Mario Galea for NetCom, ready “to serve and support all my locals to develop themselves to their full potential”

Mario Galea (AEGEE-Valletta) is an experienced member who became subcommissioner for NetCom Mattia Abis last year. Now, he is running for the Network Commission of AEGEE, showing a strong passion “to serve and to protect”, as the NetCom’s motto says, and help with the development of his locals. The AEGEEan got to know Mario Galea better, while he shared his ideas and motivation with us.

The AEGEEan: First of all, please introduce yourself. Who is Mario Galea?

Mario Galea: Hello! I am Mario and I come from the very south of Europe, a small island under Sicily: Malta. I am 26 years young and studying Architecture and Civil Engineering. I have been active in volunteering in different sectors for the last eight years, which is something that, along with travelling of course, I am really passionate about.

When and how did you join AEGEE?

I joined AEGEE around two and a half years ago, and, like in most romantic stories, it was completely unplanned. AEGEE-Valletta was at that time organising the first Travel Summer University (TSU) together with AEGEE-Catania and an old friend of mine, Annetto, was main coordinator. He had been telling me to join some activities for months, promising great fun, great parties, cheap travels, meeting lots of new interesting people, etc, but I never got hooked up and I was always declining, telling him I was too busy with work and studies. This time he told me that a big group of fifty people were coming to Malta and that he needed help in the kitchen for preparing the meals, and given that I worked in catering in kitchens and that I like to cook, it was easy for me to give him a helping hand. I accepted right away, but not before making him promise that I wouldn’t be requested to get out of the kitchen and meet with the people, as I wasn’t a social animal like him.

During the following months, I started getting engaged while building the team, creating the program, looking for sponsors, etc, and when a couple of weeks before the TSU started a place was freed for a Maltese organizer to go to Catania for the first part, I took the decision. In a week with one of the best teams of orgasmizers ever and with a really enthusiastic group of partycipants, I fell in love with AEGEE, and from the following week onwards, Ihave been just trying to work hard to repay this large family for changing my life.

You were subcommissioner for Mattia Abis – what was the biggest lesson you’ve learnt during this time?

During this last year, I have learnt lots of things from Mattia, but the most important of all is that if you believe in something, there’s nothing that can’t be done, given that you work really hard for it with great passion and a sense of sacrifice.

And which do you think has been your biggest achievement as subcommissioner?

What satisfied me most in my role is when I had the opportunity to discuss with and advise a particular member, faced with an important decision to take in a delicate situation. Hoping that with experience I might have been of help, makes me feel useful and having a scope.

Which is going to be your top priority, if elected as Network Commissioner?

My ultimate priority would be to serve and support all my locals to develop themselves and each other to their full potential as a whole. I know this sounds vague and maybe not smart, but that is what my vision for the network is. The way I would try to reach this is through the various means I pointed out in the program, like effective large scale knowledge transfer and sharing through common database, LTCs, RTCs and NWMs or new collaborations with common projects, but these are just means. They can work and set the way or can be re-adapted to the evolving locals’ needs.

The locals that you would be likely taking are the ones in the Rainbow region. According to you, which are the strengths and weaknesses of the region?

After the last NWM in Brescia, I can proudly say that the biggest strength are the members themselves. We were sharing together and working on innovative approaches to tackle various issues and motivation and determination were really high. At the same time a weakness often present at the local level is the number of active members, which though, as was clear during the NWM, can be overcome by sharing resources and working together as a whole.

Have you formed any team of subcommissioners, yet?

My idea for the subcommissioners was to continue the reform Mattia started in the team last year. Apart from the normal managing duties, they will also have specialised competences making each a point of reference for particular fields. The team should consist of both fresh motivated members willing to learn ‘the job’ so that they eventually could take my eventual place, and of experienced members who will both be a backbone of knowledge for the network and reference for the new ones. The team is not formed yet, as for everyone to have equal opportunities, an open call would be duly issued searching for the most motivated members.

Do you plan to establish new locals, too?

Whoever I meet outside of AEGEE, I am always trying to recruit them into a nearby antenna, or if there isn’t, encouraging them to form one themselves. However, for my locals, I would like to consolidate the ones we already have, making them reach higher levels, recovering and strengthening those in difficulty and supporting the new ones to develop their potential. I believe that after building a strong interlaced network, it will then be more easy and sustainable to open new ones, backed by the power of a unified network.

You also mention that you would like to bring the Erasmus+ programme closer to locals. Which is your experience with this type of grants?

Right now, I am just back (actually I am still travelling towards home) from an intensive branded training course called ATOQ (Advanced Training On Quality Youth Exchanges). It has been a very fruitful week where I have learned a lot of technicalities and best practices on what is important to write and do from project concept and application submission to activity execution and final evaluation and follow-up. This wasn’t the first training course I followed and every time I improve my competencies.

What I could clearly notice while sharing with other organisations was that we already do most of the things required in our events, and sometimes much better, the only problem is that we are not aware so we don’t acknowledge our achievements. With a little guidance and tweaking in the program and putting in words everything we do, we could easily benefit from the great opportunities of the grants framework. This would tackle two of the major problems: limited financial resources and fundraising, and underestimation of the power of our association.

My path through these opportunities is just at its beginnings so I will ask guidance and advice from the several more experienced members we have amongst our network aiming to collaborate for the creation of great projects.

There’s always the saying that there is “a gap between the local and the European level”, how do you see it?

What I could notice around, is that this ‘gap’ is somewhat virtual and is alimented mainly by lack of good communication from all parties involved. If we all manage to clearly transmit and understand the vision, needs, objectives and activities of everyone else, there won’t be any ‘gap’, but just one coherent body working easily together and for each other towards a common vision, and the role of the NetCom is mainly to facilitate all this.

You say that you’d like your locals to “push the European level instead of being pulled”, how do you plan to achieve it?

Following the previous argumentation, the locals have logically more power and potential as a collective, to unleash all their creativity and innovation fuelled by their motivation and enthusiasm. Having common vision and goals, if well coordinated, all this should be of thrust to achieve our objectives and there should be no need in trying to always ignite a spark to get things moving by putting lots of bureaucratic constraints.

One question from our readers: We know you have a lot of experience in various kinds of events all around Europe, as a partcipant. You’re one of the most known members in the network. We know you’ve spent some months travelling around Europe and taking part in several events, but now, what do you want to do to improve your network? Are you able to continue the rising of your network, as the former Netcommies have done?

As the reader rightly said, especially this last year, I have been travelling a lot with AEGEE and spent more time abroad than in Malta, although I don’t think that I am that famous. All these events, both participated and organised, helped me achieve a wide view of the network, seeing and experiencing several better and worse practices, strengths, weaknesses and potentials of various areas and locals all over Europe.

With the NetCom team, I would like to foster an inter regional sharing of best practices which can provide various views and approaches to similar problems and situations. I can’t say from now if I am able or not, but I believe that hard work and passion along with advice from experienced members, will help in the development of the potential of all antennae resulting in a stronger global network.

One last question, from one of our readers: what do you think if Mattia Abis would apply again for NetCom?

Hahaha dear reader, actually this is a very interesting question. That was the same question I asked him several months ago, but he told me that he is fond of his remaining hair and his heart health. He was one of the hardest-working and effective NetCommies during this mandate and one of the two who resisted until the end. During the last months we have been working closer together, I have learnt much more and started believing in myself. Still, I am the first one acknowledging all the hard work Mattia has done and in the unrealistic case of his last minute candidature, there might be several options. I could step down and do another year of close work with him to get even more experience, because even though I believe that I am ready, there will always be place for improving. Another scenario, maybe more interesting, could be, if both of  us were elected, to work together in the NetCom and do even greater things. Since the regions assigned are not definitively separated, the largest one of 29 antennae can be reshuffled with maybe some interesting intake of closeby ones and shared between the two of us. Of course, this is now all fantasy, but working shoulder to shoulder in the same team would be thrilling for me. But maybe Mattia can answer you better…

Comment by Mattia Abis (Network Commission):From the question I can recognise the pen of Antonio Morelli from AEGEE-Catania… [he laughs] Anyways, Mario is right, I do not want to lose hair and health for another year. A term in the Network Commission is very long and it would be difficult for me to have the same motivation of the first year. So you will not see me as Netcommie again and I am happy to finish my best year in AEGEE and probably also my experience in Cagliari, my city.

Written by Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona