So, with the recent excitement (some called it "drama") on the IJR election, of which I admittedly only have anecdotal information, I'm depressed on worried on the current state of affairs of JB. When I look back to the - ahem - ninetees, I recall juniors coming up with IPP as a new programme, creating working groups to change the educational circle, fighting for recognition of the IJRs by giving the best possible input in the board. I also remember a JB group that developed a JC guide and was later included in the village committee,and JB being the first structure in CISV to create regional co-ordinators, which became a model for all of CISV. A few years ago, I wrote an article (it may have been in the IJRs infoletter) arguing, that junior branch not only had a role in training youth, but was also a source of creativity and progressive ideas for CISV as a whole.
I strongly think IJB should stop being self-focused and try and regain its constructive role for the whole organization. CISV needs JB power so much, and its a shame so much energy is spent on communication trouble and, as it seems, a power struggle. Disagree, if you like, but I think JB has a much bigger potential. I'm confident however, that with James and Matteo, and after a hopefully successful reorganization of the the JB team, things will be moving in the right direction.
Hello Nick, and thanks for leading such a great team of reporters over there in Bali - I've been following the blog and the tweets, everything is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I seem to not catch the 'drama' part of what you're commenting on this post. Could you please share what this 'episode' was about?
Love, from an ex-IJR!
Maru
hey, so i agree in a way, that jb hasnt come up with any huge things like ipp really, but to be honest it was in 50 years ipp and youth meeting yeah?
ReplyDeletebut i also disagree in the way that i see ijb as a much more integral part within cisv. a lot of the great work jb does is just in cooperation with international committees (odc, isu, imc etc) such as having a common strategy with gps on how to help countries grow, or the isu project or everything around the cooperation with peace one day which are in my eyes still great projects that help the organisation move forward but maybe not as visible as creating a new activity (then program)
Hm, Paul, I think it's not about having to create more and more programs (btw, it was also Summercamp, Seminarcamp and JBX, wich unfortunately wasn't as successful..). I interpret it as a struggle we generally have in CISV sometimes - we're so busy with ourselves that we tend to forget what we could do, what great potential is there if we focused these energies elsewhere... However, like Maru I didn't get the Drama-part and also, I thought to myself "Isn't IJR-elections a drama every year?!?", therefore I can't really discuss the issue any further...
ReplyDeleteofcourse i was being a bit cynical with the creation of new programs, but my point was i guess that ijb has gone through a big shift the last years... which was yes focusing on itself, reevaluating its work and creating and using a consistent way of having yearly focuse on educational themes and training content areas...
ReplyDeleteat the same time i think ijb has made a shift towards being a more natural part of cisv especially amongst committees, my opinion is that there werent any huge hits like ipp lately because cooperation with jb has become more natural or "normal" so it's more of a consistent, continuous effort rather than big bangs every now and then
dont get me wrong, i would like to see the BANGS as well but im happy about the role ijb is playing within cisv and the role ijb has developped for itself, and im positive that ijbt restructuring will help a lot
I could not agree more with Nick.
ReplyDeleteI won't go deeper into whatever happened around the juniors, because I only have second-hand information - maybe somebody from IJB is willing to explain it better here.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to agree with Paul that it's not like IJB is revising their voting rules and sorting our power struggles ONLY. There is and has always been good stuff coming out of the JB work. Nevertheless, I think the juniors are selling themself too short - they could be doing so much better - and the energy spent on the mess around the election should have been channeled into positive outcomes.
Kudos to nick... I am with you on this too. Teo
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ReplyDeleteI think one of the biggest issues facing JB is the near-schitzophrenic pace at which changes need to be made to the regional and international structure, all without much forethought to best practices and the actual issues that might be facing the organization as a whole.
ReplyDeleteA prime example? The ARM Team. Having been there when change was thrust upon us in Colombia, I was reticent to accept the fact that change would fix the inherent issues associated with a still-unclear mission and goals. What happened? The new structure changed two years later, and was brought back to a very similar set-up as before, only with four RECOs instead of two, and there still isn't a solution to the burnout factor or how to best run the region.
There are many people that have argued that we need to look forward as a JB. I'd argue that before we can make that step, we must look at our past. If I had $1 for every time a "new" idea or initiative was introduced that had been tried/introduced before, I'd be able to buy the current 40 person team at least one round of beers.
JB seems to be very good at discussing our way around the problems we face, but sucks at actually addressing them and putting a solution into action.
Also...an IJR election without drama is like a Brazilian party without caipirinhas.
I see many good points here.
ReplyDeleteIJB is a playground and thus things will automatically change constantly in the structure and activity. It's a playground that allows juniors to experiment with volunteer work and with creating and developing organisational work.
However sometimes people need to be guided a bit by the "senior" juniors to also look outward and try to not just influence the structure of IJB but the whole organisation and all the activities.
But it doesn't always have to be the IJRs for example that guide the JB. Everyone can contribute and encourage and include JB'ers in every aspect of CISV...