The CIOR Mid-Winter Meeting was succesfully completed Friday. As tradition dictates, the two and a half days of intense and very fruitful working sessions were wrapped up with a closing session in the auditorium of the NATO Headquarters.
By: Roy Thorvaldsen, Lt Col (R) Norwegian Army/ CIOR Public Affairs
The Presidents of CIOR and CIOMR both thanked the organising staff and their teams for a productive meeting.
Looking back – and moving forward
The CIOR President, Colonel (R) Chris Argent emphasised that he had sensed a feeling of new Energy and Purpose in all of CIOR’s work during the meeting, with the enabling power of technology now in place to support communications, preparation for, and in-between meetings – and distance learning. He also emphasised the range of tasks in which CIOR is now engaged, and encouraged the Vice Presidents (heads of member delegations) to strengthen their national teams.
Argent also summed up the progress that has been done in the last 12 months from the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed with NATO’s National Reserve Forces Committee (NRFC); productive outcomes within the CYBER joint work program; and development of a Reserve Advisor post at NATO’s operational headquarters, SHAPE. There has been no such post a SHAPE since the previous one was abolished in 2005.
Strong outputs
Argent said there has been strong outputs with regard to the preparations of the Civil-Military Exercise (CIMEX) and the CIOR Language Academy (CLA) – and what Secretary General, Colonel Adrian Walton called “a really promising Digital Journey with a management tool, development of Virtual Learning and, finally, “a greatly enhanced CIOR website”.
There were strong outputs at the CIOR Mid-Winter Meeting, among other areas within CIMIC. Photo: Bill Grieve, Lt Col (R) US Army/ CIOR Public Affairs.
Summer Congress re-confirmed for Liege
The CIOR President then brought the attention to the remaining activities of the UK Presidency, the next meeting of the organisation, IBM4, at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Berkshire, UK; and not least the Summer Congress 2020 in Liege, Belgium this August.
Summer Congress 2021 in Athens
Worth mentioning is also that the Summer Congress of 2021 has been decided located to Athens, Greece.
CIOMR endorsement of intranet portal
Finally, CIOMR (medical officers) has voted to embrace a ‘CIOMR Connect’ intranet portal based on the success that CIOR so far has had with the said Facebook ‘Workplace For Business’ collaboration tool. CISOR (non-commissioned officers) is considering doing the same.
The auditorium of the NATO Headquarters was used for both the opening and closing ceremonies. Photo courtesy Henry Plimack, Capt US Coastguard Reserve (Retd.)/ CIOMR Public Affairs.