Dear YES Alumni Indonesia,

Salam Kenal. You would want to read this.

 

Last weekend of October 9^th-11^th 2009, a YES Alumni Conference and Workshop was held in Yogyakarta by Yayasan Bina Antarbudaya and organized by committee that involved volunteers of the National Office as well as Yogyakarta Chapter. In short, the meeting went wonderfully great. Friends from 15 chapters in Indonesia came as representatives of YES Alumni and gathered to share. We made history by founding the YES alumni association in Indonesia. And now, we are proud to share that the Indonesian YES Alumni Association (IYAA) has been established.

 

Your local chapter representatives (entitled the Chapter Coordinator) would tell (or probably had told) you in details about what happened in the conference. If within the next week you haven’t got any news upon this, we encourage you to ask them for stories. But, let us take the honor of sharing why the conference needed to be held in the first place.

 

The conference was made specifically to establish Indonesia’s own alumni association. At this moment, we are having our 7^th batch students undergoing their year in the U. S. A.  through YES program. (And we suppose now you are reminiscing your year and how it was filled with laugh, tears, friends and family which now are spread out all over the world.) At the YES Arrival and Departure Orientation in Washington D.C, you must have had also realized that Indonesia has the largest group of students. With the largest group of students being sent every year, that means we also have the largest group of alumni.  Without forgetting the challenging Indonesian geographical site, we know that there are almost 500 alumni spread out there, all of who are now doing their parts in their communities.

 

Doing our parts. We hope you still remember why you were being sent there because that would help you understand why this association was made in the first place. We had had our chance to bridge understanding by touching peoples’ lives in US, one person at a time, from your host family and community. We believe you have been exposed to many parts of America you had never known, involved in many activities you had never realized you had capacity of, learned about yourself (and human beings in general) in the best manner possible by answering questions, making choices, solving problems, and standing up on your own feet. The experience thus has helped you understanding your potentials that now lead you to your choice of studies, redefine your dream of a better community, and finally struggling to bring that dream into reality. This has always been something that you’ve heard over and over again. We apologize if this is redundant, but yes, we really do need to do something and give back what we have gained to the community we are in now.

 

Many, we believe, have been very influential in their communities by doing small things and projects. Free English classes, book drive, disaster relief donation, volunteer works for the YBA chapter, environmental campaign, and many others.  You probably do it without any support whatsoever from you-don’t-know-who-to-expect-the support-from. Some probably feel like your spirit has been discouraged with just too busy schedule and or pessimistic remarks. The Indonesian YES Alumni Association (IYAA) then was established so that all YES Alumni can bring their maximum potentials in helping the community and to provide the source of support and energy possible for you. It was as well founded to strengthen our sense of belonging to the experience we have gratefully undergone, and serve as a reminder of our duties to do our parts now.

 

The first IYAA President has been chosen to ensure that the association is operating and functional. Through a voting in the conference that would remind you of your Pemilihan Ketua Angkatan in your Pre-Departure Orientation in Jakarta, involving chapter’s representatives,  Yesaya Hardyanto, YES Alumnus 2004-2005 of Berkeley, California, as well as Surabaya Chapter’s Sending Coordinator was elected to be our first President, and his cabinet is as follows:

 

Vice President of Projects:

Heru P. Yudha (YES 04-05): Padang - Alabama; Daily Chairman of Yogyakarta Chapter

Vice President of Finance and Funding:

Heirwid Benny Sulistriono (YES04-05): Yogyakarta -Washington State; active volunteer of Yogyakarta Chapter

 

Vice Presidents of Alumni Development:

Nisa Imaniar P. (YES 03-04): Jakarta - Maryland; active volunteer of National Office and Jakarta Chapter

Dian P. Rahmasari a.k.a Alex (YES 03-04): Jakarta-Minnesota; active volunteer of National Office and Jakarta Chapter

 

Vice Presidents of External Affairs:

Titis L. Andari (YES 03-04): Jakarta-California; active volunteer of National Office and Jakarta Chapter

Rassi Narika (YES 03-04): Jakarta-Maine; active volunteer of National Office and Jakarta Chapter

 

Chapter Coordinators:

Banda Aceh    : Himmatur Rijal

Padang           : Ambun Putri Beniv

Palembang     : Widya Aulia R.

Jakarta           : Ardani Prawira Yusuf

Bogor              : Febrina Aquariza

Bandung         : Oktavina Qurrota Ayun (Vivien)

Semarang       : Zulfikar

Yogyakarta     : Anggita Paramesti (Gita)

Surabaya        : Yurike F. Wahyudi

Malang           : Evi Ningrum

Samarinda     : Zulfarhan Ibrahim

Makassar        : Nur Fardiansyah

 

We would inform you further in details once we have settled the codes of conduct, but shortly each chapter would have one YES Chapter Coordinator (CC) as representative to ensure everybody could equally benefit the organization. Each chapter has been asked to have projects to help accommodate community services, as well as encourage fellow alumni to be involved in doing similar things that suit the community and their passion. VP Projects would be in touch with each CC to make sure that their projects are conducted and get the supports needed. VP Finance and Funding would coordinate with VP Projects and try to open possibilities of funding for any projects that propose financial aid. VP External Affairs will make sure that the projects are heard and notified in the hope to inspire others to motor more contributions, within and out of YES/ Yayasan Bina Antarbudaya community. While our VP Alumni Development would be in charge to work on enrichment activities for the YES Alumni in Indonesia in order to develop and enhance their potentials. This association is still under Yayasan Bina Antarbudaya supervision in coordination with the local chapters.

 

All former YES Students who completed their year (meaning went through the closure of Re-Orientation in Jakarta) are automatically members of IYAA.  This association does not intend to limit ourselves in giving back to the community. Take college friends, fellow volunteers, AFS friends, anyone that might be helpful to build your projected involvements and contributions. This association wishes to support you but do not let it limits you. You are asked to carry the name this association in the things that you give, not to bring fame to the organization, but to acknowledge how the program that have helped you to perceive and understand the world.

 

As our team is working to settle some administrative details needed for IYAA, we will be in touch with you, hopefully, soon. Meanwhile, unleash yourself, now you have backups to leap.

 

                                                                                                                              

Warm regards,

Rassi Narika and Titis Andari (Vice Presidents of External Affairs, IYAA)

 

Ps: Please do take the action to spread this great news to other YES Alumni in your batch or area, other returnees, volunteers, or to whomever you think might take interest in this big step towards contributions to the community