Saturday, August 26, 2006

Sweden vol. 8: A Retrospective


August is coming to a close and for the Canadian NJR that typically means a few days of rest and time to organize one's life between the end of national camp and the beginning of a school year. Somewhere between catching up with parents and beginning to plan NBM there might be a chance to check out a few of the summer's photos... maybe.

Kelly and Alex left the AIM site at 5:30 on the morning of the 10th of August. Alex woke up first and had to run to wake Kelly up with only minutes to spare. In no time we were once again flying over the atlantic, only this time slightly less energized, slightly more... sleeping. AIM had wrapped up less than 24 hours ago and dreams of the past days filled our airborne dreams:

- Meetings to come! Next summer the International Junior Branch Conference and the Annual International Meeting will take place in Colombia. Although the meeting is being held in Colombia, Canada is CO-HOSTING this meeting. In Sweden the Canadians did a presenation together with the Colombians to promote the meeting next year... Did you know that Shakira is from Colombia? After Colombia, AIM will be in Italy in 2008 and then in Guatemala in 2009...

-Re-branding! An updated CISV logo was unveiled by the re-branding team. The board also voted to adopt the tagline "Building Global Friendship" after quite a constructive discussion.

-The International Seminar Camp Committee made a decision to adopt an no-alcohol policy for all seminar camps, starting in 2007.

-Jeff Parliament was recognized for his work as CISV Canada President (3 years) and CISV Canada international Trustee (3 years). This will have been Jeff's final year as an official representative of CISV Canada... What could lay ahead for JP?

- Canadians on International Committees! Did you know that quite a few Canadians sit on International Committees? Who, you ask?? Well, Rick Uy (Summer Camp Committee), Laura Scrivner (Seminar Camp Committee), Jeff Parliament (Village Committee), Aynsley Hague (Seminar Camp Committee),
Heinz Boehnke (Interchange Committee), Chris Pollack (International Finance Committee Chair) and Alex Neuman (newly a trainee of the Mosaic Committee) ...and that's not even everyone!

-Kelly and Alex (with the help of some special advisors) spent many hours spent thinking about JB Canada and what it's future might have in store... stay tuned.

A full few hours later, we emerged from our sleeps to find the plane landed and empty, a flight attendant kindly asking us to de-plane. We were back in Canada and although memories of Sweden still floated at the top of our memory buckets we had to shift gears--we had something new to focus on...something that was only a few days away...

...NATIONAL CAMP!

Stay tuned for an update on CISV Canada's annual Junior Branch National Camp, a week of good times, friendship, leadership development and shared experiences for JBers from every chapter in Canada (and then some!)

k & a

The IJBC Team: IJBC was planned by (left to right) Marcos (IJR Candidate), Astrid (junior IJR), James (Senior IJR) and Trisha (IJR Candidate)

A group of us at the America's Regional Members Conference getting down to business

James and Astrid running a session on the GOALS of Junior Branch (have you ever seen those...???)

CISV Canada President Rick and Canada's National Beaver Representative (NBR) promoting the AIM next summer in Colombia

Sitting in the Trustees' chairs in the AIM plenary during IJR elections! Oooooohh.

Kelly with the IJR candidates and a representative from CISV China (in the backgroud).

From an IJBC session on Project Management by facilitator Per Olsen of the International Mosaic Committee

Can you simulate a village in 28 minutes? We tried at IJBC... and then compared it to a 21 minute village...

Singing the CISV song as AIM 2006 draws to a close (almost 300 people!)


The juniors of IJBC 2006 (Can you spot Kelly, Alex and Kalenne??)

Your National Junior Representatives of 2005-2006.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Sweden vol. 7: Everyone Needs a Little Re-Branding Sometimes

Remember the first time you heard about re-branding? What did you think about it? Choose one of the following:

//Yeah! This is something that the organization needs!
//Dude, this stuff sounds a little too corporate to me. "Damn the man, Save the empire!"
//Does this mean I won't be able to paint my own CISV t-shirts anymore? I'm tentative.
//Re-branding? I think that's the town we visited on my village excursion day


If you haven't heard about the CISV's rebranding process until now, then let us fill you in! In 2004, CISV decided that it would undergo a process to evaluate and redesign the way we project our organization to people and groups outside of CISV. A process was undergone to gather information about what people (both inside and outside CISV) believe CISV stands for and represents.

After a huge deal of research, there was a big fat vote. Several questions were voted on (one vote per member country of CISV International) and decisions were come to:

1. In its marketing communications, CISV should use “CISV” as its primary name, rather than
“Children’s International Summer Villages”. Yes
2. Should CISV change its current logo? No
3. To makethe current logo more digitally friendly without fundamental changes to its current elements? Yes
4. Should CISV adopt a “tag line” to use in conjunction with whichever logo is chosen? Yes
Building Global Friendship”, has been selected as CISV’s tag line.

So, CISV chose not to adopt a new logo but rather to update and simplify the original. Here is what was unveiled the other day in the plenary of the Annual International Meeting: Okay, so it looks a little rounder, a little cleaner...So what? Now what? The next step of the re-branding process is to unify the image of CISV internationally. This means guidelines for how "the CISV brand" can be used. The idea is to make CISV's image a unified one

A question: Will this re-branding help CISV grow and gain credibility OR will re-branding stiffle creativity and divide CISV members who have different opinions? What do you think?

For more information about the rebranding process and to see more of the new visual materials, check out www.ktp.cisv.org Don't forget to let us know what you think about this!

Peace. k&a

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Sweden, vol 6: Marcos Tourihno, He's Got Good T-Shirts

International Junior Representative seems like a pretty massive job. Think about it: an IJR is responsible for maintaining links with all of the JB's of CISV around the world. An IJR is responsible for planning and running the International Junior Branch Conference. An IJR is responsible for chairing the International Junior Branch Committee, which is made up of of Regional Coordinators and others doing work for IJB. An IJR is responsible for representing the voice of the International Junior Branch community in the International Executive Board of CISV.

Woah.


In addition, being an IJR candidate must be pretty overwhelming; nominations occur about 8 months before the IJBC and during those months, the candidates help the IJRs to plan the IJBC. They must also make themselves visible to the Juniors around the world who will ultimately be the ones casting votes!

This year, four people were nominated for IJR, including Canada's own Ryan Katz-Rosene. In the end, only two candidates ran for the position: Marcos Tourinho of Brazil and Trisha Oreta of the Phillipines.

On August 7th 2006 a momumental event occured: the trustees moved seats. As they stood, the NJRs from 40 countries took over the table for the IJR elections. Trustees grabbed their cameras and like joyous parents on the first day of middle school, they photographed the occaision. Proxy votes were distributed for countires that were unable to attend and the vote began. Less than five minutes later IJB history changed as Marcos was elected as the incomming IJR.

Marcos only owns t-shirts with rock bands on them. He also only owns t-shirts. Brazil must be pretty warm.

We wanted to give one big clap to both of the IJR candidates for having contributed every inch of themselves over the past months to make this conference possible. It was truly an amazing experience getting to work with both of them.

Did we ever tell you, JB Canada, that you are the wind beneath our wings? Think about it.
K&A


Saturday, August 05, 2006

Sweden vol. 5: AIM Online!

One quick update! AIM has a website with some pretty cool things to see including daily updates, photos from the meetings as well as...check this one out...Plenary LIVE! That's right, watch AIM in action. We live in the future my friends.

Do you think one day we won't even meet to hold meetings like this?
Maybe someday, villages could happen online. Could it work?

Check out http://www.cisv.se/page.asp?p=18250 (password: 66075)

k&a

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Sweden, vol 4: IJBC Gets Metaphysical

We're back! Yup, time for another session of Nordic News! We've come along way from the Stockholm airport and if you thought our adventure getting here was geographically inclusive, wait until you hear about the International Junior Branch Conference!

KELLY: Hey Alex, what's IJBC?
ALEX: Well Kelly, I would be thrilled to tell you about it...
KELLY: Woo hoo!
ALEX: The origins IJBC date back to 1867 when the first congress was held among the representatives of the various regions of Canada...
KELLY: Um, Alex, I don't mean to interrupt you, but I'm pretty sure you're describing Canadian Confederation.
ALEX: Oh, right. Shit.
KELLY: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was pretty sure that IJBC is the annual meeting that brings together representatives and juniors from every nation of CISV worldwide.
ALEX: So, it's kind of like the General Assembly of the United Nations, but for CISV?
KELLY: You speak truth my fine friend. It's a forum for collaboration, learning and helping develop a sense of community among the youth of CISV from all parts of the world.
ALEX: I guess that is quite different from confederation.

The IJBC is hosted in a different country each summer, always taking place right before the Annual International Meeting (or AIM) of CISV. The National Junior Representatives (NJRs like Kelly and Alex) participate in the conference which is planned by the International Junior Representatives (IJRs) together with the candidates who are running for that position.

This year, the International Junior Branch chose "Exclusion" as an educational theme to be explored. A good chunk of IJBC was spent exploring this topic.

Where do we see Exclusion in CISV?
How do often do we exclude unintentionally?
How can we work towards making CISV less exclusive? Or perhaps more inclusive?
Is exclusion always a negative thing?

Have you ever observed exclusion in your chapter? This question is an interesting one and what is more interesting is what can come out of exploring a question like this. The International Junior Branch will be submitting some ideas to the board of CISV international outlining some of the ways CISV, as an organization can work toward avoiding exclusion as it develops.

What are your thoughts on exclusion?

We want to hear from you! This dialogue on Exclusion is going to continue and the hope is to have as many voices and opinions heard as possible. Whether it be a thought, a question, a story or even just some words, Junior Branch is truly a global community and as a CISVer, your are a part of this community. LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!

Stay tuned for updates on the IJR elections, the Annual International Meeting and...re-branding!!

One big clap from Sweden. Your friends,

kelly, alex, kalenne, and the participants of IJBC

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Sweden, vol 3: ARM...Amigos Rock Movimento?

When Kelly and Alex last left you we had arrived in a comfortable room in Stockholm, dreary, luggageless and downright excited for the meetings that we about to begin. Today, we write to you from the hotspot of downtown Jonkoping: the “Orient House” is a small middle eastern restaurant which serves, “probably the best falafel I have ever had”, according to Kelly. The debate over this point will be ongoing.

This morning marked the completion of the Americas Regional Members Meeting. The meeting spanned four days and brought together Juniors from most of the 13 countries which together make up ARM.

The meeting was a combination of training, network building and collaboration on such topics as communication, chapter development and the creation of more direct and meaningful links between juniors from across the Americas.

The Canadian delegation, which included Kelly, Alex and Kalenne prepared and ran a workshop on the topic of “
The Different Ways CISV Recognizes its Volunteers”. The idea with this activity was to explore the variety of relationships that different people have to CISV—For instance, the difference between a person who is very involved internationally and another who chooses to invest their energy in mostly local CISV programs. This raised such questions as:

• Does CISV recognize certain types of volunteers more than other types?
• Are certain types of volunteers for whom there is no place (or space) in CISV?
• What can CISV (or ARM or Junior Branch) do to create
, and make visible spaces for all forms of volunteers?

In other ARM news, the region elected a new Regional Coordinator. The Regional Coordinator (or ReCo) is the JB co-chair equivalent for ARM. These two people are responsible for facilitating communication within the region throughout the year, providing resources as well as planning and facilitating the ARM meeting each summer.
Maria Jiminez Lozano (or Maji for short) of Colombia was elected as Junior ReCo and will work with Nano Batalla of Costa Rica.

As Maji steps up to the plate, Ryan Katz-Rosene of Ottawa (the outgoing ReCo) runs from third base and slides across home plates after a two year run around the field. As he ran toward the home plate the crowd (ARMM participants) erupted in applause and bursted with admiration. Because the field hadn't been mowed prior to the game, it was an exhausting run but ultimately the empire called it "safe!" Ryan returns to the CISV duggout, out of breath perhaps but can be proud that he really knocked one out of the field. We know he'll be back up at bat sometime in the future!


arm arm arm, woo
woo woo!!

Off to IJBC everyone, ttyl!

k&a&k