AEGEE Fairies Getting Ready for Autumn Agora Budapest

At Spring Agora Enschede, The AEGEEan editor Patricia Anthony received the nickname ”AEGEE fairy” by fellow editor of The AEGEEan, Szabó Kata. A nickname that will stick, since she is taking up the challenge again. But this time, she will be joined by former “fairy” and current Financial Director of AEGEE-Europe, Anna Gots, as well as by the new “fairy” in town, Szabina Hellinger.

As you might know, there is usally only one Fair Manager for the AEGEE Fair, but motivated applications, experience and innovative ideas made the chair team decide on having two for the upcoming Autumn Agora, in Budapest. Secretary of the Agora Sygrit Andringa, who is also involved in the organisation, explains it by saying: “We believe that thanks to the experience of Patricia and the fresh new insight of Szabina, combined with all their enthusiasm and involvement in AEGEE, they will make a great team. Considering that the organisation of the AEGEE Fair can take quite some time and effort, we think it will be nice and good to have a team that can share ideas, tasks, workload, responsibilities, enthusiasm and motivation. “

Both Patricia and Szabina have got experience from the local as well as the European level, being members of the Sports Working Group (Patricia) and the Education Working Group (Szabina), among many other things.

The AEGEEan talked to Anna Gots about the process and the idea behind it:

The AEGEEan: Why did you choose to have two Fair Managers instead of one?

Anna: We all agreed that Szabina and Patricia would be the perfect combination of experience and willingness for improvement and development, with very high motivation and a bunch of new ideas, able to put the Fair on a higher and more advanced level of organisation. Moreover, it’s always more fun to work together!

In your opinion, how will this affect the Fair?

In my opinion, it can only enrich the Fair, make it more dynamic, maybe a bit more sophisticated in terms of implementation of more ideas at the same time, and definitely an improved one. It is an interesting experiment and I’m looking forward to see what will come out of this!

You have been a Fair Manager before. How can you use this experience to help the preperation of the AEGEE Fair in Budapest?

Well, I’ve already shared all my templates for the relevant open calls and email. That’s how I’ve contributed to the technical side of the organisation. But actually, now I see myself contributing more in tackling once again the important questions that should not be forgotten when dealing with the participants and the local organisers and in making sure that all the previous comments and concerns related to the organisation of the Fair in general are being taken into account this time.

The AEGEEan also talked to Patricia and Szabina about being the selected AEGEE Fair Managers together.

Why did you apply to become Fair Manager?

Patricia:  Because I believe that I have many ideas that I began developing for Agora Enschede and which still have room for improvement. Moreover, I tend to engage a lot in the things that I do, so I became Fair Manager the first time around, in Enschede, I really liked the opportunity to get to know the Working Groups, Project Teams, Commissions, etc. even better than I already do.

Szabina: Because I have many ideas for the Fair and loads of motivation. I have participated in two Agorae, where I have seen the Fair’s role in the association’s life, since this is the forum where the members can discover all the Projects, Working Groups and locals of AEGEE. Moreover, the bodies and the members can get to know each other personally, which can be a huge help in making the first steps for a future cooperation.  I would like to help in every possible way, so that the bodies can represent themselves, catching the attention of as many members as possible and making AEGEE bigger and even better than it already is.

What do you think about the decision of having two Fair Managers?

Szabina: I am more than grateful about it since Patricia has a lot of experience in this topic, which is obviously the biggest help that anybody could have asked for in organising such a thing. Moreoever, after discovering how many things need to be done, I can now fully understand the decision of the chair. Having a team of two people opens up for the possibility to divide the tasks, so that we can focus on less things, but in a deeper and more thorough way.

Patricia: I cannot describe in words how happy I am with this decision. I am first of all happy that motivated members such as Szabina have the interest of becoming the Fair Manager! And second of all, there’s the division of tasks. When I applied to become Fair Manager for the second time around, I had a discussion with myself, back and forward, if I had the time to do it, but in the end, I decided that I would regret it if I didn’t apply. I was pleasantly surprised with the decision of the chair team. As Szabina says, that makes it possible to divide the tasks between us and therefore increase the quality even more.

How has the work been so far?

Szabina:  More than perfect, at the beginning we divided the tasks, which has been a big help in doing our best for you! As you might have noticed, we have opened the application for the bodies to participate, and we are really looking forward to read your application for the Fair, and even more to meet you there, because you, the participants, are one of the most important pillars of the Fair! So see you there!

Patricia: I received a boost of motivation when the results arrived to my inbox – the news of Szabina and the fact that we were going to work with Anna made me confident from day one that this was going to be good, and it is! So far, we have managed a lot, discussing into tiny details what we want to do with the Fair, preparing the co-operation with the Public Relations Committee (PRC) for the AEGEE Fair booklet, and issuing the open call. Furthermore, I am quite sure that I will become even more motivated when receiving applications from the different bodies and locals with exciting projects, so I can’t wait!

The three ladies all agree that the magic recipe for the upcoming Fair is to combine the ideas and improvements of the previous Fairs and to add their own personal “fairy dust”, all confident that the outcome will be great! However, they cannot emphasize enough how much the success relies on the participation of the bodies, locals, delegates, visitors, envoys and more.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

The feature picture is from the Fair at Spring Agora Enschede, taken by The AEGEEan photographer, Léa Charlette.