The idea about our orchestra started from an article on UN's internal intranet site, the 'iSeek', about an international orchestra composed from staff members of international organisations working in Geneva. The article invited musicians from other duty stations to respond, and it attracted several staff members from New York. After some initial e-mail exchanges, the musicians had their first meeting on 16 June. At the time, some 12 musicians had added their names to the list of those interested in the ensemble.
At the meeting, it was decided to launch an outreach initiative by posting announcements on the intranet pages in UN Secretariat, UNDP and UNICEF. This initiative resulted in noticeable interest in the ensemble. Even though the announcements came during the summer time, with many international staff traveling on vacation, we were able to grow our list to over 40 names.
Another decision made at the meeting was to begin the process of organising the ensemble into an official club under the UN Staff Recreation Council (UNSRC). This required preparing draft by-laws, adopting the document at the following meeting, nominating and electing officials and submitting an application to the UNSRC. A decision was made to call the next meeting when the draft document was ready.