We had our first planning meeting for the YouthCaN Med conference in April and it was a very energizing hour! It was great to finally meet some of the people I have been participating in the online course with and to start building ideas for the conference.
We had 16 people at the meeting (Ramsey, Simon, Zena, Mohammed, Mahmoud, Eliane, Prairie, Heba, Majid, Rosine, Hiba, Salwa, Ralph, Leila, Jenni, Seroun) and after introductions we got right down to the exciting planning agenda.
The hikes were first on the list. Simon and Ramsey have agreed to coordinate the first one and it will be on Sunday, March 19 in the North. I have not been anywhere in the North yet so I am excited and I am really looking forward to these activities!
The second date I told everyone to put on their calendars is April 22, which is Earth Day. We discussed possibilities to commemorate the date and are going to discuss ideas again at the next meeting and the teachers from Valley International School suggested doing a river clean-up near their school that day. It is possible that we could coordinate several activities at different schools.
Teachers and students shared where they were in the planning stages of their projects, then we discussed the conference. It is possible the date will be an Islamic holiday so we had to address what we will do if that happens. Most people said they would be willing to come but teachers are going to check with their students and we will revisit the issue at the next meeting.
We then talked about the design for YouthCaN Med T-shirts that will incorporate the global YouthCaN quote that was selected for this year, which is “Be positive be alive. . . make a change and see it with your eyes”. Student design submissions will be accepted until March 2 and then we will vote.
Ideas for the conference opening were also discussed. Four of the students are going to work on an overview of the previous YouthCaN conferences either in the form of a video or PowerPoint presentation. Other ideas are still needed for the rest of the opening.
During the conference students have a ‘free’ session that is devoted to working on some form of ongoing activity. What should it be this year? We discussed a range of ideas including an arts and crafts project that uses recycled materials to make keychains/souvenirs and we will build on this idea at the next meeting. Rosine proposed to take the lead on this activity.
We also talked about conference and presentation application forms and potential seminars, including one on bird flu and food safety tentatively scheduled in March. More details are coming. I am sensing a theme. Looks like we have a lot of work to do before our next meeting, which is Friday, March 3, but we made a lot of progress too!