Alfredo Sellitti – President
It started coming back from the NWM in Kragujevac, “where amazing happened”: motivated participants and motivating trainers gave their best to make this event unforgettable, under the precious coordination of Marijana.
After one week home for the holidays, I went with Gizem to Strasbourg, where James Skelly and BCA organised a very interesting conference about “European – US Relations: Differing Perspectives On Environmental Issues”, in which AEGEE-Europe was partner. AEGEE contributed by facilitating some sessions, actively participating through our members present there, and bringing up a wider European perspective to the US students present.
After Strasbourg, my trip proceeded to La Chaise Dieu, to attend the General Assembly of BEST. A different structure, but a warm environment (despite the snow) welcomed me, and I had the possibility to present our organisation and our renewed partnership and bring up new possibilities for further cooperation in the future, between AEGEE and BEST, on local as on European level.
Last but not least, I had some meetings to attend in Brussels: I met with EENA 112, the European Association for the promotion of the Emergency Number 112 in Europe, in order to find possible ways of cooperation; furthermore, I had a meeting with the organisations part of the European Year of Volunteering Alliance 2011, interested in building up a new European platform to bring up and lobby for the results of the previous year.
Alma Mozgovaja – Secretary General
This month was mainly devoted to the Agora – updating the agenda of the Agora, preparing booklets, changing for the 100th time the workshops and trying to fit sessions from our partner organisations, companies and universities, who will all attend the Study Fair, working with the Chair team and the Juridical Commission on finalising last details, as well as preparing ballot papers. Huge amount of time was taken by the preparation of all the colourful papers called ballot papers, sealing, counting and packing them.
Every day, every event brings new experience, and this time it was Network Meeting Burgos. I have attended a few in my North and one in Odessa, but the Spanish-Portuguese network brought a new breeze in the concept of what AEGEE is and how it works. I really enjoyed the atmosphere created by the almost 70 Spanish people (among who were three Portuguese, one French and me) at a skiing resort in the North of Spain, with the landscape of Spanish winter and snow. Moreover, we managed to sign 4 CdAs and now our Network is 4 antennae richer. We discussed proposals, flagship topics, and many more topics for the upcoming Agora or concerning our members and the Network.
April also acted as a month for reflection on the work progress of the Comité Directeur. We were preparing the Interim Evaluation of the Activity Plan and thinking about how we could improve our performance and finish started projects.
Besides the big things, there were still quite some time-consuming tasks, like the selection of the Archives Assistant, the Spring Agora 2013 hosting local, and very active communication with our members about Summer Universities, Agora etc.
Elena Antova – Financial Director
When April approached it was more than obvious that spring was here. The weather became warmer, you could already see flowers in some of the trees, really nice time.
I started the month with the meeting of the Audit Commission. For this purpose, the Audit Commission arrived for one weekend to Brussels, together with their job-shadowers, in order to check the finances of AEGEE-Europe. There were never so many financial people in one place! After the Audit Commission left, I started working on some improvements of the Financial Reports and preparing the Budgets. Meanwhile, I was also preparing the calculations of the membership fees, which had to be sent to the locals before the Agora.
I had to leave Brussels for the Easter holidays and I spent one really nice week back at home. After arriving from back home, I continue working on the Financial Reports, together with bookkeeping, checking reimbursements, making payments and other regular tasks.
After submitting all financial documents, I started preparing for the Agora with AEGEE-Europe’s Registration desk, Progress meeting about Finances, the Proposal I have for the travel reimbursement of the Outgoing Comité Directeur, Activity Report and of course, my candidature for Secretary General. I don’t know if I have been so excited about something like this before. I found what I really want to do in my future in AEGEE!
Marko Grdošić – Vice President and External Relations Director
Spring continued with a lot of Network travels. During the first days of the month I was welcomed in London, attending an amazing Network Meeting. This was probably one of the most challenging ones, as we had participants from a huge variety of locals. I wanted to inspire board members of small locals with ideas on fundraising, give members of big locals a broader perspective, and advise on opportunities to bring more money for our activities. I was also invited to speak at a conference on youth participation and volunteering in Debrecen. Organised in cooperation with AEGEE, ESN and AIESEC, this one day event was an amazing example of how the local level should cooperate and work in order to achieve the most. With big support from the International Relations Office of the University of Debrecen, it brought high-school, university and exchange students into one room, gave them a great overview of the participation, non-formal education and possibilities in Debrecen. At the same time, it had a great social programme, including different shows and concerts of local bands.
Together with Luis, I continued working on creating new partnerships, of which you have been informed through different channels. Hoping that they will provide more opportunities to our members, we will continue the work, bringing more and more of them to our family. In the end, we created a proposal of establishing a new committee – Corporate Relations Committee. For this and for the European Study & Career Fair, see you this week at the Agora!
Jüri Kirpu – Internal Relations Director
April started with a rush of things to finish. Sending mails to locals who would be in danger of being downgraded and deleted, sending out two CD Telegrams and finishing up the sessions to be presented during my Network Travels. Namely, I was about to embark for two Network Meetings.
My first destination was Iași, in Romania, where the Network Meeting Iași „Feel the new wave“ took place and was special in many ways. Since Autumn 2011, AEGEE-Iași managed an amazing development, from just having a handful of members to being able to organise a Network Meeting. The event was amazing and I wish for the AEGEEans in Iași to keep being more and more active!
My travels continued with a night train to București, where during the day I managed to meet with members of both AEGEE-București and AEGEE-Ploiești, who also helped me to continue with my journey towards my next destination, Istanbul.
After a long train and bus ride, I arrived to Istanbul, where I met Anıl Baysal (Network Commissioner for the Turkish speaking locals), with whom I continued my journey to Eskişehir, where the Network Meeting Eskişehir „More Europe“ was about to start. The local organisers managed to do a really good job. The lodging was great, the place for our sessions resembled the panel discussion rooms in the European Parliament and the food was as all Turkish cuisine, simply brilliant.
After arriving back to Brussels, the wave of preparations for the Agora started, which will make a big contribution to the development of our association.
Gizem Karslı – Projects Director
April was the month of putting ideas on paper and making plans.
To be able to develop influential and impactful projects, we need to build them on a strong foundation. For this, we are to train ourselves in the first place. At this point comes the concept of thematic European Schools. The first one, which I gladly call „ European School of Politics“, aims to clear up a common misunderstanding that our Network has. We tend to forget that we are a political organisation. Yet, as we don’t know what it means exactly, we are getting confused with our identity. The aim of this European School is to analyse what politics actually means and look back to the history of the European Project, the foundation of the European Union and, correspondingly, of AEGEE.
The second one is called the „Living Library European School“ (LLES). As you all know, the inclusion of minorities is one of the focus areas of AEGEE. Although several attempts have been taken, we are still not able to have the impact we wish to have. One of the reasons of this lack is the fact that we don’t have a strong enough background about human rights activism although we have huge potential to be a strong part of it. This fact brings up the need to train our members on human rights, where the idea of LLES stemmed from. LLES will not only focus on the cool concept of living library, but also the essence of Human Rights activism.
Briefly, these were the outstanding points of April. More information will follow, stay tuned, dear Network!
Guillermo García Tabarés – Human Resources Director
April was a very interesting month. NWM Toruń was an impressive beginning, with its 200 participants. It was a NWM where you could find 5 parallel workshops per time slot, meaning a lot of different possibilities to improve personally and AEGEEanly. I heard a lot of rumours about the so-called “Polish Network Meetings”, but I have to admit that I was positively impressed when on the first day I entered two full workshop rooms.
Poland was my departure place towards a full week event in Kyiv, where the Human Resources European School (HRES) was waiting for me, with a full group of participants, who were already so openly together that it was more than easy to integrate. Together with the other trainers, some inspiration rounds, and sleepless nights, a very special atmosphere was created. I am sure that the connection established there will go beyond the week shared! Beware, the Network has more human resources oriented strategies than ever!
Following this, NWM Brno was waiting for me, after a short, but intense, visit to AEGEE-Lviv. This NWM was much smaller than the previous one, but also had a greater variety of countries involved, ready to create a strong networking and local level structure.
I kept on updating the state of spring LTCs and evaluated the Activity Plans created by the Working Groups in the beginning of their term.
This month gave me back my full faith in AEGEE. It is said that you are all the people you meet, so I want to thank them all for all the inspiration and motivation that they have driven in me. The Network has and will always have the power!
Luis Alvarado Martínez – Corporate Relations Officer
This time I only left the house once, and it was for the amazing NWM Burgos, to fulfill my task as a Network Commissioner. Gathering 70 participants in the cold and snowy mountains of Burgos, we were able to discuss topics such as the new proposals, our development as Network, the future of the Youth in Action programme and many others.
In the house and together with Marko, I worked on the concept of the new Corporate Relations Committe (CRC), which will be presented during AGORA Enschede. A body to support the Comité Directeur with fundraising and corporate issues, to help both the European and the local level.
I was in close communication with the Agora Enschede organizers for the Fair and finilizing the agreements with the partners.
Several partnerships were developed, like the ones with Brussels Airlines and Monarch Airlines for travelling, and Easy Flat for logding.
Others like Interrail/Eurorail, Hostelworld, Eurolines and AEGEAN airlines will soon be announced, and our members will be able to benefit from new opportunities. These parnerships will also be useful for some projects like Summer University. These are the main ones, but with a bit more time we will have many more.
Together with Marko we worked on the EVS (European Voluntary Service) application for the Youth in Action programme, as well as on the European Culture Foundation Grant for our Summer University Project. Cross your fingers!
These two months have been very intense and I cannot wait to see what the Agora has yet to bring!
Claudia Fiorentino – Intern
April has been an exciting time for me! During this month I was taking care of communication with the European Prime Ministers and Ministries of Education. I sent them information about AEGEE-Europe and the reaction to the upcoming programme of the European Commission, “Erasmus for all”.
In addition, I updated some candidate booklets, prepared my activity report and the slides for its presentation, at the Spring Agora Enschede 2012.
Concerning the communication with the patrons of AEGEE-Europe, I continued the communication with Mrs. Doris Pack (Member of the European Parliament) and Mrs. Androulla Vassiliou (European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Youth and Sport ), and with their assistants. Concerning Mrs. Pack, who is already our patron, I sent her a letter with a request for writing an article about the Higher Education Days for the AEGEE-Europe website. Concerning Mrs. Vassiliou, I followed up the request for her patronage of the Summer University Project.
Last but not least, I am working with Alfredo on the list of our possible patrons. I found their contacts, for sending them information about AEGEE. During the end of April, I did lots of research in the archives of the house about the communication for acquiring patronage from various people.
The Agora is getting closer, so I am helping the Comité Directeur with many preparations for our Spring General Assembly.
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