Your MC 2006-2007!

The First Ever Photo of the MC 06/07
Originally uploaded by Spanner Dan.

We are here!

All of us.

On Thursday, Antje arrived from Germany, your MCVP People Development. The MC is now complete. We are all sitting right now in our cosy little office that is just buzzing with excitement!

Frank and Antje have been telling us everything that happened at IC - the connections they made, the things they learned, how it all applies to us in Venezuela. So tomorrow, we start (well, continue) putting together our MC plan - based on what we need to do to support you in your plans, input from IC and our national goals (159 baby!). Of course we've also been telling Frank and Antje about how awesomely hard you have all been working with us these last few weekends!

Today, Mario has been planning a proposal for sales training for the whole of AIESEC ER. He says:

"Trabajando con mucha pasion y mucha energia, recuerda que son 159 y cada cosa que hacemos nos a cerca más a nuestra meta."

Dan has been getting really excited about the Valencia event, forgetting his lunch at home and received (another) free book from a guy who's going to run an amazing session on Leadership at the event. He also almost killed Risho with a stapler. Dan's message is:

"Tenemos exactamente lo que las empresas quieren. Haciendo la coneccion es facil. Todos que podemos hacer es ser exitoso! Yo amo AIESEC y los amo a todos."

Risho has been getting trainees from all over the world from Procter & Gamble and working on a session for a learning weekend for USB. Yesterday he finished the format for ET TN segmentation (which is very special). He says:

"En febrero, esperamos 30 trainees in Caracas y el mismo numero en el MABATEC. (Risho's new word for 'interior'). Ya vale la pena crear una estructura para servicio."

Antje has been trying to steal the free books that companies have been giving me. ("borrow" she says, and I have to learn proper Spanish). She's also been all over AIESEC.net and has set the VP-PD Weekend date which is the 21-22 October in Valencia. She's also working on the Faci application for SDL so we can have some cool people from around the world there (hopefully). She says:

"Enforzamos el liderazgo en AIESEC Venezuela!"

Richard has just got back from a weekend a booze, girls and pole dancing on Margarita Island. He also lay on the beach. He didn't even wear any sunscreen. He's been checking the mountains of e-mail he received while he was away and planning our MC team days with Frank. He says:

"Ahorren y no malgasten su dinero, como dice un viejo refran chino, hay que comenzar a subir la montaña como un viejo para llegar como un joven."

Franky-Baby has been blogging (but not here, here), listening to Richard talk about the MC team days and get this, creating and changing communities. He's been having a positive impact on them. And he's been reviewing our ER stuff and planning MC team days. And he's got all the icons on his computer just where he wants. His message:

"Now, more than ever AIESEC could be more relevant to our communities and our country, we just need to focus our energy and our potential... So basically it's up to you!"

This was today in the MC. Thanks everyone!

You inspire us!

ER Weekend!
Originally uploaded by Spanner Dan.

I cannot tell you how excited I am about External Relations after this weekend. We have an absolutely awesome team. You are all so motivated and committed and I just know we are going to achieve amazing things together!

Seeing the results of those local target sheets, seeing people writing "159" on their arms, seeing you all discussing things with such intensity and passion. We all love AIESEC and I can tell you are all ready to work hard to achieve these goals. We as an MC are ready too. Together, we have started things here. All we need to do is keep this fantastic momentum going and we will get to where we want to be.

For those who weren't at ER weekend, 159 is AIESEC Venezuela's national target for realised exchanges 2006/2007. That's 77 TNs and 82 SNs - around 11 of each for each LC.

Sounds like a lot? It may be, but it is doable. At ER Weekend we worked out exactly what needs to be done to get there. And it is achievable. Market segmentation will give us a huge head-start in selling exchange. We will be going to companies knowing that they are going to say yes. That is where the difference is. With this, plus the committment of the ER teams, every LC will be attending around 5 meetings per week and we can hit the target of 77 TNs by Christmas, let alone June!

So that is what we are going to do. 77 people experiencing Venezuela for the very first time. 82 people gaining international experience abroad.

159 life-changing experiences!

We can do it!
We will do it!

Sustainability Project

Hey everyone,

I had a really exciting meeting today with an organisation called CEVEDES. They are the Venezuelan chapter of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Their focus is on helping Venezuelan businesses to become more environmentally sustainable.

This is a really hot topic in business today. People are realising that we cannot continue the way we have for years. Businesses must understand their impact on the world and the environment and work actively to minimise or correct any potential damage. People really care about this. From a purely public relations point of view, showing responsibility in this area is vital. From a commercial viewpoint, sustainability means efficiency, which is what companies want. Their bottom-line improving. From the perspective of human resources, employees are happier if they know their company is doing good. There are so many reasons for companies to develop strong sustainability policies and to act on them.

The question is, how can they do this?

This is where CEVEDES and AIESEC come in. We can work together to educate young people about this topic, create a platform for dialogue between businesses and students, and bring tangible results to business through projects and issue-based exchange.

Please read more about this topic on the WBC web site. If there is a group of members interested in this issue, there is a huge potential here to form a PBoX. CEVEDES and AIESEC are working together. They will be playing a big part in our event in Valencia in October. And we have several more ideas in the pipeline.

The question is now, just how far do you want this to go?

Please get in touch with me if you want to learn some more about how we can work with CEVEDES this year and into the future.

This cannot happen without you.