After the resignation of the newly elected Network Commissioner Balázs Kovács (AEGEE-Debrecen), an Open Call for an assistant was issued. Out of the applications, the Network Commission chose Brigitta Puskás from AEGEE-Budapest. The AEGEEan talked to her to find out more about her motivation and plans.
The AEGEEan: Please, introduce yourself. How long have you been in AEGEE? What is your AEGEE experience?
Brigitta: I am 21 years old and this spring I finished my 3rd year at my university in Budapest, where I study International Business. Ever since I remember, I loved international things, especially meeting people living in other countries. I can thank my membership of AEGEE to one of my best friends in the University, Zsófi Lehota, who told me about her fabulous Summer University (SU) with all these different foreign people. Obviously, I was fascinated by the mere idea, so I joined and went to my first SU to Russia and Ukraine in 2012. After that there was no stopping: I joined the organising team of Agora Budapest and after that, I wanted to get more active, so I took up some smaller tasks. The first big challenge was being main coordinator of last years SU in Budapest together with Luca Gallyas. It was an Summer Course + with the theme of photography and Hungarian culture and I am very proud of the outcome. Then, I was Budapest’s delegate in Zaragoza. That and the NWM in Vienna gave me a push to become board member – I have been Vice-President for External Relations at AEGEE-Budapest from January untill August. This position is responsible for international events, PR and external communication, EVS and other foreign opportunities.
Why did you decide to apply for the position Netcom Assistant?
Now that my term as a board member has ended, I found myself in this uncomfortable situation where I have all this motivation in me and no path to move further on a local level. In the past two years, I have seen and learnt a lot, built relationships with people from all over the Network, and I feel that I have a general idea of the problems in the region, so I would like to help by solving them step by step.
What are your expectations for working with the team?
I am really looking forward to working together with the team! I don’t know all of them personally, but they seem like a nice team and so far, they have been very nice to me. I am aware that we will be facing a dynamic and intense period full of deadlines because of the Agora but I hope that it will all go well and I can slowly get involved with everything. I am also very glad for the two subcommies Mitsaki and Eva who I “inherited” from Arsenis, I hope that we will have a nice 2 months together.
You will be NetCom assistant until Autumn Agora Cagliari, what are your plans for the area?
To tell the truth, I have hundreds of ideas, but when it comes to what could be done – the problem is mainly time: locals in the area are often left without an active communication with the Netcom and we need to resume it quickly, the time left until Cagliari, and also, my time, which is limited. So, the first thing will be getting in contact with the locals and trying to get a general overview on what’s going on in each local, then, start collecting reports and then prepations for the Agora.
However, if you ask me what is really missing in this area, in my opinion, it is active communication between different locals. This results in them working almost completely separately from each other and this way, also from the Network. I think that this is very harmful for the whole of the Network and we definitely should start working on this, the sooner the better.
How will you prepare your locals for the upcoming Agora?
I think that my main priority has to be fulfilling the antenna criteria and meanwhile reminding the locals to proceed with the general Agora preparation procedure (such as a local Agora for choosing delegates, Agora preparation nights, etc.) as well as remindig them of the closing deadlines regarding the Action Agenda.
In one year, the area you will cover had four differents NetCommies or NetCom Assistants (including you). Do you plan to run for NetCom in Cagliari to give some stability?
This is a question I unfortunately cannot give a reply to just yet. It mostly depends on the amount of time I will have this semester, because I am starting an internship soon which will probably be a full-time job. If I cannot dedicate enough time to my NetCom duties as a result of this, I will not apply, because I think that would mean more harm than use. But I also find it extremely important for this area to finally get a motivated person who can take care of them on the long run.
Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia