CIOR held its autumn meeting on ‘Teams’ last weekend. With participation from most national member associations, it was business as usual – although many are now very eager to actually see each other again in person.
By: Roy Thorvaldsen, Lt. Col (R), Norwegian Army/ CIOR Public Affairs
The organisers, the German CIOR Presidency, had planned for the IBM to take place as a gathering in Berlin, but when the calls had to be made, that was deemed just a little too early for the aftermath of the pandemic – and as the meeting took place, Covid-19 cases were actually again on the rise in many of the involved countries.
It is, though, expected that the organisation’s Mid-Winter Meeting (MWM) will take place as a physical meeting at NATO Headquarters at the end of January/beginning of February 2022. That will be the first time the organisation meets in any other than a pure digital format since the hybrid ”Late Summer Congress” in Tallinn, Estonia, in the fall of 2020.
The CIOR MWM 2022 will run in parallell with the NATO Reserve Forces Committee (NRFC) Winter Meeting, and with some, much-desired interaction between the two partnering organisations, during the course of the week.
Some of the participants at the CIOR IBM last weekend. Screenshot by Roy Thorvaldsen/CIOR Public Affairs.
As usual at the IBM, there were updates on financial matters, the next upcoming events and future Summer Congresses and Precidencies. There were also, among other agenda points, reports on reservist courses being offered at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany, the joint NRFC – CIOR Cyber Working Group, and a re-vitalised cooperation with CIOMR (CIOR’s sister organisation for medics) and CISOR (non-comissioned officers).
CIOR will in 2023 be 75 years as an organisation, and the 2022-2024 Estonian Presidency could tell IBM participants that plans and preparations for the celebratory program were well underway.
Well underway are also preparations for the CIOR Seminar taking place following the February MWM. The upcoming iteration’s theme is security implications concerning developments in North Africa. Possible areas to explore, depending on available speakers: growing population/migration, climate change, influence of China.
The Summer Congress 2022 is planned as a physical event in Athens, Greece, at the end of July/beginning of August. This is the congress that was planned for last summer, which was replaced by a virtual-only event. The CIOR Language Academy (CLA) and Military Competition (MilComp) will also be held in the Greek capital in the summer, in connection with the congress.