AIESEC in NUS Blog

The Longest Post Ever!

Thursday, March 06, 2008

News News News!
Nabeel Khalid | Year 2 NUS | Year 2 AIESEC | NUS Branding & Communications Coordinator

More pictures below!

As dead as this blog may be, for your kind information, a lot goes on in @ in NUS. For starters, we already have some of our EB elects and LCP elect. Presenting the @ in NUS Executive Board for 2008-09:

LCP: Chang Siew Yik
LC VP Finance: Adrian Ong Lian Kiat
LC VP In-coming Exchange: Vasudha Ram
LC In-coming Exchange Executive: Audrey Wong
LC VP Business Development: Shonit Suri
LC Business Developement Executive: Wenny Natalia Tango
LC VP Talent Management: Muhammad Usman Aslam Mahar
LC VP Information Management: Nabeel Khalid
LC Honorary General Secretary: Yap Hui Ying

We're having another round of applications for the remaining positions available and the deadline to apply is 25th March, 2008! So hurry here (Right-click and open in new window/tab):
LC VP Out-going Exchange
LC VP Communications
LC Out-going Exchange Executive

Maybe I should share with you my personal experience in going through the unique evaluation process our LCPe Siew Yik made us all go through. But first, let me *warn* you guys about what's coming up next in AIESEC in NUS...

If you like free lunches, and if any of your answers to the following questions is 'yes', then you should come to the "Living with HIV" CSR programme by Standard Chartered Bank:

Do you want to know about Standard Chartered Bank's CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) strategy?
Do you want to hear about the live story from the regional director of Standard Chartered Bank?
Do you want to have networking launch with the professionals from Standard Chartered Bank?

Click here for more on this.
(Right-click to open in new window/tab.)

Or maybe these corporate events aren't your thing, or there's a clash with a class or date or something? What if you have a thing for six-course dinners? Not to mention delicious coffee, food and learning! Answer 'yes' to any of these questions and then click the link below:

Wondering what to do on a Saturday evening with the one you love?
Do you want to have a hesitant-free conversation about safe sex with your loved one?

Click here to learn more about "Coffee with Love @ Geek Terminal".
(Right-click to open in new window/tab.)

Or fine. You don't have sex and you're saving yourself for marriage or whatever! What if finance is your thing? You know, Strategic Investing and what not. This event builds on the success of last year's Finance Workshop that received very positive feedback.
Take a look at this event by clicking here.
(Right-click to open in new window/tab.)

Too many blocks of text have been starting with 'Or' in this post. I wanna try something new here now. Have you heard about the "Global Village" event held at most AIESEC conferences? Some of us decided to share that event with the ENTIRE NUS community! For real!

AIESEC in NUS is holding Global Village on the 27th of March and the entire OC has been working really hard to make this event possible. All an AIESECer needs to do is to show up at the Central Forum (the big area below Central Library in NUS), wear an AIESEC t-shirt that we have designed and check out all the different cultures NUS has to offer and see them merge under AIESEC! (Psst, there would be cultural performances between 1 pm and 2 pm so you better leave early or the traffic could be really bad then - since so many people will be on their way to the event!)

Oh, did I mention it's on the 27th of March? I guess I did, but did I say it's a Thursday? From 10 am to 6 pm! (We need volunteers for the day and we have our eye on you... tee hee. You will, come, yes?)

About 0.0005% of you who are still reading this and wondering why I still haven't talked about what I promised long ago - here is the story of how we got selected for EB!:

First of all there was this annoyingly long form we filled out that was full of personal questions. Well, it wasn't a bad form but I'm sure you've been through times when you try to think about your future or your past and it gives you headaches - you know what I mean?! (Okay maybe it's just me who gets headaches when I do self-reflections.)

We submitted our forms right before the witching-hour ( deadline 11:59 pm) on a Tuesday night (19th February) - smack in the middle of the week when I had another assignment due at the SAME time. Tsk tsk... Shouldn't leave out stuff to do at the last minute!

Submission on time was one challenge but next up we had to go through the first round of assessment. All the EB applicants were given a task that they would complete and as they would make progress, they would be judged! What a sad world we live in - a brother judging another brother eh, Siew Yik? Just kidding...

Our assessment task was to plan and execute an event involving the whole LC (about 100 odd members). We had a budget of $100 and four days to do it. The goal of the event was to get the members to interact with each other.

Did I mention there were 17 applicants applying for 8 positions in the executive board? Talk about stressful situations!

But it wasn't so stressful really. I mean, sure, we did have a 2.5 hour discussion (17 people trying to agree on one thing) to finalize exactly WHAT we would do on that fine Sunday evening. We decided on a costume party of some sort, which changed into a theme party over extended email conversations later on. We split ourselves into departments like Programs, Logistics, Publicity and Finance. Finance was also given the charge to overlook the progress of all the 'departments' in the 'OC'.

The theme we decided upon (at an "emergency meeting" held on the following Friday) was Retro/'60s/'70s. Bow ties, baggy trousers, tight shirts and the like (I think!). Despite booking limitations on Sundays in NUS, we managed to book a function room in PGPR and we managed to prepare food for 50+ people within a $100 bucks.

Feat? Yes.

Turnout?

Not so good. It turned out that despite literally CALLING EACH MEMBER we still weren't able to get members down for our spectacular event on such short notice.

But the event itself was quite a success if I may pass my own (biased) judgment. Because we got people to have fun, eat good food (bias - it was South Asian-ish food), and interact with each other (bias again - I was emceeing =P).

Later that night, the evil LCPe sent out the results of the first round of evaluation. We had to see 4 of our team members be removed from our team, despite all the hard work they had put in and despite all the amazing things they were able to offer by being part of our team. It was sad and also a tad bit demotivating for the rest of us who progressed on to the second round.

I would like to call the second round the "grilling" round. No, they didn't test our barbecue skills. Quite the contrary. They barbecued us! They cooked us! They baked us! They fried our brains!

They were members from the current MC team, the MC elects, the current LCP and the LCPe. They asked us questions that challenged us to the extent that we started doubting ourselves. It was intense to say the least. What were our plans? How were we going to measure our success? What numbers can we predict? Questions asked with past performance in mind and questions about future performance...

But as we understood later, it was because there was a difference in their expectations of us and our expectations of ourselves. They wanted us to be more pro-active than we could imagine; to step out of our comfort zones more than we thought we could; to create a difference and create more positive impact on our society than we thought we could.

Out of the 13 remaining applicants wanting to fill in 8 VP positions, (plus some Executive positions) only those listed in the beginning of this post were able to make it.

It has been an intense yet fun experience that most of us found strangely stimulating and motivating.

Now we return to our mid-terms and normal school life for a while before we start assuming our new positions in AIESEC and start a new phase in the LR stage (leadership role). Do wish us luck for our term!

Food station - cooks and helpers!

Random scene from the event.

Posers!

And more posers!

Check out ALL the pictures by clicking here.
Or click here to view the Facebook album.

Labels: Activities, Applications Open, Assessment Task, EB application, Fun.., LC gathering, Pictures, Updates

posted by Nubeals at 9:30 AM Permalink | 1 comments

Like, wassup?

Thursday, July 05, 2007

More than half the vacations are through by now - Western and Asian nations have agreed to end 'green imperialism' together after accusing each other for the alarming change in climate the world over, Gaza journalist Alan Johnston was released after being kidnapped for 114 days, some Mexican Mr Slim managed to get a wallet fatter than Bill Gates', Apple released the first generation of the new iPhone, and smoking was banned in clubs in Singapore and UK - but where is AIESEC? Is AIESEC dead?

No! It's alive! It's very, very alive. Things have been happening. Plans have been made. Actions have been taken. Lists have been made. People have been contacted. Things are in motion. Things are happening.

Wait, what are you even talking about?

Okay, so the vacations began somewhere around May 7, 2007. That is when AIESEC in NUS started having its LC Transition...

Err, what is "LC transition"?

Local Committee transition. AIESEC in NUS is a local committee of AIESEC Singapore, which is a member of AIESEC International. The two levels of hierarchy here are the Member Committee (the national team) and the Local Committee (the local team within the university). LC Transition happens every year when a new team comes in and takes over the previous team's achievements. It involves sharing experiences, passing on important information and statistics, and a whole lot of learning.

The old team... (They had black and white cameras back then!)

Are we clear on the transition part? What followed next was LC Planning. The learning continued as the entire team went through the process of planning activities and events for the next year. Each department head analyzed the previous year's plan, recognizing strengths and weaknesses in their implementation, and making other observations before making their own plans.

Trying to get a picture after LC Planning at NUS Biz without the lamp ruining the picture.

Both these activities occurred over a period of two weeks, taking up as much as every evening of the week as well as entire weekends. On occasion, we had an external or two over to train us. It sounds hectic, but it had been a great learning experience, and also a lot of fun!

It might be noted here that similar activities were taking place in AIESEC Singapore's other LCs - namely NTU and SMU.

That was like, local or LC work... what about activities on the national level?

I was coming to that. But let me first mention here that the national team (MC team) went to Malaysia to attend the first ever AP MC Transition. "AP" is short for Asia Pacific, and this is the first time there was a regional event concerned with regional planning, coordination and strategy.

Our MC team in Malaysia chilling with other MCs from all over Asia Pacific.

So that was the international level. On the national level we had what has been dubbed as "NatPlanCon07" or National Planning Conference 2007. It has been recurring every year as AIESECers in leadership positions map out the national plan to be implemented in the upcoming year. Each department in the LC liaises with, and takes direction from a member of the national team throughout the year, so whatever plans one has within an LC need to take place in coordination with the national plans. The event or conference aims to jump-start that process over a period of two successive weekends. This year it took place at NTU's Student Activity Centre (SAC), and the national team graciously sponsored the stay for all the EBs in NTU halls through these two weekends.

The MC team members had explored Singapore from different perspectives, and they shared their learnings with everyone during the early sessions in their presentations. It helped everyone know how AIESEC is relevant to Singapore and to understand local realities. The most amazing thing we learnt was that AIESEC is relevant to almost each and every industrial classification in Singapore!

Sharon talking about past year's goals.

Various workshops and sessions were held throughout NatPlanCon07, each aimed at a different aspect. There were LC presentations for everyone to understand LC realities. There were departmental presentations for everyone to understand what the various departments had planned to do for the next year.

The most fun part of the conference - and this, I believe, would be unanimously agreed upon - was the gossip box.

The gossip box?

A box containing random squabbles from random people, about random stuff. At the end of the conference an R&R (Rewards and Recognition) was held, and Siew Yik (AIESEC in NUS Vice President People Development) was presented with the "Most Scandalous" award. There was quite a lot of shocking stuff written about him - love affairs with girls and even guys! (Disclaimer: The word "gossip" entails that the content is not factual.)

Anything else?

JumpStart 2007 is also a national conference that will be taking place in September to induct new AIESEC members in Singapore, and the marketing team has been working really hard to get sponsors, as other departments also carry on their good work. Do click here to check out what's new on JumpStart 2007.

The JumpStart 2007 team at NatPlanCon07.

Alvin, LCP of AIESEC in NTU reveals his true feelings for our ex-LCP!

The hunger...

Put your face in there, birthday girl!

Indian greeting or AIESEC dance step?

AIESEC in NUS at NatPlanCon07 (call us The Vikings!)

Note: To view these and other selected pictures, please click here.

Labels: AP, Box, Conference, Gossip, LC gathering, MC, National, NatPlanCon07, Pictures, Planning, Transition

posted by Nubeals at 12:11 AM Permalink | 0 comments

When the music's over

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

After a great year, full of success stories for @NUS, one would expect the last LC gathering to be one with tears flowing (not only from Imran's eyes!) and a lot of sharing. Well, no one cried and the tissues I carried with me went to waste. But it was a deeply emotional LC gathering nevertheless.

Apart from the usual AIESEC dances, rewards and recognition this time we had a few other things. The 2006-07 EB team and LCP are almost finished with their term, and we (the new EB team or "Vikings") brought out a cake to show how thankful we are to them for giving us a good foundation. At first, Shubhangi wanted Imran to cut the cake as LCP but then she handed the knife to Khim because he is graduating this semester. At least some were disappointed after the cake was cut and there was no cake on Imran or any of the EBs' faces. Everyone enjoyed the coffee cake. Lastly, Hefang shared how glad he was to have the 2007-08 EB team as their successors.

LC NUS EB Team 06-07

Shubhangi held a very insightful session where the lights were dimmed and she asked us to relax and close our eyes. Raising important questions about the past year the LCP elect made us delve deep into our own minds to quantify our personal as well as @ achievements only so that we could compare them with the goals we had set for ourselves at the beginning of the year. Among other things, Shubhangi asked us to cut down to at least three people who have made our @ journey remarkable, and to send them thank-you notes as it really boosts their ego.

It's called meditation, they're not asleep (except for the ones who are cheating by keeping their eyes open!)

On this note, I would like to say that most of us don't use "magic words" as often as we should or we could. In Hebrew it's just one word (בבקשה) for "please" and "thank you" but in English we have two so there's more choice. As kids we have all been taught magic words but by this time most of us have forgotten about it. Another thing I often tell people is using "need" instead of "have". Rather than saying "you have to do this" you could say "you need to do this". Trust me, it makes a big difference too.

Shubhangi shared a very emotional presentation with us to show her appreciation and gratitude to Imran, her LCP predecessor. It really stirred up everyone's sentiments. Later, everyone who could afford to spare more time met up at KGourmet to have dinner.

Everyone has final exams coming up - not only in NUS but also in NTU, and I believe @ers in SMU are suffering from the "exam disease" right now. So on behalf of everyone everywhere, I wish everyone everywhere the best of luck. For the people who are looking for internships - abroad or locally, hope you find what you are looking for soon. And for those graduating, we will *sniff*sniff* miss you! Thank you for being a part of @ even in your last and most demanding semester. Wish you all the best! Just focus and we all know you will graduate in flying colours and find a great job!