Pre-IVLP Preparations & Briefings

My IVLP officially began on Friday, the 30th of April.

However, a day prior to that, an officer from the IVLP office, Mr.Valery Nadjibe visited me in the hotel where I was staying during the Summit to help me checkout and move to another hotel in DC.

The new hotel, the Cariyle Suites turned out to be a boutique hotel with nicer and a bigger rooms then the previous one and the service more personalized.

On the 30th morning, I was given a full briefing on my program by an official from the US State Department and the IVLP Program coordination office.

The team spent the entire morning patiently going through the program objectives, my schedule for the next three weeks and also other house-keeping matters such as my insurance policy, the per-diem calculations and other protocol matters.

The entire process was so professionally handled - making you feel the way you should - that you are an important guest of the US Government, that they are making all the arrangements for you to meet key people in top-notch organizations and as such you too have to play your part and act in a responsible  manner.

TO be responsible means - be on time for meetings and also respect any confidential information shared with you.

The meeting ended exactly as scheduled - 1pm. 

I think we, as a country seriously need to learn to keep not only time but also our word. 

We need to be punctual, start meetings on time and end them on time. We also need to do what we say we will do. Very simple but how many people do we know who follow this?

To many broken promises and time wasting pursuits in our society.

We also need our VIPs to come on time so that events can begin and end as planned. 

We need to get back to the basics and get the basics right first. This does not take much. 

This is a reminder to myself too...cheers !