Monday, August 06, 2007

Deconstructing and Reconstructing IJBC


We know what you're wondering: Who the heck are those two girls in green?! I thought this was a blog about Kathy and Alex! Well don't worry, this still is the "NJR blog" but we wanted to be a little bit more inclusive and introduce a few of our Canadian friends who are here with us in Colombia. But who are these mysterious ladies in green and why are they important?

We'll tell you.

Erin (taller, holding the mug) comes from the Ottawa chapter. She enjoys reading Harry Potter, tall people and speaking in high pitched voices. Erin also enjoys deceiving CISV International; recently at IJBC, during an energizer Erin sarcastically explained that she had learned the energizer from J.K. Rowling who "was a leader at my village when I was eleven...before she was famous." Unfortunately, Erin's sarcasm is a little bit too sarcastic and some members of the international community here took her seriously.

Kelly (shorter, eating an apple) comes from the Fredericton chapter. She enjoys scarves, people who validate her good ideas, drinking coffee out of little mugs and deconstructing ideas. Kelly is also playing a very special role here at the International Junior Branch Conference (IJBC) and the Annual International Meeting (AIM). Kelly is a candidate for the position of International Junior Representative (IJR) which is a similar position to NJR but for the entire world of Junior Branch! Kelly is running in this election against Memo from Mexico and Ida from Sweden. The election takes place TODAY!

One thing that the IJRs (and the IJR candidates) do is to plan the International Junior Branch Conference. This conference is a meeting of JBers from all over the world. It is an opportunity for juniors to come together, share experiences, generate new ideas, gain skills and strengthen the fabric of Junior Branch around the world. This year, the IJBC focused especially on DECONSTRUCTING JB as well as JUNIOR BRANCH SELF-EVALUATION and also CREATIVITY.

Here's a question to ponder... Can any group of youth working toward the JB goals be considered a Junior Branch?

Want more to ponder? There is a document called the Final Packet which has summaries of all of the sessions from IJBC with detailed descriptions. If you're curious, e-mail us and we'll send it to you! (njr@ca.cisv.org)

With love from the plenary of the Annual International Meeting!

Alex & Kathy

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