Spousal Life Conference : Annexe One

Planning, Process & Participants

As the Foreign Service Community Association and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade started to grapple with some of the issues around spousal employment, it became clear that other countries were facing the same concerns. The purpose of this conference was to gather information on the issues defined, the solutions various countries and their spousal associations had reached, and the processes that had been found to be successful. During the same period, the FSCA had requested, and DFAIT had agreed to establish a Task Force to examine the implementation of changeling spousal policy. It was decided to postpone the initiation of the Task Force until after the Spousal Life Conference, so the findings of the conference could be folded into the work of the Task Force.

Process:

Six months before the conference a committee was struck in the Foreign Service Community Association (FSCA) which requested the support of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). That support was granted. Space was reserved within the LB Pearson Building, the headquarters of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Simultaneous translation would be provided, all sessions would be audio taped, and the plenary sessions would be videotaped.

Participants:

The committee decided that participants would be Canadian foreign service spouses who were posted in the Ottawa region, and spouses attached to diplomatic missions in Ottawa. Two letter/brochures were designed. One was sent to all Ottawa-based FSCA members. The other was sent to each diplomatic mission in Ottawa, either to the spouse of the head of mission, the head of mission, and/or to the community coordinator of the mission if one was known to exist.

The brochures requested that those with particular expertise or interest in the issues volunteer to participate in the panels or discussions. At this time various members of the FSCA committee discussed the conference with some spouses attached to embassies in Ottawa, and others who had been identified through this process were contacted by telephone. Unfortunately, those who agreed to participate actively were confined to those from Canada, and European and other western countries.

As time became shorter a small sub-committee concentrated on telephoning all diplomatic missions in the national capital region, and to re-sending brochures to those that seemed not to have received , or to have misplaced them. By this process, spouses from Canada and twenty five diplomatic missions came to the conference. In addition, representatives from the Canadian government ministries involved in the foreign service, Treasury Board, and some of the labour unions whose members contribute to the foreign service attended as observers.

Contributors from the Canadian Foreign Service Community Association:

Panellists, Discussion Leaders Resource People and Rapporteurs:

Helen Kelly - British High Commission

Maria-Teresa Lichem - Embassy of Austria

Linda Louis - Embassy of Switzerland

Marie Wood - Australian High Commission

Foreign countries represented at the Conference were:

Foreign Service Community Association
125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1A 0G2
Tel +1 (613) 944-5729, Fax 995 9335
fsca.acse@international.gc.ca
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