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