Chair...Kursi...whatever

Last week (17-21 November) I was chairing the AIESEC Indonesia's National Conference (or, as they call it, NatCon 2). I didn't get much time to prepare myself for the role as I only had 1 week after I said, "yes" to the offer to the actual conference... Think about it: it's a national conference with more than 200 participants, 5 days, and 3 tracks (or flows, as some AIESECers might call it). I only had just one run-thru meeting 2-3 days before the conference actually started. To tell you the truth, I should've been scared!

The night before the conference I went to see the site. It was in the Pusdiklat Depdiknas in Pondok Cabe (translation: pusdiklat = centre of education and training; depdiknas = national office of education). This is actually the place where employees of the national office of education is being trained and educated. They have tennis courts, a dining room, conference rooms, and bungalows/cottages of rooms where people actually stay. MAN! It was massive! Think 18-hole golf course and you're there (or at least it feels like it). It's nowhere near compact and nice. The first thing I said when I saw the venue plan was, "I think I'm gonna lose weight by the end of the conference." But it was a nice place for a conference, though...

I wore different AIESEC shirts everyday: the one from AIESEC Medina, the one from TULDS, the one Trent gave me, the one from APX, and the QUT's branding compliant shirt. Obviously I had reasons why I did so.

Anyway, here's some hints and tips when you're chairing a conference (I'm not pinpointing anyone...just sharing my learning points):
- Minimum prep time, in my suggestion, is 3 weeks. Make sure you have at least one online meeting with the conference manager to understand what's the objective of the conference (esp. if the conference is in a country different to yours).
- Make sure you know in good depth about all sessions. My mistake is that I gave full liberty to the faci team. So, even though you know they'll do their best, but your input will be needed nonetheless. This will also be an advantage to you when you're running around like marbles, to know what's happening in sessions.
- The agenda: make it humane for everyone (that means to the delegates, OC, faci, and chair).
- Therefore, minimum 3 meetings with the faci team is much recommended.
- Have minimum 3 meetings with the OC team also (1 or 2 of which are with faci team being present at the meeting). These guys will be providing the logistical details. Make sure they know what to do and when they need to do that.
- Also check if there's someone in the OC team responsible for the Opening Plennary (apparently they have one in Indo's NatCon and I didn't know that until the evaluation meeting on the final day of the conference).
- Have good night sleeps. During the 4-nights conferene, I only had 12 hours of sleep. Not because of partying too hard, but working. Never let that happen to you when you're chairing (especially to avoid panda eyes...you'll be in front of delegates almost at all times).
- "Venting meeting" works like magic! What I did was I separated the faci and the OC, so they can vent on to me about whatever challenges they've encountered in doing their role, without the presence from the other group of people. Such meetings can also be a good avenue to reconnect with your team for the conference (which are the faci and the OC).
- Dear OC: when in the search for conference venue, make sure it's simple and compact. And warm water would be nice for all those late-night showers.
- Dear MC/conference manager: if you have more than three tracks, please (with a cherry on top) have more than one chair.
- Remember 2 golden rules: "in order to get to the OAR (outcome, achievements, results), you need to get out of the BED (blame, excuse, denial);" and "never communicate on the basis of assumption."

C'est tout! But all the fun (or "fun") and glories from the conference were:
- Ordering Macca's Happy Meal using their delivery service at 3am. Twice during the conference.
- Being called "Kursi" (pronounced koor-see), which is the Indonesian word for "chair" (you know, that thing that you sit on...:p).
- Getting delegates' name tags, and giving them punishments.
- The HIV/AIDS LN presentation by that guy from AusAID (and made balloons out of condoms during the session). Random note: there's durian-flavoured condoms in Indonesia?!?!? Yikes!
- Running around the conference venue, juggling for three different tracks for three days (the last 2 days were nicer!).
- Have a photo taken of me and the faci/MC team, the OC, and the LO. All up: 35 people!
- Having a good Power-Nap(tm) when (almost) everyone else went to Jazz Goes to Campus to party.
- Making "cantik-cantik" ("awards" for the best newbies) and laughing so hard about random things till 2am , continued by discussing closing plenary with Bram until 4am. And waking up at 6am.
- Venting meetings. Very effective! (but having only half an hour of sleep for that night wasn't the nicest thing)
- Sugar cubes!
- Dance...dance...dance...
- Formal dinner when people just...sang their heart out! (and exchange pressies with each other)

Remember when I told you I think I've retired from AIESEC? Well, retired or not, I think I'm still an AIESECer afterall... :p And yes, perhaps I've lost a few ounces. And yes, I still have the conference flu.

Siz

PS: I'm still in the process of acquiring photos. Will upload it asap.
[addition] PPS: MASSIVE thanks to all the faci/MC, OC, and LOs for all their hard work and cooperation throughout the conference, and to the delegates for helping me to reintegrate back to the Indonesian culture...

Kiwi!

cute and beautiful!

Life often has a good sense of humour. That’s probably why I love it so much.

Today marks the third month that I’m here in Indo, after 5 months in Tunisia. It also marks my third month as an alumnus. I thought I’d never do AIESEC again, ever. Especially after what I’ve experienced in AIESEC Tunisia.

But life really is funny.

Listya, one of my friends from AIESEC Indonesia invited me to come to the Indonesian MC office. And I thought, “why not? I haven’t seen those guys for ages.” So today, I did go and visit them there. I even met Ryan for a bit (the AI guy, who’s in Indo for AI’s country visit). Had a chat and explained (to the MC guys there, not Ryan) why I’m now “divorced” with AIESEC.

But I’d like to say I’m an AIESEC “retiree” rather than an “alumnus”. “Alumnus” implies that you “have” to leave AIESEC because you’ve completed all the necessary steps. Like in Uni, you’re an alumnus of your uni as you’ve completed your study there. But as soon as your course is over, that’s it: you’re an alumnus (unless of course, if you want to do some further studies...). Whereas AIESEC is more like a company: you can stay for as long as you like and leave whenever you wish, worst case scenario is that you can get fired. In short, in AIESEC, you know when it is time for you to leave. You don't have to complete all the steps necessary (i.e. the beloved AIESEC XP) to reach the “alumnus” status, but you leave because…you just know.

Anyway, went there to the Indo's MC office, and what did I came home with? An offer.

They’re offering me to chair their upcoming National Conference in which they have three flows (one for newbies, one for oldies, and another for SNs. Good to know that all members are being appreciated and respected). I’d love to do it.

Right now, I’m about to set up pros and cons of it. But before I do that, I really have to ask my self one, good question: Have I really left AIESEC for good and don’t want to do it again ever, or there is still a part of me that thoroughly enjoy AIESEC.

Holy cow, I’m confused!!

WTF?!

I usually don't check my hotmail address, I use it only for MSN. But I got this email which said about this poll (it's on channel 9 news wbsite), and I honestly...HONESTLY thought that the email was some sort of provocation.

I opened the link and thought that it was a trick question. I, of course, voted for "no".

I was glad to see that almost 2.1 million voters voted "no", but still very surprised to see 64,ooo-ish figure next to the "yes".

And the question was: Should an Australian newspaper publish the Prophet Mohammad cartoon?

That's a dumb question to ask. But I'm glad I took part in it just in case...

Siz

High standard?

I just had my "final exam" at my French course (fyi, I am - was - studying French at the Indonesian branch of the Centre Culturel Francais and, after 7 weeks of intensive course, have just finished my first level).

Anyway, for my final exam I had two type of tests: writing and speaking. For writing, I got 46.25 out of 50 and for speaking, I got 89 out of 100. For some reason, I don't feel happy for it.

Does that mean I really do have high standard?

Siz