AIESEC International Annual Report

For those that are interested, AIESEC International just relased its Global Annual Report 2004 2005

Feel free to visit http://www.aiesec.org/about/press/annual-reports/ to download it, as well the reports of the past years or by clicking here:

http://www.aiesec.org/website/AIESEC_Annual_Report_2004_2005.pdf

CRICKET in AI

AS a preparation for IC in India the whole AI team started crickey trainning ... (heheh not true, it was just a random game last friday) ...


Abi, Tom


Cricket


Shantanu

Kiko is in Rotterdam

For those that still do not know him, Kiko (Enrique Villalon) is our AI USER AND EDUCATION MANAGER for the term 05 06. Kiko will be based in Hyderabad, India! for the whole year, then there is where the office of AZRI our IS service provider is based and where his work makes sense. ;-)

Kiko is (as me!!) from Barranquilla, from AIESEC Uninorte!
Lately we were jooking with Manish, that similar to AIESEC Jaipur in India (LC of Manish, Snatanu and VK), AIESEC Uninorte is one of this AI members makers, hehehehe (Oriana, Kiko and Johanna, we GN Board and therefore interface to AI).

Welcome Kiko, have fun!

Kiko

AI Information Systems Task Force: Kiko, Kamil, Toma, Romas, Sveta, Lanchanie, Petroula, Abi and Mike 

Oriana, Kiko and Lele 

AIESEC International Take Over Party

Last 15, 16 and 17 of July (last weekend) AIESEC International was hosting in Rotterdam the traidtional Take Over or Transition Party. In the frame of this celebration AI invites MCs, LCs, trainees, friends - in general all posible AIESEC community to join us for a weekend and enjoy together a cool agenda. Luis Rene, from the outgoing team was coordinating the party. We ended having around 130 people registered!

This transition party agenda (which is quite similar to the ones of previous years) started on friday 15 with chill out drinks and "warming up" in a cafe-bar in Rotterdam. Next day, saturday was the hard core day ;-) We started by mid-day with the AI cook Off: in the roof of Hofdik (the AI apartment building) we invited all people for food, offering sanwiches, drinks, salad) ... this to prove the cooking skills of AI.

Cook off - AI prepared fod for 130 people!

After the food, we went with all people to the football/volley field next Hofdik and started with the so called BYOND FRONTIERS GAMES. For these games all AIESEC International Functiona Corners (eg Directors, PAIs, ER, Core Work, IS ....) prepare games, challenging, fun, sometimes also random games, where people can participate. After the games, the SPORTS turnaiment took place, FOOTBALL AND VOLLEY. Each country (from the coountries that made it to the party) or MC or group of people had a team ... the winner in Volley were the Global Partnership Coordinators and in football BRAZIL (that is not surprising!)

Jing Wei and me - after the DIrectors games

Finally in the evening/night/morning? we had the hand over party! We want to an AWSOME bar in Rotterdam, danced like hell (specially Kamil), had cock-tails and specially gave a HUGE round of applouses to AI 04 05 for an amazing year, as well as a big welcome and good luck to the new team.

Latinas with PAI: Oriana, Brodie and Vero



PAI 04 05 and PAI 05 06


Directors games!!!


People clapping for AI 04 05


Steve (migz) and Albert - no comments!


Kamil was hosting a YOGA corner


The Core Work Corner (VP X and VP People Deleopment)


PAI full of cake

AIESEC INTERNATIONAL 05 06 went planning

The first week of July AIESEC International 05 06 went to the south of the Netherlands, to a town called Epen, close to the city of Maastricht, for planning days. Planning was for sure one of the highest points so far for team building, as well for maturity and consolidations of our ideas and ambitions for the organization and for the team itself. There was time for everything, to reflect, to discuss, to dance, to do scolling, to plat volley, to eat jummy food, to watch movies (to watch CLOSER specifically and have such profound discussion about love and life, hehehe), TO BUILD A PROWERFUL TEAM STAND AND TEAM STANDARDS.

AI Plan and scoreboard will be fully launched at IC 2005 in Agra, India. For now, its amazing content is TOP SECRET!

The team on the way to the site (Taco and Mike are missing, they went by car bringing our bags!)


In a cafe on the way to Planning: Dey, Geta and me





Latino Dancing Show with Dey


The year - in summary ... scary


Even scolling took place


No comments


Intense Discussions - in the pic Chris, me, Taco and Lanchanie discussion sustainable growth in Xs


Cooking teams chart



The food was jut brilliant, no wonder, Dey was leading all cooking teams



Tom and Oriana - despite the representative portion of vegetarians in the team, there is still a big mojority of meet lovers ...

AIESEC in LATIN AMERICA GETS 81.800 USD FROM W.K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION

Kellogg

TO strengthen and train a network of Latin American youth to be socially responsible leaders in the private and third

Congratulations to all of us!

This week the SSGN Board was notified that it was approved for AIESEC in the SSGN a grant from the W.K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION Latin American and Caribbean! for an amount of 81800 USD!

The work around W.K. KELLOGG is an example of team work and continuity. The foundation was contacted for the first time by the SSGN Board 2003/2004, Board that submitted the first version of the proposal. Last term, in March the SSGN Board 04/05 was contacted again by W.K. KELLOGG, in order to request an update of the proposal, as well as an update of the developments of the Explora Program in ganeral. And now since this June the SSGN Board 2005 2006 was coordinting all the delivery of the final legal requirements as kick off and delivery of the recently approved partnership.

Here you can find the submitted and approved proposal: http://www.aiesec.net/members/americasuno/file-storage/file?file_id=29700908
Here you can find the approval letter: http://www.aiesec.net/members/americasuno/file-storage/file?file_id=29700964

I want to thank in this email one more time AIESEC in Brazil, MC 0405 and 0506 for their tremendous support and for being the enabler country in the GN, that will exercise the legal representation of AIESEC in SSGN in front of W.K. KELLOGG.

We have opened a forum for you all to ask your questions, and where Johanna Garcia, Explora Coordinator, will be mapping out all the amazing implementation and delivery plan of these wonderful project. Approved W.K. Kellog Proposal: http://www.aiesec.net/members/americasuno/forums/message-view?message_id=29701023
Seems like transition months are wonderful times to pick up results! One year ago we were also celebrating the approval of the Artemisia Partnership! Let's go SSGN, our VISION 2008 is not anymore that far away!

Cannonball

Still a little bit of your taste in my mouth
Still a little bit of you laced with my doubt
Still a little harder to say what's going on
Still a little bit of your ghost, your weakness
Still a little bit of your face I haven't kissed
You step a little closer each day
That I can’t say what's going on


Stones taught me to fly
Love, taught me to lie
Life taught me to die
So it's not hard to fall
When you float like a cannonball

Still a little bit of your song in my ear
Still a little bit of your words I long to hear
You step a little closer to me
So close that I can't see what's going on

Stones taught me to flyLove, taught me to lie
Life taught me to die
So it's not hard to fall
When you float like a cannon..

Stones taught me to flyLove, taught me to cry
So come on courage
Teach me to be shy'Cause it's not hard to fall
And I don't wanna scare her
It's not hard to fall
And I don't wanna lose
It's not hard to grow
When you know that you just don't know

My Ship was in Rotterdam

Some weeks ago thanks to a comment done to one posting in this weblog when I was talking about my name and other "Oriana's" that I found out there, I discovered that ORIANA was suposed to be a ship (The Orient liner ss Oriana of 1959).




Oriana was the fastest ship ever to sail to Sydney, making the passage from Southampton via Suez in only twenty-one days. 1959

"It would be all to easy to bemoan her subsequent fate, however, unlike her much admired running mate Canberra, she has survived in spite of the odds. Luridly lit with neon and variously touted as the "Titanic of Huangpu River", the sister ship of the Queen Elizabeth, a "British imperial cruiser " and "one of the four most famous luxury boats of the contemporary world," the old gal now graces an otherwise undistinguished waterfront at Shanghai. "

That was already quite impressive, but more impressive, to imagine that somewhere, somehow there was a ship with my name, was the fact that some weeks ago I went out of my house and just realized that in fron of the bridge here in Rotterdam I could see ORIANA, LIFE VERSION.

It was just gorgeous and one of this cool moments I'll never forget from Rotterdam. Every day I realize that my name is not that random in the end.

My Ship!!! Rotterdam July 2005

ORIANA 

About speking with HUMAN VOICE

This past week a group of people in the AI office were engaged in how to come (even more) closer to our AIESEC countries. How to engage genuine dialog, how to ensure two- way communication around meaningful topics that affect why we are here, how to build a common conversation.

One of the points I raised was how to bring this HUMAN COMPENENT to every conversation we have with countries, conversations that unfortunately in 80 % of the cases in AIESEC have to be over emails - and what lately was love to send, over "fancy" newsletters and other types of spams. Sometimes I read them and ask myself: is a machine writting this or a human being? Does it feel like a member/person that is exited about sharing what he/she knows and get others perspectives or does it simply look as a "committment", a duty to update around certain topics, using as many complicated, unquestionable, complex or simply not motivating words as posible?

Then Tom brought us to some quotes from the cluetrain manifesto



www.cluetrain.com


"These markets are conversations.
Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.

But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about "listening to customers." They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.

While many such people already work for companies today, most companies ignore their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happytalk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it."

ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP

I just finished to read ...

Leading Boldly - Foundations can move past traditional approaches to create social change trough imaginative - and even controversial - leadership (Stanford Social Innvation Review), and I was amazed at some parts on how the concept and exercise of ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP described in the article fits (in my opinion) in what the role of learning networks in AIESEC aims to be.

- "The traditionall view of leadership has been displaced in recent years by a much more subtle, dinamic view of social change in wich people and institutions that lead are not expected to know the answer and bear full responsibility for the problem solving. Instead, they try to create and sustain the conditions trough wich stakeholders take the responsibility to tackling tough problems and generating answers that are better adapted to politics, culture and history of their situations"

- "Adaptive leadership involves managing the conditions that enable people involved with complicated social issues (OT: education? CR? HIV? Energy? ...) to figure out and understake solutions that ultimately require change in THEIR OWN WAYS OF WROKING. Adaptive Leadership achieves POSITIVE CHANGE by provoking debate, encouraging new thinking and advancing social learning. It mobilizes the parties to work TOWARDS a solution, rather than IMPOSING one. The goal is to encourage shift in the MINDSET and provide incentives to stakeholders to invent their own solutions."

The is so much other beautiful parts to share, but if you feel like doing it, go ahead reading it. Even if the article is based on a cuple of US Foundation (grant givers, not AIESEC type) case studies, the concepts tocuhed just fit so much in the way AIESEC works and can work in some dimensions. The article also gives cool insight for all of us/or our regions that are working closely with foundations and are active grantees, then foundations are now more than ever rethinking their grants within a framework of ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP (and the IG/LN concept fits perfectly to attract this kind of investments).

Finally (and with much less focus) the article also highlights the role of MEDIA in the whole exercising of adaptive leadership, as key element to keep public interest focused on the issue and sustain the pressure on the community to do adaptive work.

Ps. If you have interesting documents, theories source, or are susbcribed to any network around Social Entrepreneurship, let me know! Or if you are interested in that, also let me know.

HOW DOES PROJECT MANAGEMENT WORK?

In case you can't read:

Pic 1: How the costumer explained it
Pic 2: How the project leader understood it
Pic 3: How the analyst designed it
Pic 4: How the programmer wrote it
Pic 5: How the business consultant described it (hehe)
Pic 6: How the project was documented
Pic 7: What operations installed
Pic 8: How the costumer was billed $$
Pic 9: How it was supported
Pic 10: WHAT THE COSTUMER REALLY NEEDED!



This is how project management works

2nd of July - ONE MONTH IN ROTTERDAM

Time flies.

Last 1st of June I arrived in Rotterdam.
I tried to spend some time today uploading the key things I have been living so far, feel free to scroll down and go to the posts, or simply guide yourself with the following links!

• Random Rotterdam Pictures: http://oriana.nomadlife.org/2005/07/random-rotterdam-pictures.aspx
• Trekpleister - my second home: http://oriana.nomadlife.org/2005/07/trekpleister-my-second-home-from-now.aspx
• First month of transition agenda: http://oriana.nomadlife.org/2005/07/first-month-of-transition-agenda.aspx
• Party Time: http://oriana.nomadlife.org/2005/07/party-time.aspx
• Rotterdam, still sunny: http://oriana.nomadlife.org/2005/07/rotterdam-still-sunny.aspx
• The star cooking Team: http://oriana.nomadlife.org/2005/07/star-cooking-team.aspx
• Voleyball, the official AI game : http://oriana.nomadlife.org/2005/07/voleyball-ai-official-game.aspx
• New Lap Tops Crazyness: http://oriana.nomadlife.org/2005/07/new-lap-tops-crazyness.aspx

One Month after ... (Abi,me, Shantanu, Romas)

Ps. Yes, I blog a LOT - finding time to blog after office hours (I have Internet at home baby!)does not mean that you do not work, as well as NO blogging, does not mean that you are the most workoholic person in the world ...

Ps2. Thanks ROMAS for let me use for camera to take all pics!

Random Rotterdam Pictures

The 3 random pictures of the month.
First "The HUGE STREET PIG" - this is for sure the most random (but yet creative) kids attraction I have seen in any city. There was this saturday morning this pig, that had a "life show" inside its stomach. So kids pay to be able to insert their heads in the holes (about 5 or 6) that the pig has, and are able to observe the show inside - that shall be sort of theather. The funny part is that they have to wear this "pig tails" around the hips, to seem that they are litle pigs ...



The huge pig! Kids put their head inside, and watch the show that plays in the stomach of the pig!



All people that put their heads inside the PIG, have to also wear this "pig tail", so they look as if they would be the "pig kids" drinking milk from the mother ... random...

The other cool stuff are this street juice stands in form of orange, lately you can see them every second streetm and they sell like hell ... orange and banana juices ...



This is soooo Rotterdam - Orange Stand - juices for 1.70 Euro

TREKPLEISTER - my second home from now on

Yesterday I received my firt salary (thanks good since I survived the whole month of june with 200 Euro). I am an expert of the art of surviving with not much money, I am also an expert simply saving as much money as posible (even when I have it) - that's why between friends and even my familiy I have the reputation of being "misarable" when it gets to buy stuff - meaning this, I just look for the cheapest price when I buy an article and END OF THE STORY.

Well, let me tell you that I found my place, here in Rotterdam. It is called TREKPLEISTER, and today, with 19,70 Euro (including the plastic bag), I bought:

1 Sleeping Bag (5.99 Euro!)
1 Shampoo
1 Sunglasses 1 package of Ibuprofen pills
1 Cotton Bag
1 Conditioner
1 Nail polish
1 Make up powder
1 Nail polish remover
3 paars of socks
1 bottle of contact lens solution

1001 articles with 50 % off - after seeing this sign, I just could not resist. Ahhh .... happy me.


101 Articles with 50 % discount



Trekpleister - my second home from now on

First Month of Transition Agenda

Yesterday 1st of July the new AI team celebrated its first month in Rotterdam. Everyday from 9 to 6 we go through challenging Agenda session that we co-create with the current 04 05 AI team. Almost all session that we have been going through have been meant to understand the past, the current status (these are the tough ones!) and the future of the organization, and of AIESEC International itself. The feeling is similar to the one we all feel when we start any other position in AIESEC - we see so many things that we would like to see operating different, things that we do not understand why nobody else has not been able to change them, things about which we simple feel the impetus to change ... that's why I call the "new position symdrome" - syndrome that you anyways need to know how to handle, to stay REAL AND HUMBLE enough to understand the legacy of the past and the reasons behind to what has been done.

Global Plan Review - Sustainable Growth in Exchanges Outcome!

Maybe one of the most poweful sessions, or rather blocks that we have had during the AI transition has been the common understanding sessios and teambuilding. How you manage to put 20 people, from different cultures, AIESEC backgrounds and with different personalities, on the same page to work towards the same goal? well, common understanding sessions and team building is the answer. Common Understanding sessions are meetings that we have to discuss withing the whole AI Team burning issues for the organization where we as AI TEAM need to have a common postion - we have had two common understanding sessions so far, that have been one day long each.

In terms of teambuilding, this year we counted with two AMAZING external teambuilding facilitatators from FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS - a consultancy company based in London. It has been so far the nest teambuilding I have ever been to, cause it was focused primaly in making us understand who each of us were as INDIVIDUALS, to afterwards, be able to know what role we would play in the team. Simply amazing ... our two facilitators were AIESEC Alumni, Satu from Finnland and former AI member and Pete, from the UK, from UK and Italy MC member. Working on things like building my personal life stand, how to give and receive asessments, activity cicles, how to live authenticity within a team, the importance of reward and recognize, have prepared myself to live what probably will become one of the best team experiences in life.

Satu and Pete, our facis


First day of Team Building with Future Considerations: Dey, Me, Kamil and Petr - Taco on the floor



One hour Lunch breaks - to be on time some people had to bring the lunch to the trainning!



Satu and Pete, our external Facis



Abi, Kamil, Me, Mike, Brodie


Tom, Sveta, Me, Kamil



Brodie, Dey, Mike and Me

Party Time

Thanks to the determination of the "social agenda" oriented people in the current and new AI Team (let's say Lele, Geta, Manish ...), we have been able to go dancing a couple of times :) So far the party place seems to be CAFE DE BEURS, it is cool enough (let's say in one night just 20 % of songs are random) and most important thing: there is NO ENTRANCE FEE.

The second place were we have been to, has been this "Latino Disco" called TEMPTATION (what an original name ...) - not particulary nice, but enough to have some fun! Going to this place made me remember of the times of LA FLORIDITA in Vienna, that was a GREAT LATINO DISCO - elegant, well organized and specially they had modern music (God, I just saw in the webpage that DON OMAR is sining there in August!)!


At Cafe de Beurs: Mike, Sveta, Manish, Me, Lele ...



Cafe de Beurs!!!


Bior, Me and Dey - before leaving for Temptation



Ruth and Matt Neagle!!! (mentor was in town)



TEMPTATION: the Latino Disco in Rotterdam


Lele and Manish dancing SALSA

Rotterdam - still sunny

Yes, Rotterdam is still sunny. The roofs, the balconies and any other type of open places keep being the preference. What I most like of sunny days, is waking up and looking how sun reflects in the river, and over the bridge - same when you go to the kicthen!



The view from my apartment's kitchen - and we get a great wirless signal that allow us to work, while enjoying the view


Mike, Oriana, Vero, Manish and Geta


A typical Rotterm landscape - this is the view from the roof of Hofdijk



Veronica, Abi and me

THE STAR COOKING TEAM

For those you have hear about the TEAM DINNER culture in AIESEC International, here is some update. It is an honor to announce that the STAR (meaning this they cook extremely well and special!) is the MONDAY COOKING TEAM! These guys simply rock, in the following pics you can see the latest meal ...




THE STAR COOKING TEAM: From left to Right - Liv, Pixi, Veronica, Sveta, Dey, Femi, Lanchanie and Mike. Disclaimer: Veronica cannot still cook! she is in the cleaning subteam!

The fancy desert


Femi (DIrectot for Africa 04 05) and me. Also Romas and Bior (MCP Ghana)

Even PAI could not resist ...

Voleyball, the AI official game

Even if some people of the team (like Mike that is crazy for football) might not agree with it, Voleyball has simply become the official sport of the AI Team. The current team (04 05) bought this great Voleyball net and each time we can, we play. Not that I am a "sport person" - those who really know me have been able to realize that, but lately I have started to join the games, cause is simply fun! as it is fun to enjoy the sunny Rotterdam.


Geta, Ruth, Sveta (wearing Albert sexy pants) and Lele - the winners



Me, Petroula and Lanchanie - the loosers team



After a game, a good rest: Kristina MCP Austria (the first one sleeping), Me, Ruth MCP Central America South and Lele.

New Lap Tops Crazyness

When you come to AI, the facility is given that you buy a lap top at the beginning of the term, which cost is deduced from your salary each moth, as quotes. May people did it, many people did not (as me! so I am getting one oldish AI Lap Top). The following pics show some of the new babies of some people in the team! For sure one of the coolest ones is Dey's "cosito" - damn small and nice.



Kamil, helping Manish and Sveta with their new Lap Tops



Tom and his funky HP - even if he did noy buy it in AI, is my favourite one



Dey and his COSITO: this is the name of his small Lap Top - completely nice (damn expensive as well)

MC AUSTRIA 05 06 KICKING ASS

Some days ago I posted about the new colombian MC, now I post about my other most lovely MC this term, not only because it is the country where I did my international MC year in 2003 - 2004, but simply because I love these guys - work with them is so much fun. Ladies and Gentlemen (but specially ladies! hehe), MC AUSTRIA 2005 2006.

In the picture, Alexis, from Romania, the only girl in the team is missing, she completely fits into this wild team. Heinzl was the guy I had more fun ever during my time in Austria (and me having real fun there at time was difficult!) and Ernst, I knew him back in 2002, at IC Canada, when he was LCP of AIESEC Innsbruck and then we met again in EL Salvador, at AXLDS 2003 when he was studying in Argentina and working with LC Mendoza. Questions, requests, inputs: mail them at mc@aiesec.at




Arthur, Peter and Ernst - no comments! ;-)

DO THEY LOOK PROFESSIONAL OR WHAT? (do not trust this seriousity, they are party animals)