Determined to succeed

2008-02-14T16:06:00.001-08:00

Test

From dream to action - expanding to Narva

2007-11-20T11:37:00.001-08:00

It has started – AIESEC is expanding to Narva!

We already made one visit to Narva and have initial contacts with the local youth center, Narva college and some students. The first visit was to a youth fair where mainly teenagers participated, yet it gave so much motivation and encouragement to continue the expansion there.

Currently there are no student organization in Narva and young people lack opportunities to both go abroad or just find something meaningful for themselves besides going to school. Yet there are several private universities and Narva College, which means huge potential.

Narva College and Youth Center are both gladly willing to help. To be honest – if I wasn’t MCP I would seriously consider running as Expansion Manager. I guess one trip to Narva is enough to feel the spirit of the city and realize how much added value AIESEC can bring to young people.

I also imagine that having members from Narva will be a great lesson for our current members – different mindsets, new ambition and cultural background. I think there is nothing better for an organization to be challenged by new ideas and mindsets and therefor maintain the dynamic and innovative environment.

You’ll be hearing soon more about Narva and our newest members (hopefully already at Cultural Preparation seminar in December).

From dream to action - expanding to Narva

2007-10-17T15:19:00.000-07:00

It has started – AIESEC is expanding to Narva!

You’ll be hearing soon more about Narva and our newest members (hopefully already at Cultural Preparation seminar in December).

One of the best parts of this conference are...

2007-08-27T11:57:00.000-07:00

... the people, all the delegates from ~ 100 countries (highest number of delegates in an IC so far). During the talks with the people I have discovered that I’m very proud to be a member of AIESEC in Estonia. We are known as the country where Deniss comes from (and Mairi etc). :P But it’s not a bad thing as it means that he has done a lot of lobby work to promote us, we are continuing his work We are small but actually the work we have done and will do is really impressive. We are pioneering in many things like alumni fund, using “I’m an aieseccer campaign” for recruitment, having Learning Cycle “Klapid eest!” etc.

An amazing session took part yesterday – we went back to the time when the organization was founded. It was just so unbelievable to hear the stories of PAIs (President of AIESEC International) of previous times. About how it was to be an African in a world of racism and being a part of AIESEC and trying to attend the conferences. How it was to take AIESEC to Latin-America and build it up. How hard and challenging times the organization has had because of the political issues like South Africa, Taiwan, Russia etc. What it was like to start AIESEC behind the iron curtain. How it was to do matching via post. Having pink and green papers to mark interns and TNs. I actually took our organization for granted and I haven’t really thought about how it all started and what it might have felt like.

Take a look at the Pärnu blog (aiesecparnu.blogspot.com) and don’t forget to log on to IC Live to see what we are up to in this hot city of Istanbul where 650 young leaders have gathered to become even better and make an impact once they return to their AIESEC countries and territories.

Hugs and sun from Istanbul,

Kadi

Why should we care?

2007-08-27T05:09:00.000-07:00

I wrote this posting yesterday night at 3 AM. The day had been full of new lessons and ideas, so this posting is not so much about IC, but about my personal lessons from here. Enjoy!

---

Do you care what happens in the world? Do you believe you can do something about it? Do you dare to take responsiblity over what is happening in the society, in your community, among your social network, your family?

There are so many people who don’t dare. They are afraid to believe, because there is such a social pressure to be average, be passive, not to stand out. Saying: „I believe I can do something about it and I care!” requires a lot of courage. By standing out you always disturb people around you, because you remind them their own potential which they never use. You remind them that they have given up the opportunities to live a much more fulfilling life. It feels uncomfortable if someone shows with an example that actually no-one is a victim of circumstances and you can always choose your attitude.

I believe really good people will always find resistance.

Yesterday PAI from 86-87 Martin Bean, who is now the 3rd man in Microsoft corporation (http://www.league.org/2006cit/bios/bean.html) shared his story in AIESEC. To be honest I was almost moved to tears and still get thrills when I think back about the moment in plenary. It wasn’t necessarily about what he said, though it was extremly inspiring to hear him sharing what the leadership experience in AIESEC really taught him and what were the learnings he got out of it. But even more moving was to see a person who dares to stand out, be the one who cares about what is happening, who has a passion to change things, who really understands the personal responsibility each of us has and who doesn’t find some fake comfort from the thought: „Anyway I can’t change much and the bad things continue to happen with or without my effort to change something.”

Why should a person care anyway?

I believe that in the end it’s all about your personal happiness. Everyone wants to be happy, so everyone is looking for means to do it. We all have an inner need to be happy and the happiness comes through meaning. We all want to have a meaning in our life, so we are attaching it to something - have more money, have a beautiful girlfriend, nice clothes, impressive career etc. Quite often they happen to be things that in the end doesn’t give us the meaning we are looking for and make us feel even more empty and disappointed.

Real meaning comes through serving.

How do you feel when you have made someone elses day? Remember the feeling if someone is really grateful for you because you said the right words on the right time or did something else helpful for the other person. Do you know the great feeling if you have felt really useful and you know that without your unique contribution in this very moment nothing would have happened?

Now compare it to the feeling you get from getting compliment because you look good or the inner satisfaction you get from the idea that soon you will have a payday and your salary will arrive. It’s also great, right?

But what does feel better – the admiration because you are a good speaker or someone gratitude for changing the course of someones life because of your authentic and sincere words? What does feel better – having a lot of friends and being popular or sensing that the conversation you just had with another person was something so meaningful and needed for she, that she almost started to cry?

You have a million of opportunities to live a meaningful life, if you only care.

So in the end we should just care about what is happening around us, because it makes us happy. I mean authentically happy, happy in the truesest sense, which is not determined about the conditions and events happening to you.

Living a life with a meaning, finding your own true inner strenght and path you should walk requires belief and courage. I can’t express quite clear enough how happy I am I once made a choice to join AIESEC, to face all the challenges I have had here, to be forced to discover my own potential I had no idea about, to be surrouned by people who dare to believe and have a courage to stand out.

Moments from IC

2007-08-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

It has taken more time than expected to update the blog from my side. This text was already written at the second day of IC, meaning 2 days ago, hopefully I manage to write more soon. Keep yourself posted also through IC Live live.myaiesec.net

22.08

IC has started! I’m sitting in HP internet cafe and writing a quick update about what has been happening so far.

Today is actually the first day of 9 day conference left to go. Altogether the conference lasts 10 days, but as yesterday was wholly dedicated to opening the biggest event in AIESEC network, it’s referred in the agenda as „day 0”.

So what happened yesterday? We started with our internal opening plenary, which is growing every year as the network has already reached the benchmark of 100 hundred countries (and growing). All the countries could convince others during 1-minute roll call that they are the coolest, greatest and most extraordinary AIESEC country. Our delegation improvised in previous evening a traditional dance with a traditional song in the background (greetings to all helle-helle-leelo-leelo-song fans) and educated the global plenary about Estonian history with the fact, that we got our independence back 16 years ago.

After the opening we headed to Global Village, which astonished me already last year with the vast diversity of cultures. Making the world tour by just walking from one table to another is something so unique, that I don’t have a right word for that. Everyone has brought something from their native country that distinguishes them from others, willing to share what they are all about. The world becomes clearer and clearer, you start seeing the patterns how we all are connected and what makes us different. The Global Village gets it’s true meaning at IC and not only in the culture-fair, but also throughout the conference in sessions, conversations an any other connection with other delegates.

The evening ended with official ceremony with speeches from our PAI Gabiza, representative from Turkish Supervisory group and our global partner HP, Turkish MCP Candost and the CCP who has been working together with her team on the conference almost 1,5 years. We also saw a performance from a world-class dance group Fire of Anatolia. During the ceremony we heard at least 4 times that IC is now officially opened, so this morning I woke up with a clear understanding that this must the the truth and today it’s time to start working. Jiihaa!

The chair this year is Pedro Santoz who was the PAI in 2003/04 and decided to chair IC mainly because his vision about AIESEC was always making things happen – which is exactly the vision of this IC and also the vision of the whole year – generation of achievers making it happen. Seems that the organization is now ready for this mindset and we are anxious about seeing results, tired of only knowing things on the paper or not understanding the strategies in a simple way. I’ve noticed that besides Estonian MC vision – keep it simple and make things happen! – also other MCs have a similar vision. For example Colombians are connected by „Make it real and keep it simple!”, I’ve also seen similar sentences on other MCs T-shirts.

Before IC officially started we also participated Study Tour in Istanbul and spent 3 days in our CEE GN pre-meeting. During the pre-meeting all MCPs spent one day together, from which I’d like to share some glances. Everyone was sharing with Gabiza the things we’d like to learn about and also our favourite learning barrier, which means in simple words – what keeps me from learning.

Examples of MCPs lavourite learning barriers:

- I already know that

- I take in charge

- I’m not interested, I don’t think it’s useful

- I don’t have time

- I’m actually satisfied

- I need to do it in a perfect way

- I should know that (I pretend to be competent)

Many greeting from here, hope to bring it back to you as much as possible,
Marjam

I'm a CEEtizen

2007-08-19T12:09:00.000-07:00

How is cool to feel yourself like at home! :)
I have realized how I was missing for this spirit, for this filling, for this emotions, for there people :)
now I'm again feeling myself like a CEE member.
I'm really proud of to be from CEE, one is a strong GN, one of the ambition GN, one of the hard working GN.
I really respect Maik (AI Director 05-06), Jarda (AI Region Director 06-07) who made a lot of for CEE, for countries, for people. Now our AI RD is Inav from Columbia who really loves us, our culture and potential. He has passion to our GN.

You have to fill this spirit ;) (following the link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD62nSpHxQ4&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Flive%2Emyaiesec%2Enet%2Findex%2Ephp

we'll bring it to you!
Inna

Merhaba!

2007-08-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

We are currently having the 2^nd day of the CEE pre-meeting and we have still one day to go. On Tuesday there is the day 0 of IC meaning the open Global Village and other openings (both inside and external) are going to take place.

For the first 2 days all of us from the IC delegation and also Marina attended the Study Tour in Istanbul. We saw many interesting and beautiful places of this huge city. There are actually 11,008,790 inhabitants and it’s area is 1,538,77 km². For example we visited Hagia Sophia which is famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Also Grand Bazaar which is one of the largest covered markets in the world, Dolmabahçe castle (served as the main administrative center of the Ottoman Empire from 1853 to 1922) and other mosque’s and places.

Yesterday was the first days of the pre-meeting and it was about sharing the realities of the countries, understanding the timelines of all the 25 countries (extension included), getting to know the CEE GN board, becoming CEEtizen etc. Today we went more into our projects and co-operation points. The EnterCEE program was re-launched and I’m very proud that all the 3 LCs in Estonia are participating in it. We also went more deeply into the topics connected with CEE. For example with TM people we were thinking about the agenda of EnterCEE conference, other groups talked about matching, ER, tracking etc.

I have met a lot of new people and to my surprise I also have a lot of old acquaintances here present. For example the OCP of Study Tour – Melih – attended the CEEMOS/CEELDS 2007 conference in Estonia and I was VP delegates then of that conference. Or the Baltic Energy 2006 co-facis Tiger, Petra and Slavik. Or Rita from Latvia who is in the OC finance team. I’m extremely glad for seeing our Estonians who are abroad here – it is just great to be ablt to talk with Deniss and Helena, share the differences of realities and remember old times. It’s a small world.

I’m missing the cool weather of Estonia and the smiling eyes of you all. To keep yourself updated what is happening in IC check out the IC Live page here.

Always yours,

Kadi

Getting ready for International Congress

2007-08-15T04:58:00.000-07:00

Today we are leaving to IC, the biggest conference in AIESEC network. During little bit more than 2 weeks when we're going to experience greatest cultural diversity coming from 100 countries, understand better global strategies, build a strong network with people all over the world, get to know new AI team and interact with our global partners. It's great.

Right now I need to finish with my to-do list and packing my bag. In reality I'm in a hurry and doesn't have too much time for wondering how great it is to go to Turkey.

I exchanged EUROs for the fee, I have never taken so much money out of the cask machine before. Did you know that the maximum amount you can take out is 10 000.-? So to have 30 000.- in cash you need to insert the amount 3 times. Now I have in by bag new shiny EUROs and I feel a paranoia towards people. I guess we'll divide the money between us.

We have set the rules inside of our delegation. Nobody misses a single session unless it's important for AIESEC Estonia (it's actually a rule for you - if there are urgent e-mails, we'll reply them). In case someone really needs to miss morning plenary, it's allowed 2-3 times during the 2 week conference, but we all let Marjam know. I guess I'm not going to miss a single one.

I see IC as a big investment for AIESEC Estonia, both money- and time-wise, so we all plan to take maximum out of it. For that we have set clear expectations what we really want. There is no better place to network and learn from other countries experiences than a conference where you have 600 aieseccars together, most of them with long career in organization and deep knowledge about their function.

Having good and meaningful conversations is one of my personal goals. I want to learn about things we can improve in AIESEC Estonia - develop heading for the future stage, see if there is somewhere a good case for personal development track. I also want to share what we have already great here - we have alumni fund, great national strategy, excellent usage of funds etc.

I also want to see very much other MCP-s and other friends from conferences, who have become good friends of mine. Knowing people who understand your experience and live a similar passion for your daily work is fulfilling, I get much out of such friendships.

I and others as well are going to keep the blog alive, so come back regularly to read about our adventures and learnings from IC. Also check IC Live, where other delegates leave their photos and videos and where you can see what is happening is sessions, what are our partners telling, see world famous alumni and interact with other aieseccars.

Enjoy,
Marjam

Building conferences

2007-08-07T00:23:00.000-07:00

My 2 first months as the MC VP TM and the transition before have given me a LOT of new knowledge about a variety of topics, it’s quite an empowering feeling to know that this is just the start and I’m facing a challenging and exiting year ahead. One of the interesting experiences is building conferences from nothing. Sitting behind the table or on some nice grass and creating something, something that will impact the lives of the delegates and facilitators, and ofcourse not to forget the OC and agenda team.

One of the coolest experiences in my quite short agenda creation career was the Baltic Energy 2007 agenda creation. There are three people in the agenda team – Deny Lithuanian MC VP TM (originally from Slovakia), Kuba Latvian MC VP TM (originally from Poland) and me as the agenda manager. We have some kind of special synergy between us – we catch some word which one of us says and build on it, we complete the thought others have, we help to spell the English words in our own languages (yeah – somehow Estonian, Polish and Slovakian languages are with similar pronunciation of the letters), have loads of fun and manage to be effective and totally creative.

At the MC Lithuania office in Vilnius

I never imagined that conference creation can be so cool – you just start adding the bits and pieces, calculate the time, think out what is useful and necessary for the delegates. And you know what – this year I would really like to be a delegate myself, I’m just soooooo exited looking at the agenda. We did a great job in my mind as we created a theme for the conference – it’s going to be a treasure hunt, spiced with pirates and Caribbean feeling. Everything is according to the topic – session names, simulations, party themes etc.

Some challenging times are ahead as currently the faci application is open and the best ppl have to be selected, lot of communication with the OC, virtual prep of the facis is going to start in September and then in one heartbeat the pre-meeting, conference itself and post-meeting is following. If you want to become part of this experience and become a faci at the Baltic treasure hunt then click here to download the booklet and application.

Baltic co-operation rocks. I’m really looking forward to seeing you in Energy 2007 in Tartu, Estonia.

Many sunny hugs,

Kadi

Big changes are made of small changes

2007-08-06T09:27:00.001-07:00

Every year the whole management board in all AIESEC countries and entities changes. This is so usual fact for us that we can forget that is actually behind that.

It’s a huge change, especially in national level where you are dealing with lot of legal responsibilities and working with great variety of stakeholders in a professional level.

The better the preparation from the last team the more effective the new team will be. Besides the transition you need all the outputs, documents with learning points about different events and periods of time, mind maps with responsibilities, examples of different documents to understand the past, agendas and preparation materials, budgets, project concepts etc. All these need to be organized in a logical order, of course and you need to do the same for the next team (if you care that your achievements are not lost, of course).

From MCP perspective the beginning also means a lot of legal issues that you need to take care of. During first months you need to visit numerous institutions to register and re-register people – bank, insurance office, mobile company, lawyer, Business Registry, Migration Office (if dealing with foreign MC members).

The knowledge you got from your predecessor is great, but it’s not enough to really understand the situation in details. So you need to meet personally as many stakeholders as possible to first introduce yourself, then discuss the past and more importantly – develop ideas for the future. By „stakeholders“ I mean our strategically important partners, umbrella organisations, funds who are supporting us, other co-operation partners.

Through these meetings a lot of extra value is developed both for AIESEC (and for yourself personally, as you will get a great network of people), very often new project ideas or innovation inside of current projects pop up. A random example from June when me and Inga had a meeting with Tehnopol, a business incubator and innovation centre. Their proposal was to start organizing more Klapid eest! events in company rooms and if needed drive people with special Klapid eest! buses to the spot. Currently we are developing the idea into new Klapid eest! dimension – practical entrepreneurship (more about that in the future). Also they are offering opportunities to promote our exchange program to the companies in their building.

If in companies people usually change one by one and you rarely meet a situation where the whole management (or whatever else) team changes at a time – then in AIESEC it’s quite a unique opportunity to practice working in a team where no-one has an advantage compared to others, everyone is new. Building the team culture and identity in the beginning is the foundation for the whole year. If you get some not healthy habits in the beginning and don’t ground your work on some universal principles you might lose a lot of energy later.

In MC we put a lot of effort on our first team days to understand what each of us wants from this year and especially from this team and coming from that developed the rules we all are following now, vision that drives us and values we feel connected by. All in all it has formed a culture in the team and has given us needed structure to work efficiently and not to put too much effort in trying to figure out what is the framework we are all acting in.

All in all I have to say that in MC you need all the past experiences you have. My years in EB and especially as LCP are showing their real results now. Among other things you need to know how to lead a team, prepare and run effective meetings, present AIESEC, be skilled in networking, manage your time, communicate with different types of people, see the big picture and be able to act strategically.

So all the big changes are made by small changes, the ones you make every day and that doesn't seem so be very big at the first sight. But after putting them together you end up with greater personality, unique skills, bigger network and stronger organization.

PS: Thank you for great AIESEC birthday! We enjoyed every minute of it!

MC male part hiking in swamps

2007-04-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

There is not just the same origin - coming from the small town Valga - what unites male part of MC team 06-07. Both Siim and Deniss love nature. And last weekend we went to the 2-days hiking trip to the swamp area next to Peipsi Lake (Emajõue Suursoo Kaitseala).

Here are some visual highlights of the trip, which was both relaxing and impressive.

Modest, yet beautiful and surptising Estonian nature is something, which we are really proud of!

The total area of marshes and swamp forests is over fifth (around 22%) of Estonia's territory.

The old wooden house we spent a night in

Heroes of the nature :)

Transition - Transition

2007-04-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

Helleluuja,

Pretty soon the "old" MC is leaving the place and the "new" one is stepping in the office...
For some people a sad day(the current mc), on the other mostly a happy one:) No matter the emotions, right now there are numerous transitions happening all over the organization, also in the MC.

Currently me and Inga are meeting every week and discussing about all the topics related to External Relations work and also about the role of MC. Doing it as practical as possible.

A great tradition by previous MC ER`s, are the dual meetings. We have done them with Inga for a while now. One of them is right here also. Me and Inga went to Saku together, to meet AIESEC`s fans there:)

People on the picture, from left: Inga, Kristiina (Saku Õlletehas, HR manager), Kerst (Saku Õlletehas, HR specialist and our alumni), Siim.

|Siim|

We know how to have fun - MC crazy hair party!

2007-04-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

Yeahhh!

There is a plenty of things we don't know how to do in our team.

But if there is one, which unites all of us, it is that we know how to have fun! :)

We proved it last Friday night, when we hosted "MC Crazy Hair Party". The dress code of the party was simple - crazy hair :) Ms. Pärn and Ms. Toms made crazy haircuts for themselves, for MC boys and for some more aiesecers, who cam to us.

Results was astonishing, as it can be seen on some of the pictures. :)

Mr. Säinas and Mr. Rutšeikov meanwhile spent many hours on preparing glourious session called "How to fail miserably or in other words how to be a loser?".

We had plenary time, we had group work and some elements of competition.

Here are some foundings of delegates about who is a true loser. We are not supposed to agree with all of them, but they can teach us some things anyway (in Estonian):

Tõeline luuser:

- Magab sessioonides

- Naudib enda seltskonda ja sära

- Ronib esimesel võimalusel lavale

- Ei tantsi AIESEC-i tantse

- Teeb moosist borsisuppi

- Tilgutab WC põrandale

- Prill-laua jätab üles

- Matkib Boratit

- Sööb vorsti

- Ei skoori! (kui, siis ainult aiesecareid)

- Kannab triibulist pluusi

- Kogub marke

- Tahab kakelda, aga saab alati peksa

- Omab arvutis pornot üle 5 Gb

- Parim sõber on ema

- Mõtleb terve tänase õhtu, kuidas ta homme juuksed lahti saab

- Üritab, üritab, üritab, aga ikka ei saa

- Üürib elu lõpuni korterit või elab juba 7. aastat ühikas

- 10 aastat autoloa järjekorras

- Elab emaga

- Tal on naine AIESECis

- On vait

- Musklite asemel on piim

- Ei ole kunagi exchange'i teinud

- Aeglane

- Kukekad ruudilised püksid

- Ei ole raamatuid käes hoidnud

- Sõidab 20. aastat vana BMWga

- Kannab sulgi või sarvi peas

- Ärkab esimesena konverentsil oma ruumis

And in the end - the old Chinese wisdom about how to be a true looser found and translated by Mr. Säinas and Mr. Rutšeikov:

How to be a true looser?

- Be a bitch.

- Kill small animals - don't care about anything.

- Tell others that they look ugly. Constantly.

- Speak about yourself. A lot.

- Take a lot of responsibilities and never finish them. Never.

- If you go out with your girlfriend, pretend that you forgot your wallet.

- Stink.

- Laugh at people. Especially when they fall down.

:)

How the MC went to the Learning Cycle...

2007-04-19T04:29:00.000-07:00

Our team once again discovered that it is a truly great project.

Thank you Klapid Eest! team for the great work.

MC team

A weekend with X

2007-04-15T11:47:00.000-07:00

The secondary heroes of the weekend - El padre Siim, Denissula

The primary heroes of the weekend, with some missing:)

The Crazy Hair Party

2007-04-12T06:53:00.001-07:00

Place: MC apartment, Akadeemia tee 5 –410
Date: 20th of April, Friday
Time: 20.00-…
Dress-code: hair

This year there have been several parties organized in MC apartment. To refresh your memory:
1. There was “It’s up to you” party in October. It was a hit party through the years of MC teams in AIESEC Estonia – there has never been so many participants in so small area J.
2. Men, discrimination party – The male of AIESEC Estonia gathered to talk about football, women and beer
3. Women, discrimination party – The female of AIESEC Estonia gathered to share the gossip and to mark down the competencies of ideal men.
So the MC 06/07 knows how to party and how to organize the greatest parties ;).

If you have been there, then you know what it is about…If you haven’t been there, then it is your last change! Yes, this is right – This will be the best, craziest and also the last official MC 06/07-house party.

This time it is all about hair – Make your hair look the craziest ever and you will be the hit of the night.
We have also prepared a punishment for those who are afraid of messing with their hair.
This is to give you a hint:

Off course this is AIESEC and we can’t have an event without learning.
There is going to be a learning circle about – “ How to handle failures and make them to be your success” – Hear all the mystery that has happened with the MC members this year and be ready to share your stories.

Why is it good to be in MC team 2006-2007

2007-04-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

Recently we had discussion about why do we enjoy working in our team as it is. We have compiled the list of these things.

So, why is it good to be in MC team 2006-2007?

Because...

...we all are normal cool people

...we share the vision about development of AIESEC in Estonia

...we are reasonably professional and working hard, yet all appreciate humour and some randomness

...there is free and easy environment in team

...we have trust and respect towards each other

...we are trying to help each other by reasonable amount of criticism

...we have synergy in the team – we reach common solutions without unnecessary long arguments

...we have open and honest communication with each other

Yeah baby Yeah

2007-03-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

Amazing people around us!

I am nearly finishing my year in AIESEC, i can feel it already – hair is growing longer, some extra pimpels on my forehead etc. I have experienced so much in this year, so many stories, so many pictures.
A very exiting part of my work, like i have stated before, are the meetings with company representatives. Truly amazing people, who are around us, just a bit more special than usual. Amazing, because all of them are ambitious, open-minded and professional.
Some great people i met in the last week.

Kati Kusmin, the chariman of the board of Kalev Chocolate Factory. We had a cool meeting discussing about her memories about AIESEC, when she was a student. Also talking about opportunities we offer for companies. Amazingly friendly:)

Kairi Tammaru, the personell specialist from Ehitus Service. We had a meeting in tehir office in Lasnamäe. She was talking about the challanges that they as a company are facing and that they need really good people all the time. At the same time she asked a lot of questions and was ver interested in our doings. Amazingly curious:)

Anu Press, member of the board and HR executive in Kaubamaja. We were meeting in „Kodumaailm” in the chocolate cafè. We spent an hour talking about their future plans and expansion plans in the near future. I was also sharing some great stories about @, like @xp, the competency model our BoA etc:) She was open for new opportunities, at the same time thinking about the companies goals. Amazingly professional:)

ER rocks!

Picture: Our new NST ER support!

MC Team day

2007-03-23T01:58:00.000-07:00

This is to give you idea of MC everyday life and what usually happens behind our closed doors, during our meetings.

On Sunday 18th of March the MC team gathered in Kristina’s (Köömne street) place to have a serious discussions and some fun as we always to. We started at 11.00 with Deniss presenting us the agenda. We started with discussing the things that are in our agenda till the end of our team. Then we had a long discussion about the projects development day in LCs…we had so good idea to make it on 7th of April, until someone of us ... workaholics…suddenly realized that this is the day of Easter and probably no-one wants to work during Easter. After some Siim`s nasty jocks we continued with serious discussions…
With brainstorming of who could be the chair in National Planning Conference (NPC). We come up with about 4 names – some alumnus, some current members, some women some men :P…Deniss will approach them and hopefully we will have a really cool chair in NPC.
After that we went to lunch. We tried one very ghetto Korean restaurant in Paldiski mnt, but at the end we still decided to go to lovely coffee called “seevald” (madhouse).
And after that we went to shop and brought a couple of “kartuli vahvel” (Estonian chips) – The favorite food of all the MC member. We can disagree with many things in our team, but if there’s something we all like then its definitely “Kartuli vahvel”…our true partner all year a long.

When lunch was over we continued with serious discussions. We discussed about Transition – personal and team one; conferences in next term; team priorities and functional priorities and at the end the most interesting topic – our team. Had a long discussion what every one of us likes in the team and what we don’t like. At the end we were all still happy, because there is the needed randomness and fun in our team what makes it special: Siims nasty joceks, Deniss` naivity, Herdis` randomness, Kristina`s sarcasm.
Our evening ended in MC apartment watching the new cool reality show “Estonian is looking for Superstar” and targeting the new members for next year.

If you want to read more serious output then you can find it here:
http://www.aiesec.net/members/ai/estonia/file-storage/download/2006-07/mc-meetings-outputs/MC_Team_Day_output_18.03.2007.doc?file%5fid=57160836

Feeling after having MC applications released

2007-01-03T12:54:00.000-08:00

Lately, there has been a very special moment during my MC term - I released MC 07-08 applications. I had feeling like one of the parents, who is sending his child to university. This child is still here with me, but I know that soon there will be other people influencing him more than me. I feel very good about it, because I know that it will be good for the child. At the same time, there is also strange feeling of little sadness.

Today I got e-mail from one girl from abroad, who is interested in applying for Estonian MC. She asked several questions and one of them was:

"How would you describe your MC experience till now... Please don't
tell me general things... I know they are true, but what I want to
picture is the small pieces that make that general picture, the big
one! I would like to know some example of situations, events, moments,
that had an impact on you!"

I would like to quote here reply I wrote:

"I will be sincere. My personal vision, which I put into the words, is "Every day of my life, I want to make myself and other people around me smile. I want to make people having smile on their faces because they feel good, because they have a-ha moments, because they feel self-fulfillment. These smiles should be there because of my meaningful activities, my behaviour and my attitude. I follow my personal principles and never refuse of them in any kind of situation".

Working full-time in MC gives me opportunity to put my vision into reality every day. I wake up at 7:15-8:15 and I feel good. Because I know that I am going to MC office and I will be dealing with highly meaningful things. Meaningful for me and for the others.

You asked for the situations, events and moments that I would highlight. You know, it's pretty complicated task. The difference of MC from LC or EB level is that you don't seek motivation in certain events and situations, but it just becomes your life-style. I would compare it with relations between two people. First, they are in love and whole their relation is based on emotions, on romantic events, on first touches, first kisses. But then they are entering another stage of relations, which still has a lot of romantic and intime moments, but what they really appreciate, is rather mutual trust, appreciation and understanding.

That's similar, when you are entering MC and start to work full-time for the organisation you tuly believe in.

I don't know, if that helped you. Surely, there have been many great moments during my MC term.
My election.
Selection of MC and NST team.
Getting to know that Estonia won the bid for CEEMOS/CEELDS.
Entering MY office for the first time.
Moving together with the MC team.
Meeting with Baltic MCs in summer.
Team evenings at IC in Poland.
Being faci at EuroCo.
All the meetings and talks with other MCPs.
Being chair in Slovakia.
BoA meetings and meetings with some of our external partners, which have broadened my horizons tremendously.
Satisfactory feeling of achievement, when I have completed my plans.
Getting recognized by my members who say that I am a good leader.
Meetings with my mentees, which gives me great feeling that I can really impact individuals....

And a lot more.

You are right - you need to have small pieces of puzzle in order to have the whole picture. The beauty of being in MC is that you really see the big picture and you are starting to care about the whole of it much more than about smaller pieces. "

That would be my answer to any question "Why one needs to go to MC?".

A picture from MC life :)

Am I the crazy aieseccar?

2006-11-03T06:43:00.000-08:00

I have been in AIESEC for almost 4 year now and I have never felt that I am the real aieseccar.
When I joined @ I joined because of the idea not because of the people. I even promised my self that I will never become so “crazy” - people wearing ugly close were there was written AIESEC on it, people listening bad music, people dancing awful dances.

Now after 4 years I find myself wearing the AIESEC clothes, bag and probably even more things if I `d have them, and not only in @ events but also on my free time.
Right now there is Tunak Tunak playing at my play list and this is not the first time I listen the @ music outside of @ parties or conferences. And noon is forcing me…The music just makes me feel good. Few weeks ago I was watching TV with my non-aiesec friends and there was a movie and @ song playing in the movie – believe it or not, but I started dancing the @ dance. Of course people looked that I was a little crazy, but it didn’t disturb me!

All these things have made me wonder what has happened? Have I changed or has @ changed? Or have we just changed together and with each other? Are the new people looking at me with the same skepticism as I did 4 years ago? So if you are reading it and you have answers, then you can comment it, because I would really like to know…am I really becoming the crazy aieseccar or not?

Kristina

Constant proving myself

2006-07-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

As a president of AIESEC in Estonia I have to prove myself, my abilities, my skills, my intelligence. Constantly. Every day.

Having around 70 members behind me, all of whom expect me to have answers to whatever questions they have; having very smart people in my MC-NST team who are constantly challenging me as a team leader with their feedback, with their questions, with their comments, with their attitude; having external people for whom I am the face of the organisation and who may be sceptical about AIESEC at first…

It all puts quite a high pressure on a person. You just cannot afford yourself being weak, not knowing answers, being late, not fulfilling your promises.

At the same time, as a trainer in European Youth (euroopa.noored.ee) I have to prove myself as a person who is able to create learning room for whatever people I have in front of me – from 16 to 26 years old, from hyperactive to the ones who do not say anything, from positive optimists to big sceptics. All of these people are expecting professional training to be delivered. It is not AIESEC, where you can always say that you are still learning…

But I am used to prove myself. In fact, I have had to do it for a long time already.

Let’s take the high-school time. I had rather late physical development and started to grow just when I turned 16-17. So, I was the smallest and the skinniest boy in the class who had troubles with his health and was the weakest in the sports. I hated myself for it.

I went for athletics training. I did sports four times a week for three years. Once I became the first one who crossed the finish line in 1500 meter run in my class. It was THE achievement for me.

As I was small and skinny, the girls didn’t take me too seriously. I was just a funny nice guy for them. I was suffering because of that as any teenager in this age.

I went for classical dances trainings. I danced for 1 year and finally I could dance better than other boys in our high school.

I was a good pupil who got good marks. I had an image of good boy. I hated it. I started to be some kind of hooligan. When I was 16-17, I tried everything possible which is not for mentioning in this blog. Some guys from my former gang are in the prison for a long time at the moment…

But let’s look further – university time. As a guy whose home language is mainly Russian and who graduated Russian-speaking high-school, it was not that easy to study in university in Estonian and to be accepted in community, where general opinion about Russians is not always too positive.

I had to prove myself again. I studied Estonian grammar in addition in the evenings to be able to express myself better. Later on I worked in Estonian newspaper and news agency.

When I was 18, I could not speak English, as I didn’t study it in the high-school. But majority of the materials in my faculty were in English. I took additional courses and studied it in English.

I am able to keep my blog in English now :)

There are many more examples like that. I am sure everyone has had such moments.

But what unites all these moments for me is that I could prove that I CAN do it to the others and to myself.

I hope that I will be able to prove myself as MCP this time as well.

It is not easy though – constant trying, failing, succeeding, trying again…

But one thing is sure – applying for and getting position of AIESEC Estonia President’s has been one of the (THE?) most right choices in my life so far…

It’s good to be an MCP!!!

/Deniss/

The way we do things we do...

2006-07-17T00:17:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Few days ago, sitting in the office, I was trying to pull myself together to get things done and go home. But there was no progress, I was just thinking about the vacation which is a month away and how tired I am of all of this...

Then I had to recognize the good old truth again - we do things we like with much bigger enthusiasm and passion and better than things we dislike. Then I remembered a chat with Deniss some time ago - we both agreed that people should do things they do because they like it not because they must. In some point I decided that I want to live this way and do only things I like and even if I totally dislike some task that I must do I try to find some part that I dislike less :o) I have a theory that this way the result is better and I enjoy everything I do more (isn’t it obvious?). People who know me know also that I’m not a ball of joy bumping around everywhere :op and I have low-periods as everyone does. But according to my theory you just must suggest to yourself that you want to do things you do and motivate and predicate your actions yourself enough (you may call it also spontaneous brainwash :op) to start enjoying things again – and the theory works!

I’m writing to you it on Monday antemeridian period. At the moment I love my job, (again? :o)) things I do in Aiesec and I’m ready to kick off the week.

Hopefully I just wrote it down and you all already knew it but some things just are time after time worth to remind…

Learn to enjoy!

Regards,
Elina

Welcome the new era...

2006-07-05T04:34:00.000-07:00

Heia,

It seems that i am the first hounored MC member who has the change to contribute in this blog - cool:)
First of all, some facts about myself, because i bet that every member of @ Estonia is not familiar to me or my doings.
Name: Siim (you can call me Kallis or Darling:) )
Age: 67 - 47 =
Feet nr: 43
Height: 1m 89 cm
Position in @: VP External Relations
Best position: from behind or on the pizza
Hobbies: occasionally reading, sports, world poilitcs, self discovery(not only in a nasty way)
Best feature: my current apartment

That much for me personally:)

I have a really though month behind me, most of the team also. I have been sitting in the chair, where the former ER sat, for 23 working days. I looked down and "yes" it is already shaped as my butt.
Besides that i have experienced already very much. I could not actually believe that it is possible like that. I know that in the eyes of the reader it might be the same words on and on, like lots of things in @. Because of the AIESEC Experience itself we hear the excat same words coming out, when the WOW effect hits us.
All in all, to give a more clearer picture of what i mean under "EXPERIENCED already much", let me describe a moment.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is evening. The sun is already pretty low, i can feel that it is getting hotter by minute, because the curtains don`t hold sun back anymore...
I feel a bit annoyed, it is uncomfortably sweaty. I have been here for a week now and it is Friday - thank god i can get out and wash myself soon.
I feel that i have done a lot, but still the question pops in my head "What did you achieve this week?". I am starting to reflect, while the room gets warmer and it is starting to reduce my concentration capability. Few higlights come in mind and i analyze the sense in them....
I feel that breathing air becomes harder by second - again the warmth.

The concentartion falls like a sweat drop from my forehead, i can`t bare it. While i am reflecting, i get a bit nervous. So many questions pop out about the tasks i have to do. I can not seem to find even a single answer - another drop falls from the tip of the nose...and another...
I find myself pouring a tear, my first confusion/AIESEC tear i believe...
I feel desperate, again a tear and no answers. I can not even remember the question anymore - confusion.
As i feel that i am not capable of deciding anything, i look at the time: 18.49. What the hell are you doing here Siim? Only one answer appears: go home:)
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I am mostly not a very sensitive person, except if women are invloved. But this moment swept the feet under me for at least for the rest of the evening.

In the end, i really hope that my feet are beeing swept for a year at least:)

In the morning i found myself stronger than ever, no worries, no confusion - only ambitions.

/Siim/