4. After this department’s (the Ballistae) roaring success at the awards night in
December lcong, a lot of people came up to me and asked me what drove
this department the way it did expecting some revolutionary strategy for an
answer . I simply looked at them and smiled, “love drives this department.”
That really is the essence of oGIP 2013 in AIESEC hyderabad. Love combined
with will power and determination; the absolute belief in one another and
the immense desire to succeed and rise against all odds.
What is it to not have an identity? We knew. A little more than a year from
now i stood there was one thing i had realized about oGIP in AIESEC
hyderabad: this portfolio needed to be established. What was it to the local
chapter? Inconsequential, because it was new and had barely made its place.
While constantly fighting different battles of understanding the portfolio,
member retention and connect and screaming for its existence to be
acknowledges, there came a day when the head of this department was told,
“both oGIP and iGIP are not doing well but everybody is only questioning iGIP
and not oGIP. You know why? Because nobody cares! And if you’re going to
want to change that you will have to wake up and smell the coffee.”
That was right. oGIP in hyderabad needed an identity.
The Ballistae walked into JNC with literally 1 tangible: 1 match and a bucket
of guilt and disappointment. But then there was Medha Agarwal, who asked
us to forget the past and work toward the future. A new found hope surged
through and through this department. Post JNC, with a revolutionary
operational structure where every member had a unique job description,
hyderabad took off. And how!
5. Different innovations were tried during this period, CRM team,
work abroad opportunities page. Most of them didn’t work. The
ballistae fell flat to their faces a million times. But never, ever
failed to get right back up. Why did everybody work as hard as
they did? Their strength was their bonding, their values, their
accountability and most importantly - their love for each other.
Because they believed their vice president was interested in
their personal growth (which by default is the department’s
growth) and because she had tuned herself to love her
members unconditionally so what she asked them to do was out
best for them and they in turn did the same for each other.
It was days of hard, hard work, nights of endless analysis and
matching mails, weekends spent with exchange participants
solving their problems and working late evenings at the office
before there was actual growth.
Voila! Our dreams were coming true. Before we knew it they
were the leading local chapter at national strategic conference.
We had also won the juggernaut campaign plus had been
bumped up to cluster A from cluster B for exponential growth!
The next quarter passed in another set of innovations and
strategies. Failing miserably, giving in, giving up then getting
right back up and giving it ALL we had! Yes there were match
breaks (which the ballistae call heart-breaks) but we just kept
going. We had each other, and we had things to prove to
ourselves. We’d succeed or die trying. That has always been the
attitude.
6. December 22nd, 2013 was the date of the last LCong of the year
and the annual awards were going to be announced. When your
heart goes "THUD-THUD-THUMP-THUD" instead of the regular
lub-dub, you know you're winning the award you had dreamt of
for the longest time! From collapsing to my knees and bursting
into a fit of tears to being hugged by a 100 people in the crowd
rejoicing for us. Us. The ballistae, oGIP. The dept. whose
existence was barely noticed in the beginning, won the ultimate
award in AIESEC hyderabad. The dept. that screamed for its
presence to be acknowledged in the beginning of 2013 in a
crowd oblivious to its plight, the dept. that went unnoticed most
times won by the end of 2013. Now when this same dept. stood
in front an LC that looked at only them, MY ballistae, screaming
our roll-call out, cheering us, I silently said to myself, "..And now
they're finally, finally looking at us Vrushali."
That's all I wanted to do in 2013. Establish oGIP in AIESEC
hyderabad. On the way I met these beautiful individuals who
have now become SUCH an integral part of my life. My
management body who's helped me lead my newer members
to being the best of what we can be: being a ballista. All that
passion, discipline and hard, hard work had finally crystallized
into something we could hold in our hands: best department
exchange award. Who would've thought? “Miracles happen,
dreams do come true because my dearest ballistae, god is
watching over you,” were my last words to my department as
their vice president, 2013.
There are some people who live in a dream world and some
who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into
the other.
7. December 22nd, 2013 was the date of the last LCong of the year
and the annual awards were going to be announced. When your
heart goes "THUD-THUD-THUMP-THUD" instead of the regular
lub-dub, you know you're winning the award you had dreamt of
for the longest time! From collapsing to my knees and bursting
into a fit of tears to being hugged by a 100 people in the crowd
rejoicing for us. Us. The ballistae, oGIP. The dept. whose
existence was barely noticed in the beginning, won the ultimate
award in AIESEC hyderabad. The dept. that screamed for its
presence to be acknowledged in the beginning of 2013 in a
crowd oblivious to its plight, the dept. that went unnoticed most
times won by the end of 2013. Now when this same dept. stood
in front an LC that looked at only them, MY ballistae, screaming
our roll-call out, cheering us, I silently said to myself, "..And now
they're finally, finally looking at us Vrushali."
That's all I wanted to do in 2013. Establish oGIP in AIESEC
hyderabad. On the way I met these beautiful individuals who
have now become SUCH an integral part of my life. My
management body who's helped me lead my newer members
to being the best of what we can be: being a ballista. All that
passion, discipline and hard, hard work had finally crystallized
into something we could hold in our hands: best department
exchange award. Who would've thought? “Miracles happen,
dreams do come true because my dearest ballistae, god is
watching over you,” were my last words to my department as
their vice president, 2013.
There are some people who live in a dream world and some
who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into
the other.