June 2023 marks the official 25th Anniversary of the founding of Golden West. A lot has happened over the past 25 years, but perhaps the most profound changes have happened in just the last several months.
In early April we lost our beloved President and Founder, Joe Trocino. In May our Board of Directors met in Albania and voted to have me assume the duties of President as well as continuing as Chief Executive Officer. I am truly humbled by their trust and confidence and commit to doing my very best.
In my role as CEO, one of my most important responsibilities is to articulate a strategy that guides the organization and ensures everyone is aware of what we are doing and why. At the end of last month in Albania Golden West’s leadership had the opportunity to meet in-person for the first time in three years. The last time I met with a group was in Munich in February 2020.
Early this year I asked regional, country, and key program managers to develop their individual strategies for the next five years. I read (and reread), all the written inputs, spoke with each leader and spent a lot of time considering how to best develop an organizational strategy that will make us a better, stronger, and more resilient organization.
After distilling inputs from across the organization, I have developed four goals that I believe will make us stronger. I want to concentrate on these elements:
1: Purposefully grow Golden West as an organization of excellence.
3: Lead the sector in managing and promoting innovation and the integration of
training into practical environmental mitigation.
2: Embrace & promote innovation, always
striving for technical excellence.
4: Practice effective internal governance and organizational management.
These goals are consistent with our previous direction, now focused on how we work and how we’ll get even stronger. I have incorporated your feedback in developing strategies to better support your programs. As part of this strategy, Golden West will …
Grow with a focus on accomplishing our goals. Whether this growth supports innovation, training excellence, PSSM, environmental compliance, or humanitarian pursuits, we need a formal planning process to inform our decisions.
Focus on innovation in all we do. Innovation is what sets us apart. New ideas and better ways of accomplishing our mission enable us to compete. Our value proposition is our skill in developing new tools, processes, and lines of effort.
Lead the sector in developing practical ways to reduce environmental impacts of HMA activities. While others philosophize about regulation and policy, we will innovate to reduce environmental impact.
I challenge you all consider how we can accomplish our mission with fewer negative impacts on the environment.
The goal of all these improvement initiatives is to make your efforts easier and more effective. I’m excited by the possibilities and look forward to working with each of you to make these plans a reality. There’s a lot of work to do so let’s work together and get it done!
Best regards, Al
Swim for Life
Program Expansion Update
May 2023
Swim for Life Vietnam is expanding our award-winning drowning prevention program into three Quang Tri districts.
Quang Tri is divided into:
- Dong Ha City
- Quang Tri Town
- 8 x Districts: Cam Lo, Con Co, Dakrong, Gio Linh, Hai Lang, Huong Hoa, Trieu Phong & Vinh Linh
- Funded by: GWHF & Global Health Advocacy Incubator / Tobacco Free Kids
Survival Swimming Instructors Training – Vinh Linh District
- Training involved 3 SFL/GW instructors, 25 teachers from 19 different District schools.
- The teachers learnt to how to give CPR, water safety, indirect rescue, as well as how to teach children to get used to the water, floating, and swimming skills: backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, and treading water.
- The program included classroom and practical instruction & evaluation in the pool.
23 teachers were certified to teach drowning prevention by the Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism of Quang Tri province.
Survival Swimming Instructors Training – Cam Lo District
- Another Survival Swimming “Train the Trainer” event took place like the Vinh Linh District event.
- 25 teachers were certified by the QTP Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism.
- 337 children from 1st grade to 5th grade
- It was a huge event, with the participation of 20 teachers, representatives of Bureau of Culture & Sport of Vinh Linh district, CPC of Vinh Giang, Youth Union, Women’s Union, Clinic, Parents Association, Commune TV,
- … and two Swim for Life Vietnam Water Safety Education instructors!
- Starting swimming classes in Cam Lo, Vinh Linh, and Trieu Phong District
