Signs you know the SONA report is cursed.

#1: The electricity goes off just when you click 'Save' and the usually reliable Word that recovers all files can't recover this one and corrupts it to hell.

This one time..at Nandos..

Warning: This blogpost will probably take up the entire page, but we deserve it - after today!

Today was EB meeting. We decided (through a neverending series of Gmail conversations) that we should give Taha a surprise today too (since his birthday was on Sunday) and do department allocation. So we thought we'd go to Nandos (even though some of us didn't want to)..

Haris, Rabia and Naveen were dispatched to get orange and blue balloons (we're branded, baby!) and head to the restaurant to grab a table. Sharmeen and I decided to 'distract' Taha, by first taking him to the MC office to drop off a letter, and then getting Emad to call him so he would be delayed at the entrance and wouldn't see the balloons.

Obviously, everything doesn't go according to plan..and Nandos had no idea what lay in store for them..

First, Emad didn't seem to be calling, and right when I said 'Taha, wait! I need to talk to you for a second', as we walked up the stairs to Nandos, his phone began ringing.

And he didn't come back.

And we waited, with the branded balloons.




Finally, a rather perplexed Taha (apparently Emad asked him about every possible thing to 'delay' his arrival at the scene) reached the table - and we all yelled SURPRISE!



That was just the beginning...

A stressful yet very productive EB meeting later, we decided to start with allocation. I distinctly remember it being around 6:45 PM.

And then the debates began. The endless scrutiny of members' priorities, discussions of LC members, capacity, plans, team diversity, past team experiences..

..and while Naveen, Haris and Sharmeen managed to finish off quickly...

...our lovely ICX VPs couldn't seem to decide..

..and time went on and on..punctuated by laughing fits, roll calls, the table next to us getting pissed because we got cake and they didn't, the waiters laughing their heads off when we made them sing happy birthday to Taha, and insisted his name was TeeDee...



...and our ICX VPs still kept talking and discussing..



Meanwhile, Naveen drew, Haris calculated the bill, I yelled at Taha and Rabia to shut up so I could 'hear myself talk', Sharmeen wondered why she was sitting there with a horrible flu..






..and by the time we finished, we realized we'd been in a meeting for 5 hours. We clapped, and believe it or not, two people sitting at the farthest end of the floor applauded too.

Nandos had no idea what hit them today!! :P

Taskforces!

Congratulations to the following members who have been selected for AIESEC Pakistan's Taskforces:

Sara Ahmed - PD (Planning Cycle)
Sharmeen Saleem - VP PD (Reception & Integration)
Taha Durrani - VP ICX Corporate (Membership Criteria, Pricing Policy)
Rabia Memon - VP ICX Development (Pricing Policy)
Naveen Raza - VP OGX (Pricing Policy)
Omar Khan - ICX Development / NST (Reception & Integration)

Best of luck! :)

The Future of AIESEC Karachi

Today, at GBM I decided to do a 'mini-experimental-peak-into-the-future' activity that I had read somewhere sometime back. (I'm not sure if it was aiesec.net, nonetheless it was totally cool!)

I had all the members present to create their own business cards from 2011. Quite far out eh? Then I asked them to introduce themselves to each other and talk about what they're doing. It was an awesome actvity, although they didn't have much time to think but they were very creative!

So here's a glimpse of what members might be doing in the next 5 years (although none of them mentioned AIESEC positions but when I was talking them they did mention how they got these jobs because of AIESEC!:))

The Induction Update

Everybody seems to be writing about the induction now, pointing out what we did and who attended, etc. But "everybody" consists of oldie goldies - it's time for some newie perspective.

*ahem ahem*

Ladies and gents, allow me to present:

The Induction Update.

Till now, we have had two sessions of varying degrees of boredom, euphoria, excitement and finesse. The oldie goldies may be old, but they have a lotta experience in dealing with large audience so hats off to them for not allowing us to sleep!


14 Days: Work-Two-Two-Two-Three

From what I have inferred, we're in for a lot of work! Only two weeks have gone by and the newies have met two int`l interns (Germany & Kenya/Uganda), had two sheesha sessions (Mr. M. Nawab's favorite AIESEC activity), and personally I've met three really interesting people (which I'll talk about in a separate post). Also, the OCVP applications are out and we're only hours away from being told that it's time to choose our portfolios.

Aaah, portfolios, now that's something I've really been wanting to talk about!


Portfolios: Hounding-Options-OCVP

Inititally when I was subtly hounded by our existing OCP for NLC '07 about joining AIESEC, I thought the organization is about "human resource exchange" and I wasn't so keen on that. But I'm glad I joined AIESEC and found out that there's more to it than just exchange (insert respectful gesture here for Sharmeen & Sara and Haris, Hussein & Rahim - you guys totally blew me away with your presentations!). So my initial list for preferred portfolios has changed totally, and of course the OCP for NLC' 07's presentation about the OC wasn't half bad; good enough to get me to download the form and be the first candidate for OCVP.

So it's 3.04am PST - nearly 9.5 hours to the second GBM (I hope there aren't any icebreakers!), where we'll be told further about portfolios and other things which have yet to make sense to me.

But in the words of someone famous from some famous scene/movie/song:

Let the games begin...!

Induction: Session Two! :)

Yesterday was our second induction session and it was fantastic beyond words! The simulations and presentations were brilliant (am so very proud of the EB!!) and Haris' hospitality was just overwhelming - we not only had sessions in his supercool basement, but he arranged for a fabulous iftari and we're all really, really thankful! =)

Exchange Simulation - with our very own Wangari!


The coolest fountain ever! ;)


Rahim, Haris and Hussain - A special mention for the ER guys, they 'sold' their portfolio so well I wanted to join ER!

Having an Awesome Time =)

So our first trainee finally arrives today =). Wangari is such a sweetheart! Its been a crazy day and so much fun! From the airport pickup to showing her the office and college :) to coming home and relaxing, chattin on and on =) and yeah of course the realization ceremony ;).

Were having an amazing time toghther. This is just awesome... AIESEC in Karachi's first trainee.. like a dream come true! We went out for dinner and sheesha, Wangari had biryani (traditional Pakistani food) and she loved it.

For more, take a look at the pics...

Wangari's in the house!

Wangari's here! AIESEC Karachi should definitely get an award for the best airport pickups - we seem to have a better blast everytime. This time around, we yelled out Wangari's name everytime someone came out from luggage claim, Taha counted how many people had left (and how many petals had fallen from the garland!), we all asked Rabia if she was SURE Wangari had gotten on the plane..

Anyway, she may have lost her luggage, she may have had endless delays with her visa and passport, but she's here!!!

And the promised pictures..

I am just too excited at the moment. In exactly 9 and a half hours our first trainee "Wangari Wanjau" from Uganda will be with us. This is the moment I have been waiting for since the beggining of my term. A life changing Expereince Actually happens - Impact starts from now =). This is phenomenal. After the whole process which was pretty challenging (the raise, the match , the visa and the ticket =))I feel so good and just out of this world today. Cannot wait to pick her up from the airport. Will spend the next couple of days with her at my place.. I am sure we will have a blast!

More Updates as she comes.

Our first trainee is flying in tomorrow!

Our first trainee, Wangari, is coming to Karachi tomorrow! After endless visa/passport hassles, she's finally coming - all the way from Uganda! I just spoke to her as she was about to get on her flight - she's coming to Pakistan for a year and she's really excited about making new friends and working for Ashoka :)

More details after her arrival :)

Induction: Session One! :)

:)

Living the AIESEC XP!

Emad and Joanna - solving the 'puzzle'

Induction - Day 1

We had our first induction session for the newies today. It was an incredible experience. I realized that I had long forgotten what it was like to be a newie. After the entire session including presentations, the AIESEC XP enactment and the random chats with all the new members, I feel absolutely overwhelmed. Recruitment is an extremely exciting period but induction is even better =). I got to see so many presentations that I had not seen in a long time, presentations that make us realize why were in AIESEC today, what's our role in the organization and towards the society, presentations that actually revive our passion and belief.

When I looked around the room, I saw AIESECers full of excitement and curiosity wanting to learn more and more about the organization and their role in it, asking questions, discussing experiences of older members. It was an awesome feeling. I feel proud, fortunate and empowered because I am in AIESEC today!

Some of my highlights:

* AIESEC presentations and the hard work that PD had put into this session. Awesome job Sharmeen and Sarah!
* Newies Participation and excitement
* Taha and his excitement to "greet" everyone (ahem ahem)
* AIESEC XP Enactment
* MC Presence (Thanks for coming guys =))
* The Icebreaker
* The royal iftari :P

All in all, it was just amazing to be there today and I hope all of us can make the most of our AIESEC Experiences. Thank You Taha for all the arrangements :).

This One / The CEED / Puneet's Farewell Note

Puneet's just posted his farewell note to AIESEC Pakistan on his blog here.
The LC misses you too! :)