Five Network Commissioners will be elected this Spring Agora and currently only four people are running for this position. Pablo Palazon, founder of AEGEE-Manchester, is one of them and we asked him some questions to get to know more about him and his plans for the network.
The AEGEEan: Tell us something about yourself.
Pablo: I am Pablo Palazon! I come from the sunny region of Murcia, in Spain and in my non-AEGEE life (normal life?) I am doing my PhD in Immunology at the University of Manchester, in England. I moved here after finishing my Master Degree in Murcia. The hardest part of moving? Leaving my friends from AEGEE-Alicante and missing all of the events that happen when you are in a region with a lot of active antennae. When I moved to England, we only had AEGEE-London and two struggling or about to get deleted antennae: AEGEE-Durham and AEGEE-Sheffield. Imagine that your closest active antennae was hundreds of km away, that’s how it feels. Luckily the last year, UK antennae have been flourishing and soon they will be ready to bring some activity over here. I can’t wait for it!
You have been a member for quite some time. What motivates you to run for the Network Commission now?
Well, three years is some time but not that much! I discovered AEGEE quite late, since I went on my first event just right before starting my Master Degree. During those three years, I have been learning a lot and I have changed my way of looking at activities and at the network in general. I think I have experienced the good things of being part of a big antenna and the good things of being in a tiny antenna!
After moving to England I suddenly was the most experienced AEGEE member of my antenna! That is something that I could have not imagined in Alicante, where you can find really experienced members. So, with a little bit of push from Hanna Alajoe, the current Netcommie for my region, and with the advice of other experienced members such as Melissa (also member of the Network Commission), I decided to run for the position. It was probably the next natural step in my AEGEE life.
Even though you founded AEGEE-Manchester, you haven’t participated in many European events. Do you think that this will have an influence or make a difference between you and the other candidates?
Well, I hope it doesn’t!
It’s true that moving to Manchester meant that I had to take a step back regarding European events. Whenever I have holidays I always have to choose between visiting my parents and going to an event. But I think I am balancing it quite well. Since I arrived in Manchester, I managed to go to an Agora (Bergamo will be the second one for me) with an amazing pre-event in Barcelona, an EPM and also an LTC in Madrid. I wish it was more, but I am quite happy about that. Again, it’s not easy to be “far away” from where all the fun happens. Hopefully, if I get elected as member of the Network Commission and if I get to be responsible for the Nordic locals, I will manage to get more activity to the UK and thus potentiate the AEGEE spirit.
Despite not being able to attend many European events I became more active on the European level. I became part of the working force of the Civic Education Working Group that is involved in the European Citizens’ Initiative. Actually we are looking for ambassadors now, feel free to contact me for more information. I have also been working on a position paper for AEGEE that I am going to present during Agora Bergamo.
And last but not least, you don’t need to travel to have European experience. In AEGEE-Manchester we organised an RTC, the first European event in the UK since NWM London 2012. And my house has always been open for AEGEEans, I have hosted people for the Election Observation Project and the travellers from Europe On Track!
On your program you listed Skype trainings in order to help locals to improve their skills in having new members. Are Skype trainings better than live trainings at the local in need?
Obviously Skype trainings are not better that live trainings, but they are a good complement. I think with Skype trainings and sharing best practices you can do a lot. Live trainings require the local to be able to provide you a place to stay and a room to do the workshops. Locals in need sometimes have few active members, most of them busy and not knowing exactly what their real potential is. So organising all that for you to get there might be too much for them. And they would be able to do it only once! While if you manage to make them meet you for a Skype session training, they don’t really need to prepare anything for you!
On top of that you are way more flexible on Skype, you can split sessions in two, you can combine different locals together, you can meet them during one of their meetings etc. Obviously it’s not better than live trainings, but online trainings are quite valuable too.
You didn’t mention anything about the Strategic Plan in your program. How important do you think it is that locals organise their activities according to it?
Well, I didn’t mention the Strategic Plan, but I do mention my willingness to encourage locals to contribute to the Action Agenda of AEGEE. I think it’s the key for us to promote the development of the Action Agenda and I feel that sometimes antennae feel that it’s too difficult for them. The goal of the Network Commissioner should also be to show locals that the Action Agenda is something really important and not that difficult to implement.
What do you want to improve/change from how the things are done by the curren Network Commissioners?
I think they have been doing a good job this year. But I feel that the twin antennae program needs a little bit of extra pushing as well as the implementation of LTC in small antennae.
Do you think that you can bring something new to network? If yes, what?
I think that the fact that I haven’t been subcommie could be something good and bad at the same time.
Bryn French has been a really good subcommie for UK antennae so far so we never had the need for another one (and coming from the same antenna it just didn’t make any sense to run for it!). It could be bad because it makes me a little bit less aware of the actual work that you have to do, and despite my talks with previous Netcommies, I still haven’t experienced it in person.
But at the same time it will make me figure out my own way of organising the work as Netcom. I will start by asking previous subcommies how they find their work and how they think we can do a better job. Starting from scratch sometimes is really good and I hope that the Network will find it really useful too. I am happy to take that opportunity if the Agora thinks that I should be a member of the Network Commission for next year and I will start with lots of energy and a real passion for it!
You can read his full program here.
Written by Raluca Radu, AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca