Looking into this document, it is interesting to see, which countries are the top AIM hosts in CISV's history:
Sweden 5
England 4
USA 4
Germany 3
Austria 3
Norway 3
Denmark 3
Netherlands 3
Canada 3
Belgium 2
France 2
Mexico 2
Italy 2
Finland 2
Brazil 2
Romania 1
Philippines 1
Japan 1
Turkey 1
Australia 1
Costa Rica 1
Israel 1
Thailand 1
Colombia 1
Congratulations to Sweden for being the one and only 5-times host. Remarkable is Romania's hosting in 1975 - I guess it was before the hard-core-cold-war-Reagan-era! Also interesting is that there the number of hostings is somewhat proportional to the size of these NAs today. Exceptions: England (many more AIMs compared to its strength today) and Brazil/Italy (only two AIMs for such strong NAs!). It's nice to see that in recent years a whole bunch of NAs hosted AIM for the first time, if you look at the bottom of the list. It seems as if CISV is spreading, and the NAs strong enough to organize such a big conference is increasing.
Sweden 5
England 4
USA 4
Germany 3
Austria 3
Norway 3
Denmark 3
Netherlands 3
Canada 3
Belgium 2
France 2
Mexico 2
Italy 2
Finland 2
Brazil 2
Romania 1
Philippines 1
Japan 1
Turkey 1
Australia 1
Costa Rica 1
Israel 1
Thailand 1
Colombia 1
Congratulations to Sweden for being the one and only 5-times host. Remarkable is Romania's hosting in 1975 - I guess it was before the hard-core-cold-war-Reagan-era! Also interesting is that there the number of hostings is somewhat proportional to the size of these NAs today. Exceptions: England (many more AIMs compared to its strength today) and Brazil/Italy (only two AIMs for such strong NAs!). It's nice to see that in recent years a whole bunch of NAs hosted AIM for the first time, if you look at the bottom of the list. It seems as if CISV is spreading, and the NAs strong enough to organize such a big conference is increasing.
And this is not including future AIMs in Guatemala, Germany and Indonesia. With the 2010 AIM, Germany would be tied in second place with USA and England. Also, yes, it might seem as if CISV is spreading...but where does the motivation to host an AIM come from?
A few options:
- Big bucks for NA after (should this even happen?)
- Chance to involve old-timers back into the organisation
- National pride
- Big motivation boost after
As a side note, my vote for future AIM bids would be for the NAs who get what web 2.0 is and means for the entire organisation.
Good points, Nano.
It's alaways been a mystery to me to understand why any NA would want to host an AIM. But you're points are probably right...except the big bucks.
About the motivation boost and involving old-timers: I've been receiving some more numbers from IO latelely, on hosting. If AIM was really a motivation boost, you'd expect hosting numbers of that NA to grow after an AIM. I'm determined to find out if this is true.
Also, Web 2.0 is something I've been planning to address her from the Balcony. So stay tuned!
There are few other motivation that you forgot and I can tell you from hosting the AIM in Italy:
1) Boost in National PR/NGO relations - We really raised our profile
2) Mark a point of discontinuity: a 50% new national board wanting to show that "yes we can" - The younger member of the national board "showed the guts" to the oldies which were not in favor of hosing fearing a bigger work than we could do.
3) Set an example on how things could/should be managed in CISV - I feel that our low budget, low resources AIM, with Kitchen Staff and volunteers all around the place, together with the NGO events, did set an example for other NAS.
4) Involve active people at the national level also in CISV international - You will see that the Italian AIM team in 2009 will be very different from the past...
Moreover involving old time CISVers, do not necessarily increase hosting but usually relieve the organizational weight on the current officers as well as allow a turnover in this group.
Maybe I forgot something, eventually I will add
I've heard -and maybe this was supposed to be secret- that some NAs have created parallel financial structures so that they don't come out empty-handed after hosting AIM. Simply put: they overcharge participants here and there in order to earn some bucks. This might all be bullcrap though.
Two more things come to mind:
- Would love to see future AIM bids have specific objectives (that permeate on their choice of site, host chapter/NA, activities, etc). For instance, Italy's vision of PR boost vs. Country A's intention of involving local volunteers in international activities. Nowadays it's all about having a site near the beach or a happy hour at the hotel (well, maybe I'm exaggerating...)
- About the feeling Teo had about setting an example on how things could be ran in CISV, maybe AIM hosts should be compelled to create a public best-practices document case on how they dealt with organising a large conference with their own resources.
There's space to grow.