September 1, a magical day. A day when the new Comite Directeur (CD) members move in and when the previous ones move out of the house in Brussels. The new ones are starting a year full of adventures, hard work and dedication. But how about the former CD members? Will you ever hear about them again? Will they still be active in AEGEE or get busy with their post-AEGEE life?
“Long before joining the European board, I have heard from different people that being part of the CD is the last step in your AEGEE life; that you cannot achieve anything more than this for AEGEE; that you have to leave the stage and give the floor to the new generation. Well, I totally disagree with this,” says Elena Antova, the current Financial Director of AEGEE-Europe.
When asked about her opinion, Elena said that her term in the CD is just giving her more reasons to continue being active, to use the gained knowledge and expertise to help the organisation. There are other former CD members who agree with her and some who disagree, saying that it’s time to give the floor to the new generations and to get busy with their adult lives and full-time jobs.
Give back the gained knowledge
“I became even more active in AEGEE afterwards because especially after the experience in the CD I had a lot more to give for AEGEE. I also felt that I had left my local alone by leaving it, so I resubmitted my candidature as a president of AEGEE-Helsinki to finalise at least some of the ideas I had,” recalls Susanna Ritala, who was Secretary General of AEGEE-Europe for two terms. After moving back home, she was not only active on local level, but did various tasks on European level.
The reason she mentions is the most common one being quoted by CD members who have decided to stay active and devote more time to AEGEE both on local and European level. It is also common to join AEGEE-Academy and help the organisation by delivering trainings, and in the last years one could also see CD members contributing to the thematical work of AEGEE – like Nico Huurman (former Financial Director) who is now reactivating the European Day of Languages and Percin Imrek (former Projects Director) who stayed faithful to the “Where Does Europe End?” – project.
Time for the next generations
On the other hand, there are also those who quit AEGEE once they leave the CD House. Tena Prelec (former Human Resources & Network Development Director) admits that it was an informed choice to step out and let the new members to use AEGEE as a playground for the development on their way to the adulthood. After her CD term she took part in a few trainings, but was never as active as before. As Tena says, “My team and me have believed that in a youth organisation “younger generations always know better”. We worked a lot to implement real changes, and there is the feeling that we could have achieved even more if not stopped by experienced members who, probably in the will to help the association they once were leading, ended up by blocking many interesting projects, and certainly a great deal of enthusiasm.”
Of course, there is also already mentioned reason “full-time job” which physically does not leave as much as time as before. Olga Basova, former Secretary General, says that she is always ready to help her local if needed, but she does not have as much energy and time as she has had before. “Besides having a new “adult” life, I have realised that I cannot dedicate as much energy and time to AEGEE as I used to. But there are a lot of young people, new members who still can. So I decided to step aside and let them get this amazing experience called AEGEE,” Olga clarifies.
To be continued…
Written by Anita Kalmane, former Comite Directeur