It feels unreal: here in the Netherlands spring has started with hyacinths and tulips in bloom, while in Ukraine people are fighting for their lives. Many initiatives have been taken to help Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees.
At the end of March, a new team member joined the Permanent Office, Alessandra Rivaldo. She will support the secretariat of the EC and Council, but especially the organization of the WSC. Alessandra is originally from Italy and lived in Switzerland for a few years. She is a perfect addition to the already international team in the office. Our team members have different cultural backgrounds and come from different countries. In addition to Dutch staff we have colleagues with Greek, Indian/American, Irish, Philippine, Romanian, Slovak and Ukrainian roots. One of the advantages of an international team is that we have many holidays to celebrate, from Easter and King’s Day to Holi and St. Patrick’s Day. Now that we can work in the office more often, we are picking up our tradition.
ISI PO staff; left to right, top to bottom: Ada van Krimpen, Katie Junasova, Liliana Happel, Nicoline de Kraa, Gerrit Stemerdink, Shabani Mehta, Margaret de Ruiter-Molloy, Sofia Kapnisi, Valentina Guran, Olivia van Dijck-Timbol
In slightly more than two months I will be leaving my post as ISI Director. The search for a successor will end soon. Now that I’m retiring, I realize all the more what a great organization the ISI is, with its very wide network of institutional, corporate and individual members, affiliate organizations, the seven associations, working relationships with Statistics Netherlands and many other Dutch stakeholders. The ISI family and network offers an enormous potential of knowledge and know-how. In the recent months, a number of new chairpersons for various ISI committees have been appointed and it is heartwarming to see their enthusiasm, energy and dedication to their work. ISI is definitely more thriving than ever.
With slightly more than two months to go there’s still a lot of work to complete. The preparations for the WSC 2023 are underway: the PCO has been appointed, the contracts with venue and hotels have been signed, the systems for submission of IPSs are being developed, sponsorship and exhibition opportunities have been worked out. We will visit Ottawa in June and meet with the National Advisory Committee and the colleagues at Statistics Canada to coordinate our further actions and plans. I am absolutely looking forward to what will be my last ISI business trip.
But before that, Stephen Penneck and I will be attending the IAOS conference in Krakow on 26-28 April. We are organizing a session on ‘Statistical Leadership in a Modern World: ISI and WSC’, and Matthew Sheering, co-chair of the ISI Capacity Building Committee is organizing a session on ‘Statistical Capacity Building and the IAOS in the Building Back Better era’. So there are many things to look forward to!
Ada van Krimpen
