NEC- AIESEC Indonesia New President!

Last Jauary, I was in Jogjakarta for 4 days attending National Election Conference 2014 of AIESEC INDONESIA. It was hosted by AIESEC LC (Local Committee) University of Gajah Mada, Jogjakarta. Along with my other teammates in AIESEC: Udin, Jodi, Faris, Aldila, Bayu and Molly. Unfortunately, not really many AIESECer from UMM who could be delegates of NEC because of the small quota. Anyway, we went to Jogja by bus which took approximately 7 hours on the way (duh! Another silly way to hurt my *ss). The reason why we choose bus was because it is cheaper than train.

Conference was held in this hotel.

I will tell you more about the conference. The conference was held in @HOM hotel in Yogyakarta. I think this was my 9th or 10th conference so far, and I wasn’t that excited attending this conference because there were only few delegates from AIESEC UMM. But from other LCs they have more than 8-10 delegates came.

 Another thing was that this conference mainly about President Election of Member Committee AIESEC Indonesia. So, basically I’m witnessing the process of the election. However, AIESEC UMM hasn’t allowed voting because were still in Official Expansion state. Entities that were allowed to vote at that time were LC Bandung, LC UI and LC Brawijaya because three of them were passed Internal Audit and became Full member LC. But the other entities were allowed to give questions to the candidates.

The candidates of the election were Ardian Widjaja, currently at that time hold the position in MC Indonesia as MC Director of Entity Development. The other candidate was Fandy Thesia, Local Committee President of AIESEC University of Indonesia. I didn’t really know both of them personally. I could say that I know them professionally in AIESEC. And both of them are great leader and AIESECer. They are also inspiring person.  I’m proud of AIESEC which creating future leaders for our beloved country, Indonesia. I believe, people like Ardian and Fandy will be a great leader in the future.

The election was hold in the second day of the conference. Unfortunately I was very sleepy during the election (my honest confession). I guess I needed more rest, because  at the night before, I slept really late and wake up so early.There were several sections of election process, such as: personal section, AIESEC knowledge section, General section, Specific Question, Panel Discussion, and The group discussion. Each section represents what type of questions given to the candidates. For example, if it is personal section, then each representative of each LC must only ask about their personal things. To ensure their motivation in life, to know what their purpose of life, to know their ambition, etc.

However, the thing that I like the most from the election process is group discussion. Here, one group LC and its member may ask some question to each candidate for certain duration given. So we can ask everything as we want. It could be personal, strategic, etc. We could know the candidate better. This section could be the most important section of all, because each LC will ask question that could be related to the condition of their LC.  So, every answer given could be correct or incorrect is depends on the group of LC itself.

All sections were finished, and then it was time for each LC to discuss their choice of who will be the next President of AIESEC Indonesia for term 2014-2015. That time, AIESEC UMM was only allowed to discuss with its own LC sister, LC University of Brawijaya. We can only suggest and give our opinion about each candidate, but we couldn’t vote. So, LC UB could consider our suggestion and also opinion. We would have democratic process of discussion. Whether it was UB or UMM, the final decision of whom was going to be chosen is depends on what we decided together. We discussed it together to decide who deserved to be president and had the opportunity to develop himself and also bring changes to AIESEC. (And here, I won’t tell you who was chosen by us, anyway. It was secret. And then, the voting process was begun. UB, UI, and Bandung gave their vote to the committee. The same like the usual election process, there were papers resembled picture of both candidate and the voters has to cross it.

While waiting for the counting process, all of delegates may have some party, we called it election party. Last year, there was no such thing. But I was glad that there was this year. That party was awesomely exciting. Did you know about schooling? Yes, it is a competition of fast drinking. Mostly people use beer. But since we are Indonesians, we would use cola for alternative.

waiting for the party

“I challenge myself to join this competition. It was time to get out from my comfort zone”. What I am saying just now was ridiculously true. There had to be a team from each local committee to compete with other teams. Each team consisted of three people. The rule of schooling is like this: the fastest team will be the winner. Who is finished their glass had to invert the glass above their head. Another condition must be fulfilled; the inverted glass must not contain any water or drop anything to the head. It means that the glass must be totally empty. The game was so fun, but our team was lost because we are not fast enough. And did you know? my chest was really in pain because I drank a lot of Soda. hiks IT'S PAINFUL AND FUN! 

After the Party, it was time for the Election Annoucement.... wohoooooooooooo! I was so excited. And the elected President of AIESEC Indonesia 2014-2015 is... DRUM ROLL PLEASE....!

Finally, Ardian is the elected President of AIESEC Indonesia. I hope he could really deliver his promise and develop his leadership potential through this responsibility. I'm happy for him and wishing the best luck for AIESEC Indonesia. I could feel the hype and enthusiasm of all the members that night which reminds me the moment when I was elected as the President. :') I admit, that being president of AIESEC UMM was the best experience I ever had. I promise to tell you my election story in the next post. 

Anyway, the conference wasn't end yet. We still have 2 days more. The next day, we have Member Committee Vice President (MCVP) selection. The procedure was almost the same like we did for President election. But that time, we had to select for Ardian's team member. Another honest confession, I was so sleepy. And the result of MCVP was announced directly that evening. The only MCVP who passed was Akbar from LC UPNVY, He was finally got his new role as MCD expansion. So proud of him. :') Later that night, we had another party, "Roll dance" Party. Wohooo..... Well, UMM delegates didn't prepare any dance moves. And Jodi came with an idea that we can just dance using Korean Music Video Clip "Jumping".  Okay... Korean Dance. We only had 45 minutes left for practice before the party. Until then, someone told me that AIESEC UMM got the first turn to dance. Whaaa....t?! But it's okay, we could do it anyway, even with some mistakes with the move, we were still confidence and dance well. The audience seemed excited with what we've done. (I wish I had the video) Since we had the first turn, we forgot to tell someone to record our dance. :'(

Knowing AIESEC

This might be little bit not-up-to-date story, but I swear to myself that I will write everything about my experience in AIESEC from the very beginning until now. So, of course the story is starting from the first time I know AIESEC until the current day I am writing this blog. However, I would not write down everything in one full article, but instead, I would do it separately with different title. It depends on each events and memorable experiences that had happened. For example, in this post, I will share a story when I firstly know AIESEC in my university.

I still remembered clearly what happened that day, when a friend, Bianka, told me that there is a small info session about international-level organization called as AIESEC in campus. First thought, It was a scholarship organization that could send you abroad freely but I want to know it further. In my campus, there are so many international opportunities and I thought AIESEC is one of those. The famous one is Erasmus Mundus, an international scholarship program that allows you to go study abroad through Europe countries. I know this program since I was in senior high. For more, at that time, I didn't really know how it was. And what I expect from AIESEC was also similar with Erasmus Mundus that also allows me to go abroad through scholarship program.

In fact, what I was thinking was wrong. The info sessions aimed to give a basic information and a brief introduction about AIESEC to my University. It is just established in my University, and it as seemed to be an event to find volunteers to be the first  members of AIESEC in my Univeristy. I wasnt really optimistic. But, I joined the info session and listened to everything about AIESEC and it was getting interesting for me.

AIESEC is international platform for young people to develop and explore their leadership potential. It has existed in total 124 countries with more than 86.000 members all over the globe. It is independent non-for-profit organization that focused in leadership and global internship and global issues. While the speaker was explaining, honestly, I was bit confused about. For me, it was a very new thing that I just know.

However, I got the point that AIESEC is not a scholarship program. It is beyond that, it is global youth organization than aims to create peace and fullfillment of humandkind's potentia by providing a platfrom for young genereations to develop their leadership and management skill. Shortly, AIESEC creates future leaders to make better world.

AIESEC internship programs are more likely to be volunteering activities, but it is focused in variant global issues. Global issues here could be anything that matters to certain countries or territories for example, poverty, education, health, and childreen. Moreover, they also have a proffsional internship opportunities. So, AIESEC sends students who are willing to participate to take a contribution to others through this two programs. They could choose one or both. ( I wont explain to long about these, will be toooo loooong)  AIESEC give us opportunities to explore our world and undertand our own world. By then, we will be ready to be a global citizen.

And then for the leadership program, AIESEC provides the members with leadership opportunities to implement what you have studied at school. AIESEC will let the students to manage all operational things inside the body, and provide the education such as conferences to help the members understand what they will do in AIESEC. These conferences are hold in certain cities, and countires. Each conference deliver different massange and purpose. At the end, AIESEC give a considerable contribution this a better society by creating another future leaders for next generation. And I think, this is a great chance for me to better myself, develop myself, but at the same time I contribute something that may create a positive societal impact.

At the end of the info sessions, I disscussed and questioned few things with the speaker. His name is Camelo from Columbia. He is AIESECer (the way you call AIESEC members) from AIESEC entitiy from his home country. He explains how AIESEC really important for youth to actually create something meaningful yet impactful to their society. He recommended me to join this organization and wish me the best experience ever.

I was then more confident to take this opportunites. I asked for a contact and asked them to call me if they have further information. I would be so glad to help. If it is something impactful that require a great commitment and passion, I want to be part of it.