This Spring, the former Network Commissioner Holger Schmitt announced that he was looking for a Media Responsible/Press Speaker for the German locals, who would take up the task of promoting the German locals and AEGEE in the country’s media. The AEGEEan spoke to the member who got the job, Benjamin Feyen from AEGEE-Düsseldorf, to find out more about why he applied, what he has done and will do and his other projects in AEGEE.
Of course, the main question is: why did Benjamin apply? “I think that both my AEGEE experience and my journalistic experience qualify me for this position”, Benjamin says. “Therefore, I consider this task a good way for me to help AEGEE shaping its public image in Germany. Besides that, after having been quite active on the local level for a long time, I decided to focus my AEGEE activities on the supra-local and European level from now on”. And active he was! In 2009, Benjamin founded AEGEE-Düsseldorf together with Fabian Brüggemann. “I have been in our local board from the beginning, and from 2011 until this year as president”, Benjamin goes on. “After having attended more than twenty different events on the regional and European level and having joined numerous other activities, I would say I know AEGEE very well”. Next to experiences in AEGEE, Benjamin has also worked as a freelance journalist for local newspapers for years and he has been in charge of public and press relations in several societal and political organisations on a local, regional and national level.
As the new Media Responsible/Press Speaker, Benjamin’s most important task is to “try to get AEGEE in media of nationwide relevance”. As Benjamin explains: “The general background of our locals’ decision to create this position is that, due to the fact that in AEGEE there is no national level (which I consider a good thing), it is quite challenging to bring AEGEE in the national media because nobody really feels responsible for that and on the other side the journalists don’t know who to contact (if they know about AEGEE at all). But still we want our association to appear in the German press also above the local level, because there is so much AEGEE is doing that deserves more public recognition.” Having a contact person in every German local to provide him with relevant information, Benjamin has made his plans for the future. “First of all, my plan is to send the media press releases more or less regularly in order to create visibility. I am also planning to contact journalists in order to place more general stories about AEGEE in their media – this could be interesting for student magazines, for example. But the whole thing has to develop, and I know that it is going to be difficult enough to start something like this from scratch.”
German locals are of course not the only locals dealing with the press. “Generally, it is always a good thing to try to make the media report on what AEGEE does”, Benjamin says. However, this doesn’t mean he thinks every AEGEE region should have a speaker. “Germany for example is ‘divided’ in two NetCom regions, and it would be confusing to have a press speaker in each of the teams. I see myself as the press speaker of all locals located in the area known as ‘Germany’ outside of AEGEE, no matter which region they belong to, which I think is the only way to successfully represent AEGEE towards national media.”
Next to his tasks dealing with the German media, Benjamin is also busy with the newly set up FAME project. “You might have already listened to our newly released ‘The European Summer Song’, which we also use for our FAME summer video contest: SU participants and organizers, members of a local, working groups, or anybody who is into filming, is called to create a funny and crazy video clip for this song. After the popular ‘Europe on Track’ song, I think this one might become another successful FAME release.” If you want to know more about this project, you can always sign up for their mailing list (FAME-INFO-L) or check the Facebook page.
“For the rest of my time in AEGEE I want to focus on my new position as Media Responsible and on managing the FAME project”, Benjamin says. “Besides that, I want to share my experiences and skills as trainer of The Academy and to help representing AEGEE-Europe as member of the Pool of Representatives.” Before AEGEE, Benjamin was really active in the Erasmus Student Network (ESN). “Knowing both associations very well from the inside, I have to say how much I appreciate the absence of a national level in AEGEE. Despite all negative side effects, I think this is one of our biggest strengths. With the implementation of a press speaker of all German locals in AEGEE, we are now trying to alleviate the probably most significant one of these negative side effects.”
Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen