A day at the FSI office (2022-12-13)

 

FSI co-founder Eunkoo Lee is in charge of FSI's schedule. That means we have many meetings when I don’t schedule to be out of the office.

* 7 am, Zoom call about a non-FSI project. I am a co-founder of tFSI but I am engaged in some activities outside of FSI.

* 10 am, Zoom call about a possible FSI event in June with Ivy League students.

* 10:30 am, Meeting at the FSI office with visitors from the USA. They bought 10 copies of Greenlight to Freedom directly from FSI. We had a great conversation about the meeting last week. They have a better understanding of FSI and asked if we were a 501(c)3 based in the USA.

* 11:00 a.m., I sent an update to volunteers joining this Sunday's orientation sessions.

* 11:15 am, Meeting with a North Korean refugee who is joining FSI as a speaker. She showed the draft of her speech. Her husband had said the speech didn't make sense, which I confirmed in a more gentle way. I took her speech apart and showed her three different approaches to the same speech. I avoid taking over speeches, I see my role as getting them prepared to engage in self-learning and also partnering with mentors rather than looking to them as Gods.

* 12:00 noon, lunch.

* 1 pm, I followed up with a Seoul City official about being named a Seoul Honorary Citizen.

* 1:30 pm, Eunkoo Lee hounded me to handle another institutional matter in the USA. When it involves money Eunkoo never forgets.

* 2:00 pm, Meeting with a North Korean refugee who has joined FSI as a speaker. She was blown away by this first mentoring session, she said it taught her how to look at her speech in a new way.

* 3:00 pm, An Inspector from the Seoul City Government visited the office to inspect FSI. Accepting government money also means getting inspected by government authorities. Support FSI so we can remain an independent organization.

* 5:00 pm, Meeting with a North Korean refugee who is joining us after 8 years of knowing us. I met him in 2014 when he was still a high school student. At last, he is joining us!

* 5:50 pm, Eunkoo followed up about payments and collections. If you owe FSI money, just send it. Eunkoo will find you eventually. And she sends out FSI's payments on time and often ahead of time.

* 6:00 pm, I viewed and approved the sketch video from Mr. Hwang's trip to Imjingak.

* 6:15 pm, Meeting with a South Korean who is a best-selling author and made it clear he is a big fan of FSI.