After FACI conference

On Sunday we returned from the best conference ever. It was FACI 2007 organized by National Support Team (Basia, Chwałka, Gosiaczek, Milenka, Krzychu and Ola) with member of National External Team Przemo. That was my fourth conference as faci (without local ones) but it was really special and unusual one. And not only for me, not only for us as faci team but also for delegates.

What was so special there? I guess it would be easier to say what was “normal”! During the faci premeeting in Marki we decided that we want to make delegates think. Think about themselves. That we want to create such a conference during which they will open their minds, they will be more creative, they will be open minded for everything what is happening. Conference they will be creating with us. We decided to focus not on knowledge but on discovering themselves, getting to know their strong and weak sides, their personality. And that was the beginning of something special. When we’ve decided on that we came up with many “strange” ideas which weresupposed to help us, which were supposed to create atmosphere of reflection, opening minds, sharing and getting to know ourselves better.

We decided not to show the agenda. Delegates didn’t know the agenda. We showed it during the closing plenary. Yes, that’s not a mistake, closing plenary. The effects were better that we have ever thought. First of all delegates didn’t know what to expect and they were coming to the sessions with open minds, without any expectations, there were no possibility of thinking like this: “Oh, again this? We have it already million times!”. Do you know that people weren’t late? And what was the most surprising (at least for me) there were no single person which didn’t come for the session! Each time everybody was participating!

We decided to use only polish words. Have ever thought that we have problems with saying some things in Polish? Such impressions as “performance”, “challenging”, “inputs”, “feedback”, learning” or some strange words created from English but with Polish grammar “challengowac”. We came up with the rule that each time anybody is saying something in English we are saying “I don’t understand” (of course in Polish). We – delegates and facis – created some kind of dictionary. For example:

Chair – wodzirej
Roll call – skecz, figiel,
@dance - @plas
Coffee break – przerwa kawowa, kawy brak
Punishment team – zespol penitencjarny, zespol pejczujacy
Session - spotkanie

And many many more… And I have to say it was really challenging, at least at the beginning. And really funny when we were trying to pass something and we hadn’t had any idea how to say it. You have to try it! And don’t be surprised when somebody will tell you “Nie rozumiem”.

Another thing was not using beamer. Believe us – it’s possible! You can ask Chwałka how you can show the agenda without beamer.

We also decided to activate delegates as much as possible. During each plenary there were people responsible for interactions. Also gossip team and punishment team. I have never seen such many creative and really funny gossips! And punishments? They were so funny and not from these “disgusting” ones.

These were small things… And they were important. But I think that the most important was division for homegroups were faci was only facilitating the process, we weren’t taking part in any get-to-know games and game in the forest which was summing up whole things, goals we were discussing before. And evening plenary in the Checiny castle. During this game homegroups had some tasks but they were not so important. The most important were this team experience which they got. During the game it became dark, they had only one torch and they need to manage. They pass through the process of creating the team, getting to know their strong and weak points, how they are behaving in some extreme environment. They need to do it to be at the castle at 11pm. And you know what? All groups came to the castle for the plenary on time. And after that we had plenary where we sharing with atmosphere of history all around us. And a lot of people wanted to share and shared. How they felt, how they behaved, what is their learning…

Then we returned to the venue, had some planned short and feedback session in each homegroups (before we thought that people would be tired, that we had to make it short and effective) but there were a lot of people which were sitting till 3am and sharing, discussing… Because they wanted to. Because they needed. And the next morning some people told us that they were at the plenary room sitting next to the conference flow and goals and they noticed that we achieved ALL goals. That that was their first conference they felt that really all goals were achieved. And what’s more that they were satisfied from both sides of conference – this reflection one and this content one.

Before the conference I was afraid that people would not want to share in front of the whole plenary. I was completely wrong. Delegates shared a lot, and they were saying so cool and wise things. And during closing plenary there were a lot of said sugar cubes. We were approaching each other, hugging and saying instead of writing. And that was great.

Ah, I’ve almost forgot! Faci roll call! I just have to write about it! Opening plenary. Everybody was sitting, and Ola (ask her to tell you some joke!) was welcoming delegates. And she was really sorry to tell it but we all knew that we had to respond to the present needs and all conferences had to answer them. And that we were in touch with MC which was then on IC, and that all of us were aware of difficult situation of AIESEC in Poland especially in terms of exchange. That’s why we – faci – were having the premeeting there in Checiny from Monday to rearrange conference a little bit. So all sessions would take place in commissions. And then each member of faci team (as you know we covered all commissions) told what each commission would be talking about. Then Ola asked people to sit in the commissions not to lose more time. So we went to sit in the commission, almost starting the meeting and we just went in front of commissions and our wodzirej told: “We are really surprised that to this moment you didn’t realize that this is faci roll call! So –rry!”. Ask people how they felt and how did they react! After it delegates had no bloody idea what they can expect!

For me personally there was also one very important thing. We – all people present there, in Checiny – together created such an atmosphere that it was much more easier for me to open for others, to approach people I didn’t know, I hadn’t been talking with. And this wasn’t my first conference. I don’t know, I don’t want to count which one, but for sure I hadn’t had this feeling before.

There were also great OC which helped us a lot not only with some “normal” stuff but also during this game in the forest. So thanks once more!

I was trying to share here general view of the conference, some my personal thoughts and some thoughts which I’m sure that whole faci team agree with. We – Chwałka, Gosiaczek, Ola, Milenka, Krzychu - GuGu, Przemo and me - can talk a lot about this conference, all of us are really inspired, full of energy… We just can’t agree for one thing – are we flying 10cm, 30cm, 50cm or even more above he ground?

Thank you for this experience!

Basia