The APPC Governing Council has now set a date and a place for its biannual conference: 5-7 September 2003 in Manila, Philippines.

This was decided as the Conference Planning Committee closed a highly satisfactory pre-conference writers’ workshop held 9-10 January in Manila. Eleven country papers were reviewed, and ensuing discussions focused on what governance issues affecting non-profit sectors in the region were emerging from the wealth of experiences initially gathered. As reported in this column in December 2002, the conference will have the theme ‘Governance, Organizational Effectiveness and the Non-Profit Sector’ and will attempt to highlight common issues of internal and external governance that involve or affect the non-profit sector.

APPC will announce specific sub-themes and the conference programme before the middle of the year. This will be sent out to all those invited to the conference. The majority of participants will come from lists produced by each of the 12 participating countries through their national-level networks. If you would like to know more about the conference, please email rftolentino@admu.edu.ph or appcpost@yahoo.com.

Our excitement in APPC over this year’s main event is not only because it is about an issue that is so relevant today, but also because, as Barnett Baron has said, this conference has the ability to pull together all three major programmes of work that APPC has invested in over the past years:
improving the legal, regulatory and fiscal environment for philanthropy and the non-profit sector;
increasing public awareness and support for philanthropy and the non-profit sector;
facilitating resource mobilization in and to Asia.

We hope to share this excitement more and more with APPC’s constituents and the philanthropic community as a whole as we approach the conference.

For more information about APPC, please contact Rory Tolentino at rftolentino@admu.edu.ph;
http://www.asianphilanthropy.org

If you would like to receive copies of APPC Post, APPC’s electronic newsletter, please send your email address to appcpost@yahoo.com