Many people might know that the Comité Directeur, the executive Board of AEGEE-Europe (who is elected by the Agora) is based in Brussels near the European Commission, in a house that can be recognised mostly by the plaquette on the door. But how many of you have seen how the daily life goes for all the CD members? What do we do during our everyday work? Read on to find out!
As we are elected by the Agora, the Comité Directeur’s main task is to work for the members and locals of AEGEE-Europe. This is highlighted especially in my position as the Network Director, as almost all of my tasks revolve around supporting the locals and the Network. I have 5 main “tracks” in my portfolio: Network management (which is the biggest) together with the Network Commission; Strategic Plan and Action Agenda fulfillment together with the Action Agenda Coordination Committee – which also includes the drafting part of the European Planning Meeting; Visual Identity together with the Public Relations Committee; taking care of the topic of Entrepreneurship, including the management of the external MY-WAY project as CD responsible (together with Pablo Hernández as the project responsible); and I am also CD Observer for the the Juridical Commission.
Since my position includes a lot of administrative tasks, I can usually be found either in the office, in the meeting room (as I generally have quite a lot of Skype meetings due to being CD responsible for many bodies) or in the archives digging up documents, but I also do some external representation (as all of us in the CD). In general, I start my day by reading my e-mails (even sometimes in bed [she smiles, ed.]) and trying to get awake as I am not really a morning person. Then, the day continues with either doing my regular tasks (which often include some ad-hoc requests from locals) or having morning meetings with the rest of the CD about important topics such as EPM preparations, etc. Then, after our lunch break (when I try to cook something nice) I return to my office computer and keep on working until the evening when my Skype meetings are usually scheduled – then I move to the meeting room and finish my day officially after the Skype meetings. Of course, my schedule is different when I travel– in that case I do a lot of on-the-spot tasks and the e-mails/administratives are put a bit behind. I do enjoy travelling, getting to know new places and people no matter the type of the event (internal AEGEE-events or external representation), nonetheless work is first for these kind of travels.
On paper, my position might not look super exciting, but as I am working a lot with the Network there is never a day that is the same: sometimes people ask for information or help with some tasks, other days you get interested people asking how to found a new contact – sometimes I might see that I am a lot on Facebook and other social media, but I get approached in many platforms, so I will just adapt to whichever is more comfortable for the locals or for my teams. One thing that I really enjoyed until now is the CD on Track because I have had the opportunity to meet and get to know the locals better in their own cities and see how they manage in their everyday environment – hopefully, I can help and support them in case they need it.
Written by Tekla Hajdu, Network Director of AEGEE-Europe