PlanCo 2014

From July 5 to July 9, all of the AIESEC committees in the Republic of Macedonia were summoned to meet to discuss the strategic plans and budget of the organization for the next year and a half.  Thus, we all met in Velestovo, a small village in the mountains near Ohrid, and held out meetings at the mountain cabin of Red Cross.

Almost all of the committees were in attendance (the Specialized Unit President of AIESEC Tetovo was unable to make it since the conference was being held during Ramadan).  We arrived to the lodge ready to plan all of the major activities for AIESEC Macedonia for the next year.  The lodge itself was much more modern than I thought, and we had a beautiful view of Ohrid Lake to serve as our backdrop.  Macedonia’s Galichika National Park was also in our backyard, so we sort of felt like we were on a natural retreat.  However, these days were hampered by a few rules that prevented us from relaxing too much so that we could concentrate on the meetings and the strategic planning of the conference.  For example, even though Lake Ohrid was within sight’s distance, we were forbidden from descending to the lake to enjoy a swim.  Also, alcohol was prohibited during the duration of the conference.  Finally, meetings were held continuously from 9AM to at least 9PM each day.

The beginning of the conference was theoretical in nature.  We discussed again the “Clarity of Why” of our organization, and we painstakingly designed mission statements for our exchange and team member programs.  All of the delegates were also bifurcated into smaller groups to create business canvas models and SWOT analyses of AIESEC’s major programs.  Even though the first days were inspirational in context, it was also frustrating that we were unable to devise concrete plans for our committees.

By Tuesday, the second-to-last day of the conference, we were ready to put our theory into practice.  Much of our planning was centered around a new system that is being developed for AIESEC called the Global Information System.  Thus many of our procedures from the past years required remodeling so that we could adapt our business model to the new system.  While we started our planning for the Outgoing Exchange teams at 5PM on Tuesday, we did not finish discussing the activities, budget, and process for this part of AIESEC until 3:30AM that night.  Not only were we going crazy from the lack of sleep, but the room in which we were working was filled with flies, so it was its own version of hell.  However, we knew that we could not look back and steadfastly pushed through the planning.

Overall, PlanCo was a great opportunity to bond with all of the other AIESEC committees within Macedonia while coordinating our planning for the next year.  Even though we painstakingly planned our activities and processes to the most minute of details, now we are all aware and prepared for our responsibilities for this next year.  PlanCo has really set all of AIESEC Macedonia on the right foot for the next year, and now I feel more confident for these next few months ahead.