May 1st was MC Day in Amatitlán!!!

MC Survivor infront of a huge traditional candy box in Amatitlán.

MC Survivor was finally able to get together for the day and have spend some long over due time together outside the office, outside of MC meetings. We went to Amatitlán Lake just outside Guatemala City to a house on the lakeside and we got to go out on a motorboat and actually went over our national goals in the shade of a huge tree, went to a local fair, ate pizza at this crazy little fair stand and overall had a great day together!

Different views of the lake.

Luis Mario gave us a briefing of the lake and its residents.

This was the tree where we "parked" the motorboat for a while and went over the National Goals...

After that we went for a spin around the lake and everyone got a chance to steer!!

The former Exchange Task Force team:

After we got back to the house, talked for a while about our priorities for these last couple of months and packed up all our stuff, we headed out to the local fair hoping to eat and go on the Teleférico (i.e. cable car or aerial tramway) over the lake. But there were literally over a hundred people in line, so we decided to walk around the fair instead!!

Here are Pancho, Luisma and Elisa with one of the Teleférico's red cabins in the background (going over the street).

And then it was finally time to go home, but unfortunately there was traffic, so I kept myself busy taking more pics...

There is so much to share after any AIESEC International Congress, if you consider that IPM is where the new AI team is elected/selected, the Global Focus Areas are defined, international legislation is carried about and many other major global decisions are taken, there are to many things to share to be able to get them all into a blog post! But I will summarize and illustrate...

Spanish Speaking Growth Network!!

The highlights of the SSGN Premeeting in Cairo were: defining the 07-08 GN board structure, work groups around the budget, and the Ser Más Initiatives. And obviously reigniting that SSGN spirit with old and new friends!!

GLOBAL VILLAGE!!

The Guatemalan stand at Global Village was a one woman show this year!! Gave away bracelets, brochures, tiny dolls, Tortix (lemon-flavored corn chips) and Chiky's (chocolate covered cookies). Hope more Egyptians know that Guatemala exists and can hopefully find it on a map as a result!

Election and selection results...

Gabitza - PAI 07-08 !!!!

Juan - SSGN Director 07-08!!

All the Directors and VPs were selected for the AI 07-08 term, except for the VP X!! So this position was reopened. Extremely exciting to be in a room filled with MCPs all waiting for the final announcements and the ritual of drenching the chosen candidate!!

Other important decisions:

- Two new member countries: Tanzania and Pakistan!!

- 6 new official extensions: Gabon, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Rwanda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam

- countries where expansions were allowed to begin: Iran, Israel, Palestine, Oman and Algeria

- Italy will host IPM 2009

- Spain will host AXLDS 2008

There were many other decisions taken, and many, many more sessions, but these are a sample of the major changes that took place!!

AIESEC Egypt did an amazing job hosting the event, the BEST FOOD anyone had ever eaten at any international congress!!

CONAL (National Congress) was a success! It was our first congress after all the changes that have occurred and the outcome was excellent! We had time to bond again as a team, the members readily accepted the new PBoX structure and they created the second PBoX idea that we were hoping for during the congress! The delegates came out motivated, with clear roles and responsibilities to carry out. The sessions allowed the delegates to speak their mind, to question the MC, to learn from a number of alumni experiences. The OC did an amazing job! Legislation went much faster and smoother than we had anticipated, which only proved that the Compendium sub-committee team did a great job updating and aligning our national compendium to the international one!

We even got a new MC picture!

We also have to mention our chair - Hugo Diaz who did an amazing job motivating the delegates!! Here he is in the middle of his rollcall!

Last but certainly not least... we have our MCPe and 5 MC candidates!! The sessions (and chair) proved to be so motivational that the number of candidates tripled!! We are excited to present Nito Estrada the MCP 07-08 of AIESEC in Guatemala:

Here getting drenched by excited members...

and the five MC candidates that received a vote of confidence...

from L to R: Juan Pablo, Marcela, Lulu, Ahmid and Hans!!

Needless to say we are very excited and motivated to be working with such an amazing group of delegates/members!! Here are some more pictures of CONAL...

It's been a little over a month since our last post... so let me update you on what's been happening during that time!

Jan. 5th - at our first MC meeting of 2007, Renée presented her letter of resignation due to family problems beyond her control.

Jan. 10th - Special legislation was held for the National Assembly to accept the resignation and approve Elizabeth (MC VPX) has MCP for the rest of the 06-07 term.

Jan. 12th - MC 07-08 Applications were opened

Jan. 13th - MC spent the day giving an introductory session about the Ser Más program, PBoXes, AIESEC Identity to the newly integrated interest group in the Universidad Rafael Landivar.

Jan. 25th - MC 07-08 Applications were extended

Jan. 27th - National Congress Pre-meeting consisted of a PBoX simulation in the morning and legislation fair after lunch.

Jan. 29th - Were invited to take part in a Junior Chamber International (JCI) conference on leadership and motivation. 2 International JCI vice presidents were present and showed great interest in improving the ties between JCI and @ nationally and regionally!

Jan. 31st - MC members took part in a forum with other NGOs (including AFS, UN, Human Rights Institution, etc.) hosted by CONRED (a government institution) where we shared our proyect ideas for 2007 and initiated what we hope will be a wide and very strong national network of volunteers, resources, contacts and facilities.

That is in brief what the MC Survivor has been up to for the last month!

Our National Congress will be February 2-4!!! Will be posting pictures and news about that next week!!

Birthday Boy!!!

Sunday, December 10th was César's birthday!! He started the celebration on Saturday night with a group of members at a Colombian bar to make sure that he felt as at home as possible!! Then on Sunday, he got to relive his childhood birthday parties with a piñata!!! Daniel (trainee from Brasil) baked a delicious carrot cake for the occasion, there were firecrackers and even water balloons (courtesy of Daniel)!! Hope you had a good one César and may you have many, many more years to come!!

ARAZ in Guatemala!!

SSGN Director's visit!!

Araz visited Guatemala from November 27th till December 2nd!! From her first day here she had meetings with members from our BOA and SG, the entire MC individually and as a team, with the LC members, the OC for our first ever PBoX, and even with a group of past MCPs!!

Here's a picture of Araz with the entire MC in an elevator!

But she also got to see a little of Antigua as well as parts of Guatemala City...

(that's her in red)

She also got a new version of the Colombian kiss from our 2 Colombian guys... ;D

She even tasted the best nachos in Guatemala!!

We had a great time with you Araz, thank you for your enthusiasm, support, advice, and the resources and trainings you shared with us!