CANJAC

Enough of the blogger drama and on to CANJAC!

WOW! If I could spend every day doing things like CANJAC I would be in great shape, probably in the hospital from lack of sleep, but very happy every single day! Please excuse me if this is hard to understand cause it'll be a little bit all over the place!

For those who don't know what CANJAC is it is the Canadian National Junior Achievement Conference. For a week high school aged students involved in various Junior Achievement entrepreneurship groups from across Canada and around the world gather in a Canadian city (this year Ottawa.) They work hard for this week in different coloured houses listening to various speakers and participating in different activities to answer a vague, business related question. They work hard but they also play hard. As part of building their team they also develop house skits and cheers, gAIMs (activities they rotate through put on by the staff of each house), as well as social events, networking, and visiting the city. The question this year was "As future business leaders how do we fulfill our individual, team and corporate visions?" and the theme was "Fulfilling The Vision". In order to answer this question in a 10 minute presentation they heard speakers as a large group as well as from their house's sponsor company in the areas of Marketing, Process/Production, and Human Resources. Each house consists of about 25 students, 2 staff and 1 house co-ordinator. This year we were ORANGE house sponsored by COGNOS. We had students from all over Canada, Bahamas, Hong Kong, Germany, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, Cayman Islands, and Norway.

This is our house!

Let's start at the beginning...

Wednesday, August 16th

All staff met for the first time save a few exceptions. There were 6 houses with 3 staff each (18) and black house with 7 staff for a total of 25 for those who can't add. Our opening meeting went over all the basics: schedule, rules, responsibilities, dinner... you know, all the important stuff. After supper we tried out the first gAIM put on by green house staff which consisted of taking newspaper and tape and being given the assignment of building a bridge the hieght of a pop bottle that could hold a bowl full of water. We were in two teams and we'll just say now that our bridge lost horribly! We then split off to meet as house staff to briefly bond together the three of us. I working with two men: Brent, our HC, who has been doing CANJAC for the past 9 years, and John who was with us last year in logistics but did a wonderful job this year with the students as well.

Here's a picture of us!















That's John, Me and Brent.


And all of the staff...














After the house staff meeting we got to paint our staff t-shirts which would be worn for the gAIMs day (instead of t-shirts, the students painted banners for this one, put on by orange house staff) and after this it was bedtime!

Thursday, August 17th

First full day of work. Breakfast was at 7, and trust me, there's no skipping breakfast here! We participated in 3 more of the gAIMs:

1) Putting together a large puzzle blindfolded, and then taking the blindfold off one of them and having them direct the others. This was put on by yellow house staff.

2) Participating in an obstacle course during which some get "blinded" some become "lame" and others end up hanging from a tree. The students didn't get to do this one as the day we did the gAIMs was the one day of the week that it rained and this was definetly an outdoor activity! This was put on by blue house staff.

3) Another activity that they found a replacement for due to rain. We had to "neutralize acid" by walking across planks to a small circle on the other end without falling in. This was put on by red house staff.

After a great morning outside we had lunch and started in on acutual training with things like time & stress management and goal setting. After dinner was a mall run for any last minute items we may need, some time for decorating/planning and the final gAIM - learning all the cheers. This was led by purple house staff. We also put together our own skit and song for the "opening ceremonies when the students arrived.

Friday, August 18th

I think the training is probably the hardest to get through because after little sleep you are sitting listening to people for most of the day as opposed to running from one place to another with the students. Today we did training all day with breaks for lunch and supper. In training we had the opportunity to practice our own facilitation skills and those sitting were the toughest crowd we would have to deal with all week, man did they give us a hard time! We also were given half an hour to put together our answer to "the question" to present briefly to the HC's. At least we have an idea of what the students will have to go through. After dinner we did a bit of decorating of the classrooms and halls. We met later for staff rehearsal of the skit and song.

Saturday, August 19th

The morning was spent wrapping up our training followed by lunch and preparations to welcome our students whom we would officially meet at dinner that night. We had our first General Meeting (all of the houses together) after dinner where we held the "opening ceremonies." We went from there to our first House Meeting where we did icebreakers and all of the basics like rules, introductions, distribution of t-shirts and developing of house identity.

From here the week was a blur! We got about 5-6 hours of sleep every night, when someone wasn't sick that is! Here's a quick overview...

Sunday, August 20th

We did the gAIMs most of the day, unfortunately had to be held indoors due to rain but still turned out pretty well, they learned a lot and that's the important part. Brief house meeting in the afternoon and general meeting at night with networking. All of the students received JA business cards to network with members of the business community (largely staff!) followed by another house meeting to prepare for our speaker in marketing the next day. Black House Frolics!! The staff gets to wind down with official hang out time together. The staff lounge was always well stocked with good food (and chips, and cookies) and Nancy would lead us in a game of sorts. It was always good times and always went late!

Monday, August 21st

Corporate tours. We went to COGNOS and had some speaker give us an overview of their business and got shown some of the perks of working there such as a gym and beach volleyball courts. They provided us with sandwiches and veggies for lunch. On our return we had a general meeting in marketing presented by Wendy Kennedy - president & CEO of wendykennedy.com inc. This was followed by a house meeting where we had John Blackmore from COGNOS come and answer questions about marketing. In the evening we prepared for the next day's process/production speakers and prepared skits and cheers for the following evening.

Tuesday, August 22nd

Pictures first thing in the morning followed by our second general meeting presented by Mike Hicks of Hyperactive Communications Inc. Again, we had a house meeting, this time presided over by Abdel Hamar Lhadj to answer our process/production questions. We followed up and prepared for Human Resources next day. That afternoon was free time. Some used the time to sleep but most went out on the town. I went with Kailena, Mark, and John to go down to Rideau Centre (mall) and the market which was pretty neat. The four of us and Yannick (who we ran into on our journeys) then went and got henna tatoos in our individual house colours. We had supper at a pretty cool buffet where we drank smoothies out of sand pails (that we got to bring home after.) It was a good time. That evening was skits and cheers. I was so impressed by our students. They were told to do a news program and for every scene they had people laughing. Their ending with a mock boy band of six of the guys calling themselves the "three blind mice" singing with hand actions to Do, A Deer from Sound of Music and one of our young men from Sri Lanka dancing in front of them had the audience howling. It was pretty cool. Frolics, frolics, frolics!!

Wednesday, August 23rd

Human Resources general meeting lead by Anne Graham of AVP Leadership Institute and Canadian Medical Association followed again by a house meeting of the same subject lead by Angela Roberge. We did a brief overview of everything before they were to work on answering the question. That afternoon we went over the presentation rules and got them started on developing that. They seemed on the right track so we pretty much left them alone. For dinner we went to a barbeque in a nearby park which was a nice way to spend some time outside with everyone together. We met back for another house meeting where we set them to work again on the question. At about 10 o'clock all hell broke loose. They determined they were lost and didn't know where to go from where they were so they would have to start over. They got some good brainstorming in together during which a mild conflict developed between two of the students. We returned to the dorm floor around midnight for birthday cake for Nicole and then they were to go back to work on the presentation from the floor as they would have little time the next day. Unfortunately the conflict from earlier came to a head so Brent sent them to bed so they could cool down and deal with everything tomorrow (and so we wouldn't have to clean up anything that was any more messy than it already was.) It was nice to wind down with frolics that night though they started (and ended) later than usual due to people working on the presentation until late.

Thursday, August 24th

Last day already! Sure didn't take long! Presentations and dry runs were completed in the morning and presented formally after lunch followed by "closing ceremonies". After a short break we had the very fancy banquet and awards ceremony. At the awards ceremony two achievers from each house formally thanked their staff with a little speech and certificates. They referred to me as the big sister of the group. Apparently they were going to say I was the mother of the group but then they decided that made me sound old so they changed it! We changed and went to a dance (go figure that the two achievers that had had the conflict the day before were seen dancing... rather close... together) following which we had pizza and pop in a house meeting that lasted until 3am as some of the students were leaving on a bus at 3:30. It was very emotional, lots of tears were shed. The achievers received CD's, certificates, cookbooks (Eat, Shrink and Be Merry - One of the authors was to be one of the general meeting presenters but couldn't make it so they sent books for all of the staff and students) as well as waterbottles and pens from COGNOS.

Friday, August 25th

Most of the students are gone and those that aren't are no longer our responsibility. Much of the staff went to lunch together at a place down by the market. It wasn't great food, or service, and cost too much but it was nice to go out with everyone. At 5pm we met again to go on our staff thank you evening. We received a pen set and an engraved glass inukshuk as gifts from black house for our work over the week, as if the experience and the paid trip weren't enough! We then went to Rideau Carleton Raceway where we had an incredible buffet dinner, it was huge! We were also given $2 each to bet (I bet to win and my horse placed... it was in the lead right up until the end... oh well, I was betting on names anyways!). We were also given a ride in the pace car which 4 people got to go in and we went down and had our picture taken with the winning horse of that race. It was pretty fun. We then went to a bar where we danced and partied until 1 or 2 am. I don't know what it is about Ottawa but they don't know how to play Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" all the way through. That is a staff song that we have a dance to every year and thought it was played twice over the last couple days it was always cut off shortly after the baseball sketch. We were pretty ticked but kept right on dancing to whatever they put on next. There's always next year anyway!

Saturday, August 26th

Got to the airport and because of the mixup with my flight on the way out I had to go through manual checkin which took about half an hour! I met up with a group of people in the food court just before I had to go through security. I said goodbye, gave more hugs and kisses and could no longer hold back the tears. I can't wait to go back next year (as long as wherever I'm working will let me do that as well as my honeymoon the month before!) I went through security, grabbed a quick sandwich at Timmy's and went to my gate where everyone was already boarding.

My flight from Winnipeg to Edmonton was delayed an hour or so but I still made my connection so all was good. My wonderful Danny came and picked me up from the airport here in Fort Mac although the next day would be spent unpacking and monday he would have to go home already again. It was good to spend the time together. He comes up again this weekend. I can't wait to see him! My arms feel empty and I long for his kisses and cuddles. I love you honey! Goodnight.