Dear Network,
I had the honour to interview the new editor-in-chief Patricia Anthony from AEGEE-København. Probably you have seen this always smiling and cheerful blond Danish girl at one of the last statuatory events, or you have been contacted by her for the “Summer University of the Week” project of the AEGEEan or a friend of a friend told you about her. Now you will hear even more of her, as she has just become the new editor-in-chief of The AEGEEan. Take this chance and find out who will be responsible from now on for AEGEE’s first and only online magazine.
1) Maybe there are still some people in the Network who don’t know you. Therefore, please present yourself.
Patricia: Well, my name is Patricia Anthony, and I am pure Danish. I have a bachelor degree in business language communication which I studied in English and Spanish. I am 22 years old and I am one of those people who wish I had joined AEGEE in a younger age because I have “only” been a member since March 2011. However, in that time I’ve tried a lot. My first time of AEGEE I spent during my Erasmus in Madrid. I got to learn a lot about the organisation and upon my return to Denmark in January 2012, I joined The AEGEEan as European Events editor and Facebook responsible (which is why you have probably seen my name spamming you on Facebook) and I became PR responsible of AEGEE-København. I gained a lot of experience with different projects such as being fair manager at Agora Enschede and Agora Budapest, founding the Sports Working Group of AEGEE of which I’ve been secretary since Agora Enschede, writing content for the new aegee.org with the PRC, being editor of the Key to Europe 2012 and the Summer University 25 anniversary booklet, have all provided me with the courage and belief that I can take over such a difficult challenge as to follow in the steps of Stephanie Müller as editor-in-chief of The AEGEEan. Other than being in The AEGEEan these days, I also focus on the Action Agenda Committee, I am president of AEGEE-København and the subcommie for Karolina Mazetyte in the Network Commission. For the time that I have left besides AEGEE, I study sports management (hence the Sports Working Group interest), and I take dance classes whenever there is time for that.
2) You have been editor of the Europeans Event section of The AEGEEan for more than a year. So you know how the workflow goes in the team. Please tell us, what do you think about this AEGEE project?
Patricia: It is a big yet interesting challenge. We often get the question in the team about the flow of e-mails, and that even experienced AEGEE members are not used to that many e-mails ticking in day in and day out from the same project. But what can I say? We cover and are eager to cover many different topics, so that is the reason for all the activity. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes that many people don’t know about. As I already mentioned, I think that this magazine is incredible because of the design, the number of Facebook followers that we have achieved, the number of views on our website, and I am proud to be a part of it, and even prouder to be editor-in-chief of it. When I was writing my candidature, I became really nervous and it reminded me of Spring Agora Enschede where I applied to become a member of the Network Commission.
3) What goals would you like to reach as the new editor-in-chief?
Patricia: In my opinion, even though this magazine has done so great in the past one and a half years, there are still many challenges to take on. First of all, the team of editors is completely new. Furthermore, we also have quite a few new journalists and proofreaders who have joined the magazine in the last six months. So, my goal at the moment is to make the team feel like a team through a lot of team-building done at the upcoming statutory events. Working on the team is very important because at the end, if people are more involved in the work they are doing and if they enjoy it, the motivation will also be greater to hand in articles on time, to come up with ideas for new articles etc. These are all matters to be worked on.
Patricia pictured in Oslo – She might not be able to get much recognition of the magazine in countries where AEGEE is not present, but hopefully she will achieve that together with the team in the countries where you can find AEGEE.
Last year, in The AEGEEans Choice Awards 2012 we saw that many awards were handed over to Spanish antennae. This came as a very little surprise since looking into the insights of our Facebook page tells that about 500 people from Spain *likes* The AEGEEan. Further down the list Turkey and Italy can be found with 300 *likes*, respectively followed by Poland with 200 *likes*, whereas only about 160 members from Germany/Greece/The Netherlands follow us online on Facebook. Obviously there is the opportunity to visit our page directly, and/or subscibe to it, but the statistics show that, that is rarely the case. So we need to reach more people from the Network. Ways to do so can be through promotion both online and in the form of events, and it is also important to consider the articles published in the magazine. This brings me to another goal: Making The AEGEEan more thematic.
The AEGEEan Team meeting during Agora Budapest
4) What topics do you believe should be tackled more in The AEGEEan?
Patricia: What we discuss frequently is which topics to address in the magazine. We are working on making The AEGEEan more thematic. Encouraging and motivating Working Groups etc. to write articles about the work they are doing and how it is related to the Action Agenda. Furthermore, in the future, hopefully more thematic events will be covered in our magazine too. Basically, the idea behind much of the coverage, especially with thematics is to raise the interest in the Network and show how easily it can be done to contribute to the Action Agenda.
Something not so thematic but something that I hope to see more of in the magazine is travel guides. Frequently, antennae recieve e-mails with questions about what to visit, where to stay, what to eat, and it is a pitty that only a few locals have taken the opportunity so far to help other members of AEGEE to get a better experience of their city when visiting, and to use this opportunity to promote their city.
5) If you should describe the magazine in three words. What would they be?
Patricia: Diverse, Information, Challenge.
6) Why did you candidate to become the editor-in-chief of The AEGEEan? 
Patricia: I decided to candidate for this magazine because it is truly the place in AEGEE where I have learned and developed myself as a person the most. I have been part of the magazine for one year and when Stephanie Müller told me she was leaving the magazine, I became sad but I also knew right away that I wanted to become editor-in-chief. I have so many ideas to improve the magazine, and I would like to continue developing it with the rest of the team while providing information about the knowledge I already have about the magazine. Furthermore, even though my inbox is overloaded with AEGEE related e-mails everyday, I still missed the e-mails on the editors list of the magazine when I left that in December, and I wanted to join it again, with a new and interesting position.
7) Can you imagine that The AEGEEan will still exist in five years? And if yes, why?
Patricia: I hope so, and I think that this magazine has great potential. The team that helped building this magazine made sure to cover so many different areas that it has achieved greatness at a very early point. In some cases it can slow the process down but when publishing an article, every single thing is done to the level of perfection; ensuring pictures are right, proofreading has been done, etc., raising the quality of the magazine to very high. There are and have been many creative minds connected with the magazine who always come up with interesting ideas in terms of articles, promotion, and development of the magazine. I think that the key is that having such a magazine, opens up a path for indeed a wide range of people to become involved. All it takes is taking a look at the different types of positions a person can have in the team and which types of sections there are in the magazine. Because it is not only The AEGEEan team that is involved in the magazine. The Comité Directeur, Working Groups, Policy Officers, Project Teams etc., all publish articles in The AEGEEan so it would make no sense if such platform did not exist in five years.
Written by Stephanie Müller, AEGEE-Heidelberg & former Editor-in-Chief of The AEGEEan