After doing a lot of work for his local, AEGEE-Torino (including being the superhero of their Summer University), Luca Lombardo decided to take the next step and contribute to the European level too, by running for member of the Audit Commission. During the upcoming Agora in Cagliari you will have the chance to ask him all your questions, but before that The AEGEEan asked him some questions too! Read on to get to know all about this guy from Italy, his motivation and his plans!
The AEGEEan: First of all, the most important question: why did you decide to run for Member of the Audit Commission?
Luca: As soon as I got comfortable with the work of my local I always wanted to do something on the European level of AEGEE, too. One of my dreams is working in the Comité Directeur: I cannot think of anything more fulfilling than giving it all for AEGEE every day. Between the roles of the CD I fancy the idea of being the Financial Director, I do not really know if I will ever have the right circumstances in my life to try though, as right now I am trying to build my career in the game development business. All of the previous notions brought me to think about the Audit Commission: I would train my existing but not fully developed financial know-how by doing, I will work for AEGEE, and I could still pursue my current work. Did I mention that I love numbers?
What relevant experience do you have for the position you are applying for?
For the theory I studied Math for Engineering and, even if I have interrupted my studies for now, I had many exams (125 credits, which is more or less two years). All of them involved Math and one was on general economics, including balance sheets. In practice, I have been covering various financial responsibilities for my antenna when needed: budgeting, bank management, writing balance sheets, etc. Also, when I joined AEGEE-Torino the antenna was very small, but now it is growing fast. We lacked knowledge about associations and AEGEE-Europe’s structure, but we were holding up thanks to a few hard-working people. I believe this to be crucial, because from the Agorae I attended I got the feeling that most of the Network resembles this reality and I therefore believe I can help those antennae with my experience, before, during and after the Audit Commission.
What makes you the perfect Member of the Audit Commission?
I could use a lot of words on how I do things but I think the best way to judge candidates is upon how much their interest coincides with the Network. What are the main reasons for an AEGEE member to run for Audit Commission? Helping AEGEE, liking the Audit work or filling their curriculum? I got all those but on top of it I really want to sharpen my financial know-how because I will be covering that role in the future too in a business of my own which is an even stronger motivation to do a good job and give it all.
What are your plans for the Audit Commission if you get elected?
The obvious focus is the smooth running of the Audit’s responsibilities: checking the financial reports within the prescribed time limits, effectively communicate with the other AEGEE bodies, search for sub-commissioners and mentor them, and proactively assist the local treasurers in their reports (when needed).
How do you plan to assist local treasurers in their reports?
I plan on contacting them well in advance and have them tell me what I can do to help, I plan on being very proactive on this because I know how weird it may feel for a small antenna’s treasurer. Often you cannot even phrase what your needs exactly are.
Last but not least, since you wrote you want to look for ways to improve the current system: what should be improved, and how will you deal with it?
Mostly I believe it is the accessibility of helpful material that is the weakest spot: we have a lot of tools but not nearly enough people use them. I believe the Members’ Portal is very handy but not enough used and I plan on manually going through the Network to make sure that all boards know what tools they have access to. With manually I mean as direct as possible: writing to an antenna’s mail or Facebook page is not direct enough most of the time, I will obviously do that too but when possible I want to get to the people directly through common friends. This cures the symptom, though, not the disease, I do not have a clear idea of how to solve the root of the problem yet, but I will work on it.
Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen