Candidature | IFMSA Vice-President for PR & Communication 2018-19

CONTENTS

TABLE OF Motivation Letter Plan of Action Curriculum Vitae

Motivation Letter

In a time when disinformation and manipulation of media take place all over the world, we have to make sure that we have a say on all the matters that affect us as medical students. We have to ensure that the joint voice of medical students gets out louder and clearer, more than ever.

Public Relations and Communication are all about that. But they are not easy.

They are not supposed to be easy, otherwise anyone could take on the tasks. You need to possess the skills for designing, webpage creation and management and, besides all the technical knowledge, you need to know how to manage teams, be a leader, and how to behave in a team. You need to contact relevant partners, to get communications in IFMSA going. Last but not least, you need to understand how IFMSA works, so that no misunderstandings take place. It can be hard to like Public Relations, as much adore it, but that happens when you tasted a bit of everything and still believe in the importance of this position in IFMSA.

I am José Chen Xu, from Porto, Portugal, recently graduated from medical school. I started my journey in AEFMUP, as a local officer for publications, image and communication. During that year, I began wondering how it would be like to work in a Standing Committee. Soon after, I became ANEM’s NORP. Towards the end of my term, I felt I wasn’t done with Human Rights. I needed to unravel more, to learn and understand more. A candidature for SCORP General Assistant was on its way. That meant I had to face publications again, but this time in a topic I was passionate about. I had the skills and I had some knowledge, but I wasn’t a master at managing teams. Doing my TNT triggered those changes in me and delivering 2 TNTs have given me the missing piece to understanding how to manage teams and to be a better leader. I had previously been in great teams in AEFMUP and ANEM but managing them was always a struggle for me, but not anymore. I learnt and I grew.

José Chen Xu . Candidature for VPPRC 2018/19

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During this year, I was able to take a step back and see the bigger picture.

I got the chance to work for the International Student Surgical Network (InciSioN), as their Vice-President for External Affairs, which allowed me to attend external events, such as the World Health Assembly. This gave me the opportunity to watch IFMSA from the outside, how IFMSA works with stakeholders and how it should align the internal and external work. Becoming a doctor also played a role in this – the importance of students speaking their minds and participating in decisionmaking processes, which can shape the future of Health on a global, national and local level. My experience in different fields gave me a broader view of this international federation, and after these diverse experiences I can honestly defend the importance of a strong image that IFMSA needs to show to the stakeholders, to reach and attract new members, and to provide further motivation to carry on their work. And after all this time, I definitely found my way back to publications.

Now, I feel prepared, more than ever, to take on this challenge. That is why I am presenting to you my candidature for IFMSA Vice-President for Public Relations and Communication ad interim for the term 2018-19.

As VPPRC, I intend to keep communications flowing as smoothly as possible.

To bring out the best of publications, and to strengthen of IFMSA’s image. To make things as interactive as possible, and to build capacity in this field to guarantee the sustainability of the position for the coming years. This will be achieved by working daily on IFMSA, to manage my team and capacitate them, as I trained many others before, bringing out their potential and further developing it. This will not be possible if the work is not coordinated well with the EB and the whole TO. I also intend to build an open communication with my International Team and the Standing Committees.

This way we can better support our stances and actively engage in the decisions that will define the future of the Federation and Global Health.

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Sincerely Yours,

José Chen Xu . Candidature for VPPRC 2018/19

Publications Online Platforms Media Contact Sponsorship

Sustainability Engagement Accessibility Teamwork

VALUES

AS VPPRC

PRIORITIES

Leadership

Plan of Action

LEADERSHIP & TEAMPLAYER Executive Board As a member of the IFMSA Executive Board, I am bound to some responsibilities. Having been EB Support Person in August Meeting 2017 and attending TOM4 in 2017 as an Observer gave me further insight of what it means to be a TO and an EB member. Being an EB member in InciSioN allowed me to better understand the responsibilities and gave me the ability to look at the big picture. Thus, some tasks entail: • Participate and conduct OLMs and TOMs; • Provide guidance and support to TO members; • Establish contact with relevant PR&C partners, such as TudioWeb; • Work together with the EB to realise the IFMSA Strategic Plan 2017-20, taking the lead in priorities related to promotion and visibility, as well as alignment of work; • Contribute to the decision-making processes regarding the future of IFMSA; • Maintain and update the GoToMeeting account calendar; • Collaborate with IFMSA Alumni as experienced consulting and advisory bodies; • Coordinate the logistical aspects of the Plenaries, providing technical support when needed; • Take over other EB tasks, if needed.

Accomplishing the IFMSA Strategy 2017-2020 It requires leadership to work and oversee what is being done and if that is in line with what we planned on a long term for our federation. Together with the main areas of responsibility, there are certain visibility-related tasks that I intend to carry out to meet the Strategy approved in August Meeting 2017: • Conduct a (needs) assessment of the Visibility of IFMSA with a marketing company; • Create a marketing strategy to tackle the areas to be improved regarding Visibility and Promotion; • Further manage the development of platforms according to our needs, e.g. Alumni Database; • Establish guidelines on updating online platforms; • Capacitate TO-members to manage Databases and the IFMSA online platforms.

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José Chen Xu . Candidature for VPPRC 2018/19

Team of Officials As a member of the IFMSA Team of Officials, it is my duty to ensure that the PR are delivered in the different Standing Committees and other EB-related areas, such as capacity building and external affairs, guaranteeing IFMSA’s visibility and promotion. As such, I have defined some objectives to be accomplished this term: • Participate in General Assemblies, and in Regional Meetings, if possible and/or relevant; • Build capacity on PR and database management within the TO and members; • Ensure the delivery of PR material for IFMSA’s activities; • Define, together with the TO, the structure required for the sustainability of PR&C and attend the needs of SCs; • Mantain an open channel of communication with the Team of Officials.

Public Relations and Communication Team The structure of the International Team needs to be revised, so that teams are efficient and, at the same time, sustainable. Having been part of International Teams before gives me some insight of how the work is, how it can be distributed and which are the requirements for each position.

Therefore, the suggested goals and objectives of the International Team for the upcoming term are: • Provide guidance and follow up with the tasks of the PR&C Team; • Ensure capacity building on PR&C within the International Team; • Assist the Standing Committees on publications and infographics, as well as videos and other materials they require; • Work together with other ITs to build databases, such as the Trainers’ database; • Fulfill other tasks that might arise.

In order to better coordinate the work developed by the IT, I will be conducting monthly meetings.

Other meetings shall take place when needed.

José Chen Xu . Candidature for VPPRC 2018/19

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PUBLICATIONS Publications are of utmost importance in IFMSA. It’s how we reach members, partners and stakeholders. In order to achieve a higher impact, we need to consider several means of publications, and their specificities.

Corporate Identity and Merchandising The Corporate Identity (CI) is one of the most important documents of the Federation. It allows IFMSA to convey standard requirements of any publication and, at the same time, it gives publications unity. I will work to guarantee that these Guidelines are being applied, in order to ensure the most professional look as possible.

Regarding Merchandise, as it is also contained in the CI, we should also take into account the best ways to produce these materials and in the most sustainable way, which would be done by assessing the Federation’s needs, the impact on the environment, and the methods of sale – the latter will also be discussed together with the OC of the General Assembly. All that is connected to Merchandising shall also be discussed with the VPF.

Medical Students International This is without any doubt the most important publication of IFMSA. Some goals and objectives defined are: • Keep working on vibrant, modern, space-sparing layouts; • Encourage all members to share their stories and their work to ensure equal regional representation of accepted articles; • Continue working on distribution formats (e.g. issuu), in order to ensure a larger outreach and greater impact; • Collaborate with the VPF on matters of release and advertisement of MSI.

IFMSA Newsletters The newsletter has an interactive format, produced with MailChimp, which is far from perfect but optimal for the current work. The action points related to the newsletter entail: • Reassess the current distribution format, periodicity and target audiences of the newsletter, as well as evaluation of its impact, looking for new ways to increase its reach.

• Ensure equal regional distribution of accepted articles.

• Collaborate with the VPF on the advertisement of the newsletter.

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José Chen Xu . Candidature for VPPRC 2018/19

Booklets, Manuals and Survival Kits Monitoring the production of IFMSA’s print and digital media is probably the most out-reaching and demanding aspect of the position. I will oversee the tasks to be carried out by the International Assistants of he PR&C Team, building capacity on designing tools if necessary. The main action points are stated below: • Collaborate with the TO to set a primary calendar of all booklets and manuals to be published, in order to ensure as little overlap as possible and timely delivery; • Coordinate the Publications Team in the production system; • Develop user-friendly formats of the most important documents, such as issuu, so that it can have a larger outreach; • Organise supplementary trainings and/or workshops in Publications and Communication to all members of the Publications Team, Team of Officials and other interested IFMSA members.

Other Publications There are other publications that are produced for Standing Committees, such as infographics, posters, banners, videos, amongst others. These are going to be carried out by the PR&C Team and discussed thoroughly with the SC Directors, so that we can guarantee that they follow the Corporate Identity Guidelines, and, at the same time, keep some flexibility. Some suggested templates can also be used to simplify the designing steps of the creation of infographics and posters, as well as videos.

José Chen Xu . Candidature for VPPRC 2018/19

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WEBSITE & ONLINE PLATFORMS Ifmsa.org is the main platform that our partners and members have access to. As such, it needs to be supervised well so that the layout stays innovative and professional, at the same time.

Regarding the social media pages – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, these have been growing fast.

Thus, thinking about new techniques to involve all members and partners from different parts of the world might be one of the aims to adopt.

ifmsa.org and related platforms ifmsa.org took a big turn in August 2015, but there are still some improvements to be made. It is of utmost importance to define aims and objectives for the upcoming term, to strenghten the external identity of IFMSA and ensure the safety of the content and protection of data displayed in our wordpress website: • Update the information in the website regularly; • Work together with TudioWeb and other relevant IT partners to define new ways to protect the data and content of the Website; • Ensure that the General Data Protection Regulation is respected within IFMSA; • Link the information on our website to the social media and vice-versa to increase traffic on both platforms; • Use smart tags to promote events and activities on the website, improving functionality and intelligence and making it user-friendly; • Manage and improve the Exchanges platforms and keep them sustainable, in collaboration with the SCORE and SCOPE Director; • Work together with the VP for Members to supervise the NMOs accounts in the Website, so that the information is updated and voting rights are attributed.

Social Media Facebook has more than 145k likes, Instagram accounts for around 12.3k followers and Twitter has around 20.6k. These numbers are impressive, and we need to keep working on increasing the reach and impact of our posts, so that we can ensure that information does reach our target groups. Thus, some aims and objectives were defined in this field: • Create a social media calendar to organize the posts and avoid spamming. This will also be discussed with the TO. • Create social media-friendly content – keep it short and simple, so that it can be easily understood.

• Oversee the IFMSA accounts and track them, so that we can guarantee and supervise the information that goes out.

• Continue working on the promotion of the IFMSA YouTube account, which gathers around 4.6k subscribers.

• Reassess the need of an online merchandising store and collaborate with the VPF on this topic.

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José Chen Xu . Candidature for VPPRC 2018/19

MEDIA CONTACT & SPONSORSHIP Public Relations are an important part of the Federation, as they allow to increase visibility and impact, and potentiate the interest of sponsors.

Role in Media The VPPRC is also responsible to ensure that IFMSA stays active and relevant in the areas we work on. Therefore, some defined goals for this term comprise the following: • Create and distribute Press Releases prior to our major events.

• Contact international media outlets so that IFMSA can publish articles about the work developed and our activities and events.

• Update the database of all press contact information.

• Collaborate with OCs of IFMSA General Assemblies, Regional Meetings and SRTs, by contacting local media outlets that would be interested in covering these events.

• Update the database of articles and news published in media outlets about IFMSA’s news and events, as well as making them accessible in Ifmsa.org.

Sponsorship The search for potential sponsors is not a one person’s job. Historically in IFMSA, this task has been assigned to different EB members. As an EB member, it is my job to contribute to the growth of IFMSA. Accordingly, the suggested objectives for sponsorship are: • Define a strategy together with the VPF and VPE on the matters of sponsorship; • Search for potential sponsors, and analyse the relevance of the sponsorships; • Apply the Sponsorship Prospectus created in 2016-17; • Conduct ethical fundraising; • Collect and share the sponsorship requests with members.

VPPRC, a consistent and sustainable position Since the creation of this position, it has been clear that the VPPRC is a hard position with a handful of skills and tasks that are hard to assemble and to be carried out by a person. Hence, it is my duty to mantain the position viable, which is more about the management of publications and communication. By the end of the term, the goals set for sustainability are the following: • Investigate collaborations that overlap with other EB positions and identify needs for improvement; • Rewrite, together with the EB, the job description of the position in a sustainable and functional proposal; • Prepare and involve the next VPPRC in a timely manner, within a mutually agreed timeline; • Contribute to an effective EB and TO handover in TOM 0.

José Chen Xu . Candidature for VPPRC 2018/19

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Curriculum Vitae JOSÉ CHEN XU DATE OF BIRTH: 01/07/1994 PLACE OF BIRTH: LISBON, PORTUGAL NATIONALITY: PORTUGUESE

CONTACTS R. Alto Monte da Luz 136 4400-359 Gaia, Portugal

+351 91 78 62 758

EDUCATION Integrated Masters in Medicine, MD Faculty of Medicine of University of Porto, Portugal Concluded: 31st July 2018

POSITIONS HELD • • • • •

josechenxu@gmail.com

• • • •

josechenxu

jchen-17

josechenxu

InciSioN Vice-President for External Affairs 2018 InciSioN Audiovisual Team Member 2018 SCORP General Assistant 2016/17 Plenary Team | EB Support Person - Voting Devices, AM17 Tanzania National Officer on Human Rights and Peace, ANEM 2016 IFMSA SCORP Public Relations & Communication Coordinator for World Refugee Day 2016 Local Officer of Publications, Image and Communication of LC AEFMUP 2015 Local Officer for Clerkships (CEMEFs) of ANEM 2015 Course Commission FMUP, Informatics Division 2012/15

TRAININGS • TNT in SCORP Camp 2018, Czech Republic (trainer) • TNT in PreGA, AM17, Tanzania (trainer) • TNHRT in PreGA, March Meeting 2017, Montenegro (trainer) • HRMP in Pre-EuRegMe 2017, Antalya, Turkey • TNT in SRT Alps 2016, Mariazell, Austria • TNHRT in PreGA, August Meeting 2016, Mexico • ANEM’s ‘XI MedSCOOP Projects Management, 2015 • Porto Academic Federation’s ‘X FAP Form’, in students’ representation, 2015

LANGUAGES

MEETINGS OVERVIEW

3

2

1

GAs

RMs

TOM

16 NGAs

IFMSA MEETINGS • August Meeting 2017, Arusha, Tanzania • Team of Officials Meeting 4 (TOM4), 2017, Casablanca, Marocco • EuRegMe 2017, Antalya, Turkey • March Meeting 2017, Budva, Montenegro • August Meeting 2016, Puebla, Mexico • EuRegMe 2016, Thessaloniki, Greece

NATIONAL GAs • 100th - 115th NGAs (2014-2017)

OTHER MEETINGS • 71st World Health Assembly, Geneva, Switzerland 2018 • Nordic World Health Organisation Simulation, Copenhagen, Denmark 2018 • Model of United Nations UP, Porto, Portugal, 2018 • II Course of Sports Medicine, Porto, as IT Coordinator, 2016 • Portuguese National Meeting of Associations’ Officials (ENDA), Porto, as IT Coordinator, 2015 • University of Porto’s I Networking Session Alumni, Porto, 2015 (OC) • I Med.Win, AEFMUP, Porto, as IT Coordinator, 2015 • Volunteer at Social Action Group Porto - G.A.S. Porto (2014-present)

Portuguese

English

German

Mandarin

Wenzhou Dialect

Spanish

SKILLS Microsoft Office Photoshop InDesign Illustrator Premiere Pro

Wordpress

HTML

Thank you for your attention!

Feel free to reach out to me anytime for questions, comments and suggestions. +351 917862758 josechenxu@gmail.com