We would be remiss if we left out of this announcement that this is APECS’ first transition between terms without our North Star, our Southern Cross, Gerlis Fugmann. As many of you already know, this past August Gerlis moved on from her position as Executive Director of APECS, which she held for seven years, to become the new Executive Secretary of IASC, a fantastic opportunity for both her and IASC.
While we look forward to continuing to work with Gerlis in her new position in IASC, one of APECS’ closest partners, she nonetheless remains sorely missed at her old stomping grounds. As APECS embarks on a new and exciting journey into the 2020-2021 term with a fresh batch of enthusiastic leaders, we take a moment to think on the legacy Gerlis has left not just to the organization, but to those who have taken the reins in her absence. Short of ‘What Would Gerlis Do’ bracelets, the APECS Directorate office, as well as those in the outgoing Executive Committee, find that we have come to embody the very qualities that allowed Gerlis to steer APECS into the incredible organization it has become today: measured and thorough, the ‘ives’: responsive, inclusive, supportive and effective; and finally, helpful and kind. While many of us arrived at APECS with some these attributes, they were amplified and honed by collaborating with Gerlis, and have since expanded to fill the absence she left in our organization when she moved on. We are all the better from having passed through her graces, and we now find ourselves empowered to carry on her legacy into a new term and ultimately a new 5-year strategy, as we finalize our new Strategic Plan for 2021-2025, coming together to serve polar ECR in this new decade. On the eve of APECS’ first term without her, at least in the memory of all those in the current leadership and Directorate, we take this opportunity to offer one final thank you, to the one, the only, Gerlis Fugmann.
