Why the word responsibility means so much to me!

Hey! Let me shortly introduce myself to all the readers from cities with less bikes than two per inhabitant (i.e. not from Münster, Germany): My name is Nicolas and since March 2009 I am the Local Committee President of the lovely LC Münster. This is me and parts of my local committee at our small conference (the MOMS, together with lovely LC Osnabrueck) in May. I study Politics and Economics in the fourth semester; originally I come from Bochum and Berlin, so I somehow feel connected to these cities, and I have lived a few month in Jyväsykylä and have of course.friends there. I want to write a few entries here around the topic "what is that guy actually doing all the time we see him in the office" :). So here goes the first one.

A major part of the LCP-position as I see it is responsibility. This is not someting that you do, but something that you take on and live. And it is a very rewarding experience.

You may know, that in AIESEC Germany the LCP is partly financially liable for actions of the LC. In practise that means for me to sign a lot of stuff - e.g. all the project calculations or reimbursement sheets my great Finance team is putting together. If something went wrong, then I would be the person to blame. This is not always easy: Sometimes it means stopping people from fulfilling great ideas because legally or financially they are too risky. Luckily, AIESEC has a great system of checks and a cool supporters; so it´s not that hard :).

Responsibility also mean always standing behind and supporting your LC. When I visit a member of our Board of Advisors, they sometimes give me a hard time - because the love our LC and want to see it performing, they may ask: "Why did you drop that project?", "Why are your number in that area so bad?", "Somebody from AIESEC promised me this or that two years ago and did not deliver!". I would never blame the respective member or company for that, but have to do my best to explain. I learned a lot that way.

Why is this still so rewarding? Well, because 95% of the time great things happen. And as LCP you get a lot of acclaim for that. I often get called by people from all over Germany about small things, about a small project they heard went well and they want to know more. Standing up for my LC, I somehow really started to identify myself with all those people. (You realize I always say my LC :)). When I hear from our Incoming Exchange Team that they closed a deal, when I get the notification from google news about a new press article that got published, see a new member lead the Local Committee Meeting and speak in front of fifty people, when a girl from France asks where she can apply to chair our local conference - in those moments I am extremely proud of my members and happy to have taken on this responsibility.

Yours, Nicolas

This is a video on the topic of responsibility, shot at the LCP-Conference SMV in June. It is in German, I am sorry.