In the fifth week of my LiA, I attended a couple of important meetings, drafted a Strategic Report, and started evaluating and contacting participants for the Arctic Policy Hackathon. I also got to travel to a remote lake in northern Norway called Altevatnet, not far from the town of Setermoen. The family that I was staying with has a boat-access cabin on Altevatnet, so we worked remotely from the lake for the week.
On June 12 the Executive Committee of AMF met. The Executive Committee is made up of one mayor from each of the countries represented in the Forum, and is chaired by Gunnar Whilmensen, the mayor of Tromsø, Norway. The ExCo meets quarterly to evaluate the work of AMF, make decisions about the direction of AMF, and generally oversee the Secretariat. The main topic of this ExCo was updating members about the funding situation of the AMF Secretariat, and informing them about a number of the projects that AMF has recently been granted money for.
I also had a meeting with the Gordon Foundation to continue working on the Arctic Policy Hackathon. We have officially begun the applications process, so we were making a plan for how to assess the applications, and how to proceed with the interview stage. Being on this side of the application process was really unique, as most of the time I have been on the other side of the process as an applicant. My many experiences applying for similar programs has given me a lot of insight into how to assess the applications, and my new experience as a member of the selection committee has also given me a better idea of what to do and not to do on future applications.
AMF had a meeting last fall where they discussed the strategic future of the organization, and decided that health and wellness was going to be the strategic focus of the organization from 2023-25. Although there were very detailed minutes from those conversions, no formal strategic plan document had been developed, which made it hard for members and the secretariat to promote and be accountable to their established strategy. I drafted a strategic plan for the organization and grouping a lot of the concerns from the meeting into succinct themes, and by developing a list of actions that the organization can work towards. I also incorporated the list of things that the secretariat has done since the Strategic Meeting that have built on those goals. Overall, a super cool experience as it helped me really understand the long term strategy of these types of community based organizations who have so much work they could be doing in any given community, but need to be able to focus and prioritize.
While I was at the lake, I spent a lot of time outdoors hiking and exploring, which was really incredible. There was still snow on the ground in June! Unreal. I also took a series of buses back from the lake, which was a cool experience.