AEGEE-Thessaloniki is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and when we evaluate their achievements by completion of the antennae criteria, they receive a good score. This is the reason why they organised a Network Meeting (NWM) recently. The AEGEEan interviewed the President of AEGEE-Thessaloniki, Arsenis Tselengidis, Treasurer Ioannis Soultanidis and Georgia Grolliou who they call “the future of AEGEE-Thessaloniki”.
Can you inform the readers about your antenna? When was it founded, how many members do you have, how many are active. etc?
Arsenis: This… -awesome- local, was founded during a cold December’s night of the year 1993, the 16th to be exact. This year, 20 years after the local was founded, the situation became very difficult. The local was almost ready to be downgraded, because of a lack of active members. Ioannis and I (the only full time active members then) took the responsibility to give one last big effort to save our local. Our two main aims were: survival of the local without loosing any of the Antenna Criteria and activating at least seven members. Nine months later, AEGEE-Thessaloniki has 31 members and 13 of them are active!
Ioannis: Our local might not be the oldest or largest, but it still is here after 20 years no matter the difficulties it met in the past. And we also survived this time. Thessaloniki has had glorious moments in the first decade of this millennium, but because old members were stepping down, and new members were leaving for Erasmus in other countries (among them myself and the current president), it became dormant. However, after a lot of work, running around and entertaining random guys and girls, AEGEE-Thessaloniki is back on it’s feet with new, active members full of excitement plus many more living in the shadows, waiting for the next breathtaking AEGEE event.
Georgia: As Ioannis said, maybe we don’t have a lot of members, but it is not the quantity but the quality of our members that counts! I cannot say a lot about my antenna’s history, but I can tell you about its future. I have seen a lot of smiling and promising faces in our first recruitment meetings and of course we have a fantastic team to surround them!
Why did you decide to organise the Network Meeting?
Arsenis: When our board term started (January 2013), we knew that our last European Event had been two years ago, in 2011. So we would not fulfill an antenna criterium if we didn’t organise anything. The NWM was the ‘easiest’ European event we could organise. The second reason was that after the recruitment period in April, the Summer Universities (SUs) start and we thought that the best way to keep our members active, is to have them help organise an European event right after the SU’s end…
Ioannis: We have been talking for quite some time within the board about organising an event, mainly because it is an Antenna Criterium and we didn’t want to see our antenna losing one. We brainstormed to try and find the best way to use our limited funds and members, so when the Open Call came for the organisation of a NWM, we grabbed it.
Georgia: I was not a member of the team of AEGEE-Thessaloniki at that time the decision was taken, but I totally understand it! We managed to fulfill two Antenna Criteria at the same time: the organisation of a European event, and attendance of a board member at a Network Meeting. All the reasons and ideas of our board team have been proven to be right. A European Event right after the SU’s activated both participants and organizers. It’s really nice to see the names of all the participants come up in mails announcing the new boards of their cities Antenna. I am really happy and enthusiastic to be part of this team and this Antenna.
What challenges did you come across while organising the NWM?
Arsenis: The most important was the fact that the most members returned from their SU’s quite late. The second was that in September we have exams in Greece. We were informed about our selection as organisers on the 15th of August, but until the 30th our members were not coming to the meetings because they were studying. As the exam periods last 1 month here and the event started on the 3rd of October, we knew that all work would have to be done in ten days, between the 20th-30th when the majority of the members has already finished the exams. However, we also know that organising a great event event, last minute… is in our blood.
Ioannis: Add to that the exam period-problems, cancellation problems, both with participants and wih adequate offers for food, lodging and seminar rooms. We were in deep… It felt almost like a miracle when the first day of the NWM arrived and everything was resolved!
Main organiser of Agora Patra, Costas, told us recently that working on fundraising (FR) is a challenge because of the economic situation in Greece. How did you handle this?
Arsenis: After a successfull promotion of the SUs, two days before the NWM we faced a nightmare! We got the mail from financial director Anna about the Membership Fees at the Agora…. The biggest project of AEGEE (Summer Universities) were leading our local into the first debt in the last decade! When we started organising two months ago, our first calculations were saying that we were going to need 226 Euros extra for this event. In two days Ioannis did a great job, and the final result was that we spent only 35 Euro! Ioannis will explain how we got there.
Ioannis: It is near impossible to raise funds these days. We sent a couple of our well connected members out to ask certain businesses either for help with funds or free food, but it didn’t work, with the exception of one beverage producer. So the budget was strict, no deals worked out and we were on our own. We tried to reduce expenses on every single occasion (if you ask any participant they will certify they had to walk a lot and one of the offered dinner was not enough.. Sorry!). We had to withdraw all our savings and be ready to spend them. However surprisingly, at the end, we spent only 35 euro. Saving a little everywhere works like a charm. My biggest regret is that because of the tight budget and uncertainty untill the very start of the NWM we did not buy t-shirts for the participants.
How did it go with organising the NWM in the end?
Arsenis: After three sleepless nights and four days of running, organising and re-organising the feeling of seeing people smiling and listening to them about how wonderful these days were for them, makes you feel so special!
Ioannis: AEGEE spirit rocked our city and fueled us to keep on going for three days! It all worked out in the end, whether it was fully prepared or not, and I think we got our members activated.
Georgia: As with all AEGEE events I have experienced so far, there were the normal complaints in the begining and a lot of hugs and melancholy at the end. It’s really satisfying to see that everybody had a perfect, awesome time after organising an event and to feel like you have a lot of new friends, you will meet somewhere in Europe!
Would you encourage other Antennae to organise Network Meetings?
Arsenis: I have been in four NWMs in my AEGEE life: in London, in Istanbul, and now twice in Thessaloniki. Both as a participant and as a organiser, it feels wonderful! As a participant you have a lot of fun and gain a huge amount of knowledge, but being an organiser is something different. You are going to need to use your creativity, train your public relations skills, and you will gain experience and improve your administrative qualities. Moreover, you will see the new members of your local participating actively. I am sure that after a NWM, none of them will want to return to their previous inactive state. In four days they can be been turned into AEGEEans!
Ioannis: Yep, it can be a great first step towards creating a team that is able to organise a good SU.
Georgia: A Network Meeting is a good chance for a small Antennae to organise a European event and teach both participants and organisers about the town’s history and culture. We have to admit that even we didn’t know everything about our town before. Furthermore, it can help newbies to learn about the structure of AEGEE and get involved more! As far as the organisation is concerned, I would say a NWM helps you realise coordination is essential for everything in AEGEE. A great team is built to make the event reality and as a member of that team the level of your creativity, administrative and, public relations’ skills, suddenly grow.
What lies in the future for AEGEE-Thessaloniki?
Arsenis: We have are some ideas. First, we want to participate in the European Youth Capital Project 2014, and second maybe organise a SU. However, our term is finishing after this Autumn Agora, so the new “youth” aka. Georgia have the power now!
Ioannis: An exchange programme with AEGEE-Tenerife, to discuss about Thessaloniki as the European Youth Capital for 2014, then more team building projects to keep our active members happy. After that, the next board is up!
Georgia: Considering Thessaloniki is the European Youth Capital 2014, we cannot leave this year without organising anything special! An SU -maybe in cooperation with another antenna, could be a really nice idea!
Will you organise a pre-event for Agora Patra?
Arsenis: This is a decision of the next board. But, I would love to see one! It would be very helpful for the next board to get more active members from the recruitment we will do this month.
Georgia: We still do not have anything official but it could be a nice idea. By now, we are ready to provide any help to our friends in Patra. We want them to know that they can definitely count on us.
Will you be involved in any way with the organisation of Agora Patra?
Georgia: Right now, our help is limited to some public relations actions to promote the Agora Patra! Thereafter, I suppose that some of our members could provide their work and creativity as helpers. They must know that they can ask any help from us and we will do our best!
It is nice to see an antenna working so hard on keeping the local alive and completing all the antenna critieria. The AEGEEan wishes AEGEE-Thessaloniki good luck with their work and any future plans.
Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-Koebenhavn