The transition

The time I spent in Rotterdam was very special. To be there and to work with most of my team members and also with Oriana, it was really incredible. I’m very happy with the results of our planning week and I'm sure that SSGN will do really good things this year.

Oriana is the current director for SSGN. She is an incredible person, full of energy and very competent. Probably the person that surprised me the most there (not that I thought she wasn’t competent, the fact is that I didn't know her before, I just met her there). She is the most active writer in AI blog (http://ai.myaiesec.net/), look what she wrote there about us and the transition:

“Here it to the new SSGN Board 06 07 (July 1st, 2006)
Besides giving transition to Araz, my successor, in the past weeks two very special guests for us and for AIESEC in Spanish Speaking Growth Network have been in Rotterdam to also receive transition and specially, plan as a team with Araz the way they will deliver on their role in the next year; these people are Filipe Balbi, Brazilian, and Piret Potisepp, Estonian with one year experience in Ecuador and the two of them are the full time members of the SSGN Board. Filipe will be managing the Corporate Responsibility Talent Development Program and Piret, the Social Entrepreneurship one, job that includes giving continuity to the so far called Explora Program, taking into to the next level.

The guys are working animals (yeah!) and I am sure they will move the GN forward, specially given the common understanding the we seam to have that GN initiatives are senseless if countries' key performance indicators are not going up because of them”.


Really nice, isn’t it? The problem is the photo that she used to illustrate the message:


I was really surprised when I saw this picture there. Now my fame as “Robertão Balbman Garanhão Tesudo” is spreading around the world… Imagine how many people saw that photo!

I didn't want to take this photo, you can see that I was embarrassed (as red as my t-shirt!).

Ok, I wanted to take it :P, but I never wanted to make it public like this. And she told me that the picture was only for fun, that she would not post that one in the blog (i'm so fool...).

There were some serious photos that we took only for this purpose (to publish in the blog), like this one:


Well, it is not exactly a serious photo… we were in a party, that’s why I have a beer in my hands…

Anyways… Let’s change the subject or I can complicate things for myself :P

(to see the original post in AI blog, click here: http://ai.myaiesec.net/2006/07/here-it-to-new-ssgn-board-06-07.html)

The AI Office

During one month, between June 14th and July 13th, I was in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for SSGN Board transition and planning. During all this time I worked in AIESEC International (AI) office.

To visit the AI office in Rotterdam probably is one “dream” that most of the AIESECer have. I’ve always wondered how it was and how the AI people were (they seemed to be soooooo distant when you’ve never been in an IC or at the office) and finally I had the opportunity to check it.

When I arrived there, after almost 20 hours traveling (flights and time lost in airports :S), my first thought was “What a chaos! The AI office is a mess!”. But then I realized that they had around 50 people there, working, when the normal would be less than 20.

There were there two AI teams (current and elected), and complete (no director in countries visits) and the Steering Team.

(And it got worst few days later, when the Learning Networks Drive Teams Meeting started… :S)

The office is really nice! It’s in the 4th and last floor of a commercial building and it takes the whole floor. It’s very spacious and clear. There are windows that take up two whole walls, so wherever you are looking there’s always a very beautiful view of the neighborhood (and it’s a great way to relax when you’re tired or when you simply want to have a privileged view while you’re working).

The desks are organized according to the job of the people, and they’re grouped according to their job. For examples, all the directors are near one of the others, all the ER team is together in one side of the room… They have also a meeting room, a library, one room they call “innovation corner”, one kitchen and toilets.

The library is the most interesting place in the office. Although it’s small and without windows, it’s worthy to spend some time there because there they keep some historic documents (for example, docs about all the ICs, since the beginning). One friend said in her blog: “It's really great being in the AI office; I expected it to be noisy and "million dollar contracts" being signed ;)”. I confess I expected the same, especially because IC is near and contracts are probably being signed now. But if it happened, I didn’t see :P (maybe because Peter, the VPER, has the best job in the world: during most of the time I was there, he was traveling around Europe to visit partners and do sales meetings). But the office is quiet, and I’m sure it’s really quiet when there’s only one team working there.

My team!

Hey you!

As I promised, this post is about my team mates in SSGN Board 06 07.

First, the Big Boss.
Araz Najarian.
Araz is Canadian, from Toronto, but she lives in Ottawa, the capital of Canada. She moved to Ottawa to go to school (I’m not sure, but I think she is graduated in social sciences… I will ask her and post here later). And in Ottawa she got involved with AIESEC.

She is in AIESEC for many years. She was LCP for 2 years, was on the CC team of IC 2002 in Canada, she was in Canada MC for 2 years, being the MCP in the last year (05-06) and now is an AI Director.

She is a great mix of several different cultures. Her parents moved to Canada from South Arabia, where they lived for many years. Her father is originally from Iraq and her mother is from Lebanon, and before that her ancestrals are from Armenia. And she dates an Indian guy.

Ah, and she loves Paulo Coelho. She was really surprised when I told her that here in Brazil Paulo Coelho isn’t considered a good writer, although his books are always best sellers. (I’ve never read any of his books… I think I will read one, for curiosity, to try to discover why people love him so much in many countries).

Piret Potisepp.
Piret is from Estonia, where she graduated as Food Engineer (the first I’ve met, I think). She is in AIESEC since 2002 (or 2003, I’m not sure) and during the last year she worked in Ecuador as MCVP Learning Projects. In Ecuador she created different projects and it qualified the country to receive a Regional Award this year.

Now, Piret is going to work with me in the Board as the “Social Entrepreneurship Talent Development Coordinator”, being responsible for all the projects based on this issue (Social Entrepreneurship) and managing the partnerships with Ashoka and Artemisia and Kellog’s Foundations.

Piret is a really interesting person. She seems to be weak, fragile, maybe because she speaks calmly and the tone of her voice is always low. But once you get to know her, you are surprised with her strong personality and an interesting sense of humor, so sarcastic that sometimes she is mean :P.

Piret is a great friend. She is very supportive, always ready to help you with the things you need and also sharing knowledge/information. And she is soooo funny! Rotterdam wouldn't be the same without her! :)

Other thing about Piret: she loves to eat! She eats a lot, man! You can’t imagine how much! If you ever have the opportunity to meet her, I can bet that she will be eating in the moment you're introduced to each other :). But the best thing is that she is so thin! She doesn’t seem to be the kind of person who is always concerned with the weight. I’m sure that many girls would like to be lucky like her.


Ezequiel Luberriaga.
Ezequiel is originally from Argentina, and now is in Venezuela working in the national office of AIESEC in the country as National Director of External Relations.

He was the last member to be selected, his selection happened when we were already there in Rotterdam and that’s why I don’t know him personally yet (I will meet him in IC, next August). But for sure he must be a nice person, because he is friend of Laura and Marife, two of the girls I love the most in my life.

[[Marife is from Vitoria, my city. She was in Argentina some years ago and worked as OC in a national conference in the country (before AIESEC Southern Cone). And Laura is one of my best friends in AIESEC, she is from Argentina and was in a CEED in Vitoria in 2005, when I was LCP (and we had great time together).]]

By the way: Ezequiel has sent these photos exclusively to post here in the blog. Thanks, dude!


The Board will have more 2 coordinators:
- Sarah, from USA and MC in Costa Rica in 05-06, who will be the Kellogs Partnership Coordinator;
- The IS manager, who is not selected yet but it will be or brazilian or colombian.


So diverse in origin, personal experiences and professional background, this people will be my team for this year. For sure it will be a different and interesting experience.

My challenge for this year

It was really funny... I went to the last AIESEC national conference (CONADE), in May 2006, imagining that would be my last conference. I was sure that I would become an alumnus (a person who leaves AIESEC after passing through the learning experience during some time), although I was really confused: I really wanted to keep involved with the organization but I couldn’t see opportunities to go further and take different responsibilities (as the election for the National board happened in beginning of the year) and I was feeling the pressure (or need) of having to do an activity which connections with my graduation course were more explicit (by the way, I study Law).

But in the conference I met Rita, a great friend, who was in the AIESEC in Brazil national board in 2004-2005 and was the former (current at that time) "External Relations Coordinator for SSGN" (region of Latin America, Spain & USA). We talked a little bit about her experience during the last year and about the changes of the organizational structure in the SSGN Board for this year. And I was really surprised when she "invited" me to apply for a position in the Board.

My first thought was: "Are you serious? But I wasn't even a MC member! I'm not ready for that" :) But she showed herself extremely persuasive (:P) and convinced me to apply. It was really nice to participate on the selection process. It's really nice to see how you can realize things about yourself with a simple interview or filling an application form.

My interview happened on May 31st and the result was released on June 2nd. Do I need to say that I didn’t sleep during these two days? :D It all only passed when I received an email with the subject "CONGRATULATIONS", with the results of the selection process. And I really can't explain how happy I was when I read it.

And all my plans for the next year completely changed: instead of stay in Vitoria and look for an internship in Law, I will continue in AIESEC for 1 year more, working with an issue that I really love (Corporate Responsibility) and with my motivation and energy completely reloaded. :)

ABOUT THE JOB
This year I will be the “Corporate Responsibility Talent Development Coordinator”. Sounds important, doesn’t it? :P This big name means that I will be the responsible for the Corporate Responsibility initiative in regional level. My job will have to focus:

• Internally, I will be responsible for coaching the MC teams towards the implementation of a long-term development plan for the initiative and for coordinating countries participating in the initiative;
• Externally, to be the external relations of AIESEC in the region in everything related to Corporate Responsibility, representing AIESEC in external events and directly selling the CR portfolio of products to the main companies in Latin America, USA and Spain.

To receive the transition and get prepared to perform the job, I had to go to Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, where the AIESEC International office is. Really bad, isn’t it?

On the next posts I will talk about the one month I was in the Netherlands, my team mates and the places I visited there.