SoCoLDS 2008: The Leadership Revolution

This weekend, our regional conference was the best conference the Southern Comfort region has put on since we had our first SoCo RoKS in Spring 2006 in Jacksonville, FL. A number of factors converged to produce this perfect storm of AIESEC allsomeness.

First, our LCs have sufficiently built and maintained this year. UGA is coming back into their own in a strong way with nowhere to go but up, and Appalachian and UNC have grown explosively, while Atlanta has stayed strong as usual. Also six partners in change from AIESEC DC came down. Thus, the delegates capped off at 107 people, the most we were able to have for the event. The rooms were perfectly sized to make this number of people pack the haus, which in this case happened to be the Country Inn & Suites in Charlotte, NC.

Second, our OCP Nick was a baller with his team, even if the registration opened late due to circumstances outside of his control. He had everything under control and his party planner, Jessica from UGA, put on by far the best RoKS party I've ever attended, and others were in agreement.

Third, Atlanta's own Arcadiy "2 Hottiy" Kantor was the conference manager, trained at International Trainers Congress 2008 in Kiev, Ukraine earlier this year - the highest-quality AIESEC conference for trainers and facilitators in the world. He put together a faci team, including Atlanta's own Thomas Wehner, Katie Sassaman, and Rob Hazelwood that set a whole new standard for the quality of facilitating a regional conference in the United States. As a side to this, no MC member was able to come down to represent at the conference. While I find this unfortunate as I was looking forward to Naoufel gracing us with his humorous and lovable presence, it is nonetheless remarkable due to the success of the conference. In the past, the national staff's presence was largely only effective to police, curb, and often castrate our sessions which we worked so hard on (most memorably Ben James' "The Business of Flirting") and to hand out propaganda for us to read about business development and the exchange programs. This time, we put on an amazing conference completely FUBU.

If that was a little too long for you to read, I'll just put it in math / code form:

Atlanta.rep = ++;
SoCo.rep = ++;

Go big or go abroad.

Traineeship Rocketship: (n) [trey-nee-ship rok-it-ship]
Origin: AIESEC, Madisonian

(1) The act of taking that immense step off the AIESEC platform and into another country, experiencing life in another culture, meeting incredible life-changing people, and discovering and developing yourself to become a change-agent with a positive impact on society.
(2) The act of going big and going abroad.
(3) How to become an AIESEC Rockstar.

So what is SoCo without a little GT?

We came, we saw, we conquered.
Way to build and maintain, ladies and gentlemen - let's take it to the next level.

RoKS on the horizon

AIESEC US: 1 (Michelle Schiffrin)
Appalachian State: 17
Egypt: 1 (Ma'andi!)
Colombia: 1 (trainee in Miami!)
George Washington (D.C.): 2
Georgia Tech: 34
Illinois: 10 (omg TWO Nishas!)
Madison: 2
Missouri: 1
Miami University of Ohio: 7
UNC Chapel Hill: 26
University of Georgia: 10
Yale: 4 (including a CEED and a trainee)

~116 total delegates.


Everyone, get ready for some SoCo awesomeness.

Preparing for RoKS

RoKS is once again about to rock (pun verily intended) the SoCo region, and this spring Georgia Tech is repping 5 members on the Organizing Committee:

Maddie Stoddart: Conference Coordinator
Charlie Simons: OC VP Marketing
Emily Pechar: OC VP Finance
Nate Pu: OC VP Registration
Carleigh High: OC VP Security

The rest of the illustrious staff:

Ma'andi Mohamed: Conference Chair (Egypt; Boston, MA)
James Knable: OCP (UNC-Chapel Hill)
Megan Ballard: OC VP Logistics (UNC-Chapel Hill)
Cass Olson: OC VP Party (UGA)

This RoKS is destined for greatness and will be in Greenville, South Carolina from February 29th to March 2nd.

I could go on and on about this conference, but in lieu of that, watch this amazing ad created by Charlie.



Need I say more?

Register today!

Spring RoKS 2008 OC Applications

... are ready and waiting for you to fill them out! Becoming a part of this conference is an excellent way to activate your leadership, gain logistical experience, and become a better AIESECer! No matter where you are in your AIESEC life, if you're even remotely interested in planning and running SoCo's next regional conference, you should apply!

Contact James Knoble (jknable@email.unc.edu) our OCP from UNC Chapel Hill, for the applications, or look for the appropriate email that was sent out this morning over US-VOICE!

This conference will be from February 29th to March 2nd.

Apply today!