Hey,
Nina and myself went to have coffee with the Irish Ambassador to
Finland today. We had asked him to become a patron of our society. The
reason for his selection was as a result of the support that he has
given to us in the past, his obvious status as a diplomat, the fact
that Ireland has a very long and established debating tradition... and
well he also seemed like a nice guy.
He was understandably a little apprehensive about exposing himself to
unnecessary risk, but was interested in helping us out if he could. He
also wanted to ensure that there was a clear 'Irish' link to justify
his inclusion.
So we worked through a few ideas together and came up with a tentative plan:
...to hold a workshop given by the best debaters in Ireland (that we
can lay our hands on!!!). This would be followed by a brief competition
or just a demonstration debate, with the Ambassador as the Chairperson.
To convince some debaters to get over here it would be nice if we could
pay their air fares, perhaps by approaching a number of companies,
particularly Irish ones with subsidiaries in Finland. This will be much
easier with the credibility provided by having his excellency 'on
board'.
This would seem to be a reasonable starting point... any ideas for
bringing this one forward would be most welcome! There are many others
that could help us in some way also, especially Finns, although I just
dont know who they might be so please feel free to make some
suggestions...
All in all, I think that it was a succesful meeting,
Dave
--
David McGeady B.A. B.A.I.
HEMA Healthcare and Management Research Group
Helsinki University of Technology
Finland
+358 50 469 2245
