Since the new Action Agenda Coordination Committee started working after Agora Patra, one of the main aims of the body has become spreading knowledge about the strategic work of AEGEE-Europe. This means giving a lot of attention to promoting the Action Agenda and Strategic Plan, and a good way to do it is, why not, rewarding the antennae fulfilling the objectives set in the Action Agenda.
The Strategic Plan and Action Agenda are two of the main documents of our organization, written and approved by the AEGEEans, which give us a path to follow regarding our thematic work. The first document, the Strategic Plan, contains four Focus Areas (namely Spreading Europtimism, Youth Employment, Youth Mobility, Civic Education) and gives us a general approach to the topics we will be working on in the upcoming three years (Strategic Plan 2014/17); while the second, drafted during the EPM gives us an insight of the specific aims and objectives we should be fulfilling within a year (Action Agenda 2014/15).
These two documents are one of AEGEE’s biggest achievements on structured thematic work, because they unite AEGEEans in the work they do. Without these documents, every member would follow their own way and our work would not have so much impact. Besides that, the Action Agenda and the Strategic Plan also unify the Vision and Mission of AEGEE, because at the end, they are based on them.
The Action Agenda Coordination Committee (ACT) helps the antennae implement the Action Agenda. It promotes the document, tracks its fulfillment and exists to connect bodies and locals; and more than that, they’re a team of people (the ACTies!) always willing to lend a hand and help with what sometimes has been called one of the less understandable documents of our organization. To do this, they presented the Guidelines to the Action Agenda after Agora Cagliari, which is a set of guidelines with examples to every aim and objective of the Action Agenda, easing the transition of a merely vague sentence in a document to a speech, a set of conferences, or even a whole event (Guidelines to the Action Agenda 2014/15).
And of course, with the will to reward those who put an effort to the fulfillment of the Action Agenda, ACT, in cooperation with the AEGEEan, has created the Active Local of the Month award! With this new award, ACT intends to spread awareness about the Action Agenda, as well as increase the implementation of it and motivate people to organize more thematic events. And even more, with the example of good practices, they want to show other antennae that great thematic events can be easily organized!
It’s not hard to organize something implementing the Action Agenda. You can find a lot of examples in the Guidelines for the Action Agenda and you can also, of course, use your imagination. If you’re still doubting about it you can also ask our first Active Local of the Month, AEGEE-Heraklio, who organized a conference on the rights for deaf people and sign language in Greece.
Do you want to organize something related to the Action Agenda but you don’t know how? You can ask ACT to help you! See who is your responsible at ACT’s About Page and make sure you include your activity in your next monthly report!
Will your local be the next Active Local of the Month?
Written by Ruben Navarro, AEGEE-Tarragona