It feels like we just left London every time we think about the Network Meeting (NWM) organised by AEGEE-Durham, AEGEE-Sheffield, AEGEE-Abertawe, and Network Commissioner Beáta Matuszka. This event was unique in so many ways that people were standing in line to attend it. And what would be a better way to start the NWM than to meet where Harry Potter’s adventure also began?
Breaking the ice
The first day was mostly about getting to know each other and discussing our expectations for the upcoming days, while enjoying one of the parks London has to offer. Most participants stated that they wanted to gain more knowledge about how to improve their local. Next to that, they just wanted to learn a lot. Well, this NWM proved to be about all of that.
Help from the passionate Network Commissioner
On the second day, Beáta started her workshop regarding Human Resources and how to motivate members. Roughly speaking, there are four categories of members: (1) highly motivated and highly skilled, (2) no motivation and no skills, (3) highly motivated but no skills, (4) no motivation but highly skilled. We noticed that they were all struggling to keep their members active as they were not aware of all the strategies that could actually help. Afterwards Tom (Secretary of International Politics Working Group) held a short session on how to work with marketing campaigns for different types of AEGEE events. The outcome of this session and its case studies is that an AEGEE local should maintain their communication and promotion integrated into a PR strategy.
Which AEGEEan are you?
In the afternoon, Marko from Comite Directeur (CD) divided the participants into four groups. Each group had to prepare a speech to convince a certain type of person to join AEGEE. As you all might be aware of, AEGEE members can be divided into several types: the travel type, the idealist type, the party type and the career type. While everybody did their best to show how great AEGEE can be, we did notice some lack of knowledge regarding AEGEE projects and events.
After the session in the park, we went home to start cooking as that night was going to be Cultural European Night! It proved to be a very interesting Cultural European Night, which became a success especially because of the hospitality of Tena Prelec (Former Network Development & Human Resources Director of AEGEE-Europe) who hosted the participants for that night.
Due to many interesting discussions that arose earlier, we had a tight schedule the third day. Carlijn, former speaker of the Events Committee, started the day with a workshop regarding project management. Her presentation of the different stages of organising an event (from knowing your community to evaluation) will help locals improve the quality of AEGEE events, as quality is not about the event itself, but also about the work done before the event actually takes place. We ended that session with some case studies, where all participants were faced with some problems that might occur while organising an event. In total the participants were given the test of eight different problems, and it was very interesting to see how everyone approached the problem differently, but in the end, the solution was universal.
Then Marko shared his ideas for AEGEE fundraising with a stunning presentation. His idea about how to connect several European institutions and companies to AEGEE and its members was just incredible. Hopefully, he will use the feedback from that session to present the FR strategy at the Agora. We spent the rest of the afternoon discussing the current situation in the locals attending this NWM. This particular situation is actually two-fold, as we had already noticed during an earlier session: (1) they feel they are on their own in their local (no one is interested or willing to help them attract more members) and (2) they are not aware of all the possibilities AEGEE has to offer to students. Despite all the problems they are facing, they still believe AEGEE has a lot to offer, and that is why they are not about to give up soon. However, this is not a problem just for smaller locals; even larger ones might be faced with the same challenge.
English breakfast and buses
The last day started with a free morning for the participants. Some decided to sleep in, others went for some English breakfast, while some got stuck on a bus and spent the morning waiting to be saved from a vehicle that might have exploded (at least, that is what they told us). Finally, some other brave AEGEE members dared to start the AEGEE Jogging Team and do some sightseeing near the Tower Bridge. After what turned out to be an exciting morning, we all met again in front of the Buckingham Palace. In the closest park, we evaluated the weekend. The first results (a more in-depth evaluation will be done online) of the evaluation regarding the content showed a great appreciation for the project management training and for Marko’s presentation regarding fundraising. For the Network Commission and CD, we noticed the urgent need to emphasize the several projects and events AEGEE has to offer. Also, the trainers noticed the desire to learn more regarding HR, as more and more locals are struggling to keep their members active and involved.
This NWM proved to be a good icebreaker for the British locals, as they were all inspired to continue their adventure to strengthen AEGEE in Great Britain. The election of new boards in AEGEE-Sheffield and AEGEE-Durham expresses the impact of the NWM on these locals. And we were there to witness this part of the AEGEEan history.
Written by Carlijn Van De Meulenhof, AEGEE-Durham & AEGEE-Amsterdam