Sustainability is…

… a buzzword/often misunderstood/a way of thinking/ a clear path for action/ all of the above. One thing is clear: ask 120 people about their understanding of sustainability and you will get 120 different answers. This can however only enrich the debate, as a concept as complex as sustainability can only be understood and operationalised by looking at it from multiple angles at the same time. So — at risk of generalisation — what do AEGEE members think of sustainability?

Sustainability is the way of living, creating public policy and economic growth that takes into account environmental issues and will help to preserve natural resources for future generations.”

This explanation by a respondent from AEGEE-Poznań perhaps succeeds the best at capturing the wide range of ideas and definitions collected through the survey. For when analysed the answers fell broadly into a number of categories, of which the most important keywords are (in order of frequency): Future, Resources, Green, 3 elements, and Balance.

One in two respondents focus on long-term thinking and planning, preserving our planet and quality of life for future generations. This requires a different approach at resource usage and the introduction of closed-loop production and consumption systems. While many respondents mentioned the classical 3 components of sustainability — economy, society, and environment — and the balance between them, over 20% however, still see sustainability in a predominantly green light.

Education for sustainability

So even though 91% of respondents have at least some notions of sustainability, there is still some room for improvement. How much do AEGEE members — and youth in general — know about sustainability, and how much of this did they learn at school? It is true that the basics are being discussed in primary and secondary school — think water cycle and geography field trips —, but this “decreases as you pass to the next level of education, as the education becomes more specific and ‘serious’”, says a member of AEGEE-Valladolid.

Almost three in four respondents feel there is not enough attention for sustainability within formal education and 48% even estimate that sustainability-wise their time at school was a waste of time, with another third only learning a little about it.

On the other hand less than 25% believe they don’t know enough about the topic to do anything themselves. So where do people get their knowledge from then? This is where non-formal education (NFE) comes in, says Bogdan from AEGEE-Bucureşti: “I only found out about this from my AEGEE local.”

For one in three respondents, NFE is also a more suitable method for teaching sustainability than formal education. “Non-formal education is better in showing people ways to live more sustainable instead of simply telling them what to do”, says Wieke of AEGEE-Leuven, and Nolwen (AEGEE-Toulouse) continues: “Sustainability is about reforming our societies deeply and fundamentally, it therefore requires non-formal education, out of books, it requires to learn by doing, by discussing.”

Time for action

While playing a big role in teaching young people about sustainability, NGOs (28%) score significantly lower than e.g. national government (33%) when respondents are being asked to rank 6 stakeholders in order of importance to take initiative in making life more sustainable (weighted average 30%). It is therefore crucial to cooperate with all stakeholders in pursuing sustainability, including national and local government, business, youth and other NGOs, citizens’ initiatives, and individuals.

What role do respondents then see for organisations such as AEGEE?

Like many things, sustainability starts at home. For Guillermo Garcia Tabares of AEGEE-Barcelona, we should “first of all establish some obligatory criteria for all events. Secondly, create best practices which are easy to follow.” Only then, he says, should we start working on bigger projects. Again analysing the answers, we can see that respondents suggest a number of possible approaches.

More than one in five support Guillermo’s proposal for internal sustainability standards, while slightly more people would like to see Environmental Working Group and others to provide assistance to members and organisers to become more sustainable. Most respondents favour the raising of awareness and spreading of knowledge through workshops, but as this was not a multiple choice question, this serves mostly as a first step towards a more active engagement. Finally, remarkable are also the 15% who suggest raising our voice externally, by lobbying institutions for more sustainability or partnering with other youth organisations.

And now?

Credits to Jjpacres on Flickr

After defining the topic and conducting a survey to gather the first input, the next step is to launch an online consultation on the topic of sustainability — more in particular education for sustainability. This process will be informed by a lay of the land in Europe, and will define the basis for future lobbying for more attention for sustainability in both formal and non-formal education.

On sustainable entrepreneurship, the second subtopic proposed at Agora Budapest, not sufficient knowledge and outspoken opinions seem to be available within AEGEE at the moment. While I will continue to research the topic and share useful opportunities, it might be too soon for AEGEE to take a position on this. Rather, more time and efforts should first be invested in raising people’s understanding of, and experience with entrepreneurship as such, e.g. through successful projects such as the European School on Entrepreneurship or collaborations with Startup Pirates and other specialised initiatives.

Written by Mathieu Soete, Policy Officer on Sustainability

What’s the difference?

Actually it’s quite simple. Members’ Manual (MM) – as the name already suggests – is a manual, guidebook for AEGEE members, which explains the core things of our organization. The statement of principles, the European level, board members’ responsibilities, the main things to keep in mind when organizing an event… These points and many more are covered in Members’ Manual, and the last time the manual was updated was back in 2009.

On the other hand, Key To Europe (K2E) might be better known to you as it’s our annual yearbook which is published every autumn and gives an insight into what AEGEE has done in the last 12 months, at what we have been successful and what are the most important things the next AEGEE generations will remember about this time.

“Every promotional material has its own aim and target audience, so they should not compete much with each other. MM is published by AEGEE-Europe for the local antennae, so their boards can use it instead of creating similar products. We should make MM bright and brief – then local members will love, recommend and use it,” says Olga Yushchenko (AEGEE-Kyiv), editor-in-chief of the new MM.

How can I benefit from MM?

Although newbies will benefit from MM the most, this manual can also be useful for already experienced members giving them insights into those parts of AEGEE they did not know a lot about and making it easier to explain different questions to other members. Verena Schmidt (AEGEE-Tübingen), who was the editor-in-chief of the last MM back in 2009, recalls that it was exactly her reason for making a new MM: “I was interested in creating the MM, because I quickly became active in AEGEE once I had joined my antenna, but never had a MM at that time and depended on more experienced members and the AEGEE website for information. A MM would have been nice, because it’s structured, coherent, concise and all-knowing.”

Also Olga agrees with that, admitting that she is often using the current MM and explaining it to new members, but quite some information is already outdated due to various reforms we have had in AEGEE since 2009. The new MM therefore will be updated with all the latest information, including our structure, projects and more visual materials (e.g., schemes and graphics). Other parts – such as board responsibilities and tips – never get outdated, but it’s always good to have a fresh view at it.

Verena shares another interesting idea her team had previously had, but it was not realized – to translate MM! “We had an idea to translate the MM into different languages (e.g. Spanish), which are widely spoken in AEGEE, so to make reading the MM easier. However, there’s the question whether you prefer to make new members read the MM or to encourage them to use English.”

And how do we use K2E?

And then there is Key To Europe, for which, just a few days ago, it was announced that the new editor-in-chief will actually be two girls – Alma Mozgovaja from AEGEE-Riga and Hara Kogkou from AEGEE-Peiraias. “Together with them, we will firstly define the concept, gather some rough ideas, select a team working with us and then create the new Key over the summer,” clarifies Kathrin Renner (AEGEE-Passau), who as Vice President & External Relations Director of AEGEE-Europe will be the Comité Directeur responsible for K2E. The team is planning to publish it in the autumn, so it will be ready for distribution at Autumn Agora Zaragoza 2013.

In the previous years there has been a lot of shifting regarding the main focus of the publication – some teams thought that their main aim is to show everything AEGEE has done, including also our failures, as this is the true way to write and remember our history. Other teams have claimed that the main aim is to “sell” AEGEE to externals, therefore it should focus only on our biggest successes and possibilities for externals to sponsor and cooperate with AEGEE. What about this year’s publication? “K2E is our possibility to really showcase all the great work and all the possibilities AEGEE offers. This should be the main focus of this edition: showing what AEGEE has achieved in the last year, and getting people interested in becoming and staying involved. Externally, the Key to Europe is our business card, a tool that not only the CD, project managers, Policy and Liaison officers and so on, but also our locals can use to promote themselves to our partners. Of course, the internal aspect should not be neglected, but I believe that there is no problem harmonizing both aspects, making the K2E interesting to read for our members as well as representative for externals,” says Kathrin.

How to apply to join the team?

If you are interested and want to join creating one of these AEGEE publications, it’s not too late! Both open calls for team members have already been issued and, e.g. MM is looking for 7-10 “constantly working people”, although they are open to more ideas and more people joining at a later stage. Olga is optimistic: “There will be a lot of work, so I’m ready to work with everyone who is interested!”

For MM you can apply until May 24 by writing to hrc@aegee.org – you will find more information in an e-mail which was sent to ANNOUNCE-L on May 9 by Beata Matuszka.

Also for K2E you can apply untill May 24, this time by writing to harakogou@gmail.com – more information in the e-mail, sent out by Hara Kogou on May 16 to ANNOUNCE-L.

Written by Anita Kalmane, AEGEE-Ogre

The weekend included not only crazy teambuilding moments, but above all intensive discussions on how to bring the YuE project to a higher level. A physical meeting is a good way to boost the energy and get more effective. Teambuilding is very important in order to keep everyone interested and motivated about the project and their tasks – and with the help of Beata, the YuE team definitely got more energy. Moreover, fulfilling the cooking duties, planning and preparing dinner for everyone staying at the head office, certainly builds up the team spirit!

The biggest topic was the new round of the European School of Entrepreneurship (ESE) – a training that aims at equipping the participants with a complete overview of how to set up and run their own enterprise/business. The preparation for the third ESE just started with a new energy and motivation. The YuE team is working hard on this project but also aims higher – other new initiatives will hopefully also see the light in 2013!

Written by Iina Lietzén, PR Responsible of the Youh unEmployment Project

Today, Lauren is in Mannheim. She’s been here for a couple of weeks already, taking part in an exchange project between her university in Antwerp and the one here. The beer may not be as good as back home, but there’s so much to do she has hardly time to think about that.

One of the first days she was in Mannheim for example, a big event took place at the university, with hundreds of students from all over Europe coming together. Being new to the city, she went to have a look, and ended up sitting in a workshop on exactly the same thing she had left behind in Antwerpen: vegetable bags. How nice to meet so many young people sharing her concerns.

After an open discussion on the characteristics of our food system and the choices one can usually make when shopping for groceries, the group was divided into different teams to brainstorm about the different parts of the process of setting up a vegetable bag system. Lauren really enjoyed being able to share some of the things she already knew during the discussion, but the brainstorming turned out to be quite difficult, and raised a lot of questions.

How do you select the producers you want to work together with? How do you organise your logistics in a simple and efficient way? How do you reach your future consumers? And what are some other activities you can offer them? Luckily the facilitator of the workshop had done some research as well, interviewing people who had already developed their own systems, and could give feedback on the results of their brainstorming.

Lauren left the workshop with her head buzzing with new ideas, and the contacts of one of the local students. A couple of days later, she’s starting to settle into her life in Mannheim, and she’s already missing her fresh vegetables from back home. She can’t find a local initiative, so she decides to call up the girl from the workshop. Maybe they could start one themselves?

Taking their notes from the workshop and using her earlier experience as a customer in Antwerpen, they begin to work out the basics. Finding producers in a short radius to the city and visiting them to get to know them. Securing support from the university to help fund the programme and having an easily reachable location. Researching the tastes and expectations of their future customers. Recruiting volunteers to hand out the packages and collect the money. Develop promotion materials and think of a strategy to reach people.

That night Lauren is heading to a bar in the centre of town with her new friend, ready for her first AEGEE meeting. They have solved most of the questions and know what to pay attention to. Going over the results of their search, they feel they are ready to present their idea to the other members. But will they like it?

From here on the story is yours. If this is the first time you hear about vegetable bags, find out more here. Or maybe you already heard about it in your own city? Tell us all about your experience so we share it with others. And if you would be interested in starting one yourself, let us know and we can support you with more tips! For all information: enwg.aegee@gmail.com

Written by Mathieu Soete, Policy Officer on Sustainability

The AEGEEan: Before we start talking about your successful Network Meeting (NWM) in Istanbul, can you tell us more about AEGEE-Istanbul? What are the things well-structured  for AEGEE-Istanbul?

AEGEE-İstanbul was founded in 1992 and signed the antenna contract at Agora Praha. We celebreated our 20th Anniversary with a beautiful ball. From the very beginning, in 1996,  AEGEE-İstanbul campained for Turkeys’ inclusion in Socrates, Leonardo and Youth programs. In the end AEGEE-İstanbul managed to do it all. But probably the most popular AEGEE-İstanbul event was the Autumn Agora İstanbul 2010. We also had a twin antenna project with AEGEE-Beograd. And we are planning to establish a new twin antenna project with a surprise antenna! We have a nice office at İstanbul Technical University and where we are having our meetings. Almost every day we have our project and working groups (WG) meetings. Recently we organized the Spring NWM with a dedicated organisation team. Furthermore, what I can say about AEGEE-İstanbul is that every Friday we are making a presentation of AEGEE to the people who want to join us.

What project and working groups do you have in your local?

We have Public Relations WG, Education WG that is currently giving French courses thought by one of our member, Summer University Project Team, who work with great effort. Besides we have Yeni Nesil Yolda ( Young Generation is on the Way) Project Team. With this project we are making agreements with high schools and holding seminars that present what kind of opportunities pupils will gain when they begin university and we are presenting AEGEE, Erasmus, Youth in Action Projects, European Voluntary Service (EVS), Socrates and Leonardo in order to make them aware of Europe, of ways in which they can gain their mobility, before the university. We also have Turkey- EU discussion session in our local and at our weekly meetings we are having discussion sessions on topics that we choose during the week on purpose to keep our Active Citizenship part alive.

Do you also promote the European projects or working groups of AEGEE to your members in order to make them become more active in AEGEE?

During our Local Training Courses and presentations for new member, we are giving detailed information about European level of AEGEE, how they can join projects and working groups and we are also advising our members one on one depending on their personal interests. We are promoting European level events, projects that are announced, on our mailing list to make sure that our member don’t miss out on them. This year we were the partner for the Youth in Action (YiA) project organised by AEGEE-Köln. In December the ‘Europe on Track’ final conference was organised by AEGEE-İstanbul and the Visa Freedom WG also made a fruitful session gathering information about EU- Turkey relations and visa problems. And lastly there was the NWM.

Spring NWM

Can you describe to us what makes NWM-Istanbul different than the other NMWs of the Network?

In the past the NWMs in our area were not that international, especially the ones organised by Turkish speaking locals. A high percentage of the participants were mostly from Turkish speaking locals. But this NWM had a lot of participants from locals from the  Caucasus area and also the rest of the Network, from AEGEE-Sankt Peterburg to AEGEE-Zaragoza. This is why Spring NWM-İstanbul was different than the other NWMs in our network. Also the thematic part was very successful. Tika Kukhianidze and Beata Matuzska worked really well on that. We focused on problems of the locals and on creating permanent solutions for these problems.

So, what or which project(s)/ event(s) is the next stop? Can you tell us about the future plans of AEGEE-Istanbul?

During our LTC, our members came up with an idea for a new project named “PRESS the Button”. Since we are having a lack of freedom of speech in our country, this project will be a way to raise our voice. And also we want to spread it to our Network. On the other hand we are planning  to establish a new twin antenna project with a surprise antenna. We will keep being partner for YiA projects for the next year. An Exchange with AEGEE-Thessaloniki  and AEGEE-Köln is in progress as well. And of course we are working on our SU project with great effort.

Besides talking about AEGEE-Istanbul, The AEGEEan also talked with Meltem Darakci about the success of the Turkish antennae.

Meltem and her sub commissioners

Firstly, can you tell us more about how you feel as a new elected Network Commissioner (NetCom), Meltem? Then, would you like to give us a hint(s) about AEGEE-Istanbuls’ success, you being board member of AEGEE-Istanbul?

When I was elected it was a great joy at first and then I began to feel the responsibility of being a NetCom.  Now, we, the whole new elected team, warm to our work and are getting ready for a fruitful term. It is all about our members. We, as AEGEE-İstanbul, put an emphasis on spreading volunteering ideas and AEGEE spirit to our members. Because when you organize any kind of event or project, you need to have a dedicated team/ members. Otherwise a local can not move forward… I can say that this is our certain achievement.

In 2013, Eskişehir, Ankara and now Istanbul were honoured as local of the month from the Turkish speaking and Caucasian network. Would you like to share your feelings about that success, as being their Netcommie?

Our Network is implemeting indeed good  thematic events, projects based on active citizenship. AEGEE-Ankara and  AEGEE-Eskişehir are very good with their thematic parts. And that is the result of it. Thanks to Tikas’ and the locals’ effort at the Agora Rhein-Neckar four of our contact antennae upgraded and more will come. That also motivates me a lot to put my all effort to support locals and develop them more. Most importantly that is pushing all of us, members, locals, the Network to prepare even more successful events, projects, cooperation.

Written by Erman Berkay, AEGEE-Mağusa

The AEGEEan: Tell us more about you. What do you study and what do you do in your free time?

Isabel: I am studying Translation and Interpretation at the University of Alicante. Hopefully I will finish it next year, and then we will see what the future holds for me. In my free time, among some other more common activities, I like playing the ukulele, which is so fun and pretty reachable even for those who had never played any musical instrument before, I encourage everyone to try it!

 The AEGEEan: Tell us more about you. What do you study and what do you do in your free time?

Isabel: I am studying Translation and Interpretation at the University of Alicante. Hopefully I will finish it next year, and then we will see what the future holds for me. In my free time, among some other more common activities, I like playing the ukulele, which is so fun and pretty reachable even for those who had never played any musical instrument before, I encourage everyone to try it!

After the EBM we had more than 50 people nominating you for Local of the Month, congratulations! What does this honor mean to your antenna?

Martha Mifsud (PR responsible of AEGEE-Valletta): AEGEE-Valletta has always strived to maintain its reputation, a reputation which precedes it and a reputation which is evidenced by the high quality events organised periodically throughout the year. Having more than 50 nominations is a great honour for us. After all, our activities are for you, the participant, and each AEGEE member to enjoy. The greatest satisfaction for us is the appreciation of all those who participated in the EBM.

If you were to explain the experience of organising EBM Valletta what would you say? How was it?

Simply amazing and very enriching! The friendship forged while working together and attaining the same goal is the one which lasts the longest. On another note, it was very professional and each one of us had the opportunity to discover his/her potential in relatively new areas.

What were the best things about organising the EBM?

The team work! It was the most effective asset we had and the bond which will last for all subsequent events. The EBM team was a relatively new team, having old members like me and the rest of the board being the strong points of every sub commissioner, but the rest was composed of new members.

Last year AEGEE-Valletta had the best Summer University and now it has organised a successful EBM. Why is it that you are so good at organising events in your antenna? Can you share some tips for other antennae?

As Vice-President of AEGEE-Valletta I have been a main organiser in both events. The best tip I can offer to other antennae is to be professional and do not take matters lightly. We do our best to achieve the best. Moreover, the other tip to achieve a holistic result is to put passion is the work you do. If AEGEE was a job, we would be working among colleagues, and the attendees would be our clients. In AEGEE-Valletta we enjoy organising events among friends to welcome our participants, who are at the end new friends in our country.

What have you been doing in AEGEE-Valletta after organising the EBM?

After the EBM we had a well deserved break. However, it was a very short one and now we’re back to our full potential. We organised a short course, an Local Training Course (LTC) which lasted for a whole weekend. We have also set up board meetings and also monthly meetings to inform our members what course AEGEE-Valletta is planning on taking.

What lies in the future of AEGEE-Valletta, which events are you working on?

Yet another summer event! After winning the best Travel Summer University of 2012… we’re heading on to organising another fabulous event for Summer 2013! So everybody get ready to set sail to our little Mediterranean Island! We also have planned local events for our local members and loads and loads of parties for our Erasmus friends!

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

The AEGEEan: Could you start with telling us a bit about your life in AEGEE?

Alice: I became an AEGEE member in 2010. To be honest I found AEGEE only by chance. I remember I was browsing through the internet searching for what am I going to do in the summer and I found the Summer University (SU) project, so I joined. After the SU I became very active because I wanted to and because I was doing my Erasmus in Athens.

And you are also active in the CWG?

Yes. I started with the CWG in 2012. I was looking for the way I can get involved in AEGEE and at the same time how this activity can correspond to my interests.

So you are into culture. Any other hobbies?

That’s my huge hobby and also my job since I am studying about galleries and museum sector. The course – Museums, Galleries and Contemporary Culture – is a new project of the University of Westminster. I spend my free time in galleries where I either work or simply enjoy my free time. Of course, I love travelling too. I also work in a little coffee shop. There is no way to survive without a job here.

 You were the one responsible for the Cultural European Night (CEN) at the EBM. What’s the story behind it?

I answered the open call for a person that would be in charge of the CEN at the EBM. We all knew that the last CENs were not successful so far and many voices had risen after the last European Night at the Agora Budapest. There was even this article in the AEGEEan questioning the original purpose of this event and it has been even broadly discussed whether this kind of event in this form should be kept on the program of statutory events. Since the whole CWG see the huge importance of having the CEN we have decided to try to bring a new concept to it- keep the ‘fun elements’ such as the drink and food fair but also, more importantly, -  show that CEN is more a celebration of cultures than just a party with free booze.

As far as I understand, you started dealing with the CEN as soon as you joined CWG? Or did you help out with other things first?

No, actually, this was the very first event. There were many ideas how we could change the EN to make it more cultural. I thought we needed to make it more interactive, to encourage people to join the program. I have requested a projector from the organizers where we played for the first time the CEN video (that was an amazing work from Dasha, AEGEE-Moskva). The most difficult part, however, was to make people join the program. I do not even remember how many times I have sent a reminder saying the same worlds: always asking people to bring their folklore and perform. A week before the event we had only one performance confirmed! I felt that this was going to be a disaster.

During the EBM some guys from Turkey came to me willing to show their dances and not only I had to limit their part because they would make the whole night only Turkish. The Dutch part was also amazing thanks to the organization of Hanke, from AEGEE-Enschede. It started with three – Turkish, Dutch and Greek.

I counted on having more, but was happy with at least three. But then more and more people started joining. Beata organized the Hungarian performance, followed with Anna Gots with the Ukrainian folklore.

Every single performance was so well done. Some of them were simply breathtaking.

 Is there anything you would like to tell our readers?

I would like to say how happy I am for being part of AEGEE. It means a lot to me. Even though we are often working very hard, we end up being rewarded greatly afterwards. I would like to thank also to Danae Matakou and Guillermo Tabares Garcia for their support in the CEN project.

Thank you for all the efforts to Alice and the Cultural Working Group. We are looking forward to the European night at the next AGORA!

 Written by Olga Volovyk, AEGEE-Kyiv

Luis Alvarado Martínez (President)

April was also a very busy month for all of us. Straight after the Agora, I had to help Pavel Zbornik with the new applications for the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe. Later on, I had to attend several meetings in Brussels with different partners and get everything ready for the COMEM (Council of Members)/General Assembly of the European Youth Forum with our Liaison Officer Marko Grdošić.
During the COMEM, we presented our candidature for the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe where we were elected, which is very good news for AEGEE-Europe.

Straight after COMEM I had to go directly to Strasbourg to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe where we represented International NGOs and a few days later our event on Youth Rights started in Strasbourg in the European Youth Center of the Council of Europe. During this event we drafted a campaign with several other INGYOs which will be launched at the end of Summer.

One day before finishing the event in Strasbourg, I had to fly to Sofia, Bulgaria, to be a speaker in a panel organised by the S&D Group of the European Parliament, “Relaunching Europe”, and give our input as organisation in topics such as Youth Unemployment and the new Youth Guarantee, Mobility, Education and Skills.

Apart from all this, I have been working this month on the Youth in Action application for our Peace building Caucasus training which will take place next September during the University of Youth and Development in Mollina with our members from that region. I was also preparing a press conference in the European Parliament for the launching of the new Y Vote 2014 project, another press conference in the Parliament for our LLP project and finally preparing the Youth Conference which AEGEE-Europe will be organising in Brussels next June.

Anna Gots (Financial Director)

I’d say for me April was one of the most challenging months of the term  for several reasons.

First of all it started with the great Agora Rhein-Neckar, which all of us enjoyed very much equally from the organisational and content point of view.

It was also a very important and exciting event for us, having the first reporting there, presenting several controversial initiatives and running for Comité Directeur again at the same time. Of course I must admit that I’m very happy with the results and would like to express once again my gratitude to the Network for confirming the trust in our team and giving us the chance to continue doing what we love most for one more year and having more time to implement all our ideas.

Besides all mentioned activities during the Agora, during the last days together with Pavel, Nico Huurman and Sandra Geldmacher, we managed to have FATF board meeting, approving activity and financial reports 2012 and discussing changes to be implemented in the nearest future.

Back in the office, first of all I had to deal with the follow-up of the Agora: reminding locals that still haven’t paid about the membership fee, taking care of invoices and reimbursements, etc.

Soon after, the time came for the first reporting of COY_NGO project (supported by LLP grant), followed by a series of interviews with candidates for the administrative and research assistant position in the office. After comprehensive and meticulous evaluation we choose the very decent candidate – Madalena Sousa, who joined our team immediately and already started contributing actively to different initiatives.

Last but not the least challenge of this month was reporting on General Subvention, which kept me busy in the office surrounded by folders for one week.

But after this was done I finally got some time to rest and relax, taking the flight to Kyiv and participating in the long awaited holidays with my family and friends there.

Lucille Rieux (Secretary General)

April turned out to be an extremely busy month as well. The Agora came first, and I enjoyed it a lot, because it is always a great moment to finally share ideas and receive direct feedback from the members. Of course, it was also very tiring, both following the organisation, giving input, and even running for CD again, but Agora Rhein-Neckar proved to be a great Agora once again!

Once back in Brussels, I started working on several aspects, from following up on the identity process, to finding a new employee that AEGEE was going to host. It took quite some time to select her, Madalena Sousa, and then to introduce her to the work of the Comité Directeur, to our current plans and projects.

Besides this, I have been also working with the Policy Officers, and preparing the Policy Officer consultation which was supposed to take place in Maribor, at the end of April. Unfortunately, due to a lack of applications, the event had to be canceled at the last-minute. I therefore started to work with Pavel and Luis on a youth rights event which AEGEE organised in Strasbourg at the end of April, and I was there also, helping to build a youth rights campaign together with other youth NGOs.

The last ten days of April were also a Youth in Action deadline, and I have worked a lot with the Y Vote team to help preparing the applications for the events of Y Vote. In total, seven applications have been submitted, with hopefully a positive outcome!

Apart from those key aspects, I have dealt with general Secretary General issues, from internal communication administration, CD meetings, registration of AEGEE-Europe etc…

Hopefully, May will bring some sunny days and a bit less workload!

Kathrin Renner (Vice President and External Relations Director)

April was dominated by the Agora and travelling.

After eight exhausting, challenging, but happy days in Mannheim, I continued travelling for another week, visiting the General Assemblies of two of our partner organisations. First I went to ELSA’s International Council Meeting in Cologne, and then from there directly took a plane to Trieste and a bus to Maribor to the Annual Members Meeting of ESN. In both events I briefly presented AEGEE and talked with members on how we can collaborate further. After discussion about the format of our Agora, it was interesting to see how other organisations manage their General Assemblies and together with the Chair Team I hope that we can steal some good ideas from them.

Also the rest of April was quite busy: we introduced our new house to our partners in Brussels, I followed up the Study Fair of Agora, and then I supported the YVote team with several Youth in Action Applications and Pavel with the report on General Subvention. We also prepared the guide to learning objectives for the SU project, giving Summer Universities a real educational dimension. All organizers will receive more information soon.

Beáta Matuszka (Network and Human Resources Director)

April was an amazing month since I had many of chances to meet a lot of AEGEEans and a lot of friends from all around the Network, which makes my work worthwhile. In the first days of April, I spent some intensive days in Mannheim at the Agora, where beside many other duties, I presented the Network Status, I had a progress meeting, I worked with the HRC, I presented proposals and a candidature, and I could meet my friends also. On the last day, we enjoyed the second European level meeting, for which I’m extremely grateful to the participants from the different bodies and especially to Xueji Li from Mannheim, who provided an enormous support to make this meeting happen again.

After coming back from the Agora, I was working with the Youth (un)employment team first on their team meeting in Brussels, and later on with the next cycle European School Entrepreneurship which will be organised with AEGEE-Mannheim, and for which I had a meeting and was in contact with our fellow organisations, such as JADE and ESTIEM. Besides this, I was also selecting the representatives for the Growth Management Project of European Youth Forum, and as soon as we have results from YFJ, I will be able to write more about this project.

Right after this, I traveled to Istanbul to participate as a trainer at NWM Istanbul, which was an amazing event, not just content-, but also organisational wise, we can say a million thanks to Tika Kukhianidze, Meltem Darakci and to the amazing AEGEE-Istanbul and the participants.

This month we also got amazing news: the YiA application for the Euroskepticism project has been accepted, so we can prepare for an amazing event with AEGEE-London. But the first days of May were a YiA deadline again, and I was helping Lucille and Luis to gather partnerships from the Network for YVote events.

Many other things happened: the preparations for the new Members Manual has started with Olia Yushchenko and with other former Network Commissioners, the HRC members and Speaker Team, I started the preparation for the first Human Resources Forum in Brussels with the partner INGYOs and this month was also the knowledge transfer period for the Network Commission.

Miguel Gallardo Albajar (Projects Director)

April. What a busy month you were!

Started as you all know with the Agora in Rhein Neckar and the boost of motivation received by the support of the network for our crazy idea of running for a second year in CD.

Just after the Agora I went to Chambéry (France) to attend the meeting of the LLP Project IEREST (Intercultural Education Resources for Erasmus Students and their Teachers), contributing to create better intercultural courses for Erasmus students.

The next week it was finally nice weather in Brussels and we welcomed our friends and partners in Brussels to our new house with a small party, which is always a perfect opportunity to meet and network.

On the weekend I took a train to Leuven for having a hand at their event about migration (co-organised with the Human Rights WG) and I came back impressed by the strong motivation of the participants.

Additionally, I had the chance to represent AEGEE-Europe at the General Assembly of BEST in Valladolid, giving me an insight of one of our partners that opens a lot of possibilities for potential cooperation.

In the last days of the month I traveled to NWM Lviv for a weekend full of workshops, learning and sharing, discussions with active members from the Eastern part of our network. And to top it off, the celebration of the XX anniversary of AEGEE-Lviv, our first antenna in Ukraine.

Summing up. A great month with plenty of opportunities to get in contact with the network!

Pavel Zbornik (European Institutions and Communications Director)

April started with the Agora, I think I don’t have to mention and we all know, that this is a busy period.

Right after we had two days until the deadline for applications for European Youth Foundation. These were intensive two days, but we managed to submit one training course on Human Rights in Lyon and also work-plan application which is a new type of grant for series of activities with maximum of 50 000 EUR.

In parallel I started to work on a report of Operational grant from EACEA. Anna was working on the financial report and I was collecting reports from the locals to show what our Network did last year. After receiving more 600 events, I had to prepare them for the report and selected the one with biggest impact. Report was submitted at the end of the month.

The second part of the month I spend with travels. I went to NWM Białystok with small stop in Warsaw. The NWM was very well organised and I really liked the discussion which took place.
I raised also an important issue there: the NWMs which are organised by Polish locals are the biggest among all, but they have no clear definition, they have also an aspect of national gathering of Polish locals with strong focus on national cooperation. We had intensive and interesting discussion about this. On the day after leaving Poland, I went straight to Strasbourg where together with Luis and Lucille we were organizing an event in European Youth Center to develop campaign with other IYNGOs to raise importance of youth rights and call for legal binding document inside the Council of Europe.