On a personal level, this is blog marks my first quarter as an AIESECer…..yahooo!!!! As if to mark the coming to age of the first quarter, one of the awesome AIESECers we are honored to have in AIESEC EGERTON left a sweet comment on our blog. By the way the roll call idea went well and everyone was turned on by the dance moves. Our 'choreographer' Bella did a nice job. The list of team leaders for every portfolio is now full(NTC) and to say the last MSS was cool is an understatement. Now we can state boldly that we have something to report home with regards to the website we have been working on. Matter of fact, we will be involved a lot in it's design and since the web designer is an AIESECer, you can only expect a hot website up online in around a weeks. Feel free to note the date today(23-03-2011).
We have also confirmed the price of branding a t-shirt with the AIESEC logo. We realized it made some sense to ask members to come with plain t-shirts and 5o shillings and the we get the t-shirts branded as opposed to buying new t-shirts which have been branded with the AIESEC logo. Most of the members argue that they have a lot of plain t-shirts at home and they would love to get them branded as opposed to buying new t-shirts. The option of new branded t-shirts has not been written of and maybe we might introduce a rule that all newees should buy a new AIESEC branded t-shirt before they are allowed to join AIESEC. Whether that will materialize is however for the EB to agree; and since I respect the pecking order, mine is to keep you all in the loop.
We have a super E+L project coming up on a national level. The idea is about entrepreneurship plus leadership. Youth who are between 19 and 24 years old(youth comprise of around 70% of Kenya's total population)will get an opportunity to participate in a mentorship walk alongside mentors who have done it and who are ready to share their experiences with these young people who have the potential to start brands which can make Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to go gaga!
While going through the documentations for the E+L project, it got me to wonder along the perspective of Entrepreneurs versus Leaders. It occurred to me that taking a leadership role is just the beginning of a long road/journey. To be a successful entrepreneur one not only needs to lead(being a leader) but you will have to be a manager, a sales person, an innovator and a lot more wrapped together with a ribbon on it. Like my friend Marvin who founded a social media company from scratch likes to say; "on the initial stages as an entrepreneur you have to eat, sleep and breath the enterprise you are starting up before the enterprise gets a life of it's own…."
Come to think of it, this is not bad at all because as soon as your enterprise breaks even and becomes sustainable you will get real and true freedom. This kind of freedom is the one very few people get to enjoy. The freedom that allows you to wake up at 4:00 in the morning not because you have to/are compelled to; but because want to.(Others like me prefer to sleep at 2.00 a.m and wake up at 9.00 a.m)
Another project which is in it's middle stages so to speak is the ASK project. Generally the ASK project is about HIV & AIDS sensitization and awareness to high school students and other teenagers in the society as a whole who have a bright future before them. But this bright future is under threat of being cut short or being turned into another direction if the youngsters make a single wrong decision. Nowadays with the introduction of ARV's people nowadays can rest assured that testing positive is not a death sentence. However this has in my opinion contributed to less sensitization about the scourge which HIV is. There is therefore a reason to revamp the sensitization campaign in schools as this is where the future members of the society are.
Maybe to conclude this piece, let me share with you all out there who might be reading this article and wondering 'should I or should I not invest my time in AIESEC?' well I read a tweet from @aiesec_moi; this is their advice…."AIESEC if for everyone but not everyone is right for AIESEC…"
On the national platform the IC is still on, and as AIESECers, we can take part in the sessions which are open to everyone like the 'global village days'. We intend to come up with a comprehensive calendar with AIESEC Kenya and Africa events which take place every year. This in our view will be in line with enabling our members to prepare before hand and be able to attend the events. A short notice is what has been blamed in the past for failure to attend the conferences. After noting down the events scheduled to take place this year, we intend to upload it online probably in Google calendars so that those willing and serious members can be able to check out the events and plan well.
Good news for the newees, the TL OGX managed to hand over a list of most if not all AIESEC acronyms which we use in our MSS's and which appear hard to understand at first. We will publish it so that you all can have access to this list and get incorporated ASAP.
In conclusion, the above updates are not exhaustive. Other super endeavors' like the Gentle Feet Walk have not been mentioned and the Switch project that we are thinking of unfolding in our LC. So don't make the assumption that the above is all/everything that our LC is doing.
Let's hook up later. Thanking you for taking time to read through the piece all in the spirit of being of an AIESECer.
-By TL, Comm. & IM 2011/2012
