This week, five young professionals from different countries arrived to the US to partake in CIPE’s ChamberL.I.N.K.S. program. Now in its fourth year, the ChamberL.I.N.K.S. program matches chamber of commerce and business association professionals from developing countries with similar organizations in the U.S.
For the next six weeks, the participants will shadow senior staff of business associations and chambers of commerce to observe and take part in daily operations of a successful association. This year’s participants and their placements include:
- Kipson Gundani (Zimbabwe) of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce will be with Ponca City Chamber of Commerce (Ponca City, OK)
- Esteban Strauss (Bolivia) of the Chamber of Exporters of Santa Cruz (CADEX) will be with Global Cold Chain Alliance (Arlington, VA)
- Dalil Batyrov (Kyrgyz Republic) of the Association of Agribusinessman of Kyrgyzstan will be with Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) (Washington, DC)
- Paula Anastasiade (Romania) of the Regional Center for Organization Management will be with Bostrom (Washington, DC)
- Meselu Sefiw (Ethiopia) of the SNNPR Chambers of Commerce and Sectoral Associations will be with SmithBucklin (Washington, DC)
Everyone invovled in the program – both the young professionals and the host organizations – are excited about learning from each other! Participants will gain valuable skills in areas such as business association management and membership development, which they can then apply to their home organizations. They will also provide their U.S. hosts with insights into how chambers and associations operate in other countries.
We plan to check in with the participants here on the blog once they have had time to settle in. It will be exciting to see what new things each of them will explore through the next six weeks.
Published Date: March 19, 2012