BoA Management AIESEC Uninorte

Being part of a local committee in an organization such as AIESEC is a wonderful experience of uncertainty. Luckily one thing in AIESEC is certain as long as we want it to be, that is the Board of Advisors. As member of the Executive Board for AIESEC Uninorte I have had the pleasure to gather the Board of Advisors and to schedule all 7 members for a first meeting in March. Six out of our seven members of the boa were members in 2011, and after having only one meeting without follow up these members lost faith in our local committee. The first step to gather the boa in a first meeting was to re-invite members to a New Year, new vice presidents, new president and new commitments and expectations. The only appropriate approach was in face to face meetings, these meetings where scheduled before hand or just casual encounters in the University building and in every meeting we shared the new proposal for boa members. Luckily all members accepted and a seventh person asked to join as member too. Our new proposal was very simple: We invite you to be a member of AIESEC Uninortes Board of Advisors. We will have two mayor meetings where the EB and the boa will work together on the ongoing projects as boa members advise EB members and provide a generalized guidance. We will also be working on small groups; each group will have key boa members working with specific EB members. Work in small groups is flexible to more meeting hours and allows boa members to give deeper thoughts on specific projects that relate to their interests. Our proposal covers the two major buts when inviting a person to be part of any boa: time and follow up. The boa from AIESEC Uninorte works in two small groups: One group works on all affairs directly related to Universidad del Norte and the boa members involved are: Elkin Hernandez, Gina Pezzano, and Christian Bejarano. These three boa members are high end employees of the university and understand the administrative and academic procedures behind several requests we might have as a student organization. They work mainly on the OGCDP Summer Proyect and also advice on recruitment processes.

The other group works strongly on advising igip and igcdp giving advice on marketing strategies and networking. The boa members working in this group have had an important experience in the business world thus providing a better understanding of igip and igcdp possible markets. The boa members are: Dorian Martinez (he works in consulting in Barranquilla and other cities in the country), Jahir Lomabana (who is a teacher of International Business in Uninorte and had a previous work experience in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism), Maria Mercedes Botero (who owns a marketing agency that bases its studies on consumer psychology) and Maria Elena Bravo (who is a current employee at Coporacin PEP and had a previous work experience in probarranquilla).

Our first meeting with boa members was announced three weeks in advance, allowing all boa members and EB members to fit the event in their busy schedules. One week in advance we sent them The boa Member Booklet where the following information was available: Expectations, Requirements, Executive Board Members, letter from the President, Project name and description, and the agenda for the first meeting. We knew that our first meeting with the boa had to be perfectly planned, we prepared power point slides for evey point in the agenda, we chose a key place for the meeting with all the necessary equipment and EB members where ready fifteen minutes before the appointed time, this allowed for EB members to meet boa members before the actual meeting. At the end of the meeting boa and EB members where divided in smaller groups where projects were prioritized and further meetings among them were scheduled. Since we have only two major meetings the management of boa members is done directly by EB members working with boa members in the smaller groups. The small groups according to their convenience determine the follow up and I ask periodically every vice president how their work with the boa is going. Boa members seem pleased to be free to meet at their own time and for periods of time (either long or short) where their advice and input is truly taken into account because of the specificity of the agenda. Boa members expect one thing from AIESEC Uninorte: to be heard and then to hear about.

For more information you can contact:

Iliana Delgado Chegwin Life Long Connection Vicepresident 2012 AIESEC Uninorte nini.delgadoch@gmail.com