Plenary Sessions focussed on Strategies

Once the basic understanding of Organisational Issues was complete the level of discussions scaled one notch higher with the introduction of topics related to real-world problems like Property and Human Rights. Depending upon their interests participants joined the three distinct groups and Discussed the issue in detail. The ‘Liberal’ Passion was Over-Flowing amongst several participants leading to several heated debates as well, but these debates served their purpose of understanding the issues. The presentations were followed by additional points and nuanced observations.

And then we moved to area which involves a lot of Learning and a bit of Common Sense in order to excel in the same, Strategy. Our Moderator, Wulf Pabst, gave an excellent input on Strategic Thinking Analysis and Communication with respect to Politics. The profile of the Seminar was elevated to an even higher level with the introduction the Fictional Case Study Analyses and Development of Strategies. This was by far the most interesting session so far, as the participants had to discuss the case, look for the finer details and present a kind of the most ‘appropriate’ strategy to suggest to their client, who wanted to win at any price. All received a heavy dose of Applause in the end for our effort.

Now we look forward to the Case Study Analyses which involves Problems faced by some organisation being represented at the Seminar and possible strategic solutions. That would be EXCITING!!

Plenary Sessions focused on the Organisations

Almost immediately after the ‘Feedback’ session, conducted using the Smart-Board, on the Online Phase was over, we began the journey of Exciting Plenary Sessions. The basic rules were Precise Presentation lasting 5-10 Minutes, Informative Charts and Systematic Critical Review by other participants. The groups, ranging from 5-9, were sometimes selected at random and some other times based on personal preferences. Intra-Group Discussions were Necessary and lasted 1-2 hours depending upon the topics.

The first 3 group discussion sessions were devoted to topics related to the Organisations ranging from their Structure, Finance, Mother Party Relations, Recruitment of Members to Seeking Innovative Ideas for other participants to understand and deliberate upon. The discussions in the groups used to be intense and once the presentation was complete, other participants discussed their ideas as well.

The whole exercise resulted in a complete grounding of different types of organisations, their problems and the possible solutions. On the other side the participants also realised the strengths of each other, especially with regards to Presentation Skills and Creativity. The Strong Bonding between the Participants over the course of the 2 days was Expected.

Dresden, close to the river

FNF Political Youth 2011 traveled to Dresden, the capital of the Free State of Sachsen (former East Germany). This quite unique city is not only interesting because of its well known tourist attractions like the Church of Our Lady or other classical buildings, but also because its relation to the communist regime.
Walking around the city you can still see the differences between the East and the West. Not only does a big part of the inhabitants don’t speak English at all, but you can see posters of Stalin (didn’t they have enough?) or the old communist block apartment buildings all around the place. However, 20 years after the reunification and fall of the Wall, the gap is now closing. Industries and business are bringing life to the city. It is actually very easy to find your way into Dresden, concerning to public transportation there are lots of trains (straßebahn) and buses.
Christmas markets, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and all kind of little shops now occupy the former government bureaucracies. The classical fashion of the city gives it an special and wonderful touch. We had a great time there and we recommend it to everyone who is interested.

My first impression of JuLis

Today the academy took us to Dusseldorf and got us to meet this young dynamic lady Ms. Saskia Sattler. Saskia is in the regional board of the Junge Liberals (JuLis) in North Rhine-Westphalia. Junge Liberals in English means Young Liberals; and it is the youth wing of Freedom Democratic Party (FDP).

Though it is just the second day of this 2 week long seminar, based on the motivational impact this meeting had on me, I would say this was one of the best session of whole seminar. And on the top of everything, Ms. Sattler is just 19 years old, younger than all participants of the seminar.

It was interesting to know that JuLis considers itself to be the think-tank of its mother party.  While frequently we see youth organizations being misused by political parties for election campaigns, with no impact of their own, it was certainly very soothing and awakening to see JuLis working with such high level of activism.

Then we went to the Christmas market of Dusseldorf. Christmas here is way different than other parts of world. Specially today is St. Nikolaus day, and the people all over the market were singing lovely folk-songs. But this was a chilled evening. It had snowed yesterday, and temperature must be near zero if not below it. With all the sweaters and overcoat wrapped, I was still freezing. And Glühwein, the hot wine they served in those cute cups, tasted different… and better 🙂

-posted by Chandan on 06/12/11

The virtual before the reality

Most, if not all, of us thought that profile pages only applied to social networking sites. We were happy to have been proven otherwise. Prior to flying here in Germany for the seminar, we went through an online phase, not only to get acquainted with our fellow participants, but more importantly, to introduce us to the topics for discussion in the seminar. It was as alluring to view the ‘profile pages’ of our fellow participants as learning from their experiences in their youth political organizations.
The online phase served as a platform for discussion on a number of issues such as relationship with mother political parties, financing, policy development, and advocacy of youth issues. Reading materials were also available for us to reaffirm our knowledge about liberalism. There were a couple of quizzes to test if indeed liberalism runs in our blood (or if we understood the readings, at the very least). We also had the opportunity to introduce the nature and activities of our organizations in a Wiki. We were asked to submit an essay on how our organizations deal with the need to compromise on goals and political ideas when cooperation with other partners is needed in order to get influence and relevance. We also had a couple of video chats with prominent German Liberals. Here’s the screen shot of the interface of our online phase to help you visualize our experience:

To highlight the topic of political communication, we were encouraged to submit videos produced by youth political organizations, not necessarily by our own. Below are the links of the four videos we voted to be the best among the submissions:

1.) Young American for Liberty as submitted by David

2.) AKO MISMO Advocacy Movement as submitted by Robin

3.) Alyansa as submitted by Rich

4.) Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) as submitted by Rosanna

Relationships through social networking sites usually follow after the actual relationships. But for this seminar, we welcome when the virtual came before the reality.

Reality beats virtuality!

So here we finally are. Theodore Heuss Academy in Gummersbach, Germany for the “Strengthening Youth Political Organizations” seminar sponsored by FNF. After the online-phase where we all interacted in the forum, it was very nice to at last meet in person. There are 25 people representing 4 continents and 15 countries so the cultural and intellectual exchange will be very interesting. Something that came as a surprise to a lot of people was seeing each other’s actual personalities. For instance, some who wrote very smart posts on the forum and came off as very serious, turned out to be laid back and funny people.

Usually, the part where you present yourselves is massively boring since it’s just standing around and listening to names and hobbies but Ms Birgit Lamn (IAF Director) made it more interesting by arranging us into groups. For instance, single people on the left which we all loved since it showed which cuties ara available yay! This really helped save us from jetlag since some of us actually traveled for 23 hours.

The academy is very nice. We have a free coffee machine, a ping pong room, a computer centre, free cake and a bar for which we got coins and we all know what that means. After seminaire parties every night!  After getting acquainted with all of this and each other, we went to the cafeteria and on top of a great archive of liberalism, on top of the brilliant people with whom to exchange knowledge, on top of all the fun that we will have, we also have awesome food. If there is one thing that’s for sure is that we are all going back home with a couple of extra pounds well earned.

Entervista Con Alex Plahr by Octavio Garcia

Octavio:MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS POR PERMITIRNOS CONMEMORAR CON USTEDES EL 30 ANIVERSARIO DE JULIS

Alex:FUNDACION NAUMANN HA DESARROLLADO; COMO SABES EN ESTOS DIAS; UN SEMINARIO SOBRE FORTALECIMIENTO DE ORGANIZACIONES POLITICAS JUVENILES, REUNIENDO EN LA SEDE DE LA ACADEMIA INTERNACIONAL DE LIDERAZGO; A JOVENES DE DIFERENTES PARTES DEL MUNDO Y HOY

ESPECIALMENTE EN BERLIN, PARA CONOCER LA EVOLUCION DE LOS TREINTA AOS DE JULIS Y MUCHOS OTROS TEMAS DE INTERES DE INTERES COMPARTIDO, ENTRE LOS CUALES DESTACAN LOS RETOS DEL PORVENIR QUE LA VOCACION DE LA CONSTRUCCION DE LA UNION EUROPEA MARCAN PARA DIFERENTES REGIONES:

Octavio:LA PREGUNTA ES COMO LOS VALORES DE LA DEMOCRACIA, LA LIBERTAD Y LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS, CONSTRUYEN UNA GOBERNANZA DESDE EUROPA Y SE CONVIERTEN EN PILARES DE LA CONVIVENCIA GLOBAL?

Alex:CUANDO VEMOS EL DESARROLLO DE LA UNION EUROPEA SACAMOS EN CONCLUSION QUE LA COOPERACION Y EL TRABAJO EN CONJUNTO HAN TRAIDO MUCHO MAS VENTAJAS QUE CUALQUIER CONFRONTACION Y LAS SECUELAS QUE ELLAS CONLLEVAN

COMO ORGANIZACION EUROPEA JUSTAMENTE ESTAMOS INTERESADOS EN ORGANIZAR ESTOS ENCUENTROS ENTRE PERSONAS POLITICAS QUE ESTAMOS TRABAJANDO EN LA CONSTRUCCION DE REDES DE QUIENES QUIEREN Y PUEDEN CONOCERSE DE ANTEMANO PARA CONVIVIR DURANTE VARIOS DIAS Y NO SOLO DISCUTIR ALGO EN TERMINOS MUY ABSTRACTOS, SINO TRATAR DE TOMAR REAL CONCIENCIA E INFLUENCIA EN LA POLITICA Y LA DEFINICION DE POLITICAS PUBLICAS.

EN ESE SENTIDO; CUAL HA SIDO EL IMPACTO DEL DIALOGO ESTRUCTURADO QUE EN EUROPA EXISTE FORMALMENTE CON LA AUTORIDAD, ESTO ES, LA OBLIGACION DE LOS ESTADOS POR TOMAR EN CUENTA LA OPINION DE LOS JOVENES EN LA DELIBERACION, IMPLEMENTACION Y EVALUACION DE POLITICAS PUBLICAS?

JUSTAMENTE TENEMOS UN INTERCAMBIO ENTRE PRESIDENTES DE ORGANIZACIONES EUROPEAS Y TAMBIEN ORGANIZAMOS UNA CONVENCION

A NIVEL EUROPEO PARA DISCUTIR AHI LOS CONTENIDOS LIBERALES.

Interview With Jan Krawitz by Sobia Kazam

What is the membership fee criteria of your organization? If some member does not pay the fee, then does the organization cancel his/her membership?

As far as membership fee is concerned we are really concerned with the membership fee because it shows the concern of member towards organization.
If some member does not pay the fee then his/her membership is really in danger.
While we try to grow the number of our members at every cost.

Is your organization concerned to make strong relationships with other organizations and how do you work on that practically?

Yes our organization is really interested in making good relations with other organizations because we understand its importance. We arrange so many seminars, workshops and training workshops in collaboration with various organizations.
For the purpose we have appointed a coordinator who is working to sustain and strengthen relation of our organization to other org. all the time.

Entrevista con Henning Hone by Juan Bosco Campos O.

¿? Como se siente usted al estar en esta celebración, se siente más motivado para trabajar aun más duro en su organización.

R/ Si, definitivamente me siento sumamente emocionado de estar en esta celebración y es bueno celebrar ver las personas que vienen de otros lados y eso es bueno para todos los aquí presentes.

¿? JULIS, es más importante aun después de 30 años, en diferentes áreas de Alemania.

R/Si, en Alemania, tenemos más de 12 mil miembros, y en esta celebración es una señal para todos los miembros de seguir trabajando fuerte en nuestras organizaciones.

¿? Es muy emocionante ver el Ministro del Exterior, que en su momento fue presidente de JULIS, y ahora es ministros, usted podría estar ahí en su lugar en algún momento y podría ser presidente.

R/ No lo creo, no puedo por el momento pero me siento feliz, de trabajar ahora y trabajar en las nuevas ideas políticas y que sucedan lo mas pronto posible.

¿? Finalmente, JULIS, está abierta al resto del mundo, como América Latina, Asia, y Norte América y el resto del mundo, que vengan la organización de jóvenes buscando ayudas como tutorías y algo por el estilo.

R/ Definitivamente, tenemos dos personas que trabajan a nivel internacional, y les da la bienvenida a quienes nos buscan y se les da seguimiento dependiendo de lo que ellos quieran.

¿? Los principales objetivos alcanzados de más importancia después de esta celebración.
R/ Puedo hacerlo en unas solas palabras como medalla principal, las mejores políticas y queremos un mejor futuro trabajamos para eso para mejores oportunidades de los miembros.

Dresden Again And Coming Home to Gummersbach

Hello there! Did you have some fun time yesterday? Well, we did! But before sharing our exciting experiences with you, we would like you to check JuLis’s web page and their one cool description of the event we attended on Sunday! Yes, it’s in German, but here you can find pretty useful tool that could help you out! Still waiting their vivid video to be posted, but when they do you’ll be absolutely amazed, we know it. Okay, that was a small throwback and now some new stuff! We are sure you are eager to find out what we did yesterday, and here it comes!
Yesterday we met two really successful leaders, who showed us how a party can go from 1% of popular support up to 10% and to be part of the government. First one was Meeting Mr Torsten Herbst Chief Whip of the FDP in the State Parliament of Saxony, Secretary General of the FDP Saxony. How cool is that! He introduced us with some pretty effective ways of communicating and presenting of our ideas to the public. One of those is definitely playground idea! Imaginative, fresh and new, this idea brought children around inflated playground and more important their parents. Playground has just become political and we like it! This interesting fellow shared his experiences how he as a liberal is managing to keep liberal idea alive while sharing power with conservatives. It’s not easy, we can tell you, but it’s possible. Yep, it’s a diplomatic answer, but it’s truth.
Last of our guests in this seminar was Mr Benjamin Karabinski Member of the State Parliament of Saxony and former representative of the “Junge Liberale (JuLis)”, this inspiring young man achieved so much in his youth, and still doing it! He told us that experience gained in JuLis helped him greatly not only in his career but in helping his community as the primary goal of politics. That is exactly why he likes politics, because he likes listening to the needs of ordinary people who are not interested in high politics but only in peaceful and prosperous life. This successful fellow was kind and showed us some of the State Parliament, their offices, and how Parliament functions. It was more then insightful. Thank you, our dear speakers, one more time, for sharing your experiences.
Wanna see some pictures from whole excursion including those from meeting with these gentlemen. Sure, you do! Just click here! 🙂

Read ya! 🙂