Amazing work experience from last week

Dear friends and family members who are not familiar with AIESEC!
Beware that this posting contains a lot of AIESEC jargon that you might not understand. My apologies for that. :( But if you are interested to find out more about them, feel free to e-mail me individually and I’ll be happy to explain them to you.


This week I had some of the best meetings, some of my best realizations and some of my best achievements in my work with the non-corporate sector.

Every Monday morning the AIESEC International team sets individual weekly priorities (3 work related ones and a personal one) that we will focus on throughout the week. And every Monday, during the MMM (Monday Morning Meeting) we report one by one whether the priorities have been met or not.
So, for this week all my priorities were set around getting inspiration and inputs for my non-corporate work through my individual meetings and making the name of AIESEC well-known in the networking meeting I was invited to.
I must say, these are the things that were my weakest points in my non-corporate plan in the beginning. I got the feedback that my plan lacks the strive for innovation, lacks the aspiration to do networking, and I was strongly suggested to even add a line to my individual plan about bringing innovation to the non-corporate area. Also, one of my personal goals for the year is to develop my networking skills.

So, what happened during this week?
First of all, instead of two meetings I had four (one with UNESCO, one with Spiros – friend of Petroula, expert at EU funds; one with Gabitza about our non-corporate contacts in the Education field that I am managing, one with Eva Varga, my Hungarian mentor in non-corporate relations) and besides that the Management Team meeting was also extremely productive while we approved the grants to be applied for. Basically I presented the potential grants, the Management Team gave feedback and ideas on how to polish these grant applications, and in addition we came up with twice as many great innovative ideas than the ones I presented!!!! I got sooo excited! I felt like sitting down immediately and doing all those things at once, at that very moment!!!
Also, another priority of mine was to sort out an old Tempus application that was done by a University and with AIESEC participating as a consortium member but we didn’t get involved in it until now. So, basically the money is already there, the application has been selected, it’s just the matter of offering our work to the consortium.
And guess what work is needed from AIESEC in this Tempus project? To develop online MBA courses about IT!!!! And as the AI IS team is developing a new global IS system right now, it clicked!!! …. Isn’t this something that the AI IS team is already doing? Isn’t their experience and learning as big as an MBA course about developing a new IS system in a global organization, effecting over 95 countries? Also, through this new IS system all organizational subsystems will be measured, which was not the case in the past! Are we aware of what kind of huge thing we are doing now in the AI IS team???? All of us got extremely excited about the idea!!!!
And during my other meetings not only have I received inputs to my work but by now I am more clear than ever on the direction of the global non-corporate area on a long term basis. I don’t have all the answers but after my meetings this week I know where to find the answers. And it’s such a great feeling that the direction we (my predecessor Geta and I) took – somehow, unconsciously – was right! And another cool thing: all the things that I’m doing in the non-corporate area will contribute to my other favorite area of work: Financial Management Subsystem of AIESEC – in other words: how to achieve that the global organization (including all MCs and LCs) is financially sustainable? And I think some of the answers came this week…

And the cream on the cake was my study trip to Brussels on Friday.
As we got selected as member of the Dutch Anna Lindh Network, I got invited to a study trip to Brussels to meet the Belgian Anna Lindh Network and learn together with them.
The meeting exceeded all my expectations!!!!
I have made the name of AIESEC extremely well-knows, I got the chance to make a 3 minute presentation about AIESEC in front of 10-15 NGOs that have a huge interest in the EuroMediterranean region, and of course I put an emphasis on our activities in the Middle East, the challenge of diversity and cultural dialogue between the Western and Arabic world, and after my presentation several people approached me. :) E.g. a man from a University in Palestine said that he wants us to establish AIESEC in Palestine. And by the end of the discussion I invited him to AIESEC Symposium, too, which is a one day event, organized by AIESEC International, to be held in Cairo in February 2007.
Also, I could talk to the VIP guest of the day – Gianluca Solera, the global network coordinator of the Anna Lindh Foundation, who came directly from Egypt to Belgium. And besides the fact that he heard my AIESEC presentation, I shook hands with him afterwards and told him about the Symposium and that we were applying for a grant to the Anna Lindh Foundation. And even if we don’t get the fund, we would like to invite him to the Symposium because we believe we can contribute to achieving the objectives of the Anna Lindh Foundation – most importantly: dialogue between cultures, multilateral cooperation and exchange of people between cultures.

Also, during the day I had the opportunity to talk to some senior people from the EU and get to know more about their internal structures and priorities.
Of course we can see all these things on their website as well but the website is sometimes very complicated and it’s not that easy to find the relevant information, so it was extremely useful to hear the EU priorities from the mouth of such senior people.
And two of them were from the Middle East and Gulf Working Group where they prepare the agenda for meetings between the representatives of the countries of this region, and they confirmed what we unconsciously felt - that there is an extreme need for cultural understanding and dialogue between Western and Arabic/Islamic cultures these days.


And in the same time it confirmed for me that what we are doing with our Expansion initiative in the Middle East is absolutely brilliant, we should focus a lot on the diversity in our organization and with these multicultural activities we are writing history in AIESEC – shaping the future of the organization and truly moving towards piece and fulfillment of humankind’s potential – the vision of AIESEC.

At the National Conference of AIESEC in the Netherlands - 6th October 2006

I got to be invited to be the chair of the HIV/AIDS track on the National Conference of AIESEC in the Netherlands, in Utrecht and it was a lot of fun, and a real success.
When I arrived at the Central Station of Utrecht, a very nice guy was waiting for me from the National Support Team of the Dutch AIESEC. When we arrived at the venue, a special atmosphere was waiting for us. All people in business suits, networking in the hall, video recording in the plenary room – everything was extremely professional.
Before we started the session, we were dancing on some AIESEC dances though :) (of course) and then people were allocated to different rooms.
In our room there were around 40 delegates plus the 4 guests and Eliene (the main organiser) and me.
We started with an introduction about the state of HIV/AIDS now and what the global AIESEC network currently does about it, followed by workshops run by the four guests. The topics (statements) were extremely fascinating and all the delegates enjoyed the discussions as well: Development and poverty reduction programs are essential to combating HIV/AIDS in the long run; The industrial world has failed to deliver leadership and moreover has failed to save the lives of millions of people; Save lives of today, or save lives of tomorrow?

After the workshops we had a very interesting panel discussion as well. As a moderator I was leading the discussion of the 4 guests and I think they challenged each other tremendously.

What I enjoyed very much as well was the lunch that I spent among the delegates. Suddenly I got to see Vija, trainee of ABN Amro who was MC in AIESEC in Belgium and whom I wanted to motivate to become my successor in AIESEC in South Africa. :) I also met up with Ali, Egyptian trainee and Jennifer from Canada who was a CEEDer in South Africa and whom I lived with for 3 weeks, in the AIESEC House in Johannesburg. Also, I finally met the Hungarian trainee of Rotterdam (Szilvasi Orsi – Solyi) who was an EB member in AIESEC in Hungary when I was on the MC and we used to work together very closely. :) We were so happy to see each other again. And also, I got the chance to talk to some of the Ebs of the Dutch AIESEC and it was really cool! They said they didn’t know how an AI person looked like because they hadn’t seen any before, but they were happy to find out through interactions with me that AI members are very nice and friendly people, not weird ones somewhere up in the clouds. :)

Back to the AI office

It’s a strange feeling but after coming back to Rotterdam and our house, I already felt home. We still had to build our double bed, the closet, everything, but it was a different feeling than before IC. This is our permanent home and we like it. :)

Some days later we had AI team days. It was very interesting, Dey prepared a training for us about linguistic anthology, and it gave me some learnings about myself, that I realized in the days after the training. The only thing was that we didn’t have time for feedback although I would have loved to give and receive direct feedback with the entire AI team. Especially because that was the last time when we had the entire AI team together.After that we only had a ‘Poker night’ as a social event, at our house, and all the Directors left for 3 entire months and suddenly the AI office became so different...

Hungary… ‘meeting the parents’ :)

After the threatening of our AI team that it could go so terribly wrong, Ryan got completely scared. Especially due to the fact that he didn’t speak any other European language than English, and my parents speak only European languages (such as French, German, Italian) but English… So basically they couldn’t communicate. Poor them… I tried everything to calm both Ryan and my parents down but it seems that I’m not very good at that.

Of course nothing bad happened, my parents tried so hard to speak English and please Ryan, they even took language courses in the near past to be able to communicate but all of these things contributed to the extreme stress of my poor darling. :(
The day when we arrived, we also had a family dinner at my Mom’s house: with Mom, Dad, uncle Elod, Zsigi (my brother), Ryan and me. My Dad immediately introduced himself with his dirty jokes he knew and the funniest part was when he shared one with us in Hungarian, everyone was laughing except for Ryan, and then I had to translate and everybody was waiting for the reaction of Ryan… :) It was sooo funny…
The next day we started our ‘agenda’. I prepared a real agenda, with timing and explanation of ‘sessions’, but Ryan was not satisfied enough with it, he added some additional ones – which I didn’t mind at all – by the way. :)

But now seriously, the journey went very well, I showed Ryan the view on the Chain Bridge from the Buda hills, the Nagyi Palacsintazoja at Batthyany square, my University, the Vaci street, the Nagykorut, the famous ‘For Sale’ restaurant where you eat a lot of peanuts and you leave the shells on the floor, the Szechenyi bath where we took a nice massage with Ryan and Maria (who came with us to visit Zsolt and Gee), the Europe Café, the Chinese market, the Varosliget and many others.
We also got to meet some of my friends at Stex and at Kiraly utca and we also went to the Wine Festival with my Dad and Elod. It was very nice and I was very happy to share my culture with Ryan. And I think he got to know me better – especially where I come from, why I do things and whom I am the most identical with from my family.
We also went to Church and at the part when you have to shake hands with people around you, as the sing of ‘piece’, my Dad firstly gave his hand to Ryan – and I know, it had an important meaning – my Father likes him and he is very happy for Ryan and me.
So, overall, I have to say, Ryan has over delivered the task and so did my parents – all of them like each other – Ryan thinks I have a fun and nice family and my family knows that I am in good hands. :)

My IC experience as an AI member

It is hard to believe but I have never had a more relaxing conference than that. I think it is due to the fact that I didn’t have relatively huge responsibilities comparing to some other team mates and I was already trained on dealing with extra high pressure during conferences – for example in Hungary when we didn’t have enough money for a conference and the OC was not experienced enough, I had to keep track on every single cent in order not to make a loss…and connect to the delegates and deliver high quality sessions in the same time. Or in South Africa where the success of the Annual General Meeting determined the long term future of AIESEC South Africa, and I was aware of this…Such a pressure was not on my shoulders at IC but to be honest I was not satisfied about it because in this way I didn’t feel challenged at all…On the other hand, we could experience the first clashes in the team, the first really stressed moments and the first happy moments as well, to the extremes, when our tears came out – even though it was the sign of happiness and not the sign of sadness.
As for me, all my IC goals have been achieved, and by the end of IC I felt that I was more connected to the global network than ever, people got to love me and appreciate me – which is very important for me in my work.

Overall, IC has been the platform for great learnings and great realisations for me!!!!

My AI team

I love my team! They’re all incredible individuals!!! Before IC there were 3 main points where the team was forming a lot or when the picture of the future team roles started to unravel.
One of these was the AI take-off week-end where all of us opened so much to each other, the other one was the Training of Traci (from WorldBLU, US), on the Freedom Centered Organisation where we shared a lot of deep thoughts about our hopes and concerns with regards to our team, and finally the third main point was the AI planning week in Italy where the main characters of the different people were already clear for everyone, as well as the personal connections between the different people.

As for me, I took up the role that I used to have in Hungary and that I used to feel comfortable with, 2 years ago: a supportive role with a strong attention to details and follow-ups.
And at IC I realized that I had such a strong ‘implementer’ role and such an insignificant ‘shaper’ role that I hardly every lead the discussions at the IC mocks when defining the sessions but during the evaluation meetings and during capturing the learnings and follow-ups, I was one of the most active people talking and making comments. It’s amazing to realize all these things!

My birthday – Friday, the 4th August

That day Ondro organized a poker night. There was a lot of preparation from Ryan’s side for the poker night but he didn’t give any hint to me whether he knew I had my birthday that day or not. Meanwhile I received a lot of sms-es from my family, I even talked to my Mom, Dad and brother in the afternoon over the phone and they all wished happy birthday to me but of course I didn’t tell about it to the rest of the AI team because it’s not their fault that they didn’t know about it and if I remind them, they will all feel embarrassed. I didn’t want them to feel uncomfortable. So, the whole day there was a lot of preparation, Ryan kept on asking with a special tone: ‘What’s up today?’ And I kept on answering with a special tone: ‘Nothing.’ :) …hoping that Ryan knew what was up in that day…besides the Poker party… :)
And then the evening came….and of course Ryan knew about my birthday and he had a special surprise for me. :)
I cannot even express how happy I was!!!! That was my best birthday in the past 4-5 years!

Our new house – Rodenrijselaan 29 A

On the 1st August we were moving. From the Noordsingel house we moved to another one. To be honest, after the break-in we were happy about it but on the other hand we were not satisfied at all.
When we moved in, we had to face the challenge of ‘no furniture’, meaning: extra money to invest into. Also, we didn’t have a washing machine, nor other washing facilities, so we had to buy a washing machine as well.
Besides that, the previous tenants were not the nicest ones we’ve ever met. Imagine, first they offered us to sell all the remaining stuff (e.g. curtains, a cup-board) for 150 Euros, and we said ‘no, thank you’, and as a revenge they came and even took the curtain holders, toilet paper holders and all light bulbs – leaving only the wire there and leaving us without any light.We got extremely pissed off but I took the lead to call the guys back, offer them to pay and ask them to put everything back… It was a shitty feeling but at least now we have light and curtains, we only need to worry about the furniture. But thanks to Ikea and my hero, Ryan :), we could furnish our house and it looks very pretty now.

Bruges – 29th – 30th July 2006

In the last week-end of July – exhausted from the long and tough transition period - Ryan and me decided to go to Bruges – the beautiful village in Belgium – reserved for romantic couples. :)
We left on a sunny Saturday morning, had a very nice trip and arrived at the hotel in the afternoon. Then we went to the center, discovered the village, had amazing conversations and we both had a great time.
It’s been a lovely week-end.
When we arrived back, there was an issue waiting for us – our house got broken into and they stole my entire monthly salary and the laptop of Geta (as I borrowed it for the week-end), but even if we had to expect the police and we had to deal with the laptop insurance issue, I didn’t mind because I felt sooo good, relaxed and happy after Bruges. It’s amazing what a change a romantic week-end can do!!!!

About the AI transition - June-July 2006

I liked it very much, especially the great and very special learning environment, with 40 incredible individuals. Although I was extremely tired because of the exams and I couldn’t enjoy the social events and the bonding part, I felt that I contributed a lot during the sessions and I felt very confident about my knowledge. And by the end of the term I had a very good understanding on what I wanted to achieve in my portfolio, but until then there was a long way to go.
First, I went home between the 13th and 20th June, to pass 3 exams but I didn’t pass all of them.
I felt shame but what can we do? We try it again… And anyway, passing over 10 exams during May was a big achievement on its own and the remaining part until my degree is nothing, if I have a balanced life during the AI term and I prepare more during the year.
So, I went back to Rotterdam and although I couldn’t catch up with sleep because my flight was 2 hours delayed and the next day I woke up very early to catch the 8 o’clock train to Brussels with Geta, my energy level was OK and I was very happy.

The sales trip in Brussels was very successful and useful and we could get a lot of transition done with Geta.
I’ve also received a mentor – Lanchanie, who has a similar personality with me and I was happy to share my thoughts with her and also to get some advice about my individual goals for the year.
Geta also gave me a lot of knowledge and some suggestions on how to manage my time, my outlook, my e-mails… It was very useful and I think I am still using those habits developed during that time.
Also, we had an amazing AI transition party where we started some bonding with the new MC people from the surrounding countries, the incoming AI team won the entire football (soccer) tournament, which created history (!!!) and we had a HUGE party at the end!

But my energy level went down to zero around the end of June, and that was exactly the time when the Learning Network Drive Teams were in Rotterdam – for 4 days, including the week-end and I had to bond my HIV/AIDS Drive Team and lead our planning process. And by the way they were also very tired and exhausted, so I was not very satisfied about the Drive Team meeting, we could have got out much more of it, but overall it went well and towards October every day we become more and more efficient in our work, which is good.

Once or twice I freaked out (meaning – cried) for very little things – e.g. in Brussels at the train station after the PWC training when I was very tired, in addition our accommodation was not organized properly – which resulted in additional frustration - and I wanted to get back to R’dam to be able to work in the evening but we missed the train, we had to wait an additional hour and by the time we arrive at the office, the shutter was already down and we couldn’t get in. And that was also the time when I really felt the negative side of NOT having an own laptop because there were no laptops for the transition period for the new AI members, so I had to use a very slow PC, in the middle of the office and in the middle of all the noise and at the place where people randomly walk through all the time.Anyway, the tough period was over, I’ve challenged my limits and every day I got to know more about myself. And that’s one of the reasons why I’m on AI, isn’t it?

Second posting :)

Hey!

I’m back!

Where shall we start?
I really want to capture all the memories of my AI experience, so I think the best would be to start it from the 1st June 2006, when I arrived at Rotterdam, and catch up quickly with the stories.

My arrival (1st June 2006)
I arrived at the Amsterdam Schiphol airport where Ryan and Dey were waiting for me. It was a very exciting and nervous feeling because I was meeting Ryan three months after we said good-bye at IPM, in the Netherlands, and I really didn’t know how to behave, how to great him, especially because Dey was also there. :) And we were expecting Geta and Habib as well – Geta arriving from Japan and Habib from Cameroon.
So, we were waiting….And after a while I noticed that Ryan felt as nervous as me, so it was OK :) and then Dey also noticed that and he decided to go to the other entrance of the airport and ‘look for the others’. :) It was very nice of him…

When we arrived at Rotterdam Centraal Station, Ryan, a real gentleman offered me to carry my suitcase. But then we realized that the wheels were not working, so he had to literally carry 20 KGs it in his hand – and as a real gentleman – holding my hand with his other hand. :) Poor him…. But he is strong! I was proud of him in the same time!!!

Then we arrived at the Transition House – Noordsingel 30 B. I was greeted by the people who lived there and I was introduced to my new room – right next to Ryan’s. :) I was very happy to arrive but I was extremely tired as well.
During the previous two weeks I took over 10 exams and I still had some to go, to be passed during the AI transition period.

Almost all the weight that Ryan was carrying was because of my books and papers that I took from Budapest to Rotterdam so that I can study.

And I was quite disciplined, too, I was studying when I could, I didn’t attend social events but the tiredness was often stronger than me. It was an extremely tough period…

One day I woke up quite early and I started studying before going to the office by 9, but the rest of the people had already left and suddenly I realized that they had locked me in and I didn’t have the keys for the house. First I wanted to call the AI office but I didn’t have the number in my phone… then I wanted to call Dey or Petroula but I only had their numbers in my South African phone, not in the Hungarian one that I was holding in my hands. Then, finally I found the number of the Hungarian MCP mobile phone and I called Tybchee. I knew he had the AI phone number and he could call up the AI office but he didn’t answer. Either he was sleeping or my roaming from the Hungarian mobile phone was not working in the Netherlands…. OK, in my final panic I gave it another try and I sent an sms to Tybchee. And luckily, it worked and he called me back.
When I told him the story, he started to laugh, but then he was very helpful, he called the AI office. Laura picked up the phone, she found it very strange, but she followed the ‘instructions’ and went into the Boardroom to give the following message to the people:
‘The MCP of Hungary called and said that Ildi is locked in the house and she would be very greatful if you could give the key of the house to me so that I can get her out.’ :)But while this story was happening, I found a random key on the table of the living room…. And what a surprise, it was an extra key to the house that I didn’t know about, so I tried it and it worked. I met up with Laura half way between home and the AI office.