The day started off on a light note, with Esviyola, (our resident Indon tai-tai a.k.a outgoing Vice President Finance) getting everyone together for a morning briefing with expectations setting, as well as ice-breaker games. After clear expectations of the incoming Local Chapter Executive Boards (LC EBs) were set, getting to know each other and ice-breaker games followed suit.
Ice-Breaker games
First off was a game coined by Esvi, called "Catch the Marker". Essentially, it was as simple as to...catch the marker!
# Rules:
- Everyone is to gather round in a circle after which a round of introductions are done
- After introducing markers into the circle, the holder of the marker is to throw it to someone across the circle, after calling his/her name
- Thrower MUST call out the correct name before throwing the marker, or a forfeit is rendered.
- Receiver MUST catch the marker and not let it fall to the ground, or a forfeit is rendered.
This was a pretty simple game, or so it seems, as Esvi always has something up her sleeves to turn things interesting. Look out for the videos to know what this means!
After catching the marker for sometime, another game was introduced, called "Superheroes"! This is one of AIESECer's favourite games of all time, with our incoming Member Committee (MC) Vice President of Exchange, Han Ling even suggesting to take it to the International Congress in August later this year. Check out the video to understand how its played. Basically it consists of four different actions, none of which should be called out at the same time when played.
Call from Nairobi
Following the games and a short briefing by outgoing MC President Mayas, we were fortunate enough to get on a skype call with our lovely outgoing LC President cum incoming MC VP Talent Management, Wan Xin, who flew off to Cameroon for her internship the evening before. She had landed in Nairobi, Kenya, and was awaiting her next flight to Douala, Cameroon, whcih was around 12 hours later.
Through the wonderous means of Skype, we were able to hear her speak for awhile, as well as talk to her about her journey so far. Traveling across the world to an entirely new region certainly was something to be excited and anxious about, and more so doing that alone, and having planned to spend three whole months speaking a third language (Française), adapting to the living habits and lifestyle and working in a foreign environment certainly is challenging. Well, who knows what similarities we might find amidst the vast perceived differences in culture and environment, and we will have to await the lady herself to update us about it =D
No. 1 in Asia Pacific!
Next up, after lunch (and much chatting with Wan Xin), the MC and EB teams parted our ways to different training tracks which would last the rest of the afternoon. The MC team was fortunate to have with us our Asia Pacific Director from AIESEC International, Li Zhen, to conduct a session for us. It was a truly eye-opening session that put our minds into perspective, laid out our realities and changed the way we examined our organizational challenges and the magnitude of growth we believed we could achieve for the term.
The session was a simple want, with Li Zhen asking us only four series of questions:
- Should AIESEC Singapore aim to be the Number one country in Asia Pacific?
- Is it possible for AIESEC Singapore to be the Number one country in Asia Pacific?
- Do we have the right attitude in place to be the Number one country in Asia Pacific? and
- How can we be the Number one country in Asia Pacific?
After much analysis of what our current state is, what AIESEC as an organization stands for and wants to achieve, whether we are delivering on our promises and a round of competitive analysis and strategy formulation, our conclusion was,
YES, AIESEC Singapore SHOULD aim to be the Number one country in Asia Pacific, because we HAVE the potential for growth, and as long as we HAVE the right attitude and mindset, adopt a STRATEGIC and FOCUSED long term plan to exponential growth and sustainability, it is not an IMPOSSIBLE target.
After a gruelling six hours of thinking and enlightenment, the MCs left the session feeling much more confident and perhaps psyched-up about the coming year, as well as the next crucial three days of intensive planning and strategizing. Well kudos to have our dear incoming MC President Cheryl make the first few bold changes to the whole structure of AIESEC Singapore and setting the stage right for real change to happen. If anything, i'm more than looking forward to see our output from this National Planning, and starting this promising 09/10 term!
Cheers all to hard work and results!
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