A Farewell to AIESEC U.S.

Hey yall, my role as a LIGER has come to an end, and my role as an Alumnus begins in a week. I’m completing transition and everything now, and I believe Rachel is going to be an incredible Marketing LIGER for AIESEC U.S.

Before I begin to talk about some opinions of mine, I would like to apologize for the times over the past year when my suggestions, tone-of-voice, and conversations have come off destructively. They didn’t help the situations, and often contributed to the problems in communication. I have put a bad face on my LC with these actions, and I’ve put a bad face on those who supported my attendance in subgroup and LTM. That being said, I would like to end my time on the national Leadership Team by making some constructive suggestions.

I wasn’t able to make it to LTM this weekend, but I would like to share my opinion on one of the subjects. The name LIGER should be changed as soon as possible. I’ve been studying Marketing as it pertains to AIESEC externally and internally. Right now, those who weren’t actively involved or very close to those actively involved in creating the LIGER structure often see us as a joke. And the truth is, the name “LIGER” was created as a joke. Appearances matter, and for most people who haven’t physically met us, the name LIGER is our appearance. Most people don’t understand what LIGER means, even if you expand the acronym out for them, and it makes the role entirely ambiguous. I heard rumor that the ACE will become another form of LIGER, and I highly, highly suggest that we rename all of the LIGERs to be ACEs. AIESEC Connection Expert, now that describes what we do, that gives us a better face to the members of AIESEC U.S. LCs, and will ultimately make us more effective.

I would also like to express the importance of communication yet again, and provide a simpler solution than the ones I’ve suggested and asked for in the past. I’ve been involved in a community recently where face to face communication aren’t feasible, but hundreds of people who are involved in the community want to know what is happening, much like AIESEC U.S. The situation became volatile towards the end of 2007 in this community, and things came to a head when people who were financially supporting the organization were about to back out. Finally, they came to a solution that required very little work on the topside, but brought everyone back together. They had a Community Development Leader, similar to Andrew’s role, and every month, he would post a long update on everything that the teams have been working on for the last month, and the changes planned and in progress for the next. This didn’t involve extreme detail, such as financial records or the hour-by-hour workings of the teams, but it gave everyone a fantastic overview of the work that was happening. The CDL also created a thread for people to comment on the monthly update, and to give their input. This calmed the community down immensely. It’s been 5 months since then, and the entire atmosphere of the community has improved in an incredible way. The top level and the bottom level of the community are working together for their betterment as a whole. In truth, a similar move to increase communication was made by FDR back in the day with a televised update that he called “The Fireside Chat”.

We are now cutting down the national Leadership Team to the LCPs, LIGERs, and national roles. This transition is likely to cause people to get upset because they will feel less involved, but we all know that having 63 people in a room is not the way to make decisions. At the same time, much of the time spent in LTMs is spent updating everyone on what is going on, and then those who are there are given the expectation of taking this back to their LCs. The issue with this is that the information that made it back was often incomplete, and may LCs never heard about what is going on because they couldn’t/didn’t send representatives. The solution proposed above is one that can make the transition to a smaller LTM easier, faster, and more acceptable to the LCs, and at the same time, one that can more equally and adequately inform the members of AIESEC U.S. LCs, be they nationally involved or only locally involved. It is also an opportunity to help build the leadership pipeline from the LC to the MC by bridging the communication gap. It also builds a working history as time goes on. Better communication, and working together as a whole, makes people more positive and more willing to be active. Active members spread knowledge of AIESEC through word of mouth, events, etc., and will bring more members and exchanges, both incoming and outgoing, to AIESEC U.S. and its LCs. All of this for a simple, monthly update email or forum post.

This is a long email, I apologize. I’m almost done. I really hope that AIESEC U.S. will become more than it has been, both in terms of exchange, and in terms of developing leaders. I hope to see the gaps between the international, national, and local communities bridged. It is not impossible, although I have found myself believing it to be in the past. We are still far from where we should be after 50 years, and we must encourage constructive innovation in our members in order to catch up.

I wish that I had a chance to redeem myself after my last volatile email. I feel that I have discredited myself in the eyes of the national staff for my outbreak. I am sure you have seen people act as I have before, and I’m sure you will see more. When you run into people like this, give them my contact information and tell them to get in touch with me. I will attempt to share my experiences with them and to turn the destructive arguments into constructive ones. My contact information is in my signature.

Goodbye, and good luck. Please remove me from the Leadership listserv since my time as a member of the LT has come to a close.