pensions - AAFI-AFICS, Geneva - UNOG

EDITORIAL10 September 2002 marks the moment when our host country, Switzerland, will finally take its place in the United NationsGeneral Assembly as a fully-fledged member of the Organization. The population of Switzerland, which had previouslyrejected the Federal Government’s proposal to become a member of the UN, decided finally, in March 2002, to agree tomembership of the Organization. With so many international organizations based on its soil, with the thousands ofinternational personnel engaged by the UN system organizations, CERN, the World Trade Organization, the numerousforeign missions, non-governmental organizations and many multinational corporations located in Geneva and elsewherein the country, it was high time that Switzerland itself became a member of the world Organization. As AAFI-AFICS hasits legal seat in Geneva and a majority of our members are settled in the Geneva region, we are pleased at this positivedevelopment. I was happy to mention this and to convey our congratulations and best wishes to Ambassador Nordmannof Switzerland, who was the special guest at the AAFI-AFICS lunch on 25 June 2002.In addition to being the season of warmer and mostly good weather, the summer is also the period during which someimportant meetings are held of particular interest to UN system pensioners. So, when the month of July came, AAFI-AFICS sent a delegation of three representatives to attend the 31 st annual meeting of the Federation of Associations ofFormer International Civil Servants (FAFICS) Council, which was held at the FAO Headquarters in Rome from 4 to 8 July.The highlights of this FAFICS Council are described in an article to be found in this Bulletin. Another meeting followedthat of the FAFICS Council: the UN Joint Staff Pension Board, which also met in Rome, from 10 to 19 July 2002. Ourrepresentative to this body is FAFICS, which had a delegation of six in attendance, including the Chairman of AAFI-AFICS. The Board had a difficult session and took a very cautious approach on recommendations regarding pensionbenefits; to a large extent as a result of negative developments in major stock markets and in the exchange value of theUS dollar which happened coincide with the Pension Board session. The FAFICS delegation has written an extensivereport on this meeting, the first part of which can also be found (in English) in the present Bulletin. The second part of theFAFICS delegation’s report, as well as a French translation of the full report will follow in the next Bulletin.NEWS OF OUR ASSOCIATIONAnders TholleDATES TO REMEMBEROctober 2002AIUTA Conference on Age and Experience in the Service of the Future, Geneva15 November 2002 Deadline for receipt of candidatures for the elections to the AAFI-AFICS Committee26 November 2002 Lunch at the ILO Restaurant6-10 December 2002 Visit to Salzburg. For information +41 (0)22 906 4237.1 April 2003, 10h00 AAFI-AFICS Annual General Assembly, to be followed by lunch at the ILO RestaurantEvery Wednesday Permanence in Office C.544-1, Palais des Nations, Geneva09h30-12h30 +41 (0)22 917 33301 st & 3 rd Wednesday L’Amicale du Soleil meets from 12h00 to 14h00 for an informal lunch at the Café du Soleil,each monthPetit-Saconnex, GenevaPride goes before a fallThe Editorial team could not resist the temptation to publish in the June 2002 issue (Vol. 61 No.3) some of thelovely notes readers send in to say they enjoy the Bulletin. And look what happened: typographical errors by the19