After the Spring Agora Rhein Neckar , two new contacts were established: Bihać , located in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bologna, a city in central Italy. The AEGEEan interviewed both of the contacts in order to get more information about the next AEGEE antennae.
On one hand, Bihać…
The AEGEEan: What pushed you to try to establish an AEGEE contact in Bihać?
Jasmin Balić: We wanted to try something new and to get the chance to travel to other countries, to learn about their cultures, to meet new people, have fun, get new experiences that would raise our knowledge, and all the things that this organization can provide us.
Except from the Saint Graal, the city is not so popular among European people as other cities, so how will you draw the attention of the AEGEEans upon the city and upon the new contact?
Our city may be small, but I bet everyone would like it. Bihać is a charming little town centered on the banks of the river Una. The town is teeming with cafe’s that inevitably gravitate around the beautiful Una. It is more than worth to visit Bihać and stay for a few days, walk along the banks, raft down its amazing falls or simply sit and listen to the wise tales water always tells.
Our people are warm, welcoming and love to interact with foreigners, so we’re sure they would enjoy here and have a good time.
The city university is quite new, yet it’s a big students’ centre, so do you expect to recruit many future AEGEEans?
Yes, we do expect to recruit many future AEGEEans. As soon as everyone hear the idea of AEGEE, I’m sure they will want to be part of this big team.
Which are your goals until the next Autumn Agora in Zaragoza?
We’re going to the Network Meeting (NWM) in Ljubljana, to get new ideas about projects and meetings we can do for AEGEE in Bihać. We hope that we will spend some quality time with other AEGEEans and learn more about AEGEE.
On the other hand, Bologna…
AEGEEan: How did you come up with the idea of AEGEE-Bologna’s revival?
Roberto Molica: I was surprised that in a place like Bologna there wasn’t an AEGEE antenna, so I decided to build it.
I was lucky that a lot of people were interested in this project (before even starting we were 10-15 people). I felt very motivated at the beginning and we started very fast.
Unfortunately we do not have the recognition from the university yet. Because of this we were stuck in a bureaucratic deadlock for a while. In order to request the contact we needed the letter of intention from the university, but we couldn’t get it because we weren’t an association yet. It was dramatic. But in the end we convinced the Comité Directeur to accept our request without the letter. We were (and still are) active and we want to bring the AEGEE spirit in Bologna so we proved that we were a lot and we successed to obtain the state of Contact under my name, but I want to remember I’m not alone.
So who helped you to start the contact?
The people that helped me a lot with the creation of the new antenna are: Szabina Hellinger- the whole process started with her, Léa Charlet, president of AEGEE-Paris, was with us for the first months and she helped me a lot in recruiting new possible members. And then obviously Beata Matuzska from the Comité Directeur.
Bologna is the most ancient university of the Western world therefore a big students centre, so do you expect to recruit many future AEGEEans?
Now we are starting the process to create the Contact Antenna.
We are ready but we probably have to wait till Agora Zaragoza to sign the Convention d’Adhésion. Doing it before October would be better, in order to start with the recruiting process (starting a real recruiting campain without having the status of association it would be pointless).
What are your goals until the next Autumn Agora in Zaragoza?
We are lucky that practically nobody knows what happened to the ancient AEGEE-Bologna so we can say we are a new thing and except Erasmus Student Network (ESN) there aren’t a lot of international associations (AIESEC is starting too by the way).
It’s a unique value and we have to use it to reach many people as possible. Our target is to have an association with more than 50 member before the end of the year (and it will be possible if we create the association before Zaragoza).
Written by Cosmina Bisboaca, AEGEE-Torino