As the Agora is approaching, new candidates are coming: Today we are meeting Miljana Vulevic (AEGEE-Beograd) who is running for the position of Chairperson of our upcoming General Assembly. Active member and HR responsible of her local, Miljana is also engaged on the European level as former Secretary in Patra and current Vice-Chairperson of Agora Cagliari. See if she is the candidate you want as future Chairperson.
The AEGEEan: Can you introduce yourself for the Aegeeans who still don’t know you?
Miljana: Hey there everyone! I am Miljana and I come from Belgrade, Serbia. Currently I am studying management at Faculty of Economics at the University of Belgrade. Why management? Well, I have always been very enterprenurial, even when I was a kid. When I was 8 I started perfume and bracelet making business, I had one employee whom I paid in stationary material my mom excesivelly bought for me for some reason every single week, and my customers were girls from the neighbourhood. Unfortunatelly, my business went under after my customers’ parent found out how their children were spending their pocket money. I was raised to despise politics, but now it is something I really enjoy exploring and learning about. I could never decide if I was a dog or a cat person and I always route for the underdogs. The tendency to ovethink and overanalize the world around me can make me tired from times to times, so I have a hobby that relaxes me – cooking. And when I cook I always turn up the music and improvise a lot. That is, more or less, the only time I allow myself to get crazy and not have a plan.
When did you join AEGEE and why?
My story doesn’t start like you would expect – once upon a time, after an amazing experience at a Summer University, a young girl fell in love with an organization called AEGEE and decided to dedicate her time and efforts towards making Europe a better place for the future generations. Well, it kind of is, but it wasn’t a SU, it was a LTC and two amazing trainers who are also old AEGEE-Beograd members, Aleksandra Adasevic and Miljan Radunovic. They really inspired me, so i decided to join the organization. That was almost 3 years ago.
What’s your local experience in AEGEE-Beograd?
Well, I officialy became a member in January 2012, and I started working on an exchange Beograd was doing with Agrigento. After that, there was not a single event in AEGEE-Beograd that I haven’t took part in, at least as a helper organizer. By the end of my first year in AEGEE, I went to my first event ever- Agora Budapest. After my Agora experience, I felt very motivated, so I entered the board of AEGEE-Beograd 2014/2015 as HR responsible and by the end of my term I organized a LTC. Once I was done with my duties as a board member, I had more time to do something I wanted for a long time , starting a project: The foundation of a local Language Working Group. In November 2013 we had the EDL week, little language/culture workshops facilitated by our members. By March we developed a concept, got everything ready and LanguAEGEE was born! We organized free language courses for students of our University and they were delivered by our members who study those languages. LWG and their newly elected speaker, Adri Lopez, were great and gave us a nice support before and during the course of the project which ended up being a great success. You can read all about it in the K2E.
How about your role on the European level?
After a great year working for my board, I’ve decided I wanted to get more involved on the European level, which kind of happened around the time an OC for the Secretary of Spring Agora Patra was issued. I was already a member of LWG, due to me starting LanguAEGEE in my local, and after Patra I joined Ana Potocnik’s team of subcommies, which is a job I really love. Currently I am the Vice-Chairperson of Agora Cagliari. All these tasks have brought me great joy and experience.
You were the Secretary during Spring Agora 2014. What can you tell us about this experience?
Being a Secretary was a truly amazing experience, much better than I expected to be honest! I learned a lot, starting how to type like a boss (laughs). But in all seriousness, it was a wonderful learning experence and it gave me a deep insight of our organization. It also inspired me to continue working in Chair team. Writing the minutes required, re-living the entire Agora over and over again and listening to the recordings countless times. It was a bit tiresome at times, but with proper organization of time and motivation to finish a document as important as minutes are, I honestly enjoyed a lot doing it. And being able to see the Agora as whole, I got a clear vision of what could be improved. All in all, time excellently spent.
You are one of the candidates for the role of Chairperson of the upcoming Agora in Cagliari. Why did you decide to apply for this position?
The answer is quite easy – I love it so much! While attending my first Chair meeting in March this year, I was so impressed with the job Alberto and Paul were doing and how all those decisions and ideas and efforts finaly add up to something as awesome as Agora. I wanted some of that magic for myself one day. That is the reason I applied to be the Vice-Chairperson and it is the reason I am running for this position. What Agora represents for me is I will say, with all the risk of exaggerating, almost sacred. The place where we meet those amazing people we know and love and miss during the year, the place we come together to make decisions and improve our organization, the place where we give 7 great people who work really hard in Brussels during one whole year some precious feedback, the place where we discuss and grow. Having opportunity to be responsible for planning that would be indescribable. An honor. Apart from my personal motivation, I find myself to objectively have the critical amount of experience for this position, which is a quite important thing when it comes to an event as big and important as Agora. Improvisation and learning on the way are not an option.
According to your opinion what is the role of a Chairperson in our network?
Oh, I like this one (laughs). I could talk about for hours, but in a nutshell, I believe that Chair team should basically keep up the good work, but that there is definitely room for some changes. There are things I would like to see happen because right now we are not taking advantage of the fact that there are 600-1000 people at each Agora and that the majority are new members. For instance, what we are currently trying to do is introducing a new format of sessions to the Agora – trainings. This could be beneficial for the locals, members of those locals attending the Agora as well as for the trainers who would be gaining precious experience. Also, colaborating with other EL bodies and trying to include them in the program would be benefitial not only for the Agora, but for the entire Network. So to answer your question, refreshing the concept of Agora, making constant improvements and taking care that everything goes smoothly during the event while being just and objective would be, in my opinion, tasks of the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson.
A question from our readers: Which are the characteristics (personal and professional) the Chairperson should have? Do you honestly see yourself in this role?
Real professionals don’t really let their personality interfere with the job they need to do, they do it “by the book” and strive towards perfection. But some main characterisitcs an ideal Chairperson should have are objectivity, fairness, punctuality, assertivness. Do I honestly see myself in this role? Yes, absolutely.
Do you have any experience in this field?
Being in the Chair team for the second time in a row does give me a good insight of what chair work looks like, both before and during Agora, and working in two different positions within the team gives me a well rounded perspective and a real clear image of the tasks that need to be done and how to do it well. As for my chairing experience, I did chair countless meetings in AEGEE-Beograd, but no matter what you did in life, no matter how many meetings you’ve chaired, Agora is a whole different ball game. Only Agora gives you experience for Agora. We are one of the rare organizations with General Assemblies of this magnitude, so all chairing one does beforehand is a light training compared to this. And I do feel ready for it.
Last but not least: Why should delegates vote for you?
The reason I believe I have the experience and the necessary skills required for this position is the very fact I have been in the Chair team for almost a year now and took part in planning and preparing two consecutive Agorae. As I’ve previously mentioned, having the task to create the minutes of the Agora made me aware of the things that are well done but also the things that could use some improvement. And apart from that I am upbeat, positive, outgoing and reliable which makes me a good team player. Even though I like having fun and laugh as often as I can, I consider myself to be very serious and professional when it comes to work. Work hard, play hard, you know, that sort of thing.
Written by Larisa Smajlagic, AEGEE-Verona