When we started four years ago, we chose (already at that time) a relatively low membership fee. We really took time to think and choose the most appropriate amount required to join the club. For four years, we’ve been sticking with this same figure because we know it is still hard for most of our members to (annually) pay it. The rate of people visiting the club and then enrolling is low and we’re sure that “money” has a lot to do with it. When you say 8,000 Ar per year, that seems … few still it impacts someone’s decision on joining or not. Three or four weeks ago, we had new comers – they were all students – and they seemed to be interested in joining the club but at the end of the meeting they came to me and ask if they could pay their membership fees the next month. This situation is not isolated, we’ve seen it many times and what we tell them is just to keep their words and respect their promises.

During our last MS at Ankatso, Lova – an active member – and I had a quite long talk about how means affect members during outdoor activities. He proposed then that the club would take in charge a part of the expenses. We wish we could but our will are limited in a way that we can’t do it for a long run. The club doesn’t have other (sustained) sources of income. Knowing this, Lova aksed if we could increase the membership fee. On one hand it’s risky, we may lose more members and make the enrolling conditions harder. On the other hand, the more you pay, the more you care.

More than 90% of our members are students and they can hardly afford the membership fee. We’ve noticed that they rely on their scholarship which – at least a big part of it – I guess should go somewhere else to pay the membership fee. With the current situation, things have become worse and it’s hard to see your members not coming anymore. We do understand but we’re powerless infront of it.

When we were at the ACC English club a friend asked a question “You guys are learning at the ACC so for you is it a luck, an opportunity or a duty?”. With a 6-year backoff, this question came back to me with a different meaning from what I understood it before. When I think of what people pay to learn English I realize that they are lucky to be able to afford it. And luck may bring opportunities. If we look farther it doesn’t only apply to English language learning but to other fields of life as well.

Brain and learning process – Presentation Transcript

1. Our brain & Learning process Shaman Saturday, 23 rd of January 2010 I ’m C razy about E nglish

2.

• BRAIN
• LEARNING PROCESS
• BARRIERS TO BE TORN DOWN
• SUGGESTIONS

3. BRAIN Composed by brain cells Brain cell gets connected to its neighbors to form a network Brain is divided into a lot of networks Each network though connected to other networks has its own specific task(s) to accomplish Only around 10% of our capacity are exploited Information is transmitted from one neuron to another via chemical reaction Shaman I ’ m C razy about E nglish

4. What is happening when we treat information in the learning process? LEARNING PROCESS Connections between a group of neurons are getting strong What about learning foreign language? Center of language located in the third left circonvolution I ’m C razy about E nglish Shaman

5. BARRIERS TO BE TORN DOWN I ’ m C razy about E nglish Shaman

6. HOW DO WE PROCEED WHEN ASKED TO SPEAK ENGLISH WITH FELLAS AROUND? IDEAS FRENCH OR MALAGASY ENGLISH Translation Translation BYPASS I ’ m C razy about E nglish Shaman

7. Mistakes are a part of us Care a lot about what people might think of us I ’ m C razy about E nglish Shaman

8. SUGGESTIONS Brain is selective Bypass Iron will,do or die determination Motivation

From this coming Saturday then, a team, from the members will lead the whole meeting. Its mission is to find games, lead the discussion upon a topic that they normaly have chosen. We believe that belonging to a team will help a lot those who are still shy to face a whole bunch of crazy people lol. The team will have a leader and they will manage to share the works to do between them, like grown ups

The discussions will be divided into two parts. The members will be splited into small groups of 6 or 7 people. This is done to make the shy members more confident and talk. They will discuss a topic between them for 15mn and one of the leaders will make sure everybody in the group spoke. This is in the first part. In the second one, we will go back the general talk where everybody is invited to take part in.

The “presentations” already started in 2009 but we’ll have more this year. We’re scheduling three this month. Haingo, Lalah and Sambatra will respectively talk about “Travel”, “Video editing” and “How our brain works”. We will encourage all the members to make up their mind and present something they like to their peers.

The “English Saturday” will comeback and will be held every three months. We thought this frequency will give us much more time to have a better organization. And as usual we will invite other English clubs to join us during this event.

We hope will have more outings this year – something that cruelly lacked us in 2009 – but it will mainly depend on the (political) situation in Madagascar. We won’t take any risk when safety of the members is not sure.

That’s all we can say about news in the club. Other projects and proposals from the members are still on the we-are-thinking-of-it state, they need more reflexion.

More than three years ago, we were sitting in a couch at Ambodivona chosing between YES or ICE and brainstorming on a master plan to set up and English Club. I remember well the excitment that gained all of us enumerating all the different steps we’d be going through and all the things we wanted to do with the club. Ideas, we had plenty of but more over we had a lot of love and passion for the English language.

It was with the same passion and love that we’ve run the club for more than three years now. Three years of sharing through ups and downs. At this point, we’re happy with all the things we’ve done with club and most importantly we’re proud of our members. WE ARE PROUD OF YOU GUYS! Last Saturday, on our way to a APC-FOKO-ICE party, I had a talk with Hary, an active member who hosted the last MS of this year, and he said that the first meeting for a new member is important because he/she will draw an image of the club upon this one. I do agree, I said, though we can’t always have a perfect meeting for each individual each Saturday, that’s just impossible. It is hard to fulfil people’s excpectations if you don’t know them. If we counted our members from the day we started they would be around 400 but only few of them has remained faithful dispite work, studies and other duties.

When I come across former members in the streets they always ask “How is the club doing?” and then “How are the members?/Are there new members?”. My usual answer is “Some come and others go”. On one side, I don’t blame those who could not make it anymore on Saturdays. We all have our priorities. Some of them requested another meeting on a different day but it was hard to plan. But on the other side, I’m grateful to the ones who made efforts to stay, those who helped better the club by getting involved, giving time and energy. Getting involved doesn’t always mean doing huge things for the club. It could be a piece of advice, a home-made cake during a MS, a place to meet during times of crisis and so on. You know these little details that can make the difference.

Andry and I often have this discussion on how to see how involved a member is. He is used to saying that “Now, we can see who is motivated and who’s not.” when he feels that the activity is not likely to attract members. I most of the time disagree with him saying “We don’t have the same time and priorities man”. I must admit that somewhere along the line he’s right though. An activity like the ES we had in Ivato tends to prove that.

The question “What makes a club what it is?” has been in my head since we started. Is it its leaders or its members. I don’t know if we’ve been efficient as leaders. What I’m sure of is we have the best members in town. And that says to me “The members make a club what it is”. A “club” is not the leaders and what they do but rather the ambiance and mood the members create within it. They way they interact and treat one another. The bonds that are built between them. That is a what club is and I would be lying if I say that this is less important than the “English practice” itself.

Usually, towards the end of the year we ask the members for feedbacks in order to better the club. And that’s what we did with the help of HL who kindly made up a form for that purpose. We also took this occasion to reward the winners of the quizz we had during our last Movie Session of the year.

The ICE Club and all its members wish you happy holidays filled with LOVE, PEACE and JOY.

In case you didn’t know it, we took part into the IEW’09 at the national Library of Anosy on November 18 and 19. The members did an amazingly amazing great job!! (ain’t too much lool). And only for that, we’re also greatly thankful to each one of them. This following video (the seconde part here) was mad for that occasion. We had to split it into two parts because of the internet connection in here (duh!).

Don’t forget our last Movie Session of this year. Our host, Hary, is already excited to receive all the ICE crazy members. We’ll be watching “The Hangover” and then we’ll have a quizz to find out who followed and understood the movie. There will be prizes of course.

That’s not all. The ACC (Antanimena) will organize a documentary film projection next week (Wednesday 09) about human trafficking that promises to be very interesting. We don’t know exactly what time it will start but it should be between 12 and 12.30.

Yeah, that’s it. We hope to see you in one of our activities. Until then take care and have a nICE day.

The first part of a video  we made for the IEW’09 Fair at the National Library of Anosy. For the time being you can watch the first one on our facebook profile. We’ll put it here soon.

Blog Workshop with FOKO

Since the start of this year we’ve had plenty of new projects to allow the members to be more involved into the club’s activities. We thought that giving them opportunities to share what they like and know would be a great experience – for both sides – beside the debates and games we are used to having on Saturdays. We wanted them to have their own “time” during which they would talk about something they’re passionate about. One of these projects is the “Presentation”. This new activity can help the members in public speeches in their professional or private life. It may sound like a school thing but it’s not. In fact, it’s more fun with less pressure if I may say so. The getting-used-to is what we’re looking for here. Your work can be a simple presentation, a how-to or a little workshop. It mainly depends on how you would efficiently use the 15 minutes given to you. This coming Saturday Andry and I will take the ICE members to the world of blogs after being ourselves dragged in there by Foko‘s initiative which we’ll never be thankful enough to. We will try to give answers to the following questions : What is a blog and what can we do with blogs? What are the responsibilities of a blogger upon things he’s published and what effects it can bring about. Eventually, we will introduce the Malagasy blogosphere by talking about the Best Of Malagasy BlogS contest that is going on right now (visit http://bestofmalagasyblogs.com and vote for your best Malagasy blogs). More interesting and diversified “presentations” will follow this first one. If you are interested in this virtual world we warmly invite you to join us this coming Saturday at EPP Analakely (room 11) from 10.00am till 12.00 noon.