S-NoW Meeting Burgos

Last weekend, the antennae under care of Network Commissioner (NetCommie) Luis Alvarado and his team held their Network Meeting hosted by AEGEE-Burgos. The location chosen was a mountain refuge in the middle of the forest, high in the Demanda mountains. A secluded place, perfect for intense AEGEE work with little distractions.

Programme full of activities

To say that the programme was intense is an understatement. There were sessions to discuss the future of Youth in Action and the new Erasmus for All proposal; the Strategic Plan and the Action Agenda were explained with tips on how to implement them in each antenna, no matter if big or small. During the State of the Region session, all antennae went through their problems and shared ideas for solutions. The most relevant proposals were explained and debated, and candidates for Comite Directeur (CD) were introduced to the network. There was time allocated for two short training sessions: first on “How to speak in public and make presentations” and second on “How to get the most on online tools for working in AEGEE”. To conclude, our members had the opportunity to prepare sessions to share with the rest of the network, planting seeds to the new generation of trainers. New projects born during the European School 2 in Castelló also were presented, together with the proposals for flagship topic “Student mobility” and “Youth Participation”. Finally Esperanza Rodriguez, Audit Commissioner, held a session on “How to deal properly with accounting in your antenna and prepare a proper Financial Report”.

Is this Latvia, I mean, Spain?
Outside, snow was falling and everything was white, as nobody would expect from a Spring Network Meeting (NWM) in Spain. Alma Mozgovaja, CD representative at the event, never said that, but we all know she felt like in Latvia at some moments, while Spanish people were afraid they would never be able to leave the hostel without help of the snow plough. It was so cold that they all ended in a snow fight, although there were also other strategies to stay warm chosen.

Participation was very high in number and also in contribution to discussions and debates. Some of the proposals generated heated arguments against and in favour, a sign that the network cares about the future of our association. Unfortunately, not every antenna could join the NWM. The participants missed their dear friends of the French antennae, and they hope that they can join the next NWM.

New antennae to the Network
During a memorable European Night it was time to welcome four new members in the AEGEE Network. Lanzarote, Sevilla, Valladolid, and Madeira signed the Convention d’Adhesion while the participants sang the traditional lyrics which ended with a Chumba-chumba.

Signing the papers for AEGEE-Valladolid

Thank you!
The closing session was dedicated to evaluation and a focus was done on the transition of the NetCom Team. The network thanked Luis Alvarado and his team for the hard work done on those 12 months, and the new candidate was presented. Carol Bello, known as the Main Coordinator of the Spring Agora Alicante 2011, will ask for the Network support to continue the great work in developing those antennae. She presented the new team and gathered ideas from the antennae to prepare a work plan that will help our network to grow stronger and spread AEGEE ideals in our society. It was an emotive moment when Luis was thanked with a video which made some people in the room to cry.

AEGEE-Burgos, with the support of the University of Burgos, managed to create the perfect atmosphere for work and team building, and after this NWM the antennae present have grown stronger and motivation has been raised. During the good-bye at the end of the event, participants were all looking forward to Agora Enschede, and the ones who cannot attend Agora will for sure follow the live streaming.

Written by the Miguel Gallardo, AEGEE-Alicante

  1 comment for “S-NoW Meeting Burgos

Comments are closed.