Management Report
- General Management
- The New Building
- Media and communications
- Providing more diverse and sustainable funding resources
- AMQF’s Restaurant
2019 saw many changes for the General Management and introduced new burdens. In addition to the retirement of our colleague Ziad Khalaf at the end of 2018, and colleague Fida Touma assuming the role of Director General at the beginning of the year, there was immense pressure towards completing the construction of the new headquarters and relocating in early April. Staff were trained to use the new management systems, and the five-year strategic plan had to be drawn before the end of year, in addition to finishing the building and acquiring the license to open the restaurant and hire its staff. The general management team also worked on providing support to all the Foundation’s programmes as needed, and developing work policies and methods according to plans.
During this reporting period, Abaad Contracting Company officially handed over the new building to AMQF. Project closure agreements were signed with all concerned parties and new agreements were signed to oversee the implementation of some maintenance works. Relocating to the new building took place in several stages, and was carried out in a highly efficient manner within the scheduled timeline and estimated cost.
Regarding media and communications, the media team organised 17 tours in the building and the foundation, including 5 tours for journalists. 20,791 people attended AMQF’s activities in Palestine. Throughout the duration of the report, the Foundation received exceptional media coverage with more than 345 visual, audio, print or electronic reports. The Foundation’s media platforms attracted a large number of followers; reaching more than 60,000 followers on Facebook by the end of the reporting period; 1855 on Twitter, 6600 on Instagram and 2489 on LinkedIn. New pages were created for the library and the new building on the AMQF’s official website, and the content of the Culture and Arts Programme page was updated.
In order to provide more diverse and sustainable funding resources, the Foundation signed six agreements including a new agreement with Drosos Foundation and another with the International Development and Relief Foundation – Canada (IDRF). During the reporting period, the Foundation has also acquired additional funding for the “Culture, Arts and Social Engagement” project from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to complete the implementation of the project for an additional year in 2019.
The opening preparations for AMQF’s restaurant were completed. The restaurant was equipped and furnished, staff hired and trained, registration and license obtained from appropriate authorities, menu developed and tested, dishes priced, supplier list developed, restaurant identity developed, and “Al-Matal” selected as a name. The restaurant had a soft opening and finalized its menus, it also started catering for internal and external events taking place at the Foundation, and its interior design was developed.