Alfredo Sellitti – President
The month of January started by returning from the Christmas holidays to the “Erasmus for All” programme. During January the internal consultation process came to an end, with the publication of the reaction of AEGEE-Europe to the programme (thanks to everybody who contributed to the paper!).
On the same topic, I attended on the 11th a meeting organised by the coalition formed by some members of the EUCIS-LLL platform and the European Youth Forum – YFJ with Mr Prats Monné, Deputy Director General of Directorate General Education and Culture of the European Commission, in order to discuss the implementation of the programme and how it could be possibly modified.
Besides this, I had a Skype meeting with the Liaison Officers in order to make the point so far and further develop our external relations strategy. An Open Call was issued for the Liaison Officer for IFISO, the Informal Forum of International Student Organisations.
Additionally, a list of possible patrons of AEGEE-Europe has been created, and currently, with the support of our IT gurus I am checking the possibilities to create an online consultation and come up with an approved list that will then be contacted.
January ended bringing a note of colour in Brussels: finally it started snowing!
Alma Mozgovaja – Secretary General
January started with an insight into the summer of 2012, what our Network is going to offer to around 2300 young people. With this I have finished something what all of us will be able explore, dream and discover, the 148 pages which contain 1000 days of summer. Yes, I’m talking about booklet for the 25th round of Summer Universities. As Jean-Paul Sartre said “To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June” and I definitely agree and enjoyed it a lot. Thank you, my dear SUCT team, for this sunny January.
The rest of my time was taken by active communication with the network through the headoffice and of course statutory events. As a last means of preparation for EBM Izmir, we had a planning meeting in Aachen few weeks before the EBM, so as to ensure smooth organisation. The new prolonged concept, new registration system, probably a new voting system were discussed with the local organisers of the Spring Agora to give the event a new shape. Besides this, the Autumn AGORA Budapest was approved and an open call was issued for the EBM 2013.
Besides these big tasks I was doing a lot of different small, but not less important things – preparing a paper to get the CD assistant for the AEGEE-Europe archives (stay tuned, Open Call will be sent out soon!), compiling communication between AEGEE-Europe and AEGEE-Skopje because of the request from several members, team management, general shopping for the house and other usual Secretary General tasks.
Elena Antova – Financial Director
I started the New Year at home together with my family and friends. During the winter vacation, I managed to see my closest ones, officially to graduate and to start making plans for 2012.
Back in Brussels I started my regular tasks checking reimbursement forms, making bank transfers, bookkeeping, updating budgets. As I am working on closing of 2011 year, I have needed to collect all left reimbursements until the end of January.
In the middle of the month, together with the whole Comité Directeur I took part in a public hearing ‘The Economic Crisis, Education and the Labour Market’ with the special participation of Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Sport, Media and Youth. Our beloved Marko took part in a special panel discussion at the same hearing, about the opinion of the young people for the importance of access to education.
Later that month, together with Gizem and Marko, I attended a Radio Debate, organised by Euranet /European radio network/ at the European Parliament. The main topic was 25 years of the creation of the Erasmus program and what will be implemented in the future.
Due to my work overload connected with my tasks as a Financial Director of AEGEE-Europe: closing of the financial year, internal and external Audit and Agora preparations, I have decided to withdraw my membership from the Juridical Commission, as I won’t have the needed time to be efficient member of the Commission.
Marko Grdošić – Vice President and External Relations Director
After spending Christmas and New Year’s Eve with friends and family and afterwards being sick for more than week, January seemed like having less days than other months.
Third week of month I joined the Network Meeting in Pisa. This was first time that I attended an event in the Italian speaking part of our Network and I really enjoyed it. Southern participants proved to be really active, full of ideas for development, enthusiastic about implementation of the Strategic Plan, and network with good cooperation opportunities. They gave me whole pile of advice concerning my tasks in the Comité Directeur and this is the best way how AEGEE can go on, to develop further and most importantly to connect the local and the European level.
Day after my trip to Pisa I was very happy to attend a conference on “The Economic Crisis, Education and the Labour Market” at the European Economic and Social Committee, where I was one of the 5 panelists debating on “Getting youth on board”. I presented AEGEE point of view about combining non-formal and higher education in fighting for development of youth employment in Europe. Having AEGEE present, at such a conference, shows the importance we have on creating and developing today’s youth policies.
Last days of the month I assisted the Eastern Partnership project team in finalizing an application for EuropeAid, fund from European commission that has not been used so far by AEGEE and which could give us a big support in the future.
Jüri Kirpu – Internal Relations Director
The new year brought with it lots of new spirit and different perspectives.
The first live meeting of the AEGEEan team took place here in Brussels, where big amounts of knowledge were distributed and shared. Different topics about journalism, online media, team work and creativity were discussed, which resulted with a small rebirth of the AEGEEan Spirit.
The month continued with the meeting of the Events Committee, during which it was possible to discuss internal issues, evaluate the work done so far and think up of ways how to improve the quality of events in AEGEE, the functioning and the visibility of the Committee.
Continuing with the highlights of the month. On the 24th of January the whole board participated in a conference about the economic crisis, education and the labour market in Europe. The reason why this occasion was memorable, was that Marko was one of the panelists in one of the debates held during the conference. The day ended with the Chat with the Comité Directeur. Although I am still in the process of finding the best solution for the chat, with every time we are improving the concept for this online conversation. Altogether a nice couple of hours were spent for making the work of the Comité Directeur more transparent and clear. Many questions were asked and hopefully also answered, thank you all who participated and we will see everybody else during the next CD Chat.
Gizem Karslı – Projects Director
January, it has been almost six months, since we arrived Brussels, almost half of our term. After winter holidays with my family in Antalya, I arrived home at 9th of January. Immediately after my arrival, the preparations for the EBM continued nonstop. Final confirmations from our external guests, preparation of action meetings, recruiting facilitators and coaches were not easy tasks at all. Together with Katja Behrent, Patrick Kabasci, Thomas Leszke and Alma we had a meeting in Aachen where we finalised the agenda and structured the back office that will function as the head quarters of the EBM İzmir. Of course it is not only us working on EBM but also AEGEE-İzmir! I feel really lucky to work with them as speaking the same language is a great help for both sides. They have prepared quite some surprises which means you will not only be a part of great thematic discussions, but also enjoy this hospitality, culture and especially cuisine of my home country.
I feel, we have done the best we can, to create a platform that will provide us with valuable thematic input. From now on dear Network, it is up to you to be a part, attend workshops and action meetings and take home a lot of inspiration and motivation that will result in strong projects. As young activists we are to take responsibility of making Europe a better place. For this very reason, EBM will be waiting for you!
Guillermo García Tabarés – Human Resources Director
As you can all imagine it was the month of the preparations for the EBM. It might seem that my tasks are not so related to it, but on the other hand we could say I am that kind of secret helper for some smaller tasks. We all want to keep the level of the previous Cultural European Nights and AEGEE Fair which is why I have assisted the main managers, giving some advise, and helping them upon request.
Regarding my tasks, the autumn cycle of Local Training Courses finished successfully, reports are gathered and now it’s time for a new open call for financial help. Hopefully we will get the applications of those who need it most.
When it comes to the Human Resources Committee, it was an easy month for me, as after winter holiday all the members were really active and were very much into the development of their tasks, to check results as soon as possible.
Apart from that, I can say that I am really happy with the work of the Working Groups, we finally managed to let the Network know what they are working on, thanks to the brand new monthly newsletter. Besides this, I had a very fruitful meeting with the AEGEE Academy in the CD House and frequently I am having chats with the board members of all the WGs separately, to keep track that they are following the changes which were done with their task distribution and that the process is happening similarly in all of them.
During January I was also in charge of analysing offers for our health insurance, and contacting some other companies to repair some minor issues of the house.