Updates on the FAFICS 56th Council Session, 20-24 July 2026, Vienna
- Andrew Nye
- Jul 1
- 3 min read
Message sent on behalf of FAFICS President Jerry Barton
Dear Member Associations,
Our annual FAFICS Council is approaching rapidly. I hope to see you, either in Vienna or remotely during the Council. Please remember that our Council starts on Monday, 20 July 2026, at the Vienna International Centre. I am pleased to provide further details below on the planning and schedule for our upcoming 56th Session of the FAFICS Council, which is going well, building on the invitation and follow-up messages I have sent in the last two months.
Registration, security passes, Zoom link:
I am pleased to inform you that some 39 Member Associations have registered about 100 delegates (in person, virtually, or combined). Registrations will remain open until 15 July through this link https://indico.un.org/e/fafics-56.
Since we will elect new FAFICS officers at the Council for the following two years, each Association must designate an attendee as “head of delegation”. Only the head of delegation may cast their Association’s vote. Our Treasurer and Secretary are coordinating closely on the eligibility of Member Associations.
For those attending in person, please note that UN DSS security passes will be available for collection on Monday morning, 20 July, at the Gate 1 entrance of VIC upon presentation of a valid ID or the QR code issued by Indico. For those attending virtually, we will send the Zoom link on 17 July. The same link will be used for all plenary sessions. Please note that we are still studying the mechanics of auto-text translations via Zoom from participants’ mobile phones/tablets/laptops during the week of the Council.
Council provisional agenda, work programme, documents:
Please find attached the latest versions of the Provisional Agenda and the Tentative Work Programme. Please note that both documents must be approved by the Council during the Opening Session. We hope to send the first batch of available documents by the week of 6 July via an electronic folder (and links attached to the Provisional Agenda and Work Programme), which will be updated as documents become available. For some, we are providing French and Spanish translations of executive summaries.
Please note in the work programme, that on 20 July there will be important open and ad hoc meetings of the different FAFICS Standing Committees/Working Groups. There will be no zoom link during this informal day, unless Standing Committee Chairs decide to do it on their own. Council plenary sessions will be held on 21-24 July, with Bureau meetings on 19th and 24th July.
I reiterate that we will be joined in-prson by the UNJSPF Chief Executive for Pension Administration, Rosemarie McClean, and the SG’s Representative on Investment Matters, Robert van der Zee. Aside from ARICSA hosting the Council, we will also be welcomed by the new Director-General of the UN Office in Vienna, Ms. Monica Juma. UNFCU’s Manager for UNOV, Nisreen Mirza, will also informally address the participants and welcome us with the cocktail reception on Monday, 20 July. ARICSA is inviting Council attendees and partners to an informal evening dinner on Wednesday, July 22.
I am also pleased to announce that a new Association, AFICS Honduras, has completed all requirements for Association formation and will be presented to the Council for admission as the 66th member of our Federation.
Nominations for open positions, elections:
As I have explained in several previous letters, elections will be held during the upcoming Council for several open positions, including the President, the Treasurer, three Vice-Presidents, and two Auditors. Below is the link to the list of all nominees with clickable links to their CVs and personal statements, as mandated by Rule 8.3 of our Rules of Procedure. The elections will be held strictly electronically, using the same software as in previous years. The designated Head of Delegation will be the only person allowed to vote. Please note that Member Associations that have not paid their dues by the end of June 2026 will not be eligible to vote. The major change this year is that the voter will have to cast as many votes as there are open positions (i.e. one for President, three for Vice-Presidents, one for Treasurer, two for Auditors).
I am appointing a 3-person independent group of individuals, chosen from Member Associations that have no candidates for election, to assist the FAFICS Secretary in ensuring that proper procedures have been followed and in verifying the results. This “Election Support Group” will inspect the voter list to ensure that only heads of delegations from Member Associations in good standing have permission to vote, will observe whether the voting periods have been observed and whether the proper number of votes have been cast, and will report on the proper execution of the voting to the Secretary. Each head of delegation will receive specific voting instructions shortly before the voting begins.
Once again, I look forward to seeing you in Vienna, in-person or virtually.
With warm regards,
Jerry Barton
FAFICS President
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