NGOs in Transdniestria discuss how to improve time management skills
On 5 October 2017 the OSCE Mission to Moldova held the fourth in a year-long series of informal club discussions for local civil society groups on the left bank of the Dniester/Nistru River.
During the event, 17 participants discussed how to use time management tools and core personal effectiveness skills in their work. NGOs leaders often have to juggle competing priorities: ensuring that the activities they implement have the desired impact on their communities while ensuring a sustainable level of funding for their operations. These efforts run up against the limited availability of a most precious and shrinking resource: time.
Galina Burlaka, the director of the Bender-based charity Heart, described the symbiosis of time with other available resources such as financial, technical and intellectual resources. She also informed participants about possible techniques for prioritizing and scheduling tasks in order to achieve maximum impact, and encouraged participants to focus on results rather than the number of activities. She stressed that by using time-management techniques, NGOs can improve their ability to function effectively even when pressure is high and deadlines are tight.
Victoria Cazac from the “Caraman House” cultural centre said: “These meetings are very useful because there is no university or department that would instruct one how to work in an NGO, how to communicate with people, and so forth. I like the fun time management approach that was proposed, which focuses on performing specific tasks while also relaxing, which helps avoid exhaustion. I will definitely try using this method in my work.”
Civil Society Club meetings serve as an informal platform for dialogue among NGOs from the left bank of the Dniester/Nistru River. These meetings are part of a year-long project implemented jointly by the OSCE Mission to Moldova and the Tiraspol-based Apriori Legal Information Centre, which provides capacity-building assistance to local civil society organizations. One more meeting of the Civil Society Club is planned for 2017.