Post-TYA Reflection

As I wrap up another conference in a long consecutive string of conferences, I wanted to look back on my experience as a whole.

After my last conference (in 2009) I decided to call it quits. I had been invovled with the TYA organisation for two years and in that time had attended 3 conferences and a symposium and I had just gotten tired of the ordeal. I had been approached on numerous occasions asking if I was going to be the next conference and if I wanted to help run the conferece (serve as a deputy president) but I kept declining, citing one reason after the other always trying to steer away from or bend the truth that I just didn't want to come back, feeling that I would be ostracized for some sort of minor betrayal.

The reason why I didn't want to come back was very simple; I had been involved in 3 groups projects with lofy goals (each from a separate conference) and each one had crashed and burned either because of apathy of the partso of the students or the possibility of the task and I had had enough. The worst part of the projects was that I knew going it that most of these projects were logistically impossible which made it even harder to keep going back. With all that said, I did go back, of my own free will even.

Why, you may ask, would I return to the very conference that had frusterated so much of the last two years of my life? Well, the answer is very simple. I love it. Earlier this year, about the same time that I started shopping around for a winter term project, Emilie O'Herne, January's president contacted me changes in the format of the TYA 14 conference and I was immediately hooked. Instead of all the participants working on one project, they each were going to work on separate 'individual' projects where the incentive and focus wasn't so much on direct action, but on giving the youth actors the grassroots skills that are viable for creating and implementing a political project from scratch. Also, it was going to be heavily workshop based and would give a lot more time for discussion and speakers as opposed to computer driven research. Essentially, the new format changed everything that I hadn't liked about TYA to what I had originally though it should be.

Throughout the week though, my passion waxed and waned at one point almost snapped. There certainly were some moments in which I felt overwhelmed by everything that was going on or as if I just couldn't handle what was on my plate at the time. However, these times were very much in the minority and for the most part I had a blast. As I mentioned in the committee summary (which can be found here) our participants came from 9 countries and hugely diverse political and cultural backgrounds but sharing a common interest in the issues in Gender Issue. Because of this huge breadth of experience, the conference was amazing I really felt that I learned so much about all the cultures of the participants I had the privilege of working with. Truly just spending a week talking with someone from a very different walk of life (compared to yourself) is an eye-openning and deeply introspective experience — you learn a lot about them, but often times you learn even more about yourself.

At the end of it all, I would have to say I really enjoyed the conference. Especially when listening to my participants rave about how much they loved the conference, I really felt so accomplished and proud to have gotten my way through another tough week or little sleep, fewer breaks, non-stop politics. What I always find most satisfying about this conference though, and has a lot to do with the overarching reasons that I keep coming back to TYA and to Den Haag, where the conference is held is the very real chance I have to make a difference.

In the world of politics (international, national, regional, local) youth actors are making bigger and bigger waves and in these last few years especially they are truly becoming the most important driving force in the political arena. However, as true is this may be, the are still under appreciated and underutilized. The intensely patriarchal, ageist engine that is politics often sees the youth as nothing more than a non-voting, apathetic, moderately amusing demographic. They are naive in the eyes of the world and are self-interested and dependent solely on the older and wiser members of society to make decisions for them because they lack the knowledge or even interest to make them for themselves. This concept may have been true a couple of decades or maybe even the last generation of people to grow up but that is definitely not the case now and in my mind, that is what TYA is really all about; changing that one sided discourse into a dialogue, forcing people to talk with you and not at you. Making your voice heard by doing some sort of action be it giving a speech or holding a fundraiser is really quite easy and when I see young people's eyes light up when they realise this - that is what makes all the work (before and during the conference) worth it.

When the phrase "the sky's the limit" ceases being a trite idiom and becomes an axiom for life, that is when I feel as if I have succeeded and hearing all my participants chatter excitedly with one another during the last two days we had together about all their plans and how everything was going to work out really brought a smile to my face and a warmness to my heart and I knew that somewhere, no matter how small, I had made a difference, in someone's life that week.

Gender Issues: Committee Work

As was mentioned before, the final outcome of this week (for the participants) was the creation of a project proposal in the realm of Gender Issues in their community. In theory, what was then supposed to happen was the participants would then return back to their communities to implement the projects that they created to try to rectify or eliminate the problem that they were trying to address.

The following index contains the names of the participants and links to all of the project proposals that worked so hard to create:

"Fortunate to be Feminine" - Ayca Atabey, Miray Atesoglu, Ozge Armutcu
"'You're Beautiful' Awareness Campaign" - Kristin Kim, Pearl Kim
"Bridging the Gender Pay Gap in Cyprus" - Christina Papamichael, Evelyn Ioannou
"EMBRACElets" - Sarah Palazzolo
"Breaking through the Glass Ceiling (Het glazen plafond doorbreken)" -Vivian Wildeboer
"Freedom for Women (Freiheit fuer Frauen)" - Yannick Saive
"B-eat-it" - Naila Imad Eldin
"Respekt für harte Arbeit (respect for hard work)" - Christoph Schöneseiffen
'WiTHIN" - Ashton Ng Jing Kai

Gender Issues: Committee Summary

At the end of the conference every committee had to write a summary of all the week of the conference and what we did in our committee. We collaboratively came up with what should be contained within our summary and then I typed up the following piece that appeared in the 'end of conference' booklet.

At the beginning of this week, the Gender Issues committee convened - 15 strangers spanning 3 continents and 9 countries, by the end of the week left 15 friends, all citizens of a global community.

During the week the committee worked, discussing all manner of difficult issues found under the auspices of Gender Issues, ranging from the glass ceiling women face in the workplace to the rights of transgendered individuals. However, no matter where the discussion went or how tired everyone inevitably became, there was always a positive attitude and as unanimously voiced by the committee, a great sense of community.

One the of the best things about the Gender Issues committee at TYA 14 was its ability to balance hard work with play: diligently slaving away at their projects at one moment, always ahead of schedule, and having massive committee-wide photo shoots the next. This perfect balance of the formality of a conference and the informality of a group at ease with each other really fostered a the creation of friendships, so much so that one participant said that they felt we were all kind of “meant to meet together.”

With final projects going to be implemented for all walks of life – from an awareness campaign about the illegal sex trade in Germany to EMBRACElets, a fundraiser selling bracelets that serve as visual reminders of equality between all genders – every participant really poured themselves into their ideas. The entire committee is very excited about returning home beginning to work, some have even begun the second stages of their projects already.

With all the varied topics, ideas,and project that have been thrown around this week, it has been a whirlwind event for all involved. While some days the committee did seem to barely make it through the long intense days, they always came back and dedicated themselves all over again the next, truly a testament to their passion and stamina.

One purpose of TYA is to teach youth what it means to be an actor in the global community but another is to teach them what it means to be a human. In the words of the participants - we learned about more than just gender issues, we learned about foreign cultures and about our own.

DAY 5 (The Ending of TYA)

- error -

will be fixed soon

Participant Reflections

On Thursday, we discussed the participants opinions about and the reactions to the conference, asking them each to say a few words. The following bullets were their reactions:

• I thought that all of our coordinators were really cool and didn't really tell us to get to work if we got distracted. It seemed that they knew when we needed a break and when we should be doing work.
  
  
• I really enjoyed the sense of community that developed amngst all of us, we worked together really well.
  
  
• I enjoyed the chance to work with everyone and I thought that we didn't really split into cliques but instead worked as a whole.
  
  
• I feel as if I have a much better understanding of all the different cultures that everyone was from. We have people from the United States from Singapore; from Turkey to Belgium and I feel as if I have a much more rounded view of the world now.
  
  
• I felt that the workshop discussions were really useful and I thought the variety of individual feedback that we got during the peer reviews was great, we really got to share our honest opinions on other people's projects.
  
  
• I felt that the conference was really fun but that we had some time where we weren't doing anything but waiting — I think that we could have accomplished the same amount of stuff with shorter days.
  
  
• The formalities and also the informalities of discussion were nice — the balance worked well.
  
  
• I think what was especially interesting was not only did we get to learn about other people's cultures, I think we really learned about our own cultures as well. We really got to examine the stereotypes and feelings inherent in our own societies.
  
  
• What I think I like best was that even if I don't end up finishing the project that I planned to do, i really learned “how-to-do-a-project” in the future.
  
  
• I liked the conference on the whole but I would have really liked more interaction with all of the other committees.
  
  
• I really was forced to think about issues that I never thought about before and the ones that I did know, I thougt about it different and new ways.
  
  
• I really appreciated that we not only learned about Gender Issues but that we really learned about a whole range of issues, some of which are related and some of which aren't.
  
  
• I really liked making all the new friends.
  
  
• I like how we got to take pictures as well as work really hard, both sides are really important and I like how both were expressed.
  
  
• In Singapore education is caged is really caged. At TYA, I really liked the cooperation, and the freedom to share ideas. This is truly the best form of education

DAY 4

Today was a relatively straight-forward day, in terms of what we planned to do and what we accomplished.

During the morning, we revisited some of the issues and concerns that were brought up during the day before (in the peer talk-back session) and after discussing different options that everyone had for their projects, the participants really dove back into their research and planning for another few hours, essentially trying to fill in the last remaining caps on the 'project proposal' forms that O'Herne (the TYA 14 president) had given them yesterday during her workshop and then formalize the entire document (typing it up, proofreading it, adding illustrations, etcetera)

When all of this was done and the documents were all submitted, we all met again to discuss what everyone, in the committee thought of the conference on a whole (a more detailed summary can be found here) in terms of the preparatory phase, the schedule, the workshops, the projects, and the general TYA management. As this weeks format was a very large change from all previous formats, it was really important that we got feed back as to what worked and was was not as successful.

Overall, everyone was really positive about the entire process and loved the conference; people especially loved the opportunities to meet so many new people from so many different cultures and backgrounds. One thing that was also brought up multiple times was that the participants especially enjoyed working with myself and my fellow coordinators because "unlike some of the other committees, we [myself and Mattia] really knew how to balance working hard and taking much needed breaks." There was one complaint that was shared across the committee though: people thought the days were too long because on some days, it seemed there was a lot of free time. I think, however, this was more due to the fact that everyone worked much harder and faster than we than we expected as we had never run the conference in this format before.

Finally, to end the day, we had our conference wide photo taken at the World Forum (where we met the first day for registration) which was a great because you got to see all sixty-odd people together at once and you really appreciated the magnitude of work that must have been done in the past few days. All-in-all, it was a nice moment to end the day with

DAY 3

Today, we started out the morning with a special speech by TYA 14's president, Emilie O'Herne addressing how the rest of the conference was structured and what is entailed by the projects that participants are supposed to do. Additionally, she gave a short speech on the subject of project management and risk analysis of projects - basically a checklist of common problems to look out for. Basically, the point of her speech was to give the participants all the tools that they needed to be thinking about in order to have a successful project and because they all understood this it was very well received. The only complaint that I heard about the speech is that people had really wished it had come earlier in the week (at least the points about what the project was) because they had been slightly confused for the first two days.

Irregardless, armed with a wide array of new knowledge all my participants really dove straight into their projects as soon as the speech was over – most choosing to remain working as individuals, while a few who happened to be at the same school decided to combine their smaller projects into a big campaign.

For the most part, this is what the participants worked on for the rest of the day, only stopping for a short speech by one of the deputy presidents Akua Nyame-Mensah about sponsorship and TYN and the quais-requisite mid-afternoon photo shoot*. Nyame-Mesah's speech was focused on how to ask organisations for money and what to do for in order to get funding; like O'Herne's speech in the morning, its intention to supply the participants with yet more tools to help them create and implement their projects. Additionally, Nyame-Mesah also talked about the TYN (THIMUN Youth Network) and what you could do after this conference, and outside of it; the potential to join international delegations to proper United Nations conferences such as the UNCSD in New York, or the World Water Forum, which was last held in Istanbul. Both of things really grabbed the attention of the participants and even though their attention span was beginning to waver, I think they found both parts of the speech really useful.
*On the note of the photos, it was actually really amusing to watch — one person who basically start staring off into space and within minutes another person would join them, then another, then another, until the entire committee was completely distracted and out would come the cameras. This would then go on for a few minutes but the participants would always go back to work immediately as soon as their 'break' was done.

About an hour before the end of the day, when it seemed that most of the participants had self-proclaimed themselves 'finished' with their projects, we came back together for a peer review session. Very similar to the presentation/discussion we had the day before about people's research, the basic structure was one individual would give a short description of their project and maybe some background and then everyone was invited to give comments or questions on what they thought it, specifically focused on the feasibility of the project and its potential risks. Once we had then gone around the entire committee and discussed all the projects, the participants then split back up and continued working on their projects using the new ideas that they had gotten from the review.

Finally, today ended a bit early because we it was the middle of the week, the 'slump' so to speak and the school that was housing our conference DiSDH (Deutsche Internationale Schule Den Haag) wanted a picture of all of us so we all had to file out onto the stairs and pose for the cameras.

I have always that Wednesdays are always the hardest days during conferences like these. Often times people have lost their initial excitement but have yet to gain the "it's-almost-over-must-savour-it" kick and so they tend to be particularly low energy. Also, it is usually at this point that the stress, wear, and tear begins to appear in the participants which can be equally hard to deal with. All that being said, I think all of my participants performed admirably; it was long, tedious, and some parts downright boring, but they humoured me and stuck with it 'till the end. In short, they are the best committee I have ever had.

DAY 2

Like the previous day, today started out with lectures by guests, but this time, not one but two speakers address the assembled conference.

The first speaker was a rather eloquent Australian by the name of Thom Woodroofe. He is a political writer for numerous prestigious publications and an adviser to all manner of political mucky-mucks as well as the founder of the first non-partisan, youth think tank, Left-Right, in Australia. Last year, he was voted one of the 100 most important people in Australia and this year he turns 21.

Though his ego seemed more than a bit inflated (his presentation was very me, me, me oriented), he also really seemed to be deserving of it. Living in a house with no power, gas, or running water until he was 17, Woodroofe attacked the world of politics with a brash vigour altogether uncommon in today’s society, simply pushing and pushing and refusing to give in to defeat, even though it apparently did rear its ugly head from time and time again.

Based on his experiences, Woodroofe spent a good deal of his time talking about what he had learned and his ‘ten step plan’ for project implementation, which I personally found fascinating and while fairly intuitive, a really useful list of talking points.

The second speaker was a recent Boston University graduate and TYA alum named Sid Efromovich who spoke about the one successfully implemented TYA group project Hug Don’t Hate, which he started during his time year at BU. Over his student career, Hug Don't Hate grew from simply one guy with an idea to a huge organisation with many branches that sponsors hundreds of events every year.

While Efromovich and Woodroofe were both successful in similar ways (if not scales) there presentations couldn't have been more different. Efromovich or Sid as he liked to be called spent most of his hour and a half pressing into us the importance of being happy and how people truly happy seldom to bad. He also was extremely high energy and just bounced around the entire time, seemingly barely restrained by his clothes.

After both of the speakers, the participants could barely wait to start on the projects and so we delved right in. We immediately returned to the list of projects that we had come up with the day before and continued adding to it from the new ideas that the participants had garnered from the speakers in the morning.

Once the metaphorical well of ideas had run dry, my participants headed to the computer lab to do some research. Their task was, based on all the brainstorming that we had done thus far, to look up some aspect of gender issues in their country that could be wanted to do their project about.

After about an hour the participants came back and each did a short presentation about what they had wanted to research, what they had found, and what ideas that they had for their project. After everyone had a chance to speak, we then a short discussion about the project ideas that people had and then set them to work, which they did dilligently until it was time to leave.

What I really like about my committee is that they are always positive and upbeat, something I really appreciate. When we were listening to some of the speakers, there were a few participants from other committees who were being a bit obnoxious and trying to steal the 'spotlight' for themselves, but my participants were always receptive, respectiful, and representative of what real togetherness and cooperation is like

Day 1.5

This evening, as a bonding activity, my committee organised to go, en masse to a restaurant located in the sleepy beach town of Scheveningen (only sleepy due to Winter's inclement weather). Due to various curfews and tight train schedules, we ended up scheduling at early dinner starting at 6:30 but inevitably, when it came time to arrive, we were all late.

The restaurant that we had chosen was Het kleine Pannenkoekenhuis: a restaurant which specialised in pannenkoeken or dutch pancakes. For those of you that do not know, pannekoeken are not like traditional pancakes at all, but instead more like non-sweet crêpes. Additionally, while you can get them served with sweet toppings ranging from the traditional butter and powdered sugar to the more exotic: Grand Marnier, apple, and ice cream, most people prefer to eat them savory (my personal favourite: Spek en Kaas, or Bacon and Cheese). Irregardless of which you opt for, pannenkoeken are delicious and definitely a full meal as they are normally more that 30cm in diameter.

Though some of my participants could not make it, most everyone did come (including some extras from one of the American delegations who were required to travel in packs). Also, though many participants were wary about the concept of 1) pancakes for dinner and 2) savory pancakes, they all were raving about the food by the end of the meal and having a blast.

I always really enjoy the committee dinners that we have in TYA because it really gives people an opportunity to relax and enjoy each others company without having to stress about their projects or the fact that they are spending 8.5 hours a day discussing politics. So much about this conference is about being excited and passionate about the issue that the participants are discussing and working on and that is really helped by promoting and ensuring a positive space. To me that is what these committee dinners are really about, connecting people and making sure they feel comfortble and at ease with everyone else in the committee so they don't go into the conference trying to compete, but instead trying to cooperate.

And on that note, the dinner was a success.

DAY 1

Even though Monday technically falls on the second day of the conference, in all actuality Today marks the first day of the conference.

The morning started with a guest speaker, Elsa Van De Loo, the recently elected Dutch youth delegate to the United Nations who spoke about her position as a the voice of the Dutch youth and the overall point of youth actors in the oft patronising world of international politics. Though some of the more spirited participants often lead her off track, on the whole she was a very interesting speaker with a lot of good things to say.

After this we split into our committees and for the first time were able to see the people who we would be spending the rest of the week with. My committee started out with a few ice breakers — a name memorisation game where everyone tried to remember everyone else's name as they tossed around a ball, the game two truths and a lie where everyone trys to guess which is which, and new anti-stereotype game that was all about debunking cultural stereotypes since all the participants were from all around the world. After all this, we then joined up with another committee or yet a fourth ice-breaker so that the participants would just know people in their specific committees, but the conference as a whole. Once we all had had our fun though, myself and my fellow coordinator, an Italian graduate student named Mattia then got down to business.

For most of the morning, we had the participants discuss their motivations for being in the committee on Gender Issues and what their personal stance on the matter was. Some ranged from living in a repressive society that they felt was archaic and in need of changing while others lived in liberal 'equal opportunity' societies, yet they still felt the same need to try to improve the lot of people in life.

After lunch, our discussion continued, turning more towards the specific. We talked about what Gender Issues really meant and came up with a series of buzzwords that we felt effectively encapsulated the subject.

• The glass ceiling/pay gap between women and men
• The illegal trafficking of women
• Domestic Equality
• Same-sex marriage
• Women's image/self confidence
• Men's image/self confidence
• Transgender rights

The participants were extremely receptive and while they seemed to be divided almost perfectly in half on the issue of women being legally equal versus inferior and tipped slightly in favor of same-sex marriage and the transgendered being a stone's through from daemonic spawn in terms of their country of origin, all-in-all none of them seemed to share any negative beliefs/predjudices.

Finally, at the end of the day, the committee started brainstorming different ideas for things that could be done as projects on the topic of Gender Issues. Immediately there was a cry that we should all take initiative and try to start and finish a project that we could implement by the end of the week; people were shouting about possible T-shirts we could design or bracelets that we could and it almost dissolved into an enthusiatic awesome puddle of excited, empowered individual. When calmed down though, the participants were very positive and really thought outside of the box to com up with difference things that they could due about the ranging rom the ubequitious poster campaign to peer counselling groups and radio spots.

Probably the best part of the day was when, right we were leaving I looked out over my committee and asked them what they thought of the day and I was greeted by one unanimous response. It was awesome :)

The Beginning of TYA

As many of you know, my winter term project this year is coordinating a committee on Gender Issues at an international youth political conference in the Netherlands. During last January, I was the deputy president for the previous conference (which meets anualy) and this conference intself will mark my fourth THIMUN Youth Assembly experience.

For those of you who don't know, the conference (which is different than it years past) is basically focused around the idea of equipping [future] youth actors with the skills and knowledge to create and implement, from scatch, a political project (such as an awareness campaign). The participants are given advice on how to craft a project in a specific topic (ergo the different committees) but the end-all-be-all aim is that they will technically be able to transfer the skills to any sort of thing they are interested in doing.

Anyways, the conference started earlier today (actually yesterday, I just forgot to post this) with a very nice opening ceremony followed by a conference wide 3 course meal at a local Dutch restaurant. Due to some transportation issues I unfortunately missed the opening ceremonies but I did make it for the dinner which was very nice and by the end of it I was already befriending some of my participants.

After the dinner, many participants were eager to hit the bars (those not from Europe edging to get the full European experience and those from eager to get some non-european experience ;p) but as I was rather overzealous with my bar hopping the night before I opted to return to the apartment I am renting with a few friends for an early night.

Over the next week or so, I will be spending approximately 9 hrs a day with my participants and fellow coordinators and in honour of this I have decided to maintain a daily blog of my exploits of the conference both in and out of the committee itself. This will not only serve as a nice little update from me to you about the fun that is my old home but will also probably form the basis for my WT report.

enjoy.

p.s. sorry about the rambling nature, it was very late and lets just say I have not been getting the requisite amout of sleep.

Respekt für harte Arbeit (respect for hard work)

Participant: Christoph Schöneseiffen

Committee: Gender Issues

Specific issue: Improvement of reputation of women doing eldercare

Title of the project: Respekt für harte Arbeit (respect for hard work)

Outline of the Project:
Improve reputation of eldercare by presenting the hard and necessary work taken care of by these women in public.

Aims:
Improve reputation of eldercare

Indicators of success:
- More applications for the job
-more people appreciating the job and its importance

Target audience:
Adults and seniors (maybe even younger people). Their attention will be caught by radio discussions, tv documentations and posters hanging in the suburbs of Bonn.

Scope:
Bonn

Duration:
2 Months

Resources:
-posters
-local radio
-local TV stations

Costs:
Differs depending on the amount of posters and the frequency of advertisement in the radio being broadcast

Other people involved:
-Nurses and patients for documentary agreeing to be videotaped

Feasibility:
Achievable since theres several local radios and TV stations that could be approached. And in the long term one will be able to find enough patients willing to be videotaped

Timeline /critical path:
Februrary
20th - send proposal to local TV stations and radio (about 3 weeks) & desing a poster (5 days)
25th - hang up posters in the city (3 days)

March
13th - start radio campaign and find a day for a discussion on radio and peoples view on eldercare

Risk analysis:
-Advertisement on the radio can be very expensive;
-people might be unwilling to be videotaped
-TV stations might rejected approach and not broadcast documentary

Risk management:
Contact all local TV stations (3) and local radios (4)

Contingency: none

B-eat-it

Participant: Naila Imad Eldin

Committee: Gender issues

Specific issue: eating disorders

Title of the project: B-eat-it

Outline of the project: I want to boost girls self esteem in my school to prevent eating disorders.

Aims: I want to raise money through bake sales to cover the expense of folders and other materials that should be provided to all girls attending my school.

Indicators of success: If I am able complete my project and see if people respond in favor of my campaign, I will know it is successful.

Target audience: The girls in my high school.
I will ask my friends and promote my campaign with the help and aid of my school’s CED.

Scope: Just within my school

Duration: 1 or 2 weeks.

Resources: money, folders, pen
Cost: 300 $

Delegation of tasks/involvement of others:
Whoever wants to help will be welcome to promote is welcome. I need help for the design of the logo etc

Development:
If it works well, I will continue the project and event next year.

Feasibility:
I think that it is really feasible because the money and expenditure required to run the campaign is a reasonable sum that I can gather.

Timeline/ critical path:
I would like to finish it by May.


Qualitative/main risk:
Gathering the money and obtaining the approval of my school to run the campaign.
Quantitative measurements of uncertainty and probability:
Both are really small.

Risk management
Response to main risk:
I will persist and continue trying to search for open doors – even if it means gaining permission from a school other than mine.
If I don’t have enough money, I will look for alternative venues for obtaining the materials such as the folders.
Contingency: Try again but change some points to make the whole campaign catchier.

Freiheit fuer Frauen

Participant: Yannick Saive

Specific Issue: Women Trafficking, Sex Slavery, Forced Prostitution

Title of campaign: Freiheit fuer Frauen

Project outline: Design Flyers, get governmental permission to hand them out, get a sponsor, print flyers, and hand them out.

Aims: Raise awareness about women trafficking, sex slavery and forced prostitution in the red light district of Hamburg among men visiting the area.

Indicators of Success: Running out of flyers while handing them out.

Target Audience: Men at the red light district of Hamburg.

Scope: A local project in Hamburg.

Duration: Until summer vacation of 2010.

Resources: Paper

Costs: 50 Euros

Delegation of tasks/involvement of others: Bartenders in the red light district, and friends visiting the area of it.

Feasibility: Easily achievable.

Timeline: During TYA: Create Flyer
Before March 1st: Speak to government about permission.
Before March 1st: Find a sponsor.

Risk Analysis
Qualitative- main risks:
Government forbids handing out my flyers.
Bartenders wont help.
Quantitative – measurements of uncertainty and probability:
Not finding a sponor or having problems printing.

Risk Management
Response to main risks:
If government forbids my project I will have to end it.
If bartenders wont help me I can simply leave the flyers in the bars.
Contingency:
If there are problems handing out flyers in the red light district I can still just stick them into flyer stands, and The message would be spread.

Breaking through the Glass Ceiling (Het glazen plafond doorbreken)

Participant: Vivian Wildeboer

Specific Issue: Lack of women in upper and middle management.

Title of campaign: Breaking through the Glass Ceiling (Het glazen plafond doorbreken)

Project outline: What I really want to do is approach companies in the Netherlands and inform them about the opportunities for them if they employ more women and when they make it easier for them to flow trough to higher positions. The best way to do this, I believe, is to approach the employee councils of the companies and give presentations on the issues. Present them with cold hard facts about the pay gap and women in higher management, or the lack there of.
Also I want to make flyers maybe to put in company cafeterias so the women there know what they could do to improve as well as management.

Aims:
Approaching 20 companies by International Women’s Day 2011.
Educating people so they can themselves improve the situation in their company.
Getting rid of the image that women are worse managers than man.

Target Audience: I want to approach employee councils, because I believe they will be more receptive and willing to listen than management boards. I will adept my presentations to the employees. I believe I can be rather informal with them. With a management board I’d have to be very formal. But with this approach I can play into their feelings. And address them with messages like on a rally or something, but also give them options for improving women’s situations.

Scope: Companies in The Hague

Duration: Until International Women’s Day 2011(a little over a year)

Resources:
Flyers
Transport
Time
Info from organizations specialized in glass ceiling and equal opportunities.

Costs:
Flyers: unknown
Transportation costs: If it is during the week it will be for free because I have a OV-Card. Free Public Transport for students.

Delegation of tasks/involvement of others: For now I am not planning on involving other people. I really do not yet know how I would implement them into the project. So right now it’s just me. Except that I will involve some sponsors. First and foremost I want see if I can engage glazenplafondindex.nl, which is an online scan for companies, a scan they can take to see how women-friendly they are. Aside from that I want to see if I can get sponsorship or recognition from the equal treatment institute in the Netherlands, and other women’s organizations in the country. I also want to ask my school to sponsor me. Maybe for flyers.

Development: When successful I could hire people and give presentation on a wider scale.

Feasibility: I think it is very feasible, or at least more feasible than my original plan: Going to boards of directors and management. The employee councils are more approachable.

Timeline: See attachment

Risk Analysis
Qualitative- main risks:
One of the risks is that I do not know how to approach the employee councils. They usually have weekly or monthly meetings and I would be able to present there. But I have not yet figured out how to make contact with them. I do not know if they have e-mail addresses or contact details. So that definitely would be a problem. But they usually do have a web page or website or a link on the company’s corporate website.

Quantitative – measurements of uncertainty and probability:
It is a big risk, and kind of likely to happen.

Risk Management
Response to main risks:
First I’d have to do research the companies to see if they have such an employee council. But it is mandatory for companies of a certain number of employees and up in the Netherlands. And of course I can contact the companies to ask if they have them and see if I can get in touch with them.

EMBRACElets

Name: Sarah Palazzolo

Committee: GI

Specific Issue: Gender Inequality

Title of the project: ‘EMBRACElets’

Project Summary:
The pink and blue beads together on the bracelet symbolize gender equality existing within the differences between men and women. The bracelet should serve as a visual reminder for everyone who wears it of unity between genders: each bead is a different color, but they are the same size and they are positioned together. The bracelet should also be personally empowering, because it accentuates respect, cooperation, and communication between men and women. The bracelet suggests to the individual a sense of capability and unity, and the power to act or communicate uniquely in a spirit of unity and equality.

Outline:
Phase 1 –
February 2010 - Summer 2010
Goal: raise enough money by selling bracelets to take (ideally) three students to Anatolia, Turkey (through Roberts College and Fortunate to be Feminine) to distribute bracelets free of charge along with the educational programs in place there.
Cost: the cost for the bracelet materials is negligible; I am buying the necessary materials.
Risk: not making enough money
Contingency: I will mail them the money we have raised and plenty of bracelets so that Fortunate to be Feminine can still distribute the bracelets

Phase 2 –
Summer 2010
Goal: trip to Anatolia with Fortunate to be Feminine. Hopefully I can take three students with me on a cultural experience and community service trip to assist with the Fortunate to be Feminine seminars and globalize this bracelet campaign.
Cost: 1 plane ticket to Istanbul, accommodations

Phase 3 –
Summer 2010 – March 8, 2011 (International Women’s Day is the final day of bracelet distribution)
Goal: continue distribution of bracelets in local high schools and middle schools and follow-up results and lessons from the Anatolia trip to raise awareness for gender inequalities and conditions worldwide. At this point, the bracelets will probably be given out free of charge as a visual symbol of connection between men and women, and between people all over the world. The bracelets should serve as a visual reminder of individual power of expression and the rights and dignities that each human being is entitled to.
Cost: continuing to make bracelets

Gender Pay Gap in Cyprus

Name: Christina Papamichael, Evelyn Ioannou

Committee: GI

Specific Issue: Gender Pay Gap in Cyprus

Title of the project: ‘Bridging Gender Pay Gap in Cyprus’

Introduction: Gender Pay Gap is the average difference between women’s and men’s hourly earnings within the economy. Women in Europe earn on average around 17% less than men and that has an impact on lifetime earnings and women’s pensions. The main causes are direct discrimination, undervaluing of women’s work and the segregation in the labour market. In Cyprus there is 23,1% pay gap – one of the highest rates in Europe. The problem needs to be tackled in order to create a more equal society and a good business sense. Equal policies which target direct or indirect discrimination and equal opportunity policies which aim to encourage and help women remain in employment, combat job segregation need to be adopted. Also wage-related measures aim to combat wage inequalities and improve low paid women’s occupations. All in all better education of women and better use of human’s resources, productivity and competiveness can reduce pay gap.

Outline of the Project: Obtain school’s permission, distribute flyers to inform about the issue and to announce a poster competition, put the winning poster on the school walls/boards on the 8th of March (Woman’s Day)

Aim(s): Spread awareness within our school about the problem of gender pay gap in Cyprus (until the 8th of March), encourage students to be active in helping to eliminate problems related to gender issues in Cyprus, spread awareness about gender pay gap in Europe and Cyprus (objective)

Indicators of success: participation in the poster competition, quality of participant’s work

Target audience (+how will they be engaged): Pancyprian Gymnasium student community by flyer, participating in the poster competition.

Scope: school community by extension their own families (i.e. local community)

Duration: a month and a week
Costs: flyers (600) 70 Euros (sponsored by the School’s Parents Association), money prizes 1700 Euros total (1st 700, 2nd 600, 3rd 400 – local banks and cooperative Association), poster (X 25) 100 Euros

Delegation of tasks/involvement of others: Evelyn & Christina in collaboration with the teacher of graphic designing at school will design the flyer, a team of two students and two head teachers will open tenders for the printing of the flyers and the winning poster copies, a team of judges (art teacher, head teacher, students not taking part in the competition, the principal)

Development: 1. Inform the principal about the project to get permission, 2. Design the flyer and ask for tenders, 3. Print out the flyers ,distributes, put in announcement boards, opening of the poster competition, 4. Get back the application forms (tear off part of the flyer), 5. Set up the team of judges for the poster, 6.Evaluate the posters, 7. Print out the winning poster, 8. Announce the results of the competition, 9. Put copies of the winning poster on the school’s walls on the 8th of March.

Feasibility: The banks and local cooperative associations are likely to sponsor the activity because of the promotion and the advertisement involved. The School’s Parents Association is always supportive. The cause complies with the present policies of the government. The school
community is positively inclined towards such student activities. All in all the project is feasible.

Timeline: see the school principal-February 1st, design the flyer, ask for tenders and get the money for printing, the flyer -by February, print out the flyers- by the 9th of February, give out the flyers/opening of the competition-February 10th, application deadline-15th of February, set up the team of judges-by the 24th of February, competition deadline-26th February, evaluation of the posters/get the money for printing the winning poster-by the end of February, print out the winning poster-by the 5th of March, announce the competition results-5th of February and put the winning poster on the school’s walls on the 7th of February.

Risk analysis
Qualitative – main risks: the local banks and cooperative associations may be unwilling to support the activity.

Risk management
Responses to main risks: In case the probable sponsors refuse to support the activity, we will apply to the Students Alumni Association.

You're Beautiful Awareness Campaign

너 예뻐!
You’re Beautiful Awareness Campaign

Objective:
To remind the women of Korea that they are beautiful and that there is no one set definition of beauty.

Aims:
1. Stickers in public places with dominant slogan/image to strike curiosity, with website address below
2. Establish website, which will include: a) information concerning standards of beauty, self-esteem, etc. b) quiz about beauty c) discussion forums
3. Establish e-mail account through which we will answer all inquiries

Target Audience:
Girls and Women between the ages of 13 to 25

Introduction:
-Korean women are obsessed about their looks
-One of the most booming plastic surgery industries in the world [Insert statistics]
-Korean high school students excessively idolize pop stars and singers

Sponsors:
THIMUN, Purtech, Samsung, Universities, Cafés, clubs, Cosmetics Company

Resources:
Graphic Designer, Website designer, stickers

Scope:
Targeting hot spots in Seoul

Development of Project:
-January: set up e-mail account
-February: Brainstorm logo/design, website, information
-March: Come up with logo/design
-April: find graphic/website designer
-May: Design website, discussion forums, begin to spread stickers

Contingency:
-To limit the scope of the project to just our school

Fortunate to be Feminine

Name: Ayca Atabey, Miray Atesoglu, Ozge Armutcu
Committee: Gender Issues

Specific Issue: Informing high school students about women rights and the support they can get in an act of abuse

Background Issue:
In Turkey, many women face physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Although this problem is lessened with the modernized world of the main cities, it still continues in the less developed eastern/anatolian parts of Turkey. In fact, women are afraid of their husbands/other family members in an act of rebellion. Therefore they first need to get to know their rights and against an act of abuse, they need to know what to do. With this project, we would like to show these women that they have rights and if they face any problems there are organizations and institutes that will help them through protection and accomodation.

Title of the Project: Fortunate to be feminine

Outline of the Project:
Prepare and distribute flyers and posters around schools
Group of minimum 20 people(students) will be formed
Organization of articles, interviews etc. for the magazine which is about women’ s rights
Distribution of magazines to the Eastern parts of Turkey

Aim:
Our aim is to inform women about their rights and make them realize that they can be supported in a situation of sexual/physical/psychological abuse

Indicators of Success:
If thenumber schools that we distribute the magazines to is high enough, then we’ ll hope that they will reach girls in high schools.

Target Audience:
Girls age of 14-18
Magazines willl be distributed to the local high schools with the permission of Ministery of Education

Scope:
Flyers and posters will be distributed in 6 different schools ( Robert College, Uskudar American College, Koc High School, Koc University, Galatasaray University and Bogazici University). Then 3-5 people from each school will come together and form a group to form the magazine. The support of professors can be asked during this process. Magazines will be distributed to the high schools in cities such as Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Hatay and Tunceli.

Duration:
The magazines will be sent to the high schools in late May/early June. If this project is completed successfully, then a trip to Anatolia will be organized to inform housewives and uneducated women by reading the magazine to them and listening / trying to solve their problems.

Resources:
Ministery of Education
Companies which are involved in women rights and women’s education
Publishers( such as local publishers in Istanbul)
School clubs ( especially in universities)

Costs:
50 € for 250 posters
120€ for 1000 flyers
Publishing magazines (probably will be sponsored)

Delegation of Tasks/involvement of others:
6 schools: Robert College, Uskudar American College, Koc High School, Koc University, Galatasaray University and Bogazici University- 3-6 students from each school to gather articles and interviews
Posters/ flyers: distributed in the schools beforehand to raise awareness and to get participants

Development:
If this project becomes successful, we will implement the concept of women rights to another target audience such as housewives

Feasibility:
We can manage it. (Live your dream!)

Timeline/ Critical Path:
FEBRUARY
8 - informing Ribert College and Koc University about the project
15 - preparing posters and flyers
22 - distribution of posters and flyers- will continue at most 3 weeks

MARCH
1 - arranging resources
8 - sponsors + resources/ visiting the high schools introducing the project
15 - as a group we will make the outline of magazine- 2 weeks
22 - continuation of the previous week
29 - getting permission / deciding the local high schools that we'll send the magazines to

APRIL
5 - developing magazines
12 - developing magazines
19 - arranging publisher/ sending the softcopy to the ministery of education
26 - printing the magazines

MAY
3 - arranging transportation/cargo
10 - informing the high schools for the arrivals of the cargo packages
17 - sending the magazines
24 - success of the project!!!


Risk analysis
Qualitative- main risks:
There might be girls that cannot go to the high school because of the lack of support from their parents. Therefore we cannot reach them through our magazine project.
Quantitive- measurements of uncertainty and probability:
The ministry of education’s permission may not be provided.


Risk Management
Responses to the main risk:
This could be handled, if we succeed the project and manage to apply our second idea- which is to organize a trip to these cities, where we’ll create an environment to inform women and interact with them. So that we can go and talk to the girls, who are unable to go to school.

Contingency:
Our resources will help us through the permission related to Ministery of Education.

WiTHIN

Participants: Ashton Ng Jing Kai

Specific issue: Anorexia Nervosa in Singapore

Title of the project: WiTHIN

Outline of the project:
Contact local eateries and stores such as Starbucks, Mr. Bean and the Body Shop to incorporate messages on their packaging or plastic bags informing the public about the dangers of anorexia.
In the event if incorporating messages on packaging proves to be too expensive, then flyers could be put in plastic bags instead.
Advertise the problem and consequences of anorexia amongst girls in Singapore.

Aims:
Raise awareness amongst the public of the harmful causes and effects of anorexia, such as peer pressure and its nature of being a cultural fad.
Discourage the mainstream notion that outer beauty is of paramount and uppermost significance by emphasizing the danger of cultural fads.

Indicators of success:
Gain recognition of media, which is the standard success indicator for projects in Singapore.
Gain recognition from school.
Receive letters of appreciation from public.

Target audience:
Public (via flyers, posters and news coverage which is quite plausible in Singapore
Girls in Primary Schools as Anorexia has been known to start at the age of 10 (via presentations in school)
Girls in High School as competition for thinness and beauty is very common and rampant.

Scope:
Nation-wide, as successful projects in Singapore are almost always carried out on a nation-wide scale.

Duration: February 2010 to January 2011

Costs:
USD$500 (10000 flyers x 5cents)
USD$1500 (150 A0 posters x $10)
USD$200 (miscellaneous give-aways for advertisement)

Delegation of tasks:
A concept team comprising of the leader and the assistant leader that oversees the project.
A publicity team in-charge of advertisement (flyers, posters).
A corporate communication team in-charge of collaboration with sponsors or external organisations.

Feasibility:
A project on anorexia nervosa has been extremely well-known in 2008 but it was a passing fad that enjoyed nation-wide hype for two weeks. The founders of the project, however, cancelled the project after they received their project grade because they did the project in order to graduate. This suggests that the public is receptive but the project needs to be longer-lived. That project was featured on every radio channel and local news station, suggesting that an Anorexia project in Singapore is feasible.

Risk analysis
Qualitative – main risks:
Organisations and shops might not support the project.
The project might been seen as yet another passing fad like many others projects in the past and hence not taken seriously.
There might not be sufficient team members who’d be dedicated enough to commit to the project.
Quantitative:
There might be insufficient funds to publish the materials required for publicity (flyers/posters).

Risk management
Responses to main risks:
Make do with a smaller executive committee.
As long as the publicity is persistent enough, the project will be taken seriously.