Did you ever think AEGEE needs a change?

Did you ever think we are stuck, as an organisation, and need to reach a decisive turning point?

Well, some AEGEE members have been thinking about this! What did they do? They met up at our head office in Brussels, in order to discuss some of the difficulties we are currently facing.

They stated that our current structure, where we have a full-time board of seven people living in Brussels, is perhaps not the best way to do it. At the moment, the Comité Directeur (CD) has too much paper work, and not enough time for thematic work, they live too far from the network, and moving to Brussels for a whole year is often keeping capable people away from applying for the CD.

But they also realised this is a tricky subject to deal with.

Should these seven members of the Board of Directors mainly have to deal with administrative and paper work in order to sustain the organisation? Or should they be leading the organisation and focusing on the thematic and policy making levels? These are some of the questions which came to people’s mind during the weekend.

Of course, they did not only discuss the problems. They also started looking for some possible solutions. One of these solutions would be to split the CD into a smaller administrative secretariat led by a hired Secretary General in Brussels, and a thematic board living at home, somewhere in Europe, which travels all over the network. This would increase the professionalism of our dear AEGEE Baby, as everybody would be able to focus on their tasks better.

Moreover, this could bring the CD much closer to the network and the local level, as they would not be so far away in Brussels. And with a renewed focus on the policy making level and the thematic world, CD members could help AEGEE have a real impact on society again, like we did have in our glorious past.

So moving (most of) the CD out of the CD house in Brussels, which is consuming a great part of our budget, and rethinking its entire structure, could have a very strong impact on the association. It is the way in which a number of our partners works, e.g. BEST (Board of European Students of Technology) or ESN (Erasmus Student Network).

But is it really the best way? Or are there other and better solutions to these problems? Let the brainstorming begin! Obviously, the association itself is looking for a change! Do you want to join the adventure and face this challenge with us?

Get in contact with the team and help us to answer this question: What structural change would you propose as a solution  to the functional problems of the CD and our network?

Here are the super heroes who come to the rescue: Manos Valasis (AEGEE-Peiraias), Alfredo Sellitti (AEGEE-Salerno), Alma Mozgovaja (AEGEE-Riga),  Julien Penalba (AEGEE-Paris), Alla Resheten (AEGEE-Kyiv), Miguel Gallardo (AEGEE-Alicante), Maurtis Korse (AEGEE-Enschede), Wessel Reijers (AEGEE-Enschede), Marko Grdosic (AEGEE-Zagreb), Mirek Krzanik (AEGEE-Krakow), Philip Von Klitzng (Honorary member of AEGEE-Europe), Mathieu Soete (AEGEE-Leuven) and Luis Alvarado Martinez (AEGEE-Las Palmas).

They will meet you at AGORA Enschede!

Your Structure Reform Team.

Written by Luis Alvarado Martinez, AEGEE-Las Palmas