The Time is NOW

Here are some things I learned during 2011. 

1. Grab the chance of upgrading your capacities! Don’t think, just grab it!
2. Be independent financially so you get to decide yourself what you need to do.
3. Everybody has their own role. Don’t judge too quickly.
4. Respect the importance of other people doing what they can do. 
5. Know your own strengths and weaknesses. Exploit the hell out of those strengths, ask help to cover the weaknesses.
6. Having vision is waaay beneficial to guide where you’re going. 
7. Respect process. Never go for shortcuts. 
8. Think big. 
9. Always make time to reflect things. 
10. Network. network. network. 
11. Never underestimate the power of enthusiasm.
12. Be happy doing it, or else, what’s the point?

Hope this list is useful for you out there!

Setelah tertunda sekian lama, ada waktu untuk menulis refleksi 2011. Apa sih pentingnya refleksi? Retrospeksi, liat ke belakang sejenak, ada pelajaran penting apa aja supaya ada perbaikan buat langkah ke depannya. 

Mari kita mulai dengan Ashoka. 2011 ini saya banyak kerja bareng temen-temen divisi Young Changemaker. I must say, Ashoka really changed my world. Everything starts from there. Youthcamp inspired me to take up the vibrant training. I”m part of the army of hope now. Setelah itu semangatnya nyala banget. 

Then I get to go to GYAC in Nairobi. Met interesting people. Jadi sadar kalau tiap organisasi itu beda-beda perannya. Tapi semua melakukan apa yang bisa jadi kontribusi besar untuk perubahan yang dimau. Visinya sama. Ada yang cara serius banget. Ada yang caranya fun. Semua tergantung strategi dan target sasarannya siapa. There’s a reason for everything. So I learned a lot about not quick to judge. 

I created speak Highlights. Karena ngga punya budget buat bikin sama yang profesional jadi ngerjain sendiri. Dibantu anak-anak pada bikin artikelnya, ngelayout sendiri. Hasilnya.. lumayan juga.. Jadi ada bahan buat kasih liat orang-orang kalo mereka mau tau tentang clubSPEAK. And that newsletter kinda set a benchmark. Sekarang anak2 pada usaha pengen bikin sendiri buat cerita apa aja yang udah terjadi selama 6 bulan terakhir. Kita liat nanti hasilnya gimana.

Kuala Lumpur. Finally had the experience of live interaction with TI people. It was interesting, although I say, not exactly my cup of tea. Interesting content wrapped in such boring process, but great chance to network!

I moved twice in 2011. Took time settling in upstairs room, and when finally settled had to move again downstairs. Though I must say, my workplace now is so much better. Bigger, wider. Waste of space if I were to have it all by myself. 

Past 6 months I was busy handling AksiKita project. Was overwhelmed although had help from Wawan and Suci. Sebagus-bagusnya ada yang bantuin manage project, rasanya kalo nggak total hands-on aneh banget. Although, memang lebih asik fokus sama content dan eksekusi isi acara daripada harus ribet sama printilan project. Mungkin sindrom kebiasaan ngerjain segala sesuatu sendiri ya, total mandiri. Anyway, gara-gara project ini, dan speakfest juga, what I’m doing with clubSpeak was getting out of hand. I needed help, and finally office agreed to assign Lia to help me out full time. They agreed also for us to have 3 additional volunteers to help out in whatever we need to do. 

oh yes, website. Speak finally developing clubSPEAK.org. How wonderful is that! process a bit dragging though. I try my best to stay out of it, make the process entirely done by clubSPEAK themselves. Afterall, they are the ones going to run it, not me. Anyway, website should be up and running this January. 

In terms of funding, I went to meeting with ford foundation. though at the time we didn’t have what they want us to offer, I realized the possibility of having sources to keep clubSpeak rolling not being dependent on TII all the time. ClubSpeak in a way is like an informal NGO, and what we do is not only important, but also special. So when we have a chance to get funding from MSI, I didn’t hesitate a bit. I was so keen of trying the YCM scheme. As fun as it is, with my standard and demand for more room of flexibility, I started to realize again, how important it is to be financially independent. So, clubSPEAK started their own fundraising. Awalnya pengen yang agak besar kayak buka warung, tapi akhirnya nyoba yang sederhana dulu seperti jualan kaos, merchandise dll. Lagipula itu model yang agak umum dan bisa dikerjain anak2 Speak, for this while, until they get the hang of the ropes. End of year, I secured a micro grant from HIVOS, very helpful to create tutorials about how to start anti-corruption ventures as well as module about social movement. Micro, but still, priceless. Project starts 2012.

Di 2011 ini, lagi-lagi ketemu orang baru yang sangat menarik. Inspirit was definitely my greatest moment, especially when given trust to work directly with them! Youthcamp Bogor, Kupang, PNPM, what a privilege! SpeakForum led me to meet also great minds, intellectuals of the now. Finally sat down in fun meetings with people I know personally made the cicak-buaya campaign big. Was a privilege. I had the chance to work with Anggun whom I admired a lot from afar since his early career. I even met people behind Ruang Rupa, an initiative I also admire from afar. Can you imagine the thrill I had? It’s like a fan finally able to shook hand with the rockstars! Ah yes, in GYAC I got to spend time with this awesome checkmyschool team from Philippines, friends from Nepal, and Colombia! Absolutely grateful for the opportunity I had.  

Perasaan saya, secara umum tentang 2011.. Penasaran sendiri. Apa alasannya? Saya selalu ingin tahu apa hasil akhir dari apa yang lagi dikerjain. Padahal prosesnya panjang, semacam investasi yang baru kliatan nanti 10 taun lagi. Lama ya! So instead of dilly-dallying, I was constantly kept on my toes. Always thinking of exciting things to be done next, to keep clubSpeak running although I had no solid team. Was heavy indeed, because most of the time I felt totally alone. Don’t get me wrong here, I do have people helping out. But sometimes when you’re up late working until 3-4am on plans of what to do next, or can’t sleep well because you know how people depend a lot on making things work, solely on you, well, it’s pretty lonesome. Because you can’t depend on anyone else but your own. Yang pada punya pengalaman leading organisasi pasti tau deh rasanya. 

But now things start to unravel, the cooking process start to gain its fresh smell. Mulai keliatan ada Wawan dan Lia yang sama semangatnya buat ngeluangin waktunya besarin clubSpeak. Danar mulai hands-on di clubSpeak. And by the end of 2011 I start to feel not so alone anymore. Even more, feel like my role in preparing the pathway is done. Time to move on to another level. 2012, what do you have in store for us?