I wish to tell you how we greeted the upcoming 2007 year and told goodbye to the memorable and, for sure, happy 2006.

Our party started on Saturday, Dec, 30 when we all came together to buy food for the celebration. You may wonder how shopping may be a beginning of a party, but after the first time you go shopping with crazy AIESECers you'll realize that it is. Any shopping becomes fun rather than a chore. But, well, let's come to the New Year Eve and the first day of the New 2007 year.

BTW, many thnx to Olya Kudinenko and her parents for hosting and feeding us:), Katyusha for her unforgettable pie and cake, and our New Year tree and Alyona for our contests, logistics (you're a napkin genious:)) and music.

When we came together at 10 p.m. on Sunday all we needed to do was just to serve the dinner, create a New Year Tree and find a way not to miss the President's speech and celebrate the NY.
There were 9 of us:Alyona, Katya, Slavik, Olya Kudinenko, Anton, Vitalik, Oksa, Maks and me, spending that wonderful night together.

After almost missing the first minute of the year:), we danced, played cool games (you should have seen Alyona showing "automation" and me - "Mentos":), Katya working as an artist, our boys having a nice time taking clothes-pegs off our girls and other amazing unforgettable moments). We ended up playing "bitches-bitches" around 5 a.m. and then singing and chatting in the cozy kitchen eating that superficial French-Soviet meat :)

Our second day of celebration was no less enjoyable. It started at around 12 a.m. (hah, not really a time to start a day, but it was Jan, 1 ) when we finally tried the second half of that enormous amount of food we bought and decision-making on what movie to watch and where. After 2 hours of dressing-ups, jokes, chats we decided to go to Brovary:) Yes, it was an unexpected decision for all of us, but Maks was so convincing and hospitable, that we could not but agree.

We had a wonderful time watching "Zhara" at the "Terminal" and then meeting Anechka Tkachenko andOlya Kuplivanchuk, who decided to celebrate this New Year in a train and chose Odessa-Kiev and then joined us in our trip to Brovary. Since we had almost 1,5 hrs before skating, Maks invited us to his place, where we had a wonderful lunch thnx to his parents.

Well, this is how it was: amazing, outstanding, memorable, enjoyable. I hope, you all also had a cute celebration.

Cheers!
Olya

It has been a long time since I posted here last time. But now I'll try to rehabilitate;)

You may wonder why I decided to write about my EB team. And even called it "living" rather than "working".


The answer is as easy as it follows: on January, 1 it will be exactly 6 months since we became EB - current and 9 months after our elections.


6 months.... 184 days... 4416 hours... 264 960 minutes... 15 897 600 seconds...

Working in a TEAM of absolutely different people with a common dream. Working in a mosaic of personalities, professionals on the greatest endeavor - to develop AIESEC in Kiev, to attract here the best people and ensure they get the best experiences possible.

Together we passed through successes and challenges, became almost a real family with our own traditions, jokes, stories, memories.

We started with planning. I guess, the most exciting period any EB might have: the time when you create the vision of your LC in several years, at the end of your term, choose the road you will take, learn to cooperate with each other, learn each other's differences. yep, when I come back to those crazy summer months with those planning-LDS-recruitment meetings 7 times per week 3-4 hours long I can say that they were among the best in my whole life. At this time you also learn to be a "executing body" - you get accustomed to the new level of responsibility, here you can really "feel" how the decisions you make influence the development of your LC, how important it is to be a role model, and how fast and much you need to learn to be able to deliver knowledge to your LC members.

Oh, I just finished that paragraph and recollected that the very first thing we developed as a team was the code of conduct within our team, within our LC, anywhere and any time.

Anyway, coming back to the beginning of my term... our term... It was not easy. We went through an intensive process of determining the main challenges for our LC, motivating members to work and research for those wonderful projects we have now, creating the culture of our LC and at the same time developing our own plans and organising one of the biggest national conferences - LDS in a new innovative way:)

Then we had recruitment... a cool one-in-a-lifetime process. The time when you can really "feel" changes in your LC. You create an image of the people you wish to see in your LC, you plan how you will attract them, you run AIESEC Days, Discussions Clubs (thank you Lena!!!!, our dear DC Coordinator:), interview them, prepare LTS for them, then go to Adapchak with them and for them, plan and run probation period, select them, then New Horizons, then they are your members. Well, it seems so easy and quick in just 2-3 dozens words. In reality, it takes the whole LC the whole piece of energy to manage all this. Thank you our dear oldies, thank you for your support and understanding, thank you for your sincere wish to bring the best poeple possible to our LC!

At the same time you continue working on your functional direction and prepare education for newies. You work on your own, in pairs, in small task forces, bring the resluts of your work together and then develop what later becomes an innovation in your LC, a new partner, a new approach.

However, maybe one of the most important things we had throughout this span is our DEAR LC. Yes, without you, we would never be doing what we do now, without you there would be no sense to work, without you and other some 800 LCs around the globe there wouldn't be this organisation activating leadership called AIESEC, without you there would be no point to be professional in this organisation, attract top talent and help them find the way in this orgnasation and outside it.