ARMM

ARMM is the Americas Regional Members Meeting. It takes place around late July every year, right before the International Junior Branch Conference (IJBC). Usually, the host chapter for IJBC also hosts ARMM. There is a Content Staff (previously ReCos with the help of IJRs, now ARM Team with the help of IJRs) and a Home Staff.

During ARMM, National Junior Representatives from each ARM member JB and active Juniors from the region get together to receive training, create cooperation opportunities, work on JB Development strategies and learn about the JB World. The Content Staff is in charge of planning this training and facilitating all the sessions.

NJRs vote on the budget for the coming year, and every second year they also vote for a new ARM Facilitator.

Past ARMMs

• ARMM 2011
• ARMM 2010
• ARMM 2009
• ARMM 2008
• ARMM 2007
• ARMM 2006
• ARMM 2005
• ARMM 2004
• ARMM 2003
• ARMM 2002
• ARMM 2001
• ARMM 2000
• ARMM 1999
• ARMM 1998

ARMM encourages creativity, increases motivation and develops the regional and individual Junior Branch structure by providing tools to encourage new experiences and the promotion of regional goals. We meet and come up with solutions for our day-to-day issues and continue building our community of cultures. We will provide a common space for thinking and discussing Junior Branch in the region, about ourselves and to know what is happening in other regions; we hope this leads to the creation of new ways to improve and develop ARM and ourselves and to find ways to overcome common challenges.

Each country usually sends 1-3 people, and it is expected that these privileged fellows are active juniors in their country; meaning they have to be well informed of the wishes and challenges of their national JB.

ARMM is a mix of the funniest people on the planet, superb discussions, marvellous training workshops and, of course, a common space to think, think and do, do.

For detailed information about regional goals, administration procedures and other random exciting stuff, please see document America’s Regional Members Terms of Reference (ARM TOR).

Special elements in every ARMM

Think Tanks

A Think Tank is the opportunity to expand on any idea.

It is the opportunity to develop or change an issue that is important to you. It can be something old, something new, something JB or CISV in general; something national, regional or international. You can work on your own, yet we encourage you to work in groups, since more minds are more thoughts.

During ARMM, time is precious. You have the opportunity to work with or ask the advice of JBers from many countries; this is why we want you to use this time doing what interests you the most, or is most important to you. Think tanks can be:

• The continuation of an existing project
• Identifying a challenge or something missing (in JB or CISV In General)
• A New Idea
• A Cooperation Project
• Personal Development (whether this is your own JB or your own project)

When trying to make up your mind about it, just ask yourself five simple questions:

1. WHAT: to do / work on / change / accomplish
2. WHY: are we doing it? / Does it make a difference anyway? / For whom are we doing it?
3. HOW: can we solve this? / As group or as individuals? / What are the things we need to do?
4. WHO: does what in the group? / Who has the time to commit? / Who will be the coordinator?
5. WHEN: do we do it? / Is there a deadline? / Should we make a schedule?

Very easy, no? No. Take your time, and don’t rush into it. Identify the great ideas amongst the good ones, and work on the ones you’re most interested on.

If, at then end of the Think Tank time, your Think Tank would like to continue to work on this issue: then it will become a Taskforce.

A good question to ask yourself is: Has this been done before?

Ask the ARM Team to find previous work (minutes from past ARMMs, ARM Workshops…) and you might have saved yourself from additional work. Past minutes can also be found at the Library.

(Think Tanks were formerly known as “Working or Coordinated Groups”)

Wise Words: A Think Tank is self-organised most of the time. Some times there are sessions in the schedule for working In Think Tanks, and other times, the group will have to arrange a meeting of their own.

Voting

Every ARMM, the National Junior Representatives of each member countries (NJRs) must vote to make decisions that will affect the region in a specific way. It can either be financial, environmental, administrative, or all or none of the above.

Usually, there are only two times in every ARMM where NJRs must vote:

• ARM Budget
• ARM Facilitator elections, which happen once every two years (every other ARMM)

This, however, does not mean these are the only times the region must decide something, it can very well be that in future years, we might need to vote to decide where is the next ARMM meeting is going to be (hint, hint).

Any voting matter needs 50 % + 1 of the votes to be approved. This vote is usually a “show of hands”, but in the case of the ARM Facilitator elections, it requires a secret ballot.

For detailed information about voting procedures and other random exciting stuff, please see document America’s Regional Members Terms of Reference (ARM TOR).

A special message

We would like to personally thank Rachel Buff for bring to light the issue of injustice for Armadillos on highways and neighborhoods across the Americas. To due our part we have started work on a new meeting to address this, which will be known as ARMMadillo Awareness.