21 vs 28 days

Live from the plenary! Alex and Kathy here with an update from the discussion about the 21 vs. 28 day village question. Right now, the board of trustees (the elected representatives from each country of CISV) are discussing how to respond to the research that was done about villages... On the table is a decision for the board to make... Here are some of the questions...

Should villages be 28 days?
Should villages be 21 days?
Should we keep both options?
Should we eliminate village and create a new program?
Should there be a further re-thinking process?
Should we put this decision off until later...?

A decision has to be made. What do you think? We'll pass the word along.

With love from the plenary.

Alex & Kathy

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

Restructuring, new friends, and the occasional duck.

Kelly, Alex and Kathy bending over backwards, all for CISV Canada. (plus the view from our site)

Hello CISV Sportsfans!

Well, your NJR's are now in beautiful Paipa, meditating on some wonderful memories made at the Americas' Regional Members Meeting 2007. At the meeting, we had the highest number of countries to ever attend an ARM meeting. We had representatives from Honduras, Peru and Ecuador.

The meeting was filled with Latin music, creativity and forward thinking. There was also the occasional visiting animal inside the meeting room (we were staying in a sort of farmhouse. There were kittens) Australia came and was accepted into our region. The representative Chris then went promptly onto joining the ARM team.

It was a meeting of evolutionary proportions. The Americas region (in the past) always had 2 regional coordinators (recos) who coordinated growth and development in the americas, and worked with the two IJRs. The recos worked much like we (your njrs) do. There was a new one elected every year at ARMM and they each served a two-year term. But this year, we hit a snag. There were no accepted nominations for a new reco. As a result, we decided that we needed to seriously examine the leadership of our region.

After several incredible sessions, we all reached a consensus on a new structure for the organization. There will be a team of people working to help develop several nuclei throughout the americas. For example, the US and Canada would be a nucleus, as would central america, and JB South (south america). The team will be a team of JBers from all over the Americas who will help these nuclei to grow and develop. They will be facilitated by a Facilitator, who will have a two-year term.

The ARM team this year will be:
Maru Ayam (ARG)
Martin Rottler (USA)
Chris Settle (Australia!)
Raquel Garcia (BRA)
Meli Monge (CRC)
Juli Buritica (COL)
Mateo Velez (COL)
Pascual Mendez (GUA)
Facilitator: Maji Lozano (COL)

You can get into contact with them at armteam@ijb.cisv.org They would love to hear your thoughts, answer questions, and make new friends!

All in all, it was an outstanding experience. There are many plans in the works for development, and there will be many opportunities for you to
get on up, and get involved!
(cue James Brown music)
With love,

Kathy and Alex

p.s. check out the newest issue of IJB thinks at http://www.ijb.cisv.org/ (on the right-hand collumn)

We're here!

After weeks of trekking through the jungle, fending off a variety of wild animals and large insects, Kathy and Alex safely arrived in the breathtaking mountainscape of Bogotá. Okay, just kidding, we both flew here. But we did make it and we couldn't be happier...or more excited.

Our first adventure together was set at the infamous "Casa Lozano" (home of CISV Colombia superstars, Maji, Juanca and Luz Lozano). Maji was arriving home from a semester in Spain and the party was supposed to be a surprise. As Canadian NJRs we also got a surprise when we experienced the cultural difference that is a Colombian surprise party. While the two of us threw in our hats at 3 am, the fiesta reportedly raged until 6:30am. Shakira claims that her hips dont' lie. By the end of the night ours were quite sore.

For the past few days we have been staying together with a lovely family named the Barreras. Camila and Ade are both on the staff team for the Annual International Meeting (AIM) and though they have both been furiously busy, they have been the best hosts we could possibly have asked for. Sunday was dad Fernando's birthday party at which we appeared as special novelty guests. Hola, somos Alex y Kathy de Canadá.

As we draw closer and closer to the beginning of the international meetings more and more CISVers have been arriving in Bogotá. Last night we discovered just how many of us are already hanging out in this beautiful city. It's interesting to be in a city knowing that dozens of other CISVers (from dozens of different countries) are so nearby. What started out as a small gathering, at a very small bar, soon became a friendly take over where old an new friends connected over pitchers and a bossa nova band. By the end of the night there wasn't a soul in the bar who wasn't looking forward to the meetings ahead.

Tomorrow morning, we'll be getting up early. Really early. At 7:00 am we will be getting on a bus to the first of our three meetings. The Americas' Regional Members Meeting or ARMM brings together representatives from the 14 CISV countries in North, Central and South America. The meeting is organized and run by the regional coordiantors (Maji from Colombia and Nano from Costa Rica) along with a staff team of Colombians and Canada's own Erin Way! Interested in getting involved with Junior Branch work in the Americas? Stay tuned to find what projects ARM will be working on this year and drop us a line if any of it sounds cool to you! There will be LOTS of opportunities to get involved. Although it may just be the two of us here in Colombia, it is all of your guys that we are representing. We want to do our best to connect international JB projects with your skills, talents, and energy. Fo' real.

Curious about the above photo? We were lucky enough to drop into the national night of a Bogotá-Ottawa interchange and they asked us to help them out. They were reforming a Colombian-Canadian tribute to the Village People. We willingly obliged. Have you seen your NJRs (including potential future NJR Shaun from Ottawa) more excited? We doubt you have.

If you have any questions... comments...thoughts...whims about anything to do with these upcomming meetings (or about life in general), your very stylish NJRs are waiting with computers in lap. It's as easy as ... njr@ca.cisv.org

un beso desde Colombia!
Kathy & Alex

Come to Colombia with Kathy & Alex!

It's coming up fast... Kathy and Alex will be leaving in a few weeks for Colombia where they will be representing the juniors of Canada at three meetings: the Americas Regional Members Meeting (ARMM), the International Junior Branch Conference (IJBC) and the Annual International Meeting (AIM). That's a lot of meeting!

But we can't do it ourselves! We need you to be there with us and that's where the blog comes in. We are going to update this space regularly with the latest news, discoveries and gossip from the heart of the meetings!

Where do you come in? Well, if you'll notice below, there's a little button that says COMMENT... That's where you do a little bit of clicking and a little bit of typing and leave us your thoughts, greetings, suggestions, poetry, or whatever you please!

Won't you please come along with us?

Love. Kathy & Alex

Spring Board Training Forum!

Spring Board Trainning Forum. Some very serious buisness.

Hello friends.

On the may long weekend this year, participants from all across Canada gathered in Ottawa for a weekend of inspiration, education, fun, and friends.

The theme this year was "points, lines, shapes and planes - the building blocks of juniour branch".

We all began as points and connected ourselves through lines by setting goals for the weekends and talking about our chapters. We began to see that other chapters deal with the same things we do, and strengthened our connections on a national level. We began to see shapes emerging as we started to think about where our problems come from and why things have happened the way they have in the past.

As our weekend drew to a close, we were all tired, but we had reached a new plane. All the participants realized their own leadership capabilities, and left refreshed, ready to take their new knowledge and resources back to their chapters.
Everyone was sad to leave their new friends, but excited to tell everyone about how great SBTF was.

As NJRs, we want to thank all the participants for being as awesome as they were and for making our vision of SBTF come true!

We hope that some great stories from SBTF have gotten back to the chapters, and people are already looking forward to next year!

Lots of love
Kathy and Alex

p.s. remember to keep checking here for updates from Colombia!

More Photo Contest Entries!

Highway Clean-up: TAKE PRIDE SASKATCHEWAN! Historically the Highway clean up fundraiser was the most DREADED of events. Hot, smelly, bug filled, hard work. Yes everyone complained about how hard and terrible this fundraiser activity was, but it's one part of our past we will never forget. "Remeber the time we found so many car parts in the ditch that we could have put them all together to make a full car??"

Bowling: What's JB Saskatoon without the local bowling ally!? It was not a surprise to find the first JB activity of the year to be held at the bowling ally (and usually the last one too.. and maybe a few inbetween as well)

In the picture: Karen, Cassandra, Kirstin

Organizing: Our JB meetings were rather offical the year Carol was Junior Chair, it's great to have a big meeting space at her parents office! It might look like we were always hard at work but JB meetings usually mean lots of snacks, lots of planning and lots of fun and socializing. Can't see all the people, I just remeber we had a visitor from Calgary join this meeting (ya for Tarik)

Super Heros Unite Mini Camp: In 2006 we hosted a SUPER HEROS UNITE mini camp where we invited all our junior branch super heros in training to come and talk about what it means to be a super hero, who our every day super heros are and how we can make a difference in our world. We started the weekend by Learning about the other Super buddies and by Discovering our super-selves.


24 Hour Relay For Camp Easterseals: This was a project the junior branch participated in to go along with the theme of the seminar camp we hosted. The 24 hour relay for camp easerseals is a fundraiser for Camp Easterseals where the seminar camp participants spent some of their time. Carol got a prize for the most online donations. Go Team.

Hello JB Canada!

Alex and Kathy here, with more photo contest entries. Here are some lovely ones from Ottawa and Toronto.

From the Top!

The First One: Some good "points" in this one! This is one from the Ottawa winter camp in 2005. It is from a debrief which are so important to CISV because that where so many good points are brought up. These can develop through discussion into lines, plans and shapes that include more and more dimensions and opinions as they progress.

Seccond: This picture is also from Ottawa winter camp 2005. It is the other side of the debating group. If you look closely at every person, you could tell a story for each one. Amber looks depressed cause her team is losing, Erin’s counting down until their arguing time is over, which is stressing Julia who is trying to concentrate and look at the arguments that she could give to the others, Jess just looks confused, Derrick seems to not understand what’s going on and Charles is just listening to the whole thing go down.

Third: This picture, also from CISV Ottawa’s 2005 winter camp shows lots of good points, lines, shapes and planes. And it shows what a blast CISV can be!

Keep those photo's coming, not much time left now!
Hope you are all getting excited for the SpBoTrFo!

Love,

Alex and Kathy

JB Canada PHOTO CONTEST

JB CANADA PHOTO CONTEST!

That’s right boys and girls! JB Canada is holding a contest and everyone can play! Check it out: We want to amass a collection of photos that capture the spirit and energy of JB Canada. We’re going to put all of the photos up on the NJR blog for everyone to see and the winning photographers will win sweet prizes!

The Theme!
The theme of the photo contest is Points, Lines, Shapes and Planes: Building Blocks of JB Canada. This also happens to be the theme of the upcoming Spring Board Training Forum in May. The theme is meant as a creative spark, but don’t feel limited by it! Any photos that you think represent JB in one way or another are more than welcome!

Want to submit a photo?
Each person can submit up to three photos. Simply e-mail them to njr@ca.cisv.org with a short description of the photo, and your chapter. The only catch is that they must be your own photos! The contest will be open until Alex’s birthday, May 11th!

Grand Prizes!
After the contest closes, we’ll determine the top three winning photos by popular vote! The winners will receive the sweetest prize imaginable: An article of CISV gear straight from the wardrobes of your NJRs! Woah! There will also be a prize for the CHAPTER that has the most JBers submit photos!
____________________________

2007 Spring Mini Camp, yes there's still snow on the ground here! This is our JB creating a pyramid together outside. It was really tough as there was snow on the ground, and there are quite a few of us! (Caitlyn, Calgary)

This is a photo I took at our Toronto Mini-Camp last fall. I don't really understand the points, lines, shapes, and planes thing, but there are lines on the gameboard...... (Caileigh, Toronto)

Fonts, Colours and the New Look...Check out the GUIDELINES!

Creative use of colour not only engages our audience but also reflects the kind of organization we are. Not just that, but we should be seen as colourful to match our diverse global spread. So colours can also be used to express the values of our brand.
-From the GUIDELINES for the new CISV Brand Identity

So, by now you've seen the new logo, but before you go making new JB t-shirts, check out the brand new new brand GUIDELINES. These are some seriously comprehensive details about what you can and cannot do with the new "brand idendity." ...For the record, the NJRs are officially fond of "pantone warm red." What's your favourite pantone?

Check out: http://resources.cisv.org/branding/index.html

brand identity love,
Kath & Al

Fresh New Digs

Woah! What happened ago? Just a few minutes ago the CISV logo had a cowboy and a dutch girl and some vaguely outlined countries on its globe. Now it's all round and sleek and fresh!

And what is this tagline I now see attached to the bottom? Is this thing always going to be here? What does building global friendship mean, anyway? This is all very overwhelming!

Maybe we should check out the new www.cisv.org for some answers...

Al & Kath

mid wintery mischief

While the blog may have gone in hibernation for the winter, fear not! The NJRs certainly haven't been hibernating and neither has the national executive...

In January the national executive met in Toronto for the annual mid winter meeting, a two day gathering to touch base, get some business done and warm up in the hot tub!

Mid Winter Meeting this year covered such topics as AIM 2007, Spring Board Training Forum, CISV Halifax, NBM 2007 in Waterloo, the re-branding initiative and the future of CISV Canada. Want to know more? Check out the minutes from the meeting in the members section of www.cisv.ca

Stay tuned to the blog because this bear is awake and ready from spring...did somebody say new logo...? Did somebody say something about a CISV makeover...?

Kath & Al

Quieres ir a Mexcio? Colombia? You can!

Alex in a Sombrero? Have my prayers been answered?

Wait... This picture comes with a disclaimer:

"Now, we understand that a fundamental principle of our organization is to not promote cultural stereotypes and we're aware that some might consider the sombrero to be a tokenistic Mexican stereotype. That being said, we will have you know that the sombrero that Alex is wearing in the above photo is an actual piece of CISV Mexico, given to Alex by his Mexican friend Sebastian when they were JCs together in 2002. We feel that given this circumstance, the sombrero is a fair gimmick."

There you have it. An actual piece of CISV Mexico, in all it's glory.

Now that were all in a festive mood, let us see where this new-found enthusiasm for mixing CISV and sombreros can come in handy...

Hola JB Canada.

February 2nd to 5th. Mexico City. JBers from around the world. One collective goal: Meet the needs of JBers head-on.

The International Training Forum for the Americas is an international workshop created for the National Associations (hey- that includes us!) to solve our collective needs. There are plans in the works to...

• Study and discuss how we analyze our work
• Study and work on planning techniques and project management
• Introduce and discuss communication tools
• Talk about fundraising, board operation, as well as recruiting and retaining volunteers and members.
  

So what does this have to do with all of you? Well, we were really hoping that the lovely JB Canada could some representation in all of this joy.

But hey... I totally thought of another exciting upcoming CISV event that could involve sombreros...

It's AIM 2006 in COLOMBIA!

I know it's a little early to be thinking about these sorts of things, but the fact of the matter is that Canada is actually co-hosting AIM this year. Which means we will need some mad representation. And any and all interested JBers from Canada are more than welcome to come party with CISV international. It will be taking place this august, and more information will be coming soon, so keep those looking-balls open for more updates.

JB Canada is way to cool not to be represented at these events. And any JBer can take part. Yes, even you. Love CISV? Want to get more involved? Want to sing the pony song in a sombrero? Not to sure about the last one, but please e-mail your wonderful NJRs at njr@ca.cisv.org and we will fill your heads (and e-mail inboxes) with pre-camps and registration information.

I hope the holidays have been festive, and the candy-canes peppermint-y.

love,

kathy and alex

The NBM Outtakes: What You Didn't See!

In the planning process of any CISV activity, camp or meeting there will be an overwhelming wealth of ideas, deams and plans. What can I say? We're a creative bunch. But the practical reality usually means that we can't do everything we want to every time. Some of those dreams will ultimately have to give way to practical reality and that's just life.

The planning process of NBM 2006 was as rich and bursting with ideas and dreams as ever. The planning team of Adina, Alex, Kelly, Kalenne, Kathy and Keenan spent long hours (and hundreds of e-mails) coming up with the most innovative, funny and functional ways to make NBM a success. It was a magical process. One that paid off, we think.

But like always, there were some outtakes. Some ideas that didn't make it to final release. For your personal enjoyment, here is one of those outtakes. A Kathy and Alex collaboration, filmed on location in Halifax, originally intended to be a promotional video for NBM...

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=8631452844489694549
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-2234068935688084682
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-2154817036207286014
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=1539520009411957964

Production was derailed due to lack of funding and the disappearance of some key footage late in the post-production phase. The producers would like to help everyone who worked in the film.

Enjoy!

Alex & Kathy
NJRs

National Board Meeting Madness!

Well your birthday comes but once a year and so does NBM
And we've come from across Canada, 'cause it's time to meet again!

This was the opening line of the NBM Welcome song, sung by Kelly, Rick and Alex in the early hours of the morning on November 9th, 2006 in London, Ontario, Canada as CISV Canada's National Board Meeting officially began.

It's hard to summarize NBM in one blog post. Maybe impossible. Probably unecessary. If you're looking for the NBM play-by-play, check out the minutes from the meeting. Who seconded the budget motion? Only the minutes will tell.

The blog is for highlights. Not for the budget.

You Are at the Centre of Everything
NBM 2006 was designed to put the participants at the centre of the action. The idea was to make NBM the most useful weekend possible and for us all to remember that CISV couldn't sustain itself as an organization if it weren't for each and every volunteer. Participants at NBM had options for the way they wanted to spend their time. They also led project groups and helped guide the meeting content. It was pretty awesome.

Project Groups
Juniors Unite! At NBM, project groups were formed around some ideas such as environmental sustainability for CISV programs, visioning the future of JB Canada, ideas for JB fundraising, exploring the idea of activities and a national dance-a-thon project. NBM participants worked hard to get these projects started and will continue to work on them throughout the year. If you are interested in hearing more, or getting involved e-mail njr@ca.cisv.org for more info!

A New JB Executive!
We said goodbye to our JB executive of 2005-2006 and welcomed in a brand NEW JB executive! We also passed a motion which changes the structure of the JB exec so that the position of Canuck editor no longer exists, and instead we now have an internal communications chair and an external communications chair! Woah! So say hello to Holly Norris, our new National Camp Coordinator, Emily Rankin, new chair of the Junior Branch Development Committee, Kalenne Thors, new External Communications Chair and Brittany Joy, our new Internal Communications Chair. A pretty amazing team, spanning both coasts of Canada!

A New Junior NJR!
As is pretty obvious in the below post, we had a pretty incredible slate of candidates for the NJR election this year. Kalenne, Kennan and Kathy all poured their hearts into their candidacy and did amazing jobs as members of the NBM planning team.

Congratulations to Kathy Lewis who was elected as Canada's new Junior NJR and will represent JB Canada from 2006-2008! Kathy is from the Fredericton chapter and currently goes to school in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She's a cool cat.

An Outgoing Senior (or Peace Out, Friend!)
Kelly Bowden was CISV Canada's NJR between 2004-2006. At this NBM she finished her legendary term as NJR to fanfare and hoorah! Kelly will be missed as one of JB Canada's warmest, most creative leaders, but we know that she won't disappear and that CISV will continue to benefit from her genius. To see some congratulatory remarks from some of Kelly's friends, check out...

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=8283232557493355738&q=Bowden+Appreciation

A New Year!
For CISV Canada, NBM is kind of like New Year's. It marks the end of a year gone by and celebrates the advent of a new one. After it ends, there's a short period of lull where we all catch our breath and reflect and then all of a sudden the cranks start turning again and off we go! So hop on the train everyone, it's going to be a good one!


With Love,
(the new) K & A

Meet the 2006 NJR Candidates!

Kathy Lewis
Hello JB Canada/confused web searchers! My name is Kathy Lewis, and I am one of the 'K''s who is running to be YOUR NJR! Madness. I originally hail from Freddy Beach, but I am currently in 1st year university in Halifax! This past year I was the Juniour Branch Development Chair, which meant I got to be creative all year. Like fingerpainting with macaroni and sparkles, but with words and ideas. I like sunrises more tham sunsets, and I can never listen to the end of a song. I have to skip to a new song on my diskman when the song is fading away. My favorite letter of the word peace is the 'p' because it completes a circle and then reaches out to the beyond. I think you can find inner peace through the steam of a hot chocolate to a friend's face. My favorite song is currently "The Mother" by Xavier Rudd, and my favorite book is currently "Oh the places you'll go!" by Dr. Seuss. It was the theme of the summer camp I kitchenstaffed this July. I still believe in Magic, and it is my current dream to be JB Canada's Jr. NJR for 2006-2007!

Allo JB Canada ! Je m'appelle Kathy Lewis, et je suis un des « K » › le s qui court être VOTRE NJR ! Folie. Je viens du Fredericton, mais je suis actuellement dans mon premier anneé d'université au Halifax ! Cette année passée j'étais la Chaise de Développement de Branche Junior, qui a signifié que j'étais créatif toute l'année. Comme 'fingerpainting' avec les macaronis et étincelle, mais avec les mots et les idées. J'aime les couchers du soleil de plus que les levers du soleil, et je ne peux jamais écouter la fin d'une chanson. Je dois sauter à une nouvelle chanson sur mon diskman quand la chanson disparaît. Ma lettre préférée du mot paix est le « p » parce qu'il complète un cercle et après aller danser sur la page. Je crois que to peut trouver la paix intérieure par la vapeur d'un chocolat chaud à une visage d'un ami. Ma chanson préférée de maitenant est « The Mother » par Xavier Rudd, et mon livre préféré de maitenant est « Oh the places you'll go! » par Dr. Seuss. C'était le thème du camp d'été que j'ai 'kitchenstaffed' ce juillet. Je crois toujours en la Magie, et c'est mon rêve actuel pour être ton Jr. NJR pour 2006-2007 !

much love,

Kathy

Keenan Dixon
Keenan has recently started Peace and Conflict Studies with International Relations at the University of Toronto, and finds her new home in downtown Toronto. Since many of you know her, here are some random fun facts that you might not know; she was a fetus while her mother ran the Olympic torch, she enjoys a nice smoothie with her breakfast. Her favourite smell is vanilla, she doesn't really like hail, but she loves a good thunderstorm. Her friends call her 'Keeners' or 'Kiwi', she enjoys long walks in the mountains and making people laugh. She doesn't drink coffee, but loves basketball; she watches Grey's Anatomy and lately has been listening to a lot of Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks. Her favourite quote is 'Choose your friends by their character and your socks by their colour. Choosing your socks by their character makes no sense and choosing your friends by their colour is unthinkable'.

Kalenne Thors

Hi all you JBers (and anyone else reading this)

My name is Kalenne Thors and I’m one of the NJR candidates this year.
What’s that? You want to know all about me? Great! You’ll be hearing tons
about my ideas and reasons for wanting to be NJR later, so instead here are
some different things about me…
My home chapter is CISV Victoria but currently I’m living in Vancouver
attending UBC. Besides English I also speak French,
quite a bit of Spanish and I’ve just started taking Russian this year at
Uni. My first international program was a Village in Norway in 1999 and my
most recent was the ARMM/IJBC/ AIM in Sweden. My favourite CISV games are
Mickey Mouse, the Chocolate Bar Game and all simulation games or activities
that lead to great discussions. I love sports especially soccer and swimming
and I also enjoy camping, hiking and other outdoor activities. I really like
sewing and I work at a fabric store when I’m not at school. My favourite
movies are Dirty Dancing and The Princess Bride and my favourite TV shows
are the Amazing Race and any Quebecois game show. I had an absolutely
fabulous time working as a member of the national executive this year and I
can’t wait to keep it up! See you all soon ?
Wait… I guess I didn’t tell you any of my weird quirks did I, well, here you
go:
I have a not so secret love of attending board meetings.
I think everything is better if it has a theme.
I love using markers to make signs, draw pictures, whatever.
I recycle obsessively and can’t stand litter.
I have a collection of strange socks.
My favorite letter of CISV is the C, what's yours?

a PROJECT GROUP is a team of JBers who want to DO something

Alex has had a pretty busy weekend. Apart from school work, thanksgiving dinners (two!), and sending out a thanksgiving NBM update, he also got a new chalkboard. In fact, he made the chalkboard himself with a piece of wook and some chalkboard paint! Did you know such a thing existed? Any surface becomes a chalkboard instantly. True novelty!

Have you heard about NBM Project Groups yet? PROJECT GROUPS are your chance to DO something that YOU feel will help develop JB Canada. What does that even mean, you ask? Well, it could mean an infinite number of things, but here are some ideas of possible PROJECT GROUPS:

• A project group that would brainstorm ways to make NATIONAL JB PROGRAMS (NBM, Spring Board Training Forum, national camp) more inclusive of both languages

• A project group that would develop a set of guidelines for making JB activities and mini-camps more ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY

• A project group that would collect 100 new activities for the new JBDC GAMEBOOK!

• A project group that would plan a NATIONAL JB VIDEO CONTEST where each JB would make a video and post it online

As you can see, the possibilities are endless! The limit is your own imagination (which we know is limitless!) So get creative, get excited and propose a project!

At NBM there will be several blocks of time devoted to Project Groups. Everyone will have the chance to be a part of a project group if they want to be, but will not have to if they do not want to be.

If you propose a project the idea is that you will lead your project group during NBM (and until the completion of the project if it continues beyond NBM). If, however, you have an idea for a project but you do not want to lead it, SEND IT ANYWAY, and we’ll try to find someone or a group who are interested in leading it. If you’re interested in leading a project but don’t have an idea, that can happen too! Get in touch with me ASAP (alexneum@gmail.com).

WHAT IF WE USED THE BLOG TO BRAINSTORM MORE POSSIBLE PROJECT GROUPS? I DARE YOU TO LEAVE A COMMENT WITH ONE PROJECT GROUP IDEA... DOUBLE DARE!

gobble gobble
k&a

Elections? What Elections?

The deadline to nominate NJR candidates has come and gone and I'm pleased to announce that there have been FIVE individuals nomintated! Now, I can't tell you who they are yet, because they still have until October 11th to decide if they are going to accept their nominations. On the 11th we'll announce the candidates who will officially be running for NJR!

In the meantime, have you heard about the national JB executive?? It's made up of the Canuck Editor, the National Camp Coordinator, the Junior Branch Development Committee (JBDC) Chair and the two NJRs . These are elected positions too but you don't need to be nominated to run for them... What DO you have to do, you wonder?

It's simple! In information package ONE there is a questionnaire for each position. If you are interested in running, all you have to do is answer the questions in the questionnaire and send it to Alex by October 23rd! Only those who submit questionnaires will be eligible to run in the elections at NBM. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail the NJRs (njr@ca.cisv.org) or any of the current members of the JB exec whose e-mails can be found in info package ONE!

happy long weekend y'all!

k & a

A Blog Acitivity: YOU ARE AT THE CENTRE OF EVERYTHING!

The NATIONAL BOARD MEETING is CISV Canada's annual meeting. Each November, youth and adult representatives from each of CISV Canada's chapters come together to spend 3 days collaborating, discussing important issues, making connections and shaping the future of CISV Canada. If you are interested in attending NBM or simply finding out more, e-mail Kelly and Alex (njr@ca.cisv.org).

What's in a THEME?

Each year, NBM has a theme. the idea behind having a theme is to explore have one idea that can run as a thread through the entire meeting. Last year, the theme Spread the Light made pay special attention to our Challenges (red lights) and Successes (green lights).

This year, the theme of NBM is "YOU ARE AT THE CENTRE OF EVERYTHING!" The idea is about PERSONAL EMPOWERMENT and INTERCONNECTIVITY...

...but what does that mean?! As a BLOG ACTIVITY, we want to try something...

We want you to draw CISV and YOU.
How do you fit into CISV? How does CISV fit into you? What part of CISV do you feel most connected to? What about least connected to? Show us in some sort of visual representation! We'll post it!

And then we want you to send it to us (njr@ca.cisv.org) and we will post the submissions on our blog. Use a program like PAINT or ILLUSTRATOR on your computer, or do a real drawing and scan it if you can. If you'd prefer to write something, feel free to do that as well. We want to hear from YOU!

k&a

by Kalenne Thors

by Kathy Lewis

NATIONAL CAMP 2006 in Toronto

It's hard to choose one photo to represent an entire National Camp. Coming out of any camp there are hundreds to choose from. Pictures of people hugging, running, playing, eating, cooperating and so on. There are group photos, landscape shots, self-portraits, even the odd mess-up photo.

We chose this shot, which we've entitled "Help is Close to Home", a symbol of many different flavours and textures, all cooperating-- all riding together in the back of our big yellow truck. This makes a good metaphor for National Camp 2006, we think.

But if you want to find out more, you should stayed tuned to the CISV Canada website (www.cisv.ca) where there will soon be posted a photo gallery of National Camp along with a report! If you have any questions about National Camp or the role of National Camp coordinator, don't hesitate to get in touch with Adina Muskat (NC coordinator 2005-2006) at adinamuskat@gmail.com.

What's that....? Do you hear something comin...? It sounds like...like...NBM!

k&a