AIESEC in NUS Blog

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.