communication guide
TRANSCRIPT
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
Communications Transition Guide 2013
“He, who wants to leave a trail, has to stand up and go!”
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
Comtent
Intro ............................................................................................................................................................ 3
1. Purpose of the Communications area ..................................................................................... 4
2. Communication ................................................................................................................................ 5
3. What AIESEC is ................................................................................................................................. 6
4. Recruitment ....................................................................................................................................... 8
5. Branding ............................................................................................................................................ 12
6. Public relations............................................................................................................................... 13
7. Social Media ..................................................................................................................................... 14
8. Homepage ......................................................................................................................................... 15
10. How to educate my LC ............................................................................................................... 16
11. Legals & Boundaries ................................................................................................................... 18
12. Interfaces ......................................................................................................................................... 19
13. Your role as... ................................................................................................................................ 21
15. Where do I get support? ............................................................................................................ 22
16. Com Culture ................................................................................................................................... 23
17. Useful tools ..................................................................................................................................... 26
Take the next step ............................................................................................................................... 28
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
Intro
Why transition? Transition is one of the most important times for you and your successor. It is not just the
teaching of content or knowledge, it is more about giving your successor the bigger picture of
your area and preparing her/him for the job. That maybe also means to go through your own
experience, situations where you learned a lot, mistakes you did. So in that sense we do
transition not only because of the knowledge we have to give but also to handover our legacy,
explain why we did the things we did, why we took decisions in this or that way. Through that
your successor can start her/his own thinking process. Would I have done the same?
What does this guide want? This guide should give you guidance in your transition planning. It serves as a knowledge tool
as well as a structure help for your own transition. Also everything is in here what we as NST
and MC recommend you to put in your agenda. But also you will find a lot of links to wikis and
interesting videos to transmit the message in another format. Please also give us feedback on
the guide to constantly developing it. For that just send an email to [email protected]
How to do transition with your predecessor/successor? A transition process is consisting out of several meetings with your successor/predecessor. In
those meetings you, the predecessor, will give all your knowledge and experience to your
successor. Please take that serious. A usual transition takes minimum 16h of meeting, if you
need less take care that almost all content from this guide is included and your successor
understands it, maybe also make a quiz to test it. If you are not a trainer yourself, maybe ask a
trainer or faci for methods to make your transition sessions as interactive as possible.
Dear VP Com elect, your responsibility is to track also your predecessor on your transition. Get
exactly what you need know for your year.
JUST TO POINT SOMETHING OUT! TRANSITION IS NOT DONE BY SHARING THIS GUIDE
TO YOUR SUCCESSOR!!!
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
1. Purpose of the Communications area The Purpose of Communications as a functional area is to create participants in the ELD
programs out of individuals. We do this by doing PR and marketing, so that individuals get in
touch with AIESEC and engage. In the ideal case, the students even become promoters of
AIESEC.
For doing so, AIESEC needs one team having the competence to promote AIESEC aligned,
consistent and targeted. This team is the Com Team in every LC.
On a more practical level: what does Com do? Basically external and internal communication.
Please find detailed JDs for the Com Team here.
external
• The number one task of Com, with the highest priority! Member & EP Recruitment
• How is @ perceived at you university? How should it be? What can you do?
• It is also important to clean up old & unfitting entries on your channels (research on google/youtube about your LC)
Brand Management
• press & media releases PR
• keep it up to date, nice and meaningful Homepage
• take care of your channels (youtube, flickr, facebook, xing, linkedIn)
Web 2.0
internal
• every member is an ambassador, so educate your LC about communicating @.
Brand Management
• tracking the LC’s wikis & documentation knowledge
management
• keep your LC up to date & your EB transparent by a (bi)weekly/monthly internal Newsletter
internal Newsletter
• many people think Comrades are good at IT stuff, so be prepared for getting the office technique working again ;)
support information
system structure
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
For doing all this, three things are important:
1. plan ahead: which information should be published via which channel, at which time
(internal & external)
2. one face to the customer: for being professional, aligned & consistent, your design and
messages should derive from the same source and should express the same.
3. underpromise, overdeliver: don’t promise things you can’t deliver. When it turns out
you can do more, put the nice to haves on top, as well
2. Communication
Why communicating? “Peace and fulfillment of humankind’s potential” is the overall vision of AIESEC. For this, we
want to “reach and develop every young person in the world” within the year 2015. So people,
especially students as our target group, have to get involved with AIESEC. For this, they have to
be willing to get involved, meaning you as AIESECer have to create this motivation in the
audience. That’s why, AIESEC is communicating. Communicating means to send messages to
an audience. This messages have to be interpreted by their very receiver, but also, they can be
disturbed by external influences. The high art of communication is to bring the message into the
audience’s mind exactly as they should interpret it, and motivate the audience to an action.
How to communicate? First things first: Start with a reason! What is your goal you want to achieve with this act of
communication? This goal leads to all the rest.
Content wise, the model mainly used in AIESEC is called “Golden Circle” from Simon Sinek.
(Watch an excerpt or the full video.) The main idea is to start with the why: why does your
product/your company exist – on an abstract, ideal level. What is the purpose of it? Don’t tell
what you can do with it. That’s the result, not the purpose. Don’t tell the students to join
AIESEC, so they can engage in the Youth Talent program. That’s just an instrument. Tell them,
as the employee market is looking for leading people with practical experience, they as students
should gain this experience during their studies. Since the university does not deliver practical
experiences, they have to gain it somewhere else. (<- Why!) So they should apply for the youth
talent program business, where they can lead team and organize projects (<- How!).
Give your audience a problem, they may did not know they actually had. Let them think about it.
Offer the solution – and don’t sound like an insurance seller ;)
Always end your communication with an appeal to action. Then the energy and interest you just
created in your audience can manifest into actions, such as applying for a program or visiting
the homepage. Otherwise, people won’t know what to do. How could they?
Form wise: KISS – “Keep it simple, stupid”. Don’t add more than necessary for understanding,
but also explain the crucial parts. You don’t know what your audience knows, so bring them to
your required knowledge level.
Also show only one face to customer. Appear aligned and unite. Have consistent messages in
all of your channels and also consistent design. This makes your easy to recognize and easy to
work with.
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
As a VPCom, you should know how to sell your products and how to communicate properly.
You are a role model and the expert for this in your LC. Therefore, you should practice selling
products (e.g. Youth Talent, Global Citizen, a team leader position to your member, …) to a
target group, in an elevator pitch. You can ask your predecessor for feedback and to film you
with a camera, for perceiving how you are perceived by others. Keep in mind: what is told
cannot be untold. What is seen cannot be unseen. So better do mistakes in exercises and learn
from in, instead ruin the image of @ in your city.
3. What AIESEC is As VPComs you should know in which organization you are actually working, for selling it authentically and effectively.
What is AIESEC?
AIESEC is a global, non-political, independent, not-for-profit organization run by students and recent graduates of institutions of higher education. Its members are interested in world issues, leadership and management. AIESEC does not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, creed, religion, ethnic or social origin.
wh
at w
e en
visi
on
Peace and Fulfilment of Humankind's Potential.
ou
r im
pac
t
Our international platform enables young people to explore and develop their leadership potential for them to have a positive impact on society
the
way
we
do
it
AIESEC provides its members with an integrated development experience comprised of leadership opportunities, international internships and participation in a global learning environment.
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
Our values
The AIESEC eXPerience
The @XP describes the way we want to develop young leaders in a global environment.
The @XP consists of two elements:
the XP phases and the 4 programmes.
The AIESEC Experience: PHASES
Engagement with AIESEC (EwA):
In this phase, members are introduced to the world
of AIESEC and the different programmes of which
they can be part, in order to gain an integrated
leadership development experience. They will learn
about the WHY, HOW and WHAT of AIESEC and it
will empower them to pick their program to kick start
their AIESEC XP.
Activating Leadership
• We lead by example and inspire leadership through action and results. We take full responsibility for our role in developing the potential of people.
Living Diversity
• We seek to learn from the different ways of life and opinions represented in our multicultural environment. We respect and actively encourage the contribution of every individual
Enjoying Participation
• We create a dynamic environment by active and enthusiastic participation of individuals. We enjoy being involved in AIESEC.
Striving for Excellence
• We aim to deliver the highest quality performance in everything we do. Through creativity and innovation we seek to continuously improve.
Acting Sustainably
• We act in a way that is sustainable for our organisation and society. Our decisions take into account the needs of future generations.
Demonstrating Integrity
• We are consistent and transparent in our decisions and actions. We fulfil our commitments and conduct ourselves in a way that is true to our identity.
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
Experiential Leadership Development (ELD):
The main programmes of the organisation are delivered here. We provide two team programmes and exchange programmes. This is the service centre where the members can learn and gain everything from the global leadership network of AIESEC.
Lifelong Connection:
A lifelong connection will ensure the essence of positive change throughout an AIESEC members life. In this way, AIESEC presents each of its alumni a platform for continuous growth thus enabling them to make a constant positive impact on society.
The AIESEC Experience: PROGRAMMES
The AIESEC Experience programmes can be taken in any order, according to the member’s choice.
4. Recruitment
Why Recruitment? The question why recruitment is so very important it can easily be answered: with the
recruitments you secure the LC’s pipeline for TMP/TLP and our exchange products GIP/GCDP.
Furthermore it is necessary for our vision "reach & develop every young person in the world".
But what do we mean by “products”?
Global Internship Programme (GIP)
•offers internships that contribute to the personal and professional development. They normally long term in nature and involve working in diverse business projects and organisations.
Global Community Development Programme (GCDP)
•offers internship that involve working abroad for social and community development projects that lead to self development and skill enhancement.
Team Leader Programme (TLP)
•provides personal and professional development through concept of teambuilding and management. Participants get to experience leading others and becoming part of their development.
Team Member Programme (TMP)
•provides practical team experience. Participants gain access to global network and develop hard and soft skills.
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
TMP/TLP: We are a student-driven organisation, which means we are as strong as, work and
only exist with our human resources - the member base. As a consequence this means, if we
don’t have enough members to do all the accumulating chores that must be done within the LC,
the EB/LC will face difficulties in achieving the goals that were set in the beginning. Since
AIESEC is a very dynamic organisation, there is a great amount of members leaving every
semester (e.g. if somebody is done with his/her studies, he/she moves to another city, personal
issues etc.). Since every member has a certain task in the LC, and every even so tiny task is
important for the greater goal, we should always look out for somebody who can succeed in
doing this task. With the Member Recruitment we look for the right persons to fill these shoes in
TMP/TLP.
GCDP/GIP: In AIESEC we offer students the opportunity to make great experiences and
develop personally as well as professionally. We have the vision of engaging every young
person in the world.This engagement and development can be done by going on exchange with
us. With the local OGX-work every LC contributes a big part to fulfilling this vision. Therefore we
aim to send as many motivated students abroad as possible - to ensure that we can touch as
many as possible and change as many lives as possible. With the EP-Recruitment we look for
young people who want to grab this opportunity. These can only be found, if they learn about
us, our products and how their lives can be changed by them.
The Brand Funnel/Customers & Promoters Our common understanding of
Recruitment is that we do promotion
twice a semester for our member-, as
well for our exchange products. In that
the process of recruitment does not
change. We just switch the programmes
we are selling in these phasis, which
give direct our content for our
campaigns. Recruitment is a very
powerful process, and its execution is of
very high importance for the LC.
When we talk about attracting
students to AIESEC there are several
opportunities to “recruit” them. A concept
how to attract those members is called
the brand funnel. It is based on the so
called Customer & Promoter concept. That means with every activity we do in communications
we want to either create customers of our programmes (EPs or Members) or promoters of our
programmes and organization, which don’t take the programme directly but know it and
“promote” it to their acquaintances and friends.
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
We have three possible ways to create both. First is Marketing. That means we directly sell our
programme benefits to students on campus. That means flyering, info stands or lecture
presentations.
The second way of “recruit” is PR. That means we try to build up a organizational reputation
amongst our stakeholders. Included into PR activities are Press, Online Media, Social Media but
especially University Management. Through those initiatives you drive AIESECs reputation and
make it known. Students influenced by PR activities are more likely to become customers of our
programmes.
The third and more unusual way is creating micro experiences for our students. That means you
give students the opportunity to get a glimpse how an AIESEC experience could look like.
These could mean spots as DayOCs, open reception weekends etc.
The Planning Process – GTCM Before jumping into the recruitment phase, all steps should be planned thoroughly according to
the LC’s goals and needs. To make the planning process easier and to make sure that the
measures are adapted to said goals and needs we propose using the GTCM-Method (Goal,
Target, Channel, Message).
The method
follows the front
office approach
and structures the
planning process
according to a
logical order. By starting the planning with setting the goals first, it assures that everybody
included in the recruitment process is aware of them and reflects about them before randomly
using any methods. Please make sure to define your goals very smart and exact, to make them
more powerful while working with them.
So all used channels, which also means marketing methods and measures, messages sent are
aligned to the LCs goals and target groups. In this way no resources are wasted on
unnecessary marketing methods and measures which will not contribute to the goals in the end.
Moreover this method is very intuitive and can be used for every segment and every single goal,
also for every communication, like for PR, info booths or internal communication.
Here is one example for a good GTCM planning:
10 Global Citizen
Language EPs,
realised in early
July
Goal
3rd semester students
of all language subjects
Target
•lecture presen-tations
•Uni-Portal
•posters in libaries
Channel
"learn the language,
get to know the culture"
Message
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
Example Timeline
Further tips Plan with enough buffer time ahead, so you are on the safe side. The material should be in
the office at least one full week before it gets delivered, etc. Consider the evaluation of the last recruitments while planning Consider holidays (Feiertage), important football games and local events for the date
of your information evening – otherwise your actual audience will have other plans. Use national material for being aligned, professional and saving shit loads of time & effort! Plan that professors or the university need time to answer your requests. Ask RLP & NST before printing material. Set a point, where you launch your plan B - e.g. when you notice you did not raise enough
EP/members, indicated by the first info eve - which are secondary but promising target groups you did not reach yet? How can you activate them fast & efficient? This plan B & the trigger should be set before the semester starts.
Do not recruit EPs and Members at the same time. Too many messages confuse the audience.
Just let good sellers do lecture presentations, booths, flyering, etc, or you will ruin your image.
Let your members recruit their friends – experience has shown this is the best channel of recruitment.
Prepare selling points for your members to motivate them for the recruitment. The EB has to be a positive role model for motivating the LC. Evaluate & recalibrate the member recruitment directly after it, for improving EP
recruitment.
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
5. Branding
What is a brand?
A brand is not only a logo or the products and services that are provided by an organization or
company. It’s the culmination of all the experiences that people have had with it. A brand is
nothing tangible, it only exists in people’s minds.
The AIESEC brand reflects how people think and feel about AIESEC. Our brand is shaped most
powerfully by what we do, by our behavior. It consists of all the experiences that people have
had with AIESEC, our products, our members but also what they hear about the organization. It
defines what we offer and what we stand for, communicates why we’re different and gives
people a reason why they should engage with us.
Why branding? Branding is mostly about awareness building. It is all about what the members of your LCs tell
about the organisation, about their experience. The best branding is delivering high quality
experience. The crucial part is making your members (customers) but also other students
understand what AIESEC stands for, why we are doing what we do, whats our purpose? With
that every member is an ambassador of our brand, and is shaping it at the outside world.
We are talking about brand management, if we want to influence how we want to be seen in
society, with what we want to be associated, which shall define our brand.
The official brand guidelines of AIESEC you can find here: Brand XP Wiki
Visuals
In the beginning of 2013 there was a big brand refresh introduced by AIESEC International.
With this brand refresh some great changes were introduced. To get an overview on the new
guidelines, have a look at the new visual brand toolkit.
Please find AIESEC’s overall branding guidelines in this wiki.
The most important branding rules are shortlisted here:
● You may use the AIESEC logo in short or long version (never
use the long logo with descriptor!).
● You can use the logo in the colour combinations on the right:
● Use Helvetica (both in regular, bold, italic or bold italic) for
body text and Georgia (regular, bold, italic or bold italic) for
headlines or body text.
● Always use two or more shapes. Find the vector files for the
shapes here.
● You are allowed to use any colour you like.
● The individual shapes must be recognizable and in their original proportion.
● The shapes must not replace the AIESEC logo.
● If you use pictures, make sure you have the copyrights! You are allowed to use pictures
from the AIESEC International and AIESEC Germany Flickr channels.
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
6. Public relations
What is PR? PR work is a good opportunity to stay present over the whole semester as well as to promote
events in your LC. Before you start with your PR work you should think about which goal you
want to achieve with it and design a concept according to that.
Look at these videos and see how helpful PR work can be: What is PR? Advise for PR People.
PR and Press work This text sums up the difference between PR work and press work.
How to start? At the beginning of PR work you and your successor should answer to three elementary
questions:
1. Which media can you use?
2. Which target group do you want to address?
3. At which time does PR work make sense?
1. Which media can you use?
At the beginning you should conduct an analysis about which media are present at the campus.
Does the university publish a magazine, is there a campus radio station or are there other
magazines for students? Which daily newspapers are available in your city (you can take into
consideration big as well as small ones)? Are there any newspapers published by companies
respectively are there any magazines which especially address companies?
Conduct a detailed analysis of the relevant media and try to find out the contact person
2. Which target group do you want to address?
With the analysis from point 1 you find the respective target group. You should keep in mind that
the different media address different target groups. In general you differentiate between three
target groups:
students | companies | the public (everyone who is reading newspapers)
3. Which is the best time for PR work?
The target group and the used media is dependent of the time of release. Particularly, PR work
can be used at special events, i.e. Recruitment or FKG to gain attention from students and
companies. But PR work can be used with permanent advertising as well, e.g. with a press
release you can regularly inform about activities of the LC. At the beginning of PR work, it is
important to consider, at which time releases make sense.
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
Considering these three aspects, you can develop a concept to start with PR work. With this
concept you may be have developed in your term or your successor now developed, it now
goes to contact different media companies. For this show your successor the current contacts
and give him/her an example how he/she can get in contact.
For more information show your successor the Press and Media Wiki.
PR on local level PR on local level is more about projects and specific things that might be interesting for local
media, for example when you have some interesting interns or pending any interesting
anniversaries. Discuss with your successor about possible topics of interest in your LC.
PR on national level On national level, we did create this coordination tool you can copy and use. Please note the
three slides as well.
7. Social Media
Why do we use Social Media? We envision becoming first choice online. Regarding to our vision we need to strengthen our
image aligned our brand for current and potential stakeholders. We use different social-media
channels to achieve our goal. Facebook and Google+ are two of these useful tools, especially it
can be used as hub of other channels. Briefly we use our Social Media pages for:
creating network
marketing our campaigns
sharing our events
creating a channel for discussions
sharing contents from other online channels
Com-Takeover Grant your successor admin rights to all your social media profiles (Facebook, YouTube, Flickr,
etc). Also show your successor the basic functions to handle those channels. You also might
make your successor subscribe to the national channels for gathering input and getting
informed about current developments.
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
Legal Issues There are certain rules, my must obey, partly by the German law. Acting against this can
seriously harm the LC.
1. We may not link to external pages. This would be considered as (unpaid)
advertisement and leads to problems with the accounting: Grade 6 in the annual
statement could be the consequence ("Vereinsgefährdung").
2. You may link to external pages (Youtube, Facebook-Pages, Blogs) if they are not owned
by companies and only contain AIESEC content. Even an article about Leadership
would already pose a problem again. Blogs are ok (if they are not owned by companies).
3. It is generally not allowed to create flyers that include pictures or create videos that
include music, if you are not the author of it. You have to ask the author for
permission, otherwise it could cause complaints. There is a three-digit number of firms
and agencies that make nothing more on the whole day to search the web for such
offenses.
4. You are allowed to use images and music that have been released under a free license.
In general, these are to work with Creative Commons license. The largest photo archive
is the CC section at Flickr. The offer is huge, it should be easy to find something
suitable. In general, however, there are some conditions, such as that you must mention
the original author in your description, or that you must not edit the image. In addition,
you may use all the images that have been released in the Flickr channel of AIESEC
Germany! You can find free music at jamendo.
5. You need to have an "Impressum" on all of your social media pages. Please have a
look at our wiki for instructions how to set up an inpressum on your Facebook page (in
the alignment section).
6. If you are in general doubt, please send an email the RLP for confirmation.
Alignment There exist some common design rules all LCs have to stick to on their Social Media pages.
You find more information in our wiki in the alignment section.
For more in-depth information into social media marketing and how to generate likes, please
refer to our great Social Media Handbook. Grab your copy here.
8. Homepage Your LC Website is your main online information source. Therefore you are responsible for
keeping the website up-to-date and equipping it with all necessary information for our external
stakeholders.
Please transfer the login data to your successor, and give him a short introduction into the
Wordpress CMS. Show him how to upload new pictures and create a new blogpost. As the
interface is quite intuitive, it makes sense for the new VP to explore the CMS and try out all
functions.
Please keep in mind, that the information about the newly elected executive board has to be
changed at the beginning of the new term.
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
How to edit the homepage
For further information on how to edit the homepage and access the Wordpress CMS, please
refer to our Handbook. You can download it right here.
9. Local Information Management & Documentation As Com it is not your task to do all the documentation on yourself. But it is your task to structure
and track if documentation is done. Furthermore you should take care of that your EB gets
educated on how to edit the homepage or use the social media channels.
You should consider setting up a LIM (Local Information Manager), if you not already have one.
He will be the responsible for Documentation and Information Management in your LC.
Preferably he should be integrated into the Com Team to release synergies with your other Com
Members.
10. How to educate my LC As VPComs, you are the only experts for selling our products. Since you can’t run the whole
recruitment just by your very self, you should transfer certain knowledge to your LC. Having this
knowledge, the whole LC will perform better regarding the recruitment and the followed up
processes.
What all members should now/should be able to
External Communication - Every member is the LC
• Every member respresents the LC and the whole organisation amongst his/her own friends and co-students member and can influence the image of the LC & the organisation in a bad or in a good way.
• It should be avoided, to talk mostly bad about the organisation, to lie and to set the focus on party. Of course you should be honest to your friends when you are having hard times within AIESEC, but exclusivle negative input will shape the organisation's image in a bad way.
• Internal problems should stay internal. Avoid internal only used language and abbreviations in front of externals.
• Know why you do the job. Know it's purpose. Know it's benefit for your very self.
• Know how AIESEC works on an organisational level (LC & eXchange).
• Communicate what AIESEC is and what it's vision is.
• Live your engagement and be proud of it! Share cool things, experiences and moments that happend to you.
Branding Guidelines & Legals
• Be ably to apply the guidelines mentioned in the visual branding toolkit.
• Obey the copyright.
• Know that the VPCom has to check every thing, before it get's published.
AIESEC itself
• Communicate what AIESEC is and what it's vision is.
• Know how AIESEC works on an organisational level (LC & eXchange).
• Communicate what AIESEC is and what it's vision is.
How to Communicate
• Golden Circle: start with a reason to create understanding for the what.
• KISS: Keep is simple, stupid. Explain as less as possible and just as much as necessary, to not confuse.
• Be honest & authentic. When you do not know something, just say that you do not know.
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
What recruiters should know/be able to
What the whole EB should know/do
How to transfer knowledge The experts for the knowledge are you. But how to bring it in someone else’s brain? You can
always ask a trainer for this. But also:
Use the time in your team meetings for education. A member can explain his
knowledge to the others, within about 20 min about a certain topic. He/She may also
does research.
Organise a workshop for a bigger topic. Ask your LTT or VPTM for this.
Have a session explaining certain things on an LCM.
Prepare self explaining booklets or guidelines.
Next Steps
Selling & Communcation with externals
Answer questions
Know Products, Pool & Supply by heart
member's knowledge
know what you expect your
memebers to know
role model
be role model for the recruitment
encourage your members
exercise
exercise selling yourself
let your members exercise before
they sell
Com is equal
Com is support, not slave or bucket for
unloved tasks
consider all teams'
ressources while planning
alignement
consider an aligned
appearence in all (!) you decisions
act brand aligned
Action steps, timeline, contacts
How to pitch the products
Prepare frequently asked questions
Value propositions, hard facts
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
As for transition, you may physically meet with your predecessor for some sessions. Here are some methods & tricks to make the transition meeting more prosperous. These hints are also important for every time you want someone to learn something, like mentioned above.
Outline your goals and key learnings before you start the session. Plan with enough buffer time for each point, also plan for questions.
Create an atmosphere allowing to be active and to listen with ease. Get yourself and your audience into the mood.
Prepare pen and notebook for your audience to write things down, if they don’t have it at hand, yet. Underline they will forget most of it, otherwise.
Follow the 4mat rule, meaning explain first roughly, what this session is about, follow up with the why, go on with he how and conclude with the what if part. This rule is very useful, since it covers the different learning types, their respective needs and speeds.
Attract all four learning types, by using somatic (also haptic), audio, visual and intelligent (more concerning the thinking part) methods. Everyone has parts of these types in him/her, so make sure to not bore. It’s always useful to visualise the topic, as seen for sure at some workshops ;)
You may also change places, rooms or go outside for more diversity. Share your own experience, your successes and failures, maybe also the ones of your
colleagues or even predecessors. Let him/her learn through the failure of others. Storytelling is a very powerful tool, not only for this purpose.
The more the audience does themselves, the better the session is. So plan questions, exercises, simulation and planning for the term, already. Be prepared to give valuable feedback.
In the very end, let the audience sum up every topic you had in the meeting (“agenda run through”), for themselves to remember better and for you to correct/add and to know, which sessions were successful and where to improve concerning methods.
11. Legals & Boundaries
Branding & RLP
Because AIESEC is treated a non-profit association (gemeinnütziger Verein) by the German
law, we must obey certain rules. Acting against them can lead to a 6 in the annual report or an
organizational endangerment (Vereinsgefährdung) and by this to closing the LC. So make sure
to
● obey the copyright
● keep your homepage and marketing material free from links to not AIESEC related
sites (meaning companies, even BoA and GoS, and Facebook, even links to your own
LC site).
● ask the RLP via E-mail at least one week before you want to order the material, whether
you are allowed to do so. This is no bullying, but to support the financial health of your
LC and AIESEC in Germany.
For more information concerning the RLP see this Wiki. You can always reach the RLPs via
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
For being perceived as one united and professional organization, we must present ourselves
aligned. This is the case especially for branding. For ensuring this is done within AIESEC
worldwide, there are the some guidelines for this. You can see them in the AIESEC Visual
Brand Toolkit. You may also have a look on the global visual brand guideline wiki, where you
also can load the AIESEC logos from.
For assuring an aligned appearance within AIESEC Germany, please send your marketing
material before print to the Branding Check responsible in the ComNST, at least one week in
advance. Please write a mail directly to the branding check responsible one for getting the
answer faster. If you don’t know the responsible person, write to the NST-Account, where your
mail will be forwarded manually.
To sum up: Here is the checklist you should go through, before sending your material to the
RLP and Branding Check.
Verlagsvertrag AIESEC is a non-profit organization and is not allowed to print adverts up to a certain amount by
itself. This is only allowed by hiring a publisher. The contract, allowing this, is a publisher
contract (Verlagsvertrag) and is crucial for: semester planer and brochures or flyers containing
advertisement.
Please make sure, to check the legals before any action, especially before publishing! This is
also crucial for your LC’s financial health and the annual report.
For more information about the semesterplaner and the Verlagsvertrag, click here.
12. Interfaces Com has several interfaces with the other resorts; depending on your LC structure they might
be quite different. It is advisable to talk about Interfaces with the whole current EB and the
elected EB. Thereby you can determine the interfaces in your LC more clearly and talk about
how you want to handle those areas. Here are some examples.
Local Com & the LC
online presence
internal communication (input by LC, organisation of the channels by
Com)
financial health (legals in annual report) and by this further existence of
the LC
Com & ER marketing material for companies
project marketing and press work
align PR content: What could be relevant for companies? What could
harm our image?
Com & ICX marketing material for company meetings
marketing material for potential Incomers
press and media work about interns in Germany
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
Com & OGX EP recruitment (time line, target groups and information have to be
created and aligned together)
press and media work about outgoers (print and online)
Com & TM member recruitment (time line, target groups and information have to
be created and aligned together
AIESEC brand (as perceived and presented by the members)
Com & FIN financial resources for Com
legal aspects (includes RLPs – national “Rechnungslegungsprüfer”;
keep always two pieces of materials of each sort aside for putting them
into the annual report)
Com & LCP
You might think that there is no real interface with your LCP. Still
remember that the LCP is in the end responsible for all the things you
do. So don’t make him pay e.g. for not complying with legal rules. In
case of damage, like possible with marketing material or copyright
issues, the LCP is accountable with up to 2.500 € private money.
COM & OCs project marketing
press and media about projects
Regional connect & learn with VPs from the same region that have the same JD as you, but may
other approaches and experiences
organize education with LCs close to you (open WS for the Region)
be social :D
National
Com & NSTCom
general support in all Com areas , e.g. for questions (contact via mail) tracking the national strategy and their implementation by the LCs specific functional or personal coaching and regular TelCos with
Regional Coaches/Consultants branding check of the marketing material (please mail to the
responsible NST member) functional input on conferences
Com & MCVPCom
setting the strategy for the national Com area MC input on national conferences
Com & RLP support on legal issues checks marketing material on legal issues (copyright, “Verlagsvertrag”)
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
13. Your role as... As a VP you have different roles in different teams. Knowing about then can be crucial for the
teams and your overall performance.
team leader (VP) Ask your successor how he sees the role of a VP and how to fill a leadership position. Also talk
about different challenges in leading a team and maybe you can give him some tips how to
overcome them. Remember that there are different leadership styles and one of them is not
necessarily worse than the other.
Always think about what kind of leadership your team members need.
To start in the term in a good way, your successor can do a team-kick-off. On this day, it is
important to grow together as a team, because only as a team you can do good work and
functioning as a team makes the work more fun. Your successor should ask a trainer, if he or
she can help with this team-kick-off. The trainer will also show your successor different methods
of team building. The VPTM may have an overview about the trainers, if there is no LTT.
Show your successor different methods of time & self management, for example the Google
calendar. Time and self management means: gain an overview, schedule tasks, prioritize and
break down into realistic sub-steps, which can also be reached to keep you motivated.
To provide good and efficient working, show your successor how he/she should structure a
team meeting. For a good team meeting it is important to have a plan. Your successor should
think about the goal of this meeting (before the meeting!!). Show him/her how he created an
agenda for such a meeting. However, it is also important to schedule time for unexpected
topics.
For members it is always important to have goals, which they can strive for. For this, do a
session together with your current and elect VPTM, to show your successors the relevance of
goal setting & tracking and PDTs.
Since the members may use you as an orientation, act like a role model, inside & outside of
meetings. Show that you really enjoy what you do. This makes you more trustworthy and can
create a better atmosphere while working. You can also pull your successor up that way very
easy. Apropos: finding a successor starts with the very first day of your term, because you will
leave no legacy and no heritage, when you have no one who steps into your footprints.
team member (EB) Talk about the role each VP has in the EB and the special role a VP Com might have e.g. make
all the other EB members comply to branding rules ;-)
Also it is important to have an overview about the areas of the other teams. Especially for the
recruitment, to tell non-AIESECers something about the tasks of the other teams.
Further more it is your responsibility as VP, what the EB thinks about your area: Com’s purpose
is not to design something, but to conduct marketing and do PR. Therefore, it is more a craft
than doing art. For this, make the EB clear when you need support from the EB, OGX, TM and
ER.
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
15. Where do I get support? Nobody’s perfect, so the time will come you need support. But who can support you? A lot of
people feel happy to support others, since it is an appreciation of your achievements and a
proof of trust, to get asked for help. So don’t hesitate and ask for support at:
• Your EB colleagues are often facing the same problems as you. So you can ask them for help concerning team management and time or self management. You can also ask them for supporting you in your very own tasks, if your own workload is too high to manage, or for a supervision.
VPs & LCP
• Another group of people is facing the same problems as you are on a functional level, so connect about ideas, recruitments, timelines, measures and marketing instruments, as well as about team management and the EB work with your VPComrades in your regions.
Region
• One more person may faced your very situation: your predecessor. You can ask him/her for support in almost every topic. Predecessor
• The NST (National Support Team) consists mostly out of people, who have been VPComs themselves last term and right now not only have an excellent overview about the latest development in your area, but also a great network. So you they will be able to help you with almost everything ;)
NST
• For support on a very personal level, concerning your skills, competencies and your mindset, you can ask a mentor or a coach for help. It can be challenging, but by this, it helps a lot concerning your personal growth.
Mentor
• For team buildings, kick-offs or educational workshops, a trainer can help. The best contacts for this has the leader of your LTT (local trainers team).
LTT
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
16. Com Culture
History of Com Culture Since the communications area is quite new (est. 2010/11) we don’t have a long history of
culture. But as we all know the COMmanders are quite creative. So we came up with a lot of
different things and changed some culture on our way.
Team Drink In the beginning the was the famous COM-Shot. A mixture of egg liqueur and Sambuca. It
looked as disgusting as the name suggested.
As the area grew up Whisky-Cola (ideally Irish or Scottish Whisky) became the new drink for
functional rounds. The “Keep Walking” generation (2012/13) introduced Johnnie Walker Whisky
as the next level. While the VPs are supposed to drink Red Label on conferences, the NST is
allowed to drink Black Label (If that isn’t a reason to join the NST! ;) But be aware that you don’t
mix the pricy Black Label with Coke)!
Fun Fact: Johnnie Walker and Blueman fit perfectly together!
Please drink responsibly!
Shouts Probably nothing has changed as often as the Com Shouts. The first Com Shout was (awfully)
long and went something like this...
ER – Respect the Brand
Finance – Respect the Brand
ICX – Respect the Brand
OGX – Respect the Brand
TM – Respect the Brand
LCP – Respect the Brand
COMmunications!
There has also been a Bad Romance (Lady Gaga) version, which Philipp Rafler came up with in
a state of high tipsiness. Usually you’d only shout the last part.
I like your logo,
I like your design,
´Cause it´s so colourful and it´s so aligned
It´s so aligned, ligned, ligned, ligned, it´s so aligned!
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
So many Programs that I want to try,
So many conferences,
I want to apply,
Want to apply, pply, pply, pply, want to apply!
You know that I want you,
You know that I need you,
I want to COM... COMMUNICATE!!!
Coom Coom, Com Com Com.
Com Coom, Com Com Com.
Coom Coom, Com Com Com.
Communications.
A short and still very often used shout is:
Get up! COMe on! Com is number one! (3x)
[Get on you chair while you’re shouting it!]
Your predecessors came up with this shout:
Who are the creative ones?
- Definitely the sexy COMs!
Who does Branding for LCs?
- The COMmanders obviously!
When Lisa got elected for MCVP Com we created a shout as well. Feel free to use it during
functional rounds where Lisa is present.
Hinseeetzen!
Gebt mir ein L!
Gebt mir ein I!
Gebt mir ein S!
Gebt mir ein A!
Gebt mir ein Eschbaumer!
A great to counter-shout against the other teams is:
COMe COMe COMe COMe COMe to the point!
Since the COM area has gone through a lot of shouts in it’s short life, it’d be great if we could
stick with those for now! ;) Channel your creativity in the next recruitment!
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
Games The COMmanders have a couple of games they like to play during functional rounds. The rules
are quite easy.
Never Have I Ever
The first player says a simple statement starting with "Never have I ever...". We assume he has
actually done what he said but he could be lying, too. Anyone who has done what the first
player has must drink (including the first player). Play then continues around the circle, and the
next person makes a statement. In smaller groups or to make it more interesting: whenever only
one other person is drinking, that person must give a detailed account of why they are drinking.
One, Two, Com
The players start to count. Every number that is divisible through three or has a three in it has to
be replaced with “Com”. If a player fails to say the right number or “Com”, they have to drink.
Play then continues around the circle and the next person starts.
Chicken Goggles
Everyone puts their hands in front of their eyes to look like spectacles. the starting player then
moves either their left, right, or both hands together away from their head in any direction while
making a chicken sound. Depending on which hand moves (not the direction the hand moves
in) another player will take their go (person on the left, right or opposite respectively). When
someone moves out of turn or hesitates for too long, they have to take a sip of their drink!
You said Com
Since "com" itself is not only an outstanding area, but also a syllable used quite often, you drink
on this. Whenever someone said "com" by accident, like in "computer" or in "Can we please
come to an end", you are allowed to laugh, say "Haha, you said Com" - and then drink together.
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
17. Useful tools
Methods & Models How to be the expert in your area? You don’t always need to. Just copy from the best ;)
How to improve your skills & copy from the best? See here, how to find a mentor.
How to get the information you need in an instant? Google it properly, says Googlism.
How to make more out of your AIESEC XP? Transfer your learnings to other topics! Convince
your professor via golden circle, get your projects done with Pareto, leave a smart impression to
others with Google, talk to your parents having the four sides of communication in mind.
Not for AIESEC, but for live we learn, says Eddie ;)
How to bring 80% of the results by 20% of the effort? Often you do more than necessary.
With 20% of your usual effort, you can reach 80% of your goal, says Vilfredo Pareto.
What’s the easiest rule of three for best communication? Why are some companies so
outstanding in their marketing? Because they have a vision and transfer it to their marketing,
says Simon Sinek.
How to manage my time and my resources properly? A lot of input for this has
myAIESEC.net. More input gives the Ryerson University.
How to transfer knowledge to your members? Use 4mat and SAVI, says the NTT ;)
How to find the evil roots? While solving a problem, sometimes you fight symptoms instead of
causes. As prevention, ask for the ‘why’ five times in a row.
Our EPs are unsatisfied. Why? They don’t have the XP they want to. Why? They have no fitting
expectations. Why? They were informed wrong. Why? The members are not educated well
enough. Why? … Here you have the actual source of the problem you can solve ;)
How to do a Brainstorming? When you need ideas, brainstorm the right way!
How to give and take Feedback? Via Feedback, you become aware of yourself, says Joseph
Luft and Harrington Ingham. How to do deal with it, read here.
How to set proper goals? Do it smart.
How to analyse your team members? Use a will skill matrix. With this knowledge, you may
know to whom you delegate which tasks, whom you put together in subteams, who can be your
successor and who can complement others.
How to analyse your team or even your LC in different dimensions? Do a SWOT analysis.
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
Image editing
find free versions here
GIMP – as a Photoshop substitute
Scribus – as an InDesign substitute
Note: Photoshop in the CS2 is for free, but not a legal download on Adobe’s homepage, instead
you have paid for the license for CS2!
tutorials & smart tricks
Image editing is not something you attend a workshop in and then are the king of kings himself.
More true is, that learning by doing helps the most, because you learn exactly what you need to
know for your very own goals.
GIMP Pimp your GIMP by customized plugins and scripts (both features Photoshop
doesn’t have). Get to know here how to use it. Get to know the basics here in
self explaining tutorials. When you’re advanced, play a bit around ;)
Scribus Get to know the basics and some tricks.
InDesign Get to know the basics and some tricks.
Photoshop Get to know the basics and some tricks.
Some more basic education Download the AIESEC logo and the Visual Brand Toolkit.
Learn about time & self management.
Conduct your team meetings in an effective way.
Learn about team management, also for creatives.
How to motivate members and deal with retention.
Brand management insights can be received here.
The obligatory tools like Google mail (also some cool tricks via labs), Google drive and [email protected]
shouldn’t be a problem ;)
Continuative input for VPComs For beginners, a lot of things are explained here.
Read a good German branding magazine – or an English one. Read a design magazine. Read
about sales & marketing, leadership & management, office & operations or managing creativity.
TED – get inspired. Inspire by sharing.
Dreaminder – remind yourself at your dreams.
Also do “like” the respective facebooks sites, for being up to date.
AIESEC Germany | Communications National Support Team
[email protected] | [email protected]
Take the next step Why Com NST?
AIESEC offers you a lot of opportunities throughout your time within the organization. One of the
great steps you can take is the engagement in the National Support Body (short NSB) - or more
precisely: becoming a member of the legendary COM STars (COMmunications National
Support Team) - the best NST to be in!
During your term as a VP or Com Member you were given the possibility to learn a lot about the
area of communications and also on how to lead a team. What are the dos and don’ts in this
area? You got to experience good case practices, learned about strategic planning of the public
relations and other marketing work, learned how web-based media can be used, experienced a
lot of leadership styles, etc.
In other words: You carry a big amount of knowledge about COM and being a VP that can
be helpful and insightful for the generation of your VP COM successors.
By joining the Com NST you can support these VP Coms of the following generation by (roughly
said) sharing your wisdom and developing a national strategic direction that may be beneficial
for their local work.
The Com ST is a national and therefore basically virtual team of former COMmanders that on
the one hand still has a lot of energy to offer AIESEC and which wants to use this energy to do
something meaningful, namely shaping the Com-area of AIESEC Germany and pushing it
further.
On the other hand the Com ST is also a group of people who are still not done learning: while
working in the NST you get to see how a global organization is run on national level and by that
you are given the chance to expand your existing knowledge. By getting to know the complexity
of the bigger picture and by grasping it, your mindset will change in many ways. Moreover you
will learn more about your own strengths and weaknesses and get more opportunities to work
on and with them. This can be done by yourself (reflection), by your work in the NST but also
with the help of the feedback you can get from people working in the MC.
The Com ST Members form the link from the MC to the LCs, since most members join directly
after their VP-term and are lead by and work with the MCVP Com. They have important and
helpful input for the national planning concerning the LCs that can help the MC to include these
issues in their planning. It is also the Com ST’s function to pass on the national strategy to the
local level (by personal coaching, sharing on conferences and being the support body for all
Com-related questions) and the other way round, it is also their function to inform the MC about
current issues in the LCs in order to find solutions for existing problems.
So, to sum it up - why should you join the COM NST? You are not done with AIESEC and
you have a lot to give and share, but you are also not done learning about the communications
area, AIESEC Germany and strategic development of the organization. You are curious how the
MC is working and what it is like to work on national level. You want to broaden your knowledge
in the areas of coaching or mentoring. You want to be a part in the shaping process of the
COM-area in @Gery. You are a team player and you want to participate conferences.
If that is all applicable, then you really should take the next step and apply for the Com NST!