my readers, have supported with regular visits from over 70 countries each month. The success of this blog encouraged several others around the world in French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese to add more regular content accessible to non-technical readers.
Before becoming a nurseryman (and I thought that I was retiring), I had a long career in information technology. Parlaying that experience into my Vetiver endeavors, I first created this blog that you, my readers, have supported with regular visits from over 70 countries each month. The success of this blog encouraged several others around the world in French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese to add more regular content accessible to non-technical readers.
Other Internet efforts that I have helped grow include the creation and administration of the Vetiver Caribbean Network Google Group, the creation of The Vetiver System Knol Collection at Google Knols, creating the site structures for the Vetiver Latina Google Group and the Vetiver Latina Blog, the maintenance of the Wikipedia Vetiver System page, and, of course, making Vetiver easier to obtain by the general public (in the USA at least) from our Agriflora Tropicals online store. All of these efforts would be meaningless without the support from you, our readers and clients, many of which have become personal friends and Vetiver champions in your own right.
Other well deserved appointments include Elise Pinners and Roley Noffke as Directors to the Board of TVNI, and Mary Wilkowski also as Associate Director. Marco Forti, Alain Ndona, Tony Cisse, and Yoann Coppin were recognized with appointments as Senior Technical Advisers to TVNI, and the appointment to the same position by Alemu Mekonnen of Ethiopia is pending his acceptance. Congratulations to all!
I also want to share with you the acceptance response by Tony Cisse in Senegal. I always preach that we live at at time when the concept of "networking" has taken a new and indispensable meaning in our social and professional lives. TVNI, as a network, is a textbook example of what a small group of people can accomplish by pulling in the same direction. In Tony's words:
Other well deserved appointments include Elise Pinners and Roley Noffke as Directors to the Board of TVNI, and Mary Wilkowski also as Associate Director. Marco Forti, Alain Ndona, Tony Cisse, and Yoann Coppin were recognized with appointments as Senior Technical Advisers to TVNI, and the appointment to the same position by Alemu Mekonnen of Ethiopia is pending his acceptance. Congratulations to all!
I also want to share with you the acceptance response by Tony Cisse in Senegal. I always preach that we live at at time when the concept of "networking" has taken a new and indispensable meaning in our social and professional lives. TVNI, as a network, is a textbook example of what a small group of people can accomplish by pulling in the same direction. In Tony's words:
"Thank you for your recommendation and I take it as a great honor. I will of course accept, and hope that in doing so I can live up to it and contribute to the mission.
"I must say that, since coming into contact with TVNI, I have never ceased to be inspired by the people I have met or read or communicated with. In my view, the spirit of TVNI is almost unique in its commitment to sharing, supporting each other, and openness. So many times organizations are riven with competition, rivalry, egotism, or self-interest - and here is TVNI which is an example to all of how we can work together, sharing information, knowledge, and experience with people we have never met and may never meet, because of our commitment to a common good. Apart from our belief in what Vetiver can contribute, it is that commitment to open exchange which is a shining example to people working in all fields of development work."
Well said, Tony! It is indeed a fine group of people that make up TVNI. Vetiver rocks!
