Today I found Anna wearing a button with a silly robot on, and she explained that this was the character from a video from last AIM explaining why IYM should become a programme. The video is available on the IYM website - and - wow, quite a nice piece of work there...At this point I should explain, that after being on the IPP taskforce for so long, we always viewed youth meeting as our competition in becoming a programme. It was an easy match - at least in our eyes - as youth meetings were (or maybe still are), expensive and nobody could ever really define what their unique content was - except that it was short. To cut a long story short, In 2008 both youth meeting and IPP became official programmes, so I guess it's a tie.
Watching the video and flipping through the website brought up two other throughts...
- IYMs are promoted as a "regional programme" - that is interesting. Who can afford to take part in a one-week programme, that takes place in oversees? It makes a ton of sense to have IYMs structured regionally. That also gives Youth meetings a unique place within CISV and stengthens regional identity.
- On the website you can also find the educational theme (WiFight) with a content package, that gives staffs, leaders and participants tools to create strong, content-rich activities in the range of the theme. I'm not sure this is the general idea, but I would love to see Youth Meetings pick a new theme every year and have all youth meetings work on that theme. In that sense, Youth Meetings have the potential of bringing CISV closer to real life than any other programme. Not too long ago (I think in 2003) the Local-Work committee presented a video that confrontet the CISV world with the fact, that maybe CISV is a little disconnected with what is happening in the real world. The central point of the discussion was, whether CISV could try to implement current themes, such as the Iraq war, the Taliban or genetic engineering without getting political. I don't want to dig too deep into that, but I'd love to see IYMs continue where the Local Work discussion ended. Youth Meetings could be the ideal place to bring the "real world" into CISV. Let the villages do the pony game, Summer camps the lifeboat, Seminar camps discuss the death penalty (*yawn*) - Youth Meetings may be the future!
Hi! This is Trigo from the Youth Meeting Committee.
I just read the article and all I can say is that I loved it!
If you dont mind we will post the link in the Youth Meeting website.
About the theme I would like to comment that this year theme is not the first one... 2006/2007 was "Inclusion", 2007/2008 was "Sustainable World" and this year "WIFIght [Why Fight]".
I dont know if YM will be the future of CISV but we believe that we have a lot of stuff and ideas that we want share in order to keep "building" CISV, its educational content and as much as we can the society that sourround us.
Thank you Nick for such an amazing point of view.
T.
Thanks, Trigo - and yes please link to this article...I'd be happy.
Just after last christmas I was leader of a Hamburg (GER) delegation to an IYM in the Netherlands. Lovely activity! Besides "regional" countries like Sweden, France, and the hosts, there were also delegations from Indonesia and Japan!
We also asked them if it wasn't too expensive or too mouch trouble to come over for just one week. But Japan explained to us that it is quite difficult for kids to go to "long camps" since they get few holidays and those are often not corresponding to CISV dates. So they are happy to take any chance they can get to send a delegation at that time of year. Even if that means to travel around the world for just one week.