General Questionnaire 1. Personal information Name and surname Nationality Country of residence Phone Number Email skype Year of joining AIESEC Current LC Current Position
Alexandre Benavides Silva Panamenian Panama 6755-43-60 alexandre.benavides@aiesec.net chande333 2009 UTP OGX Promotion & Communication Coordinator
Position(s) you are Webmaster & IM Coordinator applying for
2. Availability Do you currently work or planning to start? (if yes,how many hours per week) Are you an active student? (if yes, which year of studies) Number of hours you can spend for AIESEC work per week Are you available to travel between CR and PTY?(regarding your time,family etc.) Will you be able to attend COCAS 22-25 January 2011?
No. I’m planning to start working on March ( 9 hour per day) No. I’m only working on my graduation project. 40 hours. Yes. It will be easier before March. Yes
3. Experiences and Background AIESEC XP Area
Position
Brief Description
OGX
Promotion & Communication Coordinator
EPs Ongoing Recruitment NST AIESEC Greece
OCP
EPs promotion, exchange campaigns, OGX newsletter, OGX wiki design Recruit EPs for the 2011 Pipeline
Webmaster
Design of the www.aiesec.gr page, newsletter designer, coaching
AIESEC Conferences & Events Event, year
Country Panama
Role Delegate
Key Learning Points Leadership skills (SDL)
Costa Rica
OCVP Comm
Improve Marketing and Communication Skills, Working under pressure, team work
Panama
Delegate (Growth)
EB Understanding
Panama
OCP
Work under pressure, team management, team development
Peru
Delegate (eXpro)
New OGX strategies Learned how other countries work Multicultural understanding Effective Networking Good Case Practices Best Leadership Skills
Panama
Delegate (OPS)
Exchange flow understanding Things I need to know before leaving
Costa Rica
Delegate (TTT)
Teaching Skills How to face an audience Body language understanding
Panama
Faci (OPS)
Receiving feedback Interacting with EPs
2009,
2009,
MAX
2009, 2010,
2010,
ILC
2010,
2010, 2010,
Academic Background & Work Experience Studies/Area of work
Year of studies/Position
Your experience and how it might contribute to the position you are applying for
Electronic & Telecommunication Engineering Assistant Professor
2003-2011
I’ve been coordinator of several projects and I have an understanding of team work
2008-2009
Leaned how to send the message in several differents ways, so everyone could catch it
YOU AND AIESEC 1. Why are you applying for RST? What is your motivation? Because CAS is getting bigger and bigger every day. I’m amazed to see how fast we’ve grown since I entered AIESEC. Now we’re one of the biggest Regions in Iberoamerica. So I think one of the best ways to make it grow even more is by update and improve our website www.aiesec.org/panama , because this is the window to our progress. I was OCP from an EP recruitment and we promote this website in our flyers. The number of applicants increased considerably since our last one, and one of the reasons was the promotion of the webpage. I think the webpage is a STRONG tool that needs to be used in our recruitments, to get more partners, to keep in touch with our Alumnis, get more stakeholders and to extend our network. It can handled by working with the MC and every single LC in CAS. The thing that called most my attention in this position is the inclusion of IM. I simply LOVE to use the www.myaiesec.net platform and always motivate people to use it. The wikis I’m managing in the platform are always up to date and I receive several positive comments. I think this is the opportunity to make CAS increase the use of this tool, because I know how to do it.
2. Describe your three the biggest achievements and three challenges in AIESEC. Give the examples. What were your key learning points you get out of this experience? Biggest Achievements in AIESEC I. Successful OC Ongoing Recruitment (LC UTP): surpassed the expectations and structured a confortable EPs Pipelines for the next term. I also managed to work in synegy wotk the other OCs at the time creating a OC3 campaign. It improved my understanding of the need of recruitment by receiving feedback from the people we recruited. II. Successful CoCAS 2010 (CAS): I was OCP for this event and the work of the OC was praised. I’m happy to know that the members of my OC applied for Leadership roles after the OC has ended. So the development of my team was my biggest satisfaction. This experience developed my Team Work understanding. III. AIESEC Greece Webmaster: Changed the whole site design and improve his usability and filled it with relevant information. The site receives aprox. 70 visits per day. Challenges in AIESEC I. Give the EPs and future EPs a better AIESEC XP. II. Increase the IM performance III. Create a synergy between areas in the LC UTP, because the actual campaign “Dream Team” and “Money Maker” didn’t work.
3. Evaluate yourself in terms of the requirements listed on the JD sheet of the position you are applying for. Regarding the social skills, I’m a very communicative person (perhaps too much) and always result oriented since I’m a member of OGX, an area that it’s like that. About the Organizational Skills, I can cover all the requirements with no problem although I prefer not to work online all the time. And I can cover all the technical skills with no problem. Something I can add is my unlimited imagination.
YOU AND RST IN AIESEC CAS 4. What is, in your opinion, the role of RST in AIESEC CAS? How RST should work with MC and LCs? RST are the ones that help the MC fulfill their extensive JD. Working as a team, we could achieve this and so much more. RST should work not only with one member of the MC, but all of them. Also they should work as a team and not separately, as people may think. I’m working as an NST to AIESEC in Greece, and I’m IMPRESSED to see how united this team is. This is something I would like to give to my team. RST should reach members and not only LCVPs. It’s rare to see a RST working for a LC, this is something I want to change.
5. Based on RST structure in 2011, which is the connection between the position you are applying for and other functional RSTs? How do see the work RST as the team? I think my position is the one that need to work the most with the other areas, because the webpage is a strong tool that it’s used by every single area. I would like to put this structure in a wiki so all the members of CAS can see the work we are doing and inspire them. I want this RST team to have a gigantic promotion during this period, like the one I’ve been doing with the OGX team in the LC UTP. This will make the RST team feel healthy and motivated all the way.
6. What would be your unique contribution to achieve organizational goals of AIESEC CAS for the term 2010-11? What would be the legacy of your position to AIESEC CAS in the end of your term, in June 2011? I want to inspire people by showing all the work the RST as a Team has done. This is something that happened while I was working according to my JD in OGX. One of my tasks was to promote the EPs, and I’ve done it so well that ICX is starting to follow the lead of OGX. The legacy will be to keep the job Aldo Castro has started as a Webmaster and to help structure de area of IM. I really want to make an outstanding job for IM. Since I want to become a MCVP in
IM or COMM, I want to make it so
BIG that the others countries hear about it too.
Specific Questionnaire 1. Please evaluate AIESEC regional & local websites base on structure, functionality & content. What do you think should be the next steps in 2011? The AIESEC in CAS Website is well structured although someone can get lost in case you enter some parts of it (example: a local committee link). I think it’s VERY USEFULL, since in our committee during the Ongoing EP Recruitment, a lot of candidates acceded to it, and even one of them discover AIESEC surfing the web, and today he is a LC UTP EP. So it really does its job. The content is very rich, I have nothing against it, but it should be updated sometimes. The next steps should be rearrange the problems found by the people who have used it (the ones that gave feedback), update all the information, help the LCs build their Website ASAP, motivate the LCs to use the website in their promotion in the recruitment and to find more partners. 2. Analyze the current state of internal communication in AIESEC in CAS and give 3 strategies and actions for improvement. In my humble opinion, I think is not so good. One example I can give is the two new extensions that CAS are managing to get (Universidad Latina de Panamá & Universidad Nacional UNA). I don’t know almost anything about those projects even though I’ve written in the facebook page telling them to promote more themselves. One exception could be LC TEC, they are very transparent and you can easily know how they’re evolving. In case of Panama, LC USMA and LC UTP don’t have integration. I know that two projects were initiated but never ignited. This is a big issue. Since the first day I entered AIESEC I’ve noticed it. I didn’t know what was happening in my own area, even though I’ve asked. I find out that you have to be constantly asking members and VP to know if something new happened. This is wrong. Now I have the communication control in my area, and it’s so good and effective that any member of the LC UTP can see everything that’s going on with the EPs. I don’t receive newsletter from LCs in my inbox. I’ve searched for them in the system a long time ago, and only could find TEC’s. I think the MC newsletter are awesome, but we need to find ways to make people read them more often and to know how many are reading it. We need to talk to the LCs members and ask them what they want to see in the newsletters, if the LCVP Comms aren’t sending information to the MC encourage them or to find what’s new yourself. Strategies: I. Receive feedbacks from the MC, LCPs, LCVPs and members. Making a poll and asking them what they want to see and read in newsletter and other internal channels. II. Motivate LCVP Comm to act. People want to know what other LCs are doing. This is
VERY VERY III.
important. In many ways, this could INCREASE the CAS numbers, because you can easily get motivated seeing how other LCs are growing and you want your to be as good as it gets. I’ve seen this happen in small scale. Use the MC Communication as a role model to follow. This already is happening with the newsletter, where any member of case can get well informed. But we should approach to the LCs and say: “Hey, you can do this too, it’s easy” and give them coaching.
3. What kind of initiatives you would implement to increase usage of myaiesec.net by CAS members? I. Keep reminding members to subscribe to the newsletter. (Like the MC has been doing) II. Make sure all the relevant information is on the myaiesec.net and connect all the information in the wikis. III. As I’ve said before, the MC should lead by example. Let’s update our wikis, connect all the files to them, connect the LCs to them, and with this, motivate all the LCs to do so. IV. Teach the LCs a way to send messages through the platform using the Groups. V. Give some tips to CAS members to make the platform friendlier. Example: to save your log in information in order to access the site in one click. 4. How you wanted to ensure as RST that members of CAS will have the access to resources and knowledge that organization is giving to them? Talk directly to them and be constantly monitoring their actions. Send feedback forms to the LCVPs and know what they are thinking. I’ll be checking the wikis, news, classified, groups to see if they are using it. If they don’t, understand what’s happening. Something that’s very important, are the outputs. I’ve seen that LC TEC always give this information to their members, it’s something we should encourage other to do. Information is something that right now is hard to find. I can give an example myself, it coasted me too much time to find the main Exchange Wiki on CAS because some tags were missing. If you put the tags in the opposite order, people won’t find the information they need. I have an understating of that situation and have clarified some doubt to some members in my LC. We should check if the wikis and files have the proper tags. At last, encourage members in a LR to upload relevant information on the system, like applications. It’s more effective if you in an e-mail send the link to the file than sending to everyone the same file (some of them will never open it).
Competency Assessment Tool
THANK YOU FOR THE OPPORTUNITY