Action Agenda Coordination Committee evaluating thematics of AEGEE

In a recent interview with ACT members Nicola Guida and Anna van den Berg the new team was partly introduced to the Network. However there is much more news on the team than Nicola and Anna and The AEGEEan got an update on the entire new team.

Let us introduce you to Ana Potocnik from AEGEE-Ljubljana. She joined ACT because of the idea to be part of the team of Network Commissioner Antonija Parat and work with her locals, “I wrote her an email, asking about how I could get involved in her team after the open call for ACT members was distributed. There I saw the perfect opportunity to work with locals, help them organise quality events, connect them with European level and contribute to the Action Agenda and long term plans of our organisation.”

Danae in Zaragoza at the AEGEE fair representing the Human Rights Working Group

Danae Matakou from AEGEE-Athina, who recently turned 20, has been in AEGEE for about one year and half. She just loves everything about AEGEE and what it has to offer: from traveling, to meeting new people, to organising events or getting involved in European actions. Becoming a member of ACT Committee was something that she was and still is very excited about as she considers the work ACT aims to do very interesting and important because it tries to help the local actions and event have a bigger impact.

For Anita Ruszcsák from AEGEE-Budapest, also 20 years old, joining ACT was something she was sure she wanted to do because of the idea of working together with others in a small but efficient team on thematics in AEGEE. She has been a part of the Education Working Group (EWG) for some time and has even started a local EWG in AEGEE-Budapest. Being a member of ACT was her way of becoming even more involved in AEGEE’s European level.

The team met for the first time during Agora Zaragoza and Nicola says about the experience “Meeting face to face is definitely important for a team, it makes you understand who is there at the other side of the monitor reading your e-mails or messages. It allowed each of us who were there to share our enthusiasm and after that we are even more willing to give our best in ACTivating the Network. We tried to finally set the aims and the objectives of our committee, deciding on the concrete things we are now doing. We also had the chance to discuss the relation between the ACT and all the other bodies of the network during the progress meeting opened to other members as well.”

The team is currently working on the elections of a new Speaker team, but there is no set date yet for when it will be elected as they are working on many different matters also. At the same time, the ACT-team is still looking to grow and add 3-4 new members. Mainly because a few Network Commissioners do not yet have an ACT subcommissioner working with them to assist in working with locals on achieving goals in the Action Agenda. For example Holger Schmidt, Meltem Daracki and Mateuzs Dokurno do not have any ACT subcommissioner yet. However, it is possible to join the team regardless which country you are from and the deadline was December 11th but maybe it is still possible to join.

 

Survey

Nicola in Zaragoza – Photo courtesy of Golden Times

The team has recently drafted a survey for the Network to complete. There are two main objectives to be achieved with it. First of all the current Strategic Plan is soon going to end (the Action Agenda that will be drafted at the EBM in Lublin will already be based on the new Strategic Plan 2014-2017 which was approved in Zaragoza). But as Nicola says: “We need to evaluate [The Strategic Plan] in order to understand how large was the thematic impact of AEGEE, in which percentage the concrete objectives we set for the previous Action Agenda have been fulfilled, and according to the results what we have to keep, what to improve and what to change. In simple words, three years ago we told ourselves we wanted to do this and that, and now we have to see what we actually achieved”.

Secondly, the data gathered from the surveys will help the team evaluate the implementation of the Action Agenda and Strategic Plan. The team will look at how successful the Action Agenda and Strategic Plan were, what the problems were and how to improve these in the future. It will also help create a database of examples, best practices just inputs of any kind of thematic activities for small, medium or large locals that later on can be shared with the rest of the Network. “We also hope that by seeing what is going on in different parts of the Network people get interested in joining a project another local is currently working on while their antenna is not. We are a large organisation and sometimes (quite often) it is really difficult to know what is going on in most of the other locals and to coordinate and collaborate between each other, that’s why the Strategic Plan and Action Agenda are so important,” Nicola explains.

So at the moment ACT is focusing on sending the survey to the locals, expand the team after an Open Call for new members, and elect the new team. Once there will be a new speaker team and new motivated and active members the team will take even more action. In terms of the preparation for EBM Lublin nothing is decided. Besides the usual stand at the fair what the ACT team expects is to prepare for the big event together with Miguel during their upcoming meeting in Brussels in January. Analysis of the survey will enable the team get a better insight in what aspects there has to be focused on during EBM.

And finally: if anyone has any good ideas or comments, or if you want to help the team improving the Action Agenda even more, the team asks you to please approach them. All questions, comments and ideas are welcome.

 

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København