Sweden vol 2: Exclusion in Transit

Each year, the International Junior Branch chooses an educational theme for JBs around the world to integrate into their programming and to help guide the International Junior Branch Conference. This year the theme is EXCLUSION. To launch this theme, the IJB put out an Exculsion packet which outlines the goals of the theme and also a series of activities that can be used to help integrate this theme. If you want to check out this action-packed-packed you can download it from the IJB website! (The username is: ijb.public, password: ijb)

Kelly and Alex are now in Sweden and you might say that our journey here was an exercise in inclusion. If you had looked at our orignal travel itinerary you might have called it "exclusive". It had us travelling like this: Toronto > Newark, USA > Stockholm, Sweden > Jonkoping, Sweden. Only two countries outside of Canada? With all the airports in the world to see, why be so exclusive? But so it was that we departed from Toronto early Saturday morning.

But our trip wasn't to be so exclusive after all!

We arrived in Newark mid-morning on Saturday and after a brief jaunt into New York City we arrived back to the air port only to discover that our flight to Stockholm had been cancelled! Oh No! (Note the sad-faced photo, graciously taken by a "Dr. Pepper" representative-- a fellow victim of the cancellation). Re-routing was in order and before we could spell "Jonkoping" we had a flight path that was considerably more in the spirit of INCLUSION!

Our new flight to Paris which has been scheduled to depart at 7:25 PM left the gate around 11:30. Some hours later the sun had re-appeared and we touched down in Paris. Was this to be the extent of the detour, you ask? No. No it wasn't. We had to race through the Paris airport to catch our flight to--can you guess?-- Oslo, Norway!

If Kelly and Alex were contestants on The Amazing Race would they win? Probably.

Well, they were on schedule to win this leg of the race with their flight from Olso to Stockholm. This was the second last flight to the final destination (only a shortie from Stockholm to Jonkoping remained!). But disaster struck when a roadblock appeared in Stockholm.

They missed their flight.

And so here we sit, friends, in a very comfortable, very Ikea, hotel inside the Stockholm airport-- the window literally looking out onto the concourse. A mild disaster? Perhaps not. With nowhere to have gone in Jonkoping and bags that wouldn't have met us there, our Ikea lounge looks like a pretty good way to spend the night (not to mention a daylong excursion day in Stockholm tomorrow).

In line with the IJB education theme, we should probably thank Scandanavian Airlines for making this leg of our trip thoroughly inclusive. When we finally land in Jonkoping tomorrow we will have seen 6 airports in 5 countries. If nothing else, this has been experiential education as it's most...experiential.

k&a

giving the goodbye gun to our missed flight to Jonkoping

Sweden Chronicles, vol. 1

After a long period of anticipation and preparation, Kelly and Alex well be departing for Sweden on Saturday, July 22nd. Over the two weeks they will spend in the city of Jonkoping, Sweden, they will participate in three international CISV meetings, meet hundreds of CISVers from almost every member country and be a part of the discussions on topics such as the three-week village and the infamous re-branding. Throughout it all they will be representing the juniors of CISV Canada.

We need your help!

We want our time in Sweden not just to be our opportunity to participate in the international goings-on of CISV but also your opportunity to do so! That's why we are going to be updating the NJR Blog on a regular basis and hoping for feedback and input from YOU! Here's a quick run down of what Kelly and Alex will be participating in in Sweden.

America's Regional Members Meeting: America's Regional Members (or ARM) is the group of CISV Junior Branches from North, Central and South America. At this meeting, JB representatives from every ARM country will spend time discussing some topics like:

-- The ARM Tourism project- a new initiative to help those travelling in the Americas!
-- How can communication between ARM juniors be improved?
-- Election for a new Regional Coordinator (ReC0), the equivalent of the JB co-chair for ARM.

International Junior Branch Conference: IJBC! This is some seriously exciting business! NJRS from every country coming together to share common problems ans brain-birth brand new solutions! Wow. This is CISV fireworks at their brightest. Ever wonder what minicamp is like in the philipiness? We'll find out for you, just ask! Some of the topics on the table at IJBC include...

--Exclusion! The topic of exclusion has been the theme the IJB for the past two years. Where do we find exclusion in CISV? How can we work to minimize exclusion?
--What are the goals of the International Junior Branch? How can juniors from all chapters of CISV meaningfully work together?
--An Election for International Junior Representative! Marcos from Brazil and Trisha from the Philipines are running to be IJB-- Check out their questionnaires at the IJB Website.

Annual International Meeting: This is the big one. If CISV were the united Nations, this would be the General Assembly. The Annual International Meeting is the forum for all of the trustees from every member country of CISV to come together not only to discuss but to make real decisions about the way that CISV operates. Some of the topics will be:

--The three-week village: Do we keep this new model or stick to Dorris' original four?
--CISV's infamous re-branding project: the voting has taken place and it's time to decide how to implement our new tagline and standardize our image
--See the complete set of motions on the CISV Resources Website. There are 1o motions in total!


We want to know what you think! Leave us a comment on the blog or send us an e-mail at njr@ca.cisv.org. Let us know if you would like to know more about a specific topic or if feel strongly about something and want your input included in the discussion.

Until next time! Happy Summers, K&A

Spring Board Success!

What things are springtime things? I think of lawn mowing, overheating in jeans (and the subsequent transition to shorts), outdoor music, garage sales, pick-up soccer, picking up litter, haircuts, exams and that lovely extra hour that conviniently tacks itself on to the end of our days. CISV often brings minicamp in the Spring, and maybe a send-off picnic too, if we're lucky.

But has Spring ever made you think of National Junior Branch cooperation before...?

No? Well maybe it should!

Why? Well, because for the first time ever, CISV JB Canad a has held the Spring Board Training Forum! The Spring Board Training Forum (or SBoTFo) is a workshop and meeting for Junior Branch leaders from each chapter of CISV Canada. The idea is to do some practical training and to give JB leaders a chance to meet and collaborate. Ultimately, we hope that Canada's 10 chapters (and one developing chapter) will grow and develop as a result of SBoTfo.

The group of about 20 found a positive group dynamic almost immediately and virtually every person actively contributed to every session. From idea sharing to action planning, here are some of the workshops and topics covered during the weekend…

The Board Building Road Trip
An activity based on sharing challenges we’ve had and solutions we’ve found relating to topics such as activity planning, financial organization, relationship with adult board and group decision making.

Finance with Romance
A simulation activity in which participants had to review a budget and banking statements in order to clear Jack Layton of embezzlement accusations! This, of course, led us to discussion on the importance of diligence and organization when it comes to JB finances.

Junior Branch Development Committee Chapter Buddies
The JBDC (Junior Branch Development Committee) has started a new chapter buddy system, in which each chapter is paired with another chapter. Chapter buddies is a way to maintain communication and encourage collaboration between chapters and also a way to strengthen the support network for JB leaders.

JB Action Plans!
After brainstorming some central chapter challenges with buddy chapters, each participant had a chance to design an ACTION PLAN related to the specific challenges in his or her chapter.

Facilitation!
Facilitation? What’s the deal? This activity focused on good facilitation skills and how to deal with some of the common challenges that come up when facilitating. How does one deal with Tangential Timmy, Too-much-information Izzy, Attention-Seeking Sam and Makes-Bracelets Mike?

It is not very often that a new program is created and probably even less often that such a program is so successful on its first run. I think that over the next few months those who were not at the workshop will have the chance feel the impact of it as the juniors in their own chapters take the ideas that were born at the SBoTFo and put them into action.

Finally, on behalf of the NJRs, I would like to thank everybody who was involved in the Spring Board Training Forum as well as everyone who helped make it happen. Putting it together has been an incredible experience and it couldn’t have happened without YOU!

SBoTFo!

sbpsfdkjgbhsfjg?

yes. the spring board training forum is BACK! ok, well it's not "back" because it was never here to begin with... but thats what so exciting about it! This BRAND NEW FEATURE PROGRAM is build by the NJRS with the ideas and comments from the all the many many JBers from across Canada.

if you have any questions or comments about this wild time of a program be sure to ask your NJRs or your local JB chairs.

more to come!

International This!

In recent world events the International Junior Representatives (think alex and kelly...but for the whole WOLRD. mind boggling, we know. also known as the IJRs and commonly referred to as Astrid and James, Apple and Jucie and A&J) held their MWM in the big NYC.

wonderous WORKING GROUPS
delightful DECISIONS
premium PLANNING

all available for your viewing at: http://www.ijr.cisv.org/

Super-Ultra Executive Think-Tank

M-W-M (imagine all the letters are rotating)

Here at NJR Headquarters in Washington...um, I mean Ottawa... um, I mean Kingston/Halifax, Kelly and Alex are always hard at work keeping the CISV JB Canada cranks running. But this weekend we took a little vacation (don't worry, we paid a local neighborhood boy to water the plants and feed the cat while we were gon). But this was no ordinary vacation. This vacation had it's own acronym. It was called MWM 2006.

Now, MWM is a commonly confused acronym. Alex originally thought it stood for "Meal With your Mom", and one point during National Camp 2005 Kelly mistook it for "Murray's Wicked Moustache" and CISV Canada president Rick Uy has been pretty sure for the past year that it stands for "My Wife's a Mom!" But these are misconceptions. In actual fact, the mysterious acronym dates back hundreds of years and originates from the latin Middus Winterae Maximus, which, today has evolved into the contemporary Mid Winter Meeting!

But what is a MWM, you might be wondering? Well friends, Mid Winter Meeting is a very important time of the year when the executive board of CISV Canada gets together to meet and discuss the direction of our very own national association: CISV canada. From international to national programs, from incident report forms to abstentions and from coast to coast mid winter meeting is a wondeful work bonanza!

Hot Topics this year included

absentions: negative or neutral?

To develop or not to develop a JB fund?

Committees: one or many members?

NBM 2005 evaluation: rock or roll?

AIM (Annual International Meeting) 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2050

(ok, maybe only 2006 and 2009)

Our execise was well in order as we sprang from the meeting table to Wendy's back yard where the super-ultra executive think-tank was located to discuss on some controversial and complex topics such as the International Junior Representative (IJR) nominations.

Guest appearances from Rowan and not so guest appearances from Roman definately constructed the highlights of the weekend.

Now back at NJR central, alex and kelly long for their true-love: the CISV canada national executve. Only 99 days... or something... until they meet again at the Spring Board Meeting in May! until then, over and out.

International Poultry Project

(In the above scene, the first frame shows Kelly and Alex proudly displaying the newly aquired chickens for the new CISV International Poultry Project. In the second frame, National Risk manager Cory Kotzian threatens Kelly with a knife, trying to steal one of the chickens! Oh no! In the third frame, we see Kelly and Alex debriefing the situation, discussing ways Kelly might avoid confrontational knife threats in the future. In the end, the national exec consumed the chicken and table the motion to implement the International Poultry Project within CISV Canada this year.)

Wah!

Wah!