Board Meeting Photo Shoot

20060918AIESEC2D9V0174, originally uploaded by aiesecanada.

Last Saturday we had our Q1 Board meeting, where we reviewed our Q1 performance, in exchange, fundraising and financial position, and spent the afternoon discussing various issues. It was a great meeting, but the best part: a professional photographer cam, pro-bono, to take pictures of the Board members and the team, to put on the AIESEC Canada website! After the individual pictures, he took team pictures of us. Given how vain most of us are, and love getting our picture taken, it took FOREVER, but we love it. MUAHAHA :P.

Voice Lesson

I’ve been warned… if I don’t blog in the next while, an embarrassing story of me will be posted by a fellow team member (not that I have any). Under such encouragement/threat, I thought it would be smart to comply.

After weeks of searching, I finally found a singing coach and had my first lesson!!! With little expectations, I walked into a large premise under renovation. After passing the construction workers that were slowly working away, my teacher lead me to a room hidden in all the chaos of construction… it was a beautiful, fully equipped recording studio! The lesson was fun, we had lots of breathing exercises and my teacher tested out my voice range. Next week, I’ll be assigned a short Italian piece. Woot!

Tai

"Shariat law, Gender and Social Work Practice"
By Anver Emon, Asst. Prof., Faculty of Law, U of T
AMNI Centre, Faculty of Social Work - Room #100 12:15 - 1:30 p.m

Happy Shirley. This was wicked awesome. Coolest agenda:

• Basic intro to Shariat Law: what it is, where it is
• Concept of "Shariat street credentials", and
• Gender, family, and multiculturalism: competing liberalism/feminisms, hegemony v. social empowerment

So cool... so many intersections of my interests: feminism, citizenship, religion, nationalism... combined with something I know way too little about: complexities of law, and even further, sharia. Even around areas I've studied, there were new things to consider/learn: like the idea of colonial feminism... The professor was saying he popped into a class of 10th graders and asked them why we need to "save" muslim women in Toronto, and not just Toronto women.. they said they were poor, married, powerless, uneducated, with children... yikes. Sad thing they are not the only ones with stereotypes like this. Gahhhhh. Anyways, was cool to learn about local issues here in Toronto through this meeting. Looking forward to many more learnings now that I'm living in Toronto and not on the road most of the year. :)

-Shirley

.:INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 2006:.

.:INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 2006:., originally uploaded by aiesecanada.

International Congress 2006 took place in Warsaw, Poland from August 24 - September 3. It was nothing short of the epitome of an AIESEC experience.

Picture this....

.....An Opening Plenary that lasted 4 hours - 95 Country Presentations! (1:30 mins each!)
.....Not one, but 3 new AIESEC dances (Congress Committee, AI, and the Facis each made one)
.....Developing Leaders Day, run by ABN AMRO and Cadbury Schwepps, this was incredible. We split the 550 delegates into about 15 teams, each lead by 2 Facis from ABN and CS - the most amazing part it that these facis were from all over the world and had to be nominated by their company to attend IC. The went through a week of Train the Trainers in Poland just to prep for the day we spent with them. So IC was just as much a learning experience for these top managers as it was for us! Can you believe it?!?! One of my Facis from Mexico was in tears by the end of the day she was so happy to have had the opportunity!!
.....The Canadian Delegation yelling at Brodie to take of his clothes during his closing speech....he really DID say that his misses Canada, I promise!
.....Araz dressing up as a fortune teller during one session where we looked at the future of exchange and how it will be run globally....very interesting!
.....A HUGE Global Village right in the centre of Warsaw, displaying all 95 countries - open to the public too! It was advertised all over the city (on bus stops, subway cars etc.) and there were a TON of people coming by the Canada booth asking if we knew there cousin twice removed from Moosejaw...London....Toronto etc.
.....Amazing Partnership launches from DHL, Alcatel, Electrolux, InBev, ABN AMRO, Microsoft, UBS, Cadbury Schweppes where they described why they partnered with AIESEC and what it meant for their companies, profiled some of their experiences..... not to mention that these CEOs, Head HR managers, Marketing Directors etc. each took time off work to come and spend a few days with us, cheer with us....and a few of them even showed up in the InBev-sponsored party tent....CRAZY. (check out the Annual Report from Alcatel!!! They have a section on their partnership with AIESEC!!!!)
.....To continue with the parties....each night there was a party by a growth network (Central and Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, Spanish-Speaking and WESTERN EUROPE and NORTH AMERICA!), they were crazy! It was like global village, but in party style with alcohol and party snacks from each country....Canada did our traditional Canadian Club and maple syrup....huge hit:)
.....A visit to the Canadian Embassy....they stopped by our display at Global Village and dropped off a TON of stuff to give away and invited us to the Embassy one morning. We met the ambassador - so much fun :)
..... Standing in line for breakfast each morning and hearing at least 8 different languages
..... Country Meetings with Poland, India, China, Pakistan, Kenya, Cameroon, South Africa, Australia, etc. (It was so surreal to schedule these meetings and say things like "no no, I can't do lunch on day five for Austria, I'm already booked with Afghanistan....)
.....CANADA Owning the Plenary with our cheers! All of the Global Network now knows "We've got spirit"....a move we're starting to slightly regret I think ;) ....of course we also cheered like mad every time Canada was even mentioned (in Partnership presentations, by AI etc.) madness....
..... A 7.5 hour global legislation with over 30 motions/ mandates on the table....Puneet was in heaven!
.....Polish Night with free vodka and a Polish Wedding ceremony....
....... Alumni Hall of Fame awards that highlighted and recognized the achievements of some of our incredible alumni
..... IC broadcasted LIVE! from: live.ic2006.pl CHECK IT OUT!!!
..... The biggest sugar cube wall I have ever seen....
..... Dey (current PAI) calling 8 past PAIs in global plenary so we could hear their input on the direction of the organization and the changes/ learnings we have gone through in the past 10 years
..... Plenary room in an Olympic-sized gym
.... the former President of Poland addressing us.... not the mention the security at the site... this time you actually had to wear your name tags for more than just avoiding punishments!
..... Each morning hearing "Hi" in the language of 95 countries as we opened the day....

Overall, it was an amazing experience...and one I won't soon forget! Thank you to AIESEC, all of the countries there and the Canadian delegation for a wonderful 2.5 weeks!

Carolyn

Today's Class: How to Fold Origami

Today's Class: How to Make Origami, originally uploaded by aiesecanada.

On behalf of UBC, I got to make my first visit to Guu in Gastown last week in Vancouver and one of the highlights was learning how to fold origami. This was not just any normal origami - this was a duck!!!

I believe I was socially inept for the first 15 minutes of our meal, as I was enthralled with folding my paper chopstick case into a duck, whom I named Joseph.

At first Joseph did not want to cooperate. His body was becoming one mangled piece of paper, but once I began folding his head and chest...it all came together!

Needless to say, we took numerous shots of Joseph and myself, from all possible angles. Little does Westjet know, I smuggled Joseph back with me on the plane to Toronto and now sits on my desk at work :)

JK