As part of regularly monitoring the progress of the implementation of the it@coops project, the project stakeholders headed by the Asian Women in Co-operative Development Forum (AWCF), held its annual it@coops Coordinators Meeting last 9-11 May 2007 at Pathumwan Princess Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand. In attendance were nine participants representing four organizations namely the Forum for Indonesian Co-operatives Movement (FORMASI, Indonesia), the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO, Philippines), the Credit Union League of Thailand (CULT, Thailand), and AWCF itself.

In this meeting, they assessed and evaluated the progress of the it@coops project covering the period January to April 2007 as implemented by each of the AWCF national umbrella organizations. After hearing all the country reports, they reviewed the plans intended for May until December 2007 and attuned this with the over-all objectives of the project. With the arrival of Mr. Benjamin Coester, InWEnt Consultant, the it@coops stakeholders were given an update on the ongoing it@coops evaluation being conducted by InWEnt in the Philippines (refer to related article entitled “Evaluation of the it@coops Project”).

A one day session on Virtual Networking was held as part of updating the skills of the it@coops stakeholders. This activity, facilitated by Mr. Gerardo Mallari, AWCF Consultant, enabled the IT Coordinators to brush-up on their virtual networking skills as they were encouraged to use the free and open source software in developing their respective websites.