My speaker bio, description of my presentation, and work so far!

As most of you know, I am dreadful at talking about myself and my achievements, much preferring to take a back seat. So when I was asked to draft a speaker bio, I found it very difficult. I prefer sticking to the factual, but even then try to understate what I do and my involvement. It was very hard to find 75 words about myself!

Putting together information about my presentation was much easier, and I flew over the word limit with no issues so I pared it down best I could. I hope I'm able to live up to expectations. I found thinking about it in the third person was the easiest way to describe this, and so I don't think it's too weird that I wrote it this way.

Here's what I wrote:

Title: Taking Charge: Young Members Leading the Way

Bio: 

Annika Voulgaris is 25 years old and has been the Young Members Coordinator and Gifted Children’s Liaison for Mensa New Zealand since 2009. Annika runs Young Members, a group for New Zealand Mensa members under the age of 30. Annika graduated from Victoria University of Wellington in 2011 with a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Politics. She works in negotiation and mediation in the electricity and gas industry.

Presentation: 

Engaging young people can be a difficult task, but Mensans are always up for a challenge! Annika will discuss how to create an exciting, interactive group for Mensans under the age of 30. She will introduce Young Members, discuss relevant leadership models, keeping young members in touch, and how the model is working with Young Members of Mensa New Zealand. Annika will provide a structure that can be applied to national Mensa groups, to engage and increase interaction between Mensa members under 30, and Mensa members as a whole. This is an interactive presentation, so hold on to your hats! 

As for the presentation itself, I used the template of my youtube video to give me an idea for how I am going to structure my presentation, adding in more information about the structure of Young Members, why Young Members are important for Mensa, and why Mensa is important for Young Members.

 It is difficult to talk about Young Members without showing people how awesome it really is, so I hope the Young Members will want to be involved in my presentation in some way, whether through a video, or contributing something on the Facebook group specifically for my presentation.

I want the audience to be asking questions and able to discuss this with me, so I will be having a question and answer portion of my presentation. Knowing Mensans, some questions may be a bit hairy, but I think i will be able to handle it!

Flights are all booked, now for the fun part!

So I've got all my travel sorted for the two trips! What a mission.

To the US, I'm going Auckland to Sydney, Sydney to LA then LA to Dallas.

To Slovakia I'm going Auckland to Bangkok, Bangkok to Vienna and then by bus or train from Vienna to Bratislava.

This really will be an adventure! I'm looking forward to seeing a few new places and heaps of new people.

So now for the part that I'm hoping will be much more fun than sorting out travel!

I'm looking at putting together a presentation about what we've done here in New Zealand, why and how this has worked, and how someone else could put this together in their country if they wanted to.

I think the first thing Mensa New Zealand did that kickstarted the Young Members community, was to give other young members of Mensa a point of contact. Without another voice on the end of the call, there's no point for other young members to pick up the phone and get in touch.

So in 2009, I wanted to meet a few more young members of Mensa, and so I volunteered to take over the Young Member's Coordinator position and have someone on the end of the email address Mensa already had set up for the purpose. That gave other young members a contact point within the organisation, should they want to get in touch.

I think what was different about the person who took over that contact position, is that they were a young person themselves. At 21, the age of the contact person made this have a different feel than if it were someone older who was the contact for young people.

I think just setting up a young contact point for other young people, was a good genesis for a close, enthusiastic group of young members. This was something I feel allowed the group to grow and develop in the way it has.

Thinking about things LEAP related!

So we got asked:

1. What are the basics of your travel plans?

2. What are you telling people you are going to tell people?

3. What do you think it all means?

And so I answered:

Level 1 is the Physical/Practical

For me, the Level 1 is quite a massive barrier. I'm coming a long way on my own, and this will be the furthest away from home (and my husband, since we've been married!) on my own. I'm also very nervous about the costs of the trip, I don't want to be a burden on my national Mensa even though I know they have SO much faith it me, it's amazing.

Level 2 is the 'Presentation Layer'  or Spin Cycle

As far as the presentation is concerned, I'm not worried. I know why I'm coming to this, and it's to show that I am representing an extraordinary group of young people I am so proud to call my friends. I'm going to introduce everyone to the amazing people I've met, and show them how a particular form of leadership works really well with young members of Mensa. I'm going to show them what can be achieved if the young people they want so desperately to be involved have a hand in running the group, and I'm going to show them what a profound effect this can have on people's lives, particularly mine.

Level 3 - The Meaning layer

I am so freaking proud of what we have achieved here in New Zealand, and I want to tell the whole world about it. I want to show them that there are young people out there who are begging to be involved in a group like ours, and that although it is a big task, there are brilliant, brilliant young Mensans who want to take this on. We are a community; we provide support, friendship and encouragement to our members, we provide each other with a place we feel safe and comfortable talking about ourselves, our lives and our ideas.

There is so much more I can say about this, but I know I ramble, so trying to keep that as under wraps as I can....for now...Just they wait until I get to the US :P

Biting off more than one can chew...

...is what I feel like I've done this week! Everything was going well until I was struck down with a cold!! Oh no! So on top of work, trying to organise flights and accommodation, starting work on my presentation, normal Young Members things, SIG work and trying to go to the gym, it's all caught up with me!

So, I'm practicing my leadership skills and delegating... A task I am admittedly not that good at.

 The awesome Young Members are looking after themselves and the SIG leaders have been busy planning their SIGs and setting up Facebook groups. Great work team!

I've delegated finding some cheap flights to a travel agent, so we'll see how that goes. I may yet be busking on the street to pay for these trips!!

I've delegated inspiration workouts to my friends on a Fitness site, so I can read theirs and be inspired for when I'm well enough to go back to the gym!

Haha, that leaves me with working on my project and trying to get well! Excellent, I think I can handle that!

And so it begins!

Wow! As of yesterday, 2 April 2013, I am now a participant in Mensa International's Leadership Exchange Ambassador Program (LEAP) for 2013! 

LEAP is a Mensa International initiative that gathers Mensa members together to work on leadership projects for the benefit of their home Mensa, and Mensa groups across the world. There are 6 members of Mensa participating in the exchange this year and will be presenting their projects at the United States Mensa Annual Gathering (USMAG) in Dallas/Fort Worth and the European Mensa Annual Gathering (EMAG) in Bratislava, Slovakia. 

First, a massive thank you to all the people who have encouraged and supported me so far, and an extra thank you to my husband Dimitri who has been so awesome through the application process and will continue to support me as I work through the program. Also a  huge thank you to Mensa New Zealand, who gave me their vote of confidence when they nominated me for the program. I am so grateful to all of you!

I decided to set up this blog and try to document what the project I am working on is, how it is going and of course my trips to Dallas/Fort Worth and Bratislava.

Of course the first thing of interest is what my project is about. I am the Young Member's Coordinator and Gifted Children's Liaison for Mensa New Zealand, and have been working hard to help establish a community for members of Mensa New Zealand under 30. Below I have included part of my application to LEAP, to show what my experience has been so far, and what I hope to achieve by doing LEAP.

"I decided to take on the role of Young Members coordinator for Mensa New Zealand in 2009 when I saw there was nothing additional available for young people when they joined Mensa New Zealand. Our Young Members were isolated around the country and had few ways of connecting with one another and as a Young Member, I felt I was missing out on potential benefits of my Mensa membership. I implemented a strategy that I believe has been extremely beneficial for Mensa New Zealand.

"Young people today are more likely to participate in a movement with their peers, rather than just join a group. In response to this, I developed a strategy of creating a movement that young people could participate in on top of the other benefits of Mensa membership. This strategy involves leading from within, rather than on top, being the group’s biggest cheerleader, and encouraging participation in whatever way the members feel comfortable in doing. This means that Young Members of Mensa New Zealand is a community its members have become very passionate about, and it is growing in strength and number every week. The group evolves to meet the needs of the members and is member owned and orientated.

"Because of this movement-based strategy, we now have a strong group of 105 young members who participate daily in a Facebook group and meet each other regularly at Young Members events. The Young Members movement has led to an increased participation of young people at Mensa events all around the country, including local events and our national conference. It has also led to young people who are able to interact, participate in discussions and make friends with people who they would not have met outside of Mensa.

"I believe this strategy has been effective in encouraging young people to participate in Mensa events and will be a key factor in the growth of Mensa New Zealand. Our Young Members are going to be promoting Mensa New Zealand in universities throughout New Zealand in March 2013.  Young members are not only looking forward to meeting up with each other, but actively planning how they will be talking to potential members and helping to raise the profile of this great organisation.

"I believe this Young Members strategy is something that could easily be expanded overseas, both in National Mensa groups and as an International Young Members forum."

In addition to this application, I had to submit a video about why I believe I should be accepted for LEAP and what my project is about. You can watch my video here:

So as you can see, my topic is quite large, but I think I can make this a worthwhile project, for both Mensa New Zealand, and Mensa groups all over the world.

I have a long way to go before presenting in Dallas and Bratislava, and I hope you don't mind joining me on my journey there. 

If you have any questions about Mensa, LEAP or my project, feel free to email me at young.members@mensa.org.nz.