As the days grow shorter and we approach the end of the year, it's an ideal time to take stock of the past 12 months and look forward to what lies ahead.
For TIAW, it has been a very important year, bringing developments and accomplishments that we can all be proud of. Just coming out from another successful TIAW Global Partnership Forum in Indian Wells, California, we continued to make major progress on our journey to develop TIAW's role as a powerful, worldwide influence for positive change. The TIAW Microenterprise program continued to play a big part in our international reach, with the number of village banks funded by TIAW reaching 75, in more than 20 different countries. It's important to note as we think about the impact of this work that village banks are not a one-year or one-time program. They are the establishment of an ongoing financial resource for women entrepreneurs in developing countries, a sustainable source of economic activity.
We continued our work with the Women on Boards program, sharing our best practices, most recently at the Women's International Network (WIN) international conference in Oslo, Norway in September. TIAW's impact on this important initiative continues to be felt as we also contributed to the excellent book European Professional Women's Network (EPWN) just published on the subject.
Our Entrepreneurship Program is developing momentum and will play a big part in our organization as one of the most important avenues for women's economic empowerment. We continue to look to the engagement of younger women through the TIAW Daughters program as well.
Behind the scenes, we reorganized the board structure of TIAW as part of our commitment to best practice governance. Reduced in size, the composition of directors provides representation for each key region and our major programs, in addition to the officer roles that are essential to any board. To ensure the engagement and input of our growing roster of member networks, we created the President's Forum, as quarterly teleconference meeting that allows network President's to share best practices in network management, to bring forward issues for discussion and to contribute to the strategic and tactical direction of TIAW. We are also setting up an advisory body that will provide a formal connection to the many women who have served TIAW over the years, affectionately known in some circles as the "Old Girls".
Looking ahead to next year, we are already making plans for the TIAW Global Forum in Toronto next fall - stay tuned for details in the coming weeks as we build on the excellent momentum arising from the California conference. Toronto promises to be a breakthrough event as we gather in one of the most international cities in the world. In the coming months, we will be launching our new World of Difference 100 Awards, celebrating "unsung" heroes throughout the world, women who make a difference in their communities, their countries and their world.
I hope that all of you have a safe and happy holiday seasons and I look forward to leading TIAW through another year of "Connecting to make all the difference in the world."
