The new Speaker Team of the Network Commission (NetCom) has been announced recently and The AEGEEan used that opportunity to interview the three leading ladies of the NetCom about their plans until Agora Patra.
Antonija – The speaker of the Network Commission
The Speaker, Antonija Parat (AEGEE-Zadar) still has the motivation to continue her term. She derives her motivation from all that she has learned during the last term, granting her new ideas and inspiration.
Dominique Lenssen (AEGEE-Leiden) thought it was time for a new challenge after being in the Network Commission for six months, therefore she applied as vice-speaker of. Similarly to Antonija was Dominique is interested in is apply the knowledge and experience that she has gained during the last half year and dedicate even more passion for the Network commission.
Lastly, the newly-elected Network Commissioner Pauline Létard’s (AEGEE-Toulouse) fascination and believe in the Network Commission made her join as a vice-speaker as well. This is a way to learn even more, together with two experienced Netcommies and she has lots of energy as well as motivation for the position.
NWM’s and Subcommies
When the interview took place all three ladies were all very busy. Pauline is still in the Knowledge Transfer period and just finished organising a Network Meeting (NWM) in Santander. Antonija was preparing for a NWM in Vienna, in collaboration with fellow NetCom Anna Móricz (AEGEE-Pécs). This is interesting because during the last term, one of the ideas to enhance the cooperation within the NetCom team was to organise NWM’s together. So when AEGEE-Wien applied for as hosting local for an Autumn NWM, it was the perfect opportunity to involve Anna’s part Network, which is geographically very close and the cooperation is going really well.
Dominique talking with the antennae she is representative for
One of the last Network Meetings this Autumn will take place in Utrecht and Dominique and her team are finalizing the program: contacting speakers about their sessions, involving the appointed member of the Comité Directeur (CD) Anna Gots, and Dominique even visited the organisers in Utrecht to ensure it will be a great NWM.
All three work with a team of subcommissioners to ensure the best communication with the antennae. The help of subcommies is crucial to every Netcommie and in particular to the Speaker team. What all three point out is that the subcommies are very enthusiastic and bring lots of new ideas for development. It is not only about having contact with the locals but also outsorce some of the work to ensure the antennae are developing their potential.
Dominique lights up when talking about her team members helping the 13 antennae she has the responsibility for: “My subcommies and I are lucky to live pretty close to one other, so we do not only email and Skype a lot, but we can meet up regulary. We do not just stay in contact with each other about NetCom related things, but we also became friends, which makes them even more valuable to me.”
Cooperation with the CD
Another important cooperation is the one the NetCom has with the Comité Directeur. Among other things, NetCom serves as a link between the CD and locals, so it’s important to have a good communication between the two bodies. By communicating efficiently with the CD, the NetCom can present the CD’s initiatives to the Network in a clear way, and through the NetCom the CD can get feedback from locals. Antonija explains: “We started a common mailing list in the previous team, and I think so far it has been functioning really well. It helps us understand each other’s work better, and helps us decide together on how to develop our association in the Network’s best interest. As of this term, we will include the CD even more in our work, so that the whole CD is working with NetCom and gaining more insight into the situation in different parts of the Network”. That means that in stead of “just” working together with Beata Matuzska the Network Commission will now also work together with another Comité Directeur member for example Poline will work together with Lucille Rieux, Dominique will work closely together with Anna Gots and Antonija will be working even closer together with Beata.
This cooperation was developed even more as the Network Commission had a meeting in the CD house in the beginning of December. Before the meeting The AEGEEan talked with the girls and they were looking very much forward to it. Dominique describes the meeting as particularly important for the NetCom to bond, work on team spirit and establish a good basis for cooperation for the rest of the term. She is excited to see the rest of the Netcommies in the Belgian capital soon “As we have very few moments were we see and speak to each other in real life, the NetCom meeting is very important and there are a lot of things to discussed.” Antonija agrees to that and adds “Our last NetCom meeting was really good, and the importance of this event for teambuilding is absolutely crucial. So I am looking forward to getting to know the new team, to develop our plan for this term, and just to see everybody again!” There will be an article in The AEGEEan about the NetCom meeting and the NetCom prepares a NetCom telegram every month and it is certain that you can hear more about their time in Brussels in the next edition in January.
Work of the NetCom
What the speaker team really wants to improve, is the image of the Network Commission. Antonija focuses on improving the understanding of the NetCom in the Network. She wants to offer the Network more insight into the work of the NetCom and hopefully that will help locals understand in which way they can best work together.
Pauline is particularly interested in showing the Network that the NetCom is not a bureaucratic machine that is here to bother and annoy antennae. When asked about her plans Pauline says: “There are two things I really would like to see our team to achieve: (1) redefining the concept of the NWM and make it more coherent, and (2) developing a solid basis for knowledge management and knowledge transfer”. Dominique will also focus on improving the image of the NetCom and on the NetCom website in particular. This because the content is not up to date and with the transfer from intranet to the new Members Portal, it is important that the NetCom has a good visibility online.
It is great to see how working in a team like the speaker team of the Network Commission can help personal development. When asked about how the experience has been so far Antonija says: ”At first I was a bit nervous, because I was ‘jumping into’ this role as a NetCom newbie, but it has been very good so far. It has been an enormous learning opportunity, and looking back on where I started, I notice how I have changed and developed not only as NetCom Speaker, but also as a person. I can see that now I am more confident about my leadership skills, and that my way of working is more structured. Although this task requires a lot of dedication, I am definitely enjoying it.”
So there are quite some projects in progress: renovating the website, getting the CD and the NetCom closer, renovating the concept of the Network Meeting. Besides this the NetCom is also working on getting ACT (Action Agenda Coordination Team) and the NetCom closer in order to better implement the Strategic Plan. It will definitely be interesting to see how the Network Commission keeps developing with all these promising ideas.
Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København