24 years old, from Belgrade, student of Greek philology and an AEGEE addicted ready to support the development and cooperation among Balkan locals. The upcoming Spring Agora Asturias 2015 will host the elections for the next Network Commissioners, and Jovana Trajković will be one of the candidates. Just a few days before the Agora, The AEGEEan got to know better her views on the work of the NetCom and her priorities for the Balkan locals!
The AEGEEan: First of all, please introduce yourself! Who is Jovana Trajković, and how did she join AEGEE?
Jovana Trajković: I’m a 24-year-old student of Greek philology at the University of Belgrade. Hopefully, this year I will graduate! I joined AEGEE in 2010. My story may be one of the typical ones. As a person who is addicted to travelling, I was searching for some unconventional way to travel. My friend, who was very active member of AEGEE at that time, suggested I join the organisation. And here I am! (she smiles)
What made you take the decision of running for Network Commissioner?
First of all – Balkan locals. During my years in AEGEE I had a chance to meet many people from our area and to discuss with them about the situation of their locals, especially about their strengths and weaknesses. At one moment, I realized that I want to help them somehow, not only to discuss about it. I made a step forward and became Subcommissioner. When I look back, I can say that my responsibilities as SubCommie have prepared me for the next step. Now, after one year of being SubCommie, I feel ready to take another step forward. Therefore, I am running for the position of Network Commissioner. What I see as really important is support of, not only the locals, but also of Ana Potocnik, our current NetCommie, and the rest of SubCom team. And I can say that those girls are awesome. Beside the support, they also encourage me and believe in me. Sometimes even more than I believe in myself!
Which vision do you have of the work of a Network Commissioner?
The work of the Network Comissioner always seems interesting to me. Working in the SubCom team of Ana brought me more closely to the NetCom and its work. On the one side, there is work with the rest of NetCom team, and on the other side, working with locals and SubCom team. Thanks to Ana, I am aware of the amount of work which comes with this position. Furthermore, I see it as inspiring, joyful, responsible, interesting work which requires lot of time, mutual understanding and patience.
As you mentioned, you are currently subcommissioner of Ana Potocnik – what have you learnt during this time as NetCom?
First and foremost, this position taught me how to take care of locals and help them in the best possible way. Talking about locals and revising their activity reports helped me to create a better picture in my head about every local. Next to Ana, I have also learnt a lot about contacts and how to help them grow. Also, I realized how important is to have SubCom team on which you can rely and count on if you need its help. Finally, I can say that motivation and dedication are the most important for the position of Network Commissioner in order to handle all the work.
Which are the strengths of the Balkan region, according to you?
Our locals are close to each other and we speak more or less the same language. This makes our cooperation easier and increases the chance to have new common projects or events. When it comes to organising events, I can say for sure that Balkan locals are very good in project management. Each member involved in organisation of some event takes seriously his/her role. You should come to our NWM in Zagreb to check if this what I’m saying is true!
And its weaknesses?
If we talk in general, I can state only two weaknesses. Unfortunately, even if we are geographically close, we don’t know each other very well. If I get elected, I will try to change this in the future. The second one is lack of knowledge in different fields, depending on the local. The solution for this should be online trainings, as I stated in my candidature.
And which is going to be your top priority as NetCom, if elected?
Actually, I have two priorities – improving the cooperation of Balkan locals and establishing the online trainings.
How would you strengthen the cooperation with the antennae in the region?
My plan is to create a database which will include the strengths, weaknesses and interests of all my locals. Once this database is created, all locals will have access to it. In that way, locals could find their potential partner for the next project or event. If locals agree, I would organise one more meeting of our area, beside the NWM. That meeting would be more relaxing, with few workshops, because the purpose will be to bring locals closer to each other.
You have just mentioned some interesting ideas from your program, such as the on-line trainings. Can you tell us more about it, how is it is developing and how do you plan to continue them?
For the moment, we made a plan how we want it to look like. First of all, we would ask locals which kind of trainings they need. Those trainings will be organised for locals so their opinion is crucial. Afterwards, the plan is to organise trainings once or twice per month, depending on the locals’ needs and availability of trainers. About the material for trainings, we would use already existing toolkits of AEGEE-Europe. Also, Academy can help us here by providing us with their materials which we can adapt to our needs.
Being a Network Commission takes usually a lot of time – how do you plan to handle it?
When I decided to run for this position, one of the first questions which came to my mind was – Will I have time for it? It took me quite some time to think about it well, but my answer was, and still is, yes. Also, it’s not just about having time for it, it’s also about time management. Good time management, which I think I have, can save a lot of precious time and help to finish all the work on time. Also, I’m used to put my own deadlines in order to achieve goals which I set to myself. Furthermore, I’ll have an amazing SubCom team to help me in realization of my ideas and achieving goals.
Written by Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona