nouvelles de notre association - AAFI-AFICS, Geneva - UNOG

As this splinter group made claims to be the official representatives of AFICS-Thailand, it became
necessary to resort to a referendum, supervised by a Tri-partite Vote-counting Committee comprising a
representative of each of the ESCAP Staff Council, the ESCAP Administration and currently serving
professional staff. The AFICS-Thailand membership confirmed by a large majority, by 97 out of 100 valid
ballots, the validity of a Board made up of 5 out of the original members elected at the founding General
Assembly held on 29 May 2001. The Association held its second annual Assembly on 18 June 2002 and
it is now in the process of seeking official registration with Thai authorities.
The Association is being provided with office space and facilities by the ESCAP Administration. The
Association’s membership is growing. Calm has been restored and the Association can now concentrate
on advising and representing its members on matters related to pensions, health insurances and
organizing recreational activities for its members.
ANOTHER 100 YEAR OLD UN VETERAN
THE CENTENARY CORNER
In our March Bulletin we mentioned our member Charlotte Lamunière’s 100th birthday on 5 October
2002. Here is some news about another 100th aniversary:
Our sister association BAFUNCS’ (British Association of Former United Nations Civil Servants)
”Newsletter” of March 2003 contains an article describing the editor’s meeting with Dame Mary Smieton,
who was Director of Personnel of the United Nations during its first years. Dame Mary celebrated her
100th anniversary in her home of the last 50 years at St.Margarets in Middlesex on 5 December 2002.
She sailed over to her new job in New York on a British passenger-boat, ”not really knowing what I was
going to do. I arrived to absolute chaos. The Security Council was in session, yet there were very few
staff to support this and the other meetings that were taking place in makeshift buildings. From the very
start I found myself at the heart of administrative problems because I was appointed Director of
Personnel”. In view of the chaos around her, it came as no real surprise when she was taken to her office
and found ”four empty spaces where there should have been doors. When I suggested it would be good
to have the gaps closed, I was assured that the doors were on their way from Chicago.”
After a return to British Civil Service, she was again involved with the UN system in 1962 as the UK
member of the UNESCO Executive Board, an appointment which she held until 1968.
(Published with the kind permission of BAFUNCS)
AND ANOTHER ONE TO COME
Our member Katherine Duckworth-Barker will be celebrating her 100th birthday on 9 September 2003.
She worked for 15 years as a translator at the WHO, where she was mainly known by her maiden name
Naylor. Of British nationality she found herself in Italy during the second world war, she was interned
there and was only released when the allied forces liberated Rome.
She is the widow of Vernon Duckworth-Barker, who was another UN veteran and a well-known staffmember
in the United Nations. He started his career in the very first UN office at Church House in London
and finished his career as a Director in the Geneva Office.
Katherine Duckworth-Barker is in good health and she has only stopped driving her car this year! She
lives at Winchester in England.
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