In one of our last articles we told you about the European Training Courses (ETCs) that the AEGEE-Academy created in collaboration with the Comité Directeur (CD) this spring. Our Editor-in-Chief, Janine Kuroczik, was lucky enough to get selected as one of the participants for the ETC on project and event management, and so she went on a journey to the AEGEE house in Brussels this March to improve her skills. Find out more about her experience!

Being a student of Political Science and a member of The AEGEEan, I did not know much about executing projects or writing grants. However, especially as an AEGEEan, those are very useful skills. I mean every antenna and European body can use members with expertise in these areas! But my lack of knowledge would change drastically after taking part in the four-day long ETC on project and event management! 

The course took place in the infamous AEGEE house in Brussels, where me and the other eight participants from all over Europe stayed, and got to meet the CD members that live there. Two of them, Teodora Panuş and Veronika Chmelárová were our trainers for the event, along with Julia Krebs from the AEGEE-Academy. They created a quite packed but interesting timetable that included everything that one should know about grants and how to manage projects, events, teams and crises. 

The first day of the event started with some ice-breaking games and an introduction to the topic. From then on, we went deeper and deeper into project management with every session. After the course, I can assure you all of us participants know how to do strategic planning and use appropriate methods (such as NAOMIE)! Everyone got to share the projects they are currently working on and could elaborate strategies and ideas on how to best bring those projects further. Of course, the trainers always helped with tips and tricks! Roma Bogdanov, a participant from AEGEE-Mannheim says about the ETC: “I learned a lot. Some of the topics weren’t new to me, like strategic planning or event management, but I’ve discovered new tools and approaches to them. Other topics really were completely novel, especially those connected to the fundraising part of the curriculum: Concept building, application design, co-funding, impact management, and so on. We can definitely apply this knowledge to our local – we’ve got very ambitious plans for the future and external funding will come in very handy to realise them.”

While some sessions were like informative lectures, others were incredibly interactive. In the session on crisis management, for example, we were presented with several problems that could come up during a project, and we had to solve them at the same time as fast as possible with structured team work. We learned how to stay calm in stressful situations, and had lots of fun finding solutions together. In another session we got to learn how to best build teams and a good working atmosphere, and Julia Krebs made us think about each of our strengths that we could put at the service of the team. 

I have been mentioning Julia for quite a while, so I think it’s time to formally introduce her. Julia is a long member of the AEGEE-Academy, and this has been her first live training since the pandemic. She explains: “I am very excited for the course, because I forgot how much fun in-person trainings are! It is always nice to get to know the group of participants and see how they are learning and what they come up with during the sessions. Veronika, Teodora and I had a meeting about the goals of the training, and then we came up with a number of sessions, worked on them individually, and came up with a flow”. She further states that: “after the training course the participants should know what they can do and what AEGEE as a network can provide. They should know how to implement a project from step one to the end”. As a participant, I can confirm that I definitely know now which steps are important while executing projects, which strategies I can use, and what mistakes I should better avoid. 

The training course was very intense, but I definitely improved my skills to a great deal. The trainers were very considerate, and listened to the needs of the participants during the training — between the sessions we even got a city tour from Veronika, and had time to taste some Belgian waffles, fries and beer! I can highly recommend taking part in an ETC as it is not only lots of fun and an opportunity to meet other AEGEEans, but also an amazing way to improve skills that can become very handy for AEGEE related work and one’s professional life! 

Action Month: From the 14th of March till the 10th of April, Europe on Track 9 will organise an Action Month on the topic of Gender Equality! The Action Month is divided into 4 weeks, each with a specific goal and its actions. You can discover all details about it in this booklet!

Who is this Action Month for?

You can participate in the Action Month as an individual, with a group of friends or with your AEGEE local or another organisation.

Most actions are simple enough to be carried out by yourself, but you can also engage more people and we invite you to do so, if possible! Some of the activities of the week 4 are ideal for larger groups Due to the current situation, a lot of emphasis is placed on organising online activities and boosting the topic of the month via social media. Nonetheless, if you have the possibility to safely organise physical activities, you should definitely go for it! Remember to check the safety rules and regulations in your area and to stay safe!

Why should I take part in this Action Month?

Gender Equality is at the very core of our identity as AEGEE members and we want to mainstream and broadcast what each of us can do to have an impact on our communities.

The Action Month aims at not only being a set of isolated actions taking place in a month, but to set up a commitment for you to care about a topic and enact change on it and raise awareness on the importance of creating a dialogue about this topic.

Join us on the way to change the world!

Follow our social media and take part in all the activities, challenges and share the content with your friends – let’s spread the word on how to make a positive change in our local communities and fight gender inequality together!

AEGEE-Academy is a group of young and motivated trainers from all over Europe that aim to provide all us AEGEEans with great training opportunities to build up our skills. This spring, they are organizing two European Training Courses in collaboration with the Comité Directeur. Learn more about amazing opportunities to improve your skills in this article!

Hey and thank you for answering some questions for us! First of all, who are you and can you explain to our readers what AEGEE-Academy is?

Hello! My name is Anastasia Sidiropoulou, and I am the current Speaker of AEGEE-Academy.

AEGEE-Academy is the official pool of trainers of AEGEE-Europe, and is built up of a group of young, motivated trainers from all over Europe.

What exactly is the purpose of AEGEE-Academy? What are your main objectives?

We aim to provide high quality non-formal learning experiences that facilitate the self-development of our training participants.

We are specialized in many topics, varying from soft skill workshops to practical training courses, all targeting the world of non-profit organisations, and social entrepreneurship. Therefore, we provide training activities, experienced trainers, feedback on training design, and their preparation.

This spring AEGEE-Academy and the Comité Directeur are offering two European Training Courses. What can the participants expect to learn in these courses, and what kind of AEGEE-members would especially benefit from taking part in them?

As you mentioned, we have two ETCs happening in spring in the AEGEE House in Brussels, both of them with a different focus.

The first one, the ETC+, taking place from the 9th till the 13rd of March, will be focused on leadership, external relations, and policy & advocacy, which aims at preparing the next generation of leaders of AEGEE for their future. 

It is especially a great opportunity for those who want to candidate for a position at the Agora, be part of a speaker team, become a Liaison or Policy Officer.

So, what can participants expect? We won’t reveal everything yet of what we have planned, but expect to learn how to network meaningfully, practice your public speaking, learn about team and crisis management, about digital campaigning from European Movement International, and  European Youth Forum policy.

The second training, the ETC, taking place from the 7th till the 10th of April, will be focused on grant writing and project management, as AEGEEans expressed their desire to have a training on  this. 

It is for AEGEEans who want to start new initiatives on both the Local or European Level, bring their Locals’ work to the next level, or future Comité Directeur members.

Here, members will learn how to identify funding opportunities, how to write and apply for grants, and how to manage a project from start to finish. They will get knowledge, tips and tricks from Veronika (Secretary General) and Teodora (Vice-President and External Relations Director).

The sessions will be held in person, right? How excited are you after the period of online events to host these European Training Courses in Brussels? Will it be difficult for the trainers to hold sessions in person after adapting to online teaching methods? How do the Comité Directeur members that will be delivering sessions in the ETCs feel about these two offline events?

Exactly, as I already mentioned these two ETCs will be held in person in Brussels. Speaking on behalf of the current board, I would like to say that we are really happy to organise offline training events again, after almost two years of having organised several online training courses. The in-person interaction is always preferable for trainers. One can really feel the moment, and connect with the whole group when interacting face to face than when being behind a screen.

I cannot say that if it will be difficult or not to hold sessions in person after adapting to online training events, because this is something that depends on each trainer individually. What I can say for sure is that our trainers missed delivering offline a lot, and they have been waiting for this moment to come. Offline training courses will work as a motivation booster for the AEGEE-Academy trainers. As for how the Comité Directeur feels about giving training sessions physically again, I cannot say —you would have to ask them— but they have shared that they are looking forward to having the chance to meet AEGEEans offline.

Why should people not miss out on these European Training Courses in Brussels?

As every European Training Course, these ETCs are unique training events providing its participants with as many tools as possible, and methodologies to develop themselves and reach their potential within AEGEE. These ETCs are going to be quite different from the previous ones. Mostly because they have different focused topics, which gives the space to the training team to dive more deeply into the topics and create more expertised training content.

Don’t miss this amazing possibility to improve yourselves and your skills!

Where can people find out more and where they can apply? When is the application deadline?

Everyone can find more information about these events on myAEGEE, where they can apply as well! Applications are open until the 4th of February 2022!

Here are the links for the ETCs on myAEGEE:

• European Training Course+ on Leadership, External Relations and Policy & Advocacy
• European Training Course on Project and Event Management

“The Focus Area of Climate Emergency aims to educate young people and empower them to practice active citizenship in order to contribute to the green transition, understood as the individual and collective measures that need to be taken to prevent an environmental catastrophe” (aegee.org)

The (almost) middle of their term seemed like the perfect moment to take a look at this Working Group, which takes our planet very seriously, and aims for a greener and more aware AEGEE. Not only are we meeting an incredible group of extremely motivated people, who are not afraid of a “Spanish invasion” (good thing, considering a Spanish person is writing this!), but also one that knows very well what it wants and how to get it! Read this article to know more about them, their time together, their plans and expectations, and as a bonus, some words of wisdom!

First things first! Let’s meet the members of the Working Group!

Our team consists of 6 awesome members, plus the coordinator and our CD appointed member: 

Mandy Wierda (AEGEE-Amsterdam), a very nostalgic person who likes to ask for Christmas baubles that tell a story, as a present, is our video master, and, actually, our actress master, as she appears in every monthly video. 

Sophia Wiegard (AEGEE-Dresden), lovely like the snow in December, she is the biggest fan of Harry Potter we have ever known. She takes care of the training sessions and is the best looking member for the “hottest” news about climate change. 

Giampiero Sorrentino (AEGEE-Napoli), comes from a place very close to the lemons land, but instead of being bitter, he is very sweet! He loves writing, so he is our representative when it comes to writing articles and getting new ideas for our weekly posts. 

Asier Rodriguez (AEGEE Bilbao & AEGEE Barcelona) – oh well, this is the beginning of our Spanish invasion (of course, there’s nothing bad to say about it). He can transform the wind and coldness of his region to a sunny moment during our meetings. He is also helping with training, and is the main leader of making the future Climate-Culture Database and collaborating closely with the Sustainability Committee and its recipes booklet. 

Cristina Arnés (AEGEE-Madrid), she is the only person who should have more than 24 hours in her personal life: she is studying, taking many online courses, applying to internships around the world and still has time to spend at local level and the Working Group. She is our health manager in terms of climate and nutrition, but her knowledge does not stop there, as she also likes to participate in training about everything she is interested in.

Viki Várvölgyi (AEGEE-Budapest) – a group would not be the same without someone like her – cute, car lover and our designer master! She is good at making posts and she is always willing to help, and as a fun fact, she puts soy sauce on every meal. 

Laura García (AEGEE-Vigo & AEGEE A-Coruña) (Coordinator) – my goodness, the third Spaniard… and it is the coordinator. Oh well, she makes the most out of each and every day to take care of the whole group. She can be small in size, yet keeps tons of passion and love for the climate and every animal or plant you can imagine. She is half-Galician and half-Napolitan organizing external projects with StC and WG, and the link for the amazing future Thematic Areas project.

It is gonna be a year soon since you guys started working together. How has the experience been so far?

It has been an amazing experience; we cannot believe we are already reaching the middle of the term. It is true that not having a live meeting during all these months has maybe prevented us from having an even closer relationship. Nevertheless, we carry on well despite the physical distance between all of us. We even made an informal Christmas meeting to relieve the tensions, as well as a sustainable Secret Santa, which actually helped us engage even more as a team.

We have had so many interesting meetings and have dealt with various topics while organizing webinars, movie-watching days and even panel discussions! Nevertheless, the best is yet to come, and we have amazing plans for the upcoming months. Stay tuned. 

How has your work been affected by the pandemic and perhaps become more relevant?

It was difficult to assume that we will not be able to do anything “live”, either live meetings or events… But, afterwards, we created a great environment within the team, despite everything being online. 

The most relevant part could be that we are all learning on how to raise awareness via social media: some members are learning how to use Canva or how to make videos, how to use IG properly… It’s nice that we can develop our media and design skills that are also really important for our daily life and for getting a job nowadays, as well. 

Which areas have you found challenging and how did you overcome it?

As mentioned above, the most challenging part was to face a situation in which we need to do everything online, and in a moment in which people are already tired of being in front of a computer for additional hours (after online work, online lessons…). We try to do our activities in the most dynamic way possible, avoiding the “lesson type WS”. Also, using IG helped us a lot to spread our word. 

Additionally, we all joined this WG since we wanted to actively participate on this topic within AEGEE. However, it’s still difficult to become an expert on such broad and deep topics as the ones we want to handle and help spread along the network. That is really challenging, although we keep exchanging knowledge among all of us, for the sake of the team as a whole.

Is the working group meeting the expectations/goals/actions you envisioned for it at the beginning?

Actually, yes. We can probably say that the actions have overpassed the expectations. The team is working well, with a lot of motivation, even with the pandemic situation and all the limits we have, we created a great friendship and confidence between each other that makes the tasks easy. We all complement each other and have similar visions of what we want to do as a WG. 

We promoted a calendar internally which includes all the materials and tasks we committed to achieve and develop in our term, and we are keeping up with the expectations expressed in our Activity Plan. We hope that we can keep going this way all along!

What are your plans for 2021?

We will continue our ongoing projects (many social media promotions, challenges, WS…) and we really hope we will be able to have a live meeting at the end of the term, as a nice goodbye, and prepare the Report and Measurement of our year together, and a good KT for the next team. 

We plan to do a Thematic Week in March because of the World Water Day (March 22), test the Pilot Project “Thematic Areas”, in which we aim to put together different locals with different backgrounds and EBs interested in the climate emergency topic, among many other activities and actions! We are still looking for more of them to get involved, so as to achieve the best results possible.

What are your words of wisdom to your fellow AEGEEans? A little thing for them to get to know the Working Group better.

Through this Focus Area, AEGEE educates young people and empowers them to practice active citizenship to contribute to the green transition, understood as the individual and collective measures that need to be taken to prevent an environmental catastrophe.

In collaboration with the Sustainability Committee of AEGEE-Europe, we are striving for a greener and more aware association in which our fellow AEGEEans can do their best so as to make a difference and stand for a more sustainable future, and actually helping us all achieve it. 

We are not playing with the earth, we are damaging the earth, so just look for alternatives in your life, spread the word, and overall, believe in it. 

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Running for a position as European Body can sometimes look scary: you need to dedicate a lot of time, you have responsibilities…

If you really like a topic, do not be afraid to volunteer for it! You will get a lot of experience, you will meet awesome people to work with, and you will develop many skills while doing something you like. 

We would like to underline that being here is so great, and we could not be happier with this decision.

“Social Equity Focus Area aims to make young people aware of discrimination based on place of origin, gender, sexual orientation, and disabilities, and take action to promote equity from an intersectional perspective. Raise awareness, position itself and take action to tackle discrimination from an intersectional perspective, with the aim of promoting social equity” (aegee.org)

It has been 6 months since this working group started working together! Despite the many challenges, its members have never lost sight of what they signed up for, and have worked actively on fighting inequality in all its areas. Straight to the point, in this article, you will find everything you need to know about our fighters for equality!

First things first! Let’s meet the members of the Working Group!

Hello! The group consists of Marga Arbina from AEGEE-Oviedo (our amazing working group coordinator), Florina-Marieta Neagu from AEGEE-Iași, Panka Seres from AEGEE-Budapest, Francesca dell’Oro from AEGEE-Bergamo, Isabel Santos from AEGEE-Valladolid, Dora Varjacic from AEGEE-Zagreb and Inés Vázquez from AEGEE-León. Also, we have Elena Efremova as our CD appointed member and Spyros Papadatos as our Policy Officer. 

It is gonna be half a year soon since you guys started working together. How has the experience been so far?

It’s been 6 months of working together in creating the basis for the focus area of Social Equity. We have faced some challenges like the Covid situation, and some resignations, but we have also had great times organising activities with some locals and in Agora, and our Sunday live meetings are proactive and funny at the same time. 

How has your work been affected by the pandemic and perhaps become more relevant?
Well, we can’t go to offline events and deliver workshops there so that’s something we are definitely missing. However, online events have their perks, as they are easier to access, but they don’t have the same results. Also, the pandemic has increased inequality in a lot of aspects so there are many things to do to help to achieve equity. 

Which areas have you found challenging and how did you overcome it?

In the team we don’t have a lot of experience working with the topic of disabilities so that has been a challenge but now we have an assistant (Vasiliana from AEGEE-Thessaloniki) who has a lot and is helping us with that. Also, Spyros, our Policy Officer, is working on a policy paper related to this topic, as it is necessary to raise awareness about how little we know in general about it. 

Is the working group meeting the expectations/goals/actions you envisioned for it at the beginning?

We’re only at the half of our term so we haven’t achieved all of them yet, but we are happy with the progress we are making, and we are confident that by the end of our term we will have fulfilled our goals, or at least, the majority of them. 

What are your plans for 2021?

We are looking forward to EPM 2021, as the new action agenda will be drafted and we have a lot of plans and things prepared. Keep an eye on our social media to see them ;)

What are your words of wisdom to your fellow AEGEEans? A little thing for them to get to know the Working Group better :)

Being in a working group is a very rewarding experience, and it’s the perfect opportunity to contribute to the much needed change in society, in your spare time while you meet amazing and inspiring people!

Europe on Track is an AEGEE project whose main aim is to spread awareness about social issues all around Europe, to create a space for discussion and to capture the opinions of the European youth. One of the reasons that make EoT so special is that the workshops delivered by ambassadors do not have AEGEEans as their only target, but also high school students and every person in general who is interested in the topic.

The seventh edition of EoT was an unconventional one due to the pandemic that has affected the world, nevertheless, the Project Team managed to keep doing the activities online and they achieved great results, gathering 20 online sessions, 52 hours of workshops and participants from 30 different countries, most of them in Europe but also in Africa and Asia. 

The edition had as main topics gender equality and mental health, an even greater challenge to tackle since COVID-19 has also increased disrespect towards human rights and has affected the mental health of millions of people who have been locked down with their abusive partners at home, as EoT7 claims in their results report. In order to know more about Europe on Track 7, we have had a talk with Elitsa Hadzhieva, Project Manager and Alejandra Piot, Content Manager.

On the 12th of March the project had to stop its travel due to COVID-19. How long was the original travel supposed to take and which kind of activities were originally organised?

Elitsa and Alejandra: Usually every year the journey of the ambassadors of Europe on Track around Europe is for a duration of one month. The initial plan was that it would end with a Final conference organised by AEGEE-Leiden. Every year the hosting locals are surprising us with their creativity in organising different activities with our ambassadors. The project team and the ambassadors create workshops that can be delivered in front of high school pupils or young people above 18. So, for Europe on Track 7, we prepared 5 workshop sessions and in addition, the local organisers are free to also organise events connected to the topic and our ambassadors are also usually interviewing young people from the city where they are on the topic of the edition.

How did you manage to keep your activities online?

Elitsa: It had been quite challenging to face a global pandemic, however, organising the online stops was an incredible and easy-going experience that came together very smoothly. I was mostly coordinating it with the help from the 2 route managers and the ticket for our success was the quick reaction and I saw how much the locals appreciated being involved in something online and a lot of them were very helpful and supportive to me in terms of promoting the online sessions. I think it was also quite effective for the format that we had with the registration and using the ClickMeeting platform for the sessions. In general, I have to say that the interest was really high in attending the workshops which made us over the top happy. And of course, all of this would have not been the same without the help of Alejandra Piot and our two ambassadors: Anne-Sophie Klein Gebbink and Gasia Ohanes and preparing the two online sessions and to everyone who delivered sessions; again those three, myself, Evita Locmele that was the project manager of Europe on Track 6, Leonie Decking and Andrea Magazzani.

In your final results, you mention that this difficult situation also meant an opportunity to be the greenest edition of Europe on Track. Can you explain this a bit further?

Elitsa: It was kind of a joke from my side in order to look more positive towards the situation we had to face. And we were more environmentally friendly due to the circumstances, although Europe on Track has been a project that always would prefer to use the more sustainable way of travelling, which in my opinion should be more and more used by other projects and bodies within AEGEE, even when we all start to travel again way more.

Did you notice a strong awareness from people towards mental health and gender equality? Do you believe that your activities broadened their view of the topics?

Alejandra: The two workshops that we delivered had a basic level on both topics, but we always tried to measure since the beginning the level of knowledge of the participants. That said, in the end, thanks to the final discussions and mainly the evaluation form we could check how much the participants had learnt. In general, we noticed an increase of awareness towards both topics, as there were some participants that came without any knowledge and finished it being able to understand some basic concepts. Others already had more knowledge but it was really good for us to have those people as participants in order to get their perspectives and opinions as well. Now, with the new focus area on mental health and the continuation of projects on gender topics, we hope that this knowledge will still be spread around and that the awareness will keep increasing around the network.

It is time to say farewell to Europe on Track 7 and to thank them for their hard work, which continued even in choosing the Ambassadors for Europe on Track 8. The first person of the new team to be selected was Marco Melatti, this edition’s Project Manager, who was also involved in the selection of the rest of the team.

EoT8 is currently working on making this an unforgettable edition of the project, and although they can’t reveal many details for now -we’ll have to stay tuned and check their social media-, we have just known this year’s topic: The change is between YOUth, a claim for activism at the local, national and international level and leading our own future after the pandemic. “We’re going to dig a bit into our past and talk a lot about the future, but that’s the only spoiler I can give for now!”, confessed Melatti some days prior to the news, while also giving us some clues about EoT8.

Are you starting the project traveling around Europe or are the workshops going to be delayed due to the pandemic?

We’re still in a planning phase and we are monitoring closely the evolution of the pandemic in Europe. Since the development of the virus itself and of the political reactions to it is not easily predictable, we’re working with a very flexible mindset – our idea is still to make the routes happen physically, taking special measures to make sure the journey is safe for the ambassadors, the local organisers and the participants alike.

If we found ourselves facing quarantine again, would you continue the activities online just like Europe on Track 7 did or would you do anything different?

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how great AEGEE has been at moving a lot of its activities online, helping its members and young people in Europe to cope with the isolation of quarantine and maintain social contacts in a safe way. Proposing our content online will naturally be a possible solution in case the physical routes are deemed too unsafe.

What do you expect to accomplish with Europe on Track 8?

Europe on Track is one of the projects of AEGEE with the biggest outreach to young people who are not necessarily members of our organisation. We’d like to further make its name known in Europe, implement some changes in how the project works, and steer yet another great edition towards success!

Blablacar, Lufthansa, Brussels airlines, N26 bank, Booking – we are sure you’ve heard of these names, and also most likely used their services. What is the link between them and AEGEE? We were partners in the past!

Right now we have partnerships with A&O Hostels, Flixbus, Eurosender, Interrail and some others. If you still haven’t taken advantage of these offers, then be sure to do so in the future! More information on how to obtain promo codes is on MyAEGEE (discount section). 

How are such contracts concluded? Who makes these partnerships happen? Read on to find out!

Corporate and Institutional Fundraising is an essential task of the Comité Directeur. But to reach higher achievements, they need the help of motivated members.

We would really like companies to queue up for a partnership or wish their representatives would approach us on the street and ask us to sign an agreement with excellent conditions. In reality, this is an arduous process. Even if our partners find us on their own, we spend a lot of time, effort and energy to make sure that the company shares our values ​​and ideals, and the terms of cooperation will be mutually beneficial.

Fundraising is one of the areas where a good team is the basis of success. Who doesn’t know about Luis Alvarado Martínez (read about his work here) and Jorge Sánchez Hernández, our former Corporate and Partnership Relations Officers?

That year we envisioned to have more sustainable merchandising and also wanted to work on establishing more ways of income (if you are reading this, then you are one of the first to know about some of our priorities for the next year). All this is impossible without outside help. 

This is why we have high hopes for the new committee, namely the FRC (Fundraising Committee). 

What do we expect the FRC to work on?

• research of possible partnerships for AEGEE
• Support of AEGEE-Europe in finding and writing grants
• Cooperate with CD on creating and implementing the fundraising strategy of AEGEE-Europe
• Support locals with corporate and/or institutional FR efforts.

Previously, we talked a lot about Corporate Fundraising; therefore, we don’t want to limit the work of the FRC by that. Institutional one is one of our other priorities. Currently, we regularly apply for the European Youth Foundation and Erasmus+ grants. Sometimes, one application can be 40+ pages long. We also need help when we have around 4-6 applications at the same time. Very often our projects require co-funding, for which we also need to look for other sources of funding. 

The Fundraising Committee is a good option for people who want to bring something new to AEGEE and help us become stronger since  AEGEE cannot exist without grants and money. Being part of the FRC means you are a lifesaver of AEGEE-Europe!

“The Safe Person Committee will aim to create a safe space for participants and combat sexual harassment, through the use of education, awareness, and maintaining a pool of Safe Persons to send to events.” One year has passed since the S.M.A.S.H project was founded by members with the aid of the Council of Europe. Now time is up for AEGEE to get in charge of the project and help combat sexual harassment! Enter The Safe Person Committee! 

The Safe Person Project or S.M.A.S.H (Structural Measures Against Sexual Harassment) started this past 2019. For the readers who may have never heard about it or are not really sure what it is about, how would you describe it?

The Safe Person Project started from an initiative to combat sexual harassment in AEGEE, while the S.M.A.S.H. project was an inter-organizational project funded by the European Youth Foundation. The aim of S.M.A.S.H. was to create a system to prevent and tackle the problem of sexual harassment in (youth) organisations, using AEGEE as a pilot but ensuring the replicability, scalability and dissemination to other organisations. So, the Safe Person Project was the initial internal project aimed at tackling sexual harassment in AEGEE. S.M.A.S.H. was about developing a system for (youth) organisations to implement. 

The Safe Person Committee will aim to create a safe space for participants and combat sexual harassment, through the use of education, awareness, and maintaining a pool of Safe Persons to send to events. We are now using the knowledge we gained and implementing the system developed during S.M.A.S.H. in AEGEE. 

You mentioned a Pool of Safe Persons, what is it? 

The Safe Person Pool is the group of volunteers that are trained on how to act as Safe Persons during events in AEGEE. This means they have been educated on sexual harassment in all its forms, know how to prevent, detect and react to sexual harassment, as well as how to respond in a supportive and safe manner to victims. The Pool of Safe Persons is not actually a part of the committee per see, rather the Safe Person Committee is responsible for the management of the Pool of Safe Persons, including recruitment and training.

The Safe Person Committee of AEGEE-Europe (SPC) just got ratified last Agora, meaning that it has practically started and has just one member -which is you [Diederik de Wit], the CD Responsible. We suppose that is meant to change. What would a “finished version” of the Committee be like?

Yes, that should absolutely change, so we are hoping for a lot of applications in the Open Call. For anyone reading this, the extended Open Call is still out and the deadline is the 9th of September at 23:59 CEST. The Safe Person Committee (SPC) should consist of up to 5 members, an appointed CD member, and an appointed MedCom member. 

For the first generation of members for the SPC the decision will be made by the CD, since there are no existing members to work with. In the future, an Open Call will be issued upon internal need by the Speaker Team (consisting of a Speaker, a Vice-Speaker, and the appointed CD-member). The Speaker Team will evaluate the applications and send their decision to the CD for approval. 

Which would be the functions of this Committee once it is elected?

The SPC will have a number of goals, all of which have as aim to bringing Safe Persons to the network and thereby tackling sexual harassment in all its forms. Safe Persons are people trained in sexual harassment prevention and victim response, but the SPC will be responsible for bringing these people and this knowledge to AEGEE. It is a small, but vital difference! 

To sum up their goals a bit less abstract; They are responsible for sending Safe Persons to events whenever that is possible and wanted, providing the network with the knowledge on how to prevent sexual harassment, managing the Pool of Safe Persons, and training new Safe Persons. 

With the S.M.A.S.H Project, AEGEE aims to “create a sustainable system to prevent and tackle the problem of sexual harassment in (youth) organisations, as well as other events and activities involving youth”. That is an incredibly ambitious goal, which would need incredibly ambitious people to carry it out. How would you describe that people aka an ideal member of the Committee?

That is indeed a very ambitious goal, and the S.M.A.S.H. Project taught us a lot on how we can and should approach this. The SPC will be responsible for implementing what we, and other (youth) organisations, learned from the S.M.A.S.H. Project. So, one advantage for the SPC, they don’t have to reinvent the wheel and they can use all the knowledge we gained over the last few years.

One requirement for members of the SPC is that they have attended an official AEGEE Safe Person Training, as the knowledge is essential to have for the task. Other than this, I believe that motivation, a strong sense of empathy, and willingness to engage in a sensitive topic, would be very useful. 

Let’s aim high… what would be the ultimate goal you envision for this Committee?

The ultimate goal would be that we no longer need to have a seperate body to have people informed about sexual harassment, because the knowledge about sexual harassment and the task of the Safe Persons has become part of the culture of AEGEE. 

But, before we would be able to reach that ideal situation, there are a few goals which would be amazing to reach: 

We would like to have a sufficient amount of Safe Persons to send out to (at least) every statutory event. We would like to have a sustainable Pool of Safe Persons, where outgoing generations are replaced by incoming generations and experience is passed down to new members. Next, we would like to be able to send out Safe Persons to other events, such as SU’s and local events. Finally, have a way of being able to offer a (partial) reimbursement to the Safe Persons who go out to events on behalf of the SPC. 

How do you think the COVID-19 situation would affect the actions of the Committee? Is it possible for the Safe Person Committee to suffer in any way?

There is a positive side, a negative side, and a hopeful thought to this question. Let’s start with the positive.

There is a bit more time and resources to dedicate on the development of the committee and the Pool of Safe Persons instead of going to international events and responding to cases. Besides that, awareness needs to be spread throughout the network, and future generations of Safe Persons need to be trained. 

On the other hand, the global situation, the pandemic, and its effects on AEGEE are very demotivating for the entire network. I am afraid that it might be more difficult to find interested and motivated people for the Pool of Safe Persons and the SPC. 

I hope that the future SPC will try to turn this threat into an opportunity to build a solid foundation for when all of our lives return to normal. Motivation is to be found in the fact that the current work is essential for the proper working of the committee and the future of Safe Persons in the network.

We would like to thank the people who made this interview possible, who gifted us with some of their time. Diederik de Wit – president of AEGEE Europe and CD-Responsible for the Safe Person Committee – and Marlijn Mulder, thank you! Not only for being there, but also for making sure the questions and answers were as accurate as possible.

The 1st of August is a historic day for AEGEE: our new Strategic Plan 2020-2023 enters into force. You might be wondering now: what exactly is the Strategic Plan? 

To keep it short: the aim of our strategy is to streamline the actions of all our members towards goals we have given ourselves democratically during the past year, providing us with an opportunity to achieve our mission in an effective way. For further reading, we would like to refer you to the Strategic Plan 2020-2023 (download here) where you can get to know everything about this topic.

To celebrate this important milestone for AEGEE, we would like to step back and have a look at how the identity and strategy of our organisation evolved since the very beginning in 1985. Let’s dive right into our journey through time!

This article has been updated on 13 of August 2020 by including Ideas Factory Leon 2016, the proposal in Agora Enschede 2017 and Honorary membership of Philipp von Klitzing

1985-1991: Foundation and the first structure

AEGEE was founded on 16th of April 1985 as a result of a conference called EGEE (États Généraux des Étudiants de l’Europe). It was organised by the five “Grand Ecoles de Paris” (~colleges of Paris) on the initiative of Franck Biancheri and aimed at overcoming the paralysis of the European integration process. At first local groups, today called antennae, were formed in different European cities aiming to promote European integration.

Then, in 1988 some of the most important entities of AEGEE’s structure were established which remain until the current day:  the General Assembly (Agora), the first Board of Directors of AEGEE-Europe (Comité Directeur), the President’s meeting (known today as European Planning Meeting), and the first European Bodies like commissions as well as a first form of the working groups. After that, the network continued to expand with more antennae being formed across Europe.

1992-1999: Year Plan, Long-Term-Programme and the KeyToEurope

1992 marked an important year for strategy in AEGEE. For the first time, the identity and overall goal, as well as the values of the organisation, were written down as the Statement of Principles. In the same year, the first edition of KeyToEurope – AEGEE’s yearly magazine which summarizes the most important work, changes and plans of the organisation – was published. 

1992 was also the year in which the Comitè Directeur created the very first Strategic Plan of AEGEE: The Year Plan 1993 “Towards a better European society” (see Picture 1 below). It listed five fields of action for AEGEE and list of events that were going to be organised to tackle these fields within the following year. It was created to better coordinate the work of all AEGEE members across the continent, a task especially difficult without modern means of communication like the Internet. Not to forget, the aim also was to better represent the organisation towards European institutions.

Since 1994 the planning with a longer perspective was introduced in the form of the Long-Term Programme. Every year at the Spring Agora the Comitè Directeur was presenting one or several topics with a time frame of three years to the network which was to be ratified. From this time on, the Year Plan served as a more short-term, concrete plan to reach the goals of the Long-Term-Programme.

Philipp von Klitzing, who was the driving force behind introducing these strategic concepts in AEGEE, received the honorary membership of AEGEE-Europe in 1996 for his pioneering work in this field. In the following years, until 2000, the Long Term Programme and the Year Plan continued to play the most important role in strategic planning in AEGEE.

2000-2004: Main Fields of Action & 3-year Strategy Plan

In 2000,  the Comitè Directeur issued a proposal to change the “Long Term Programme” into “Main Fields of Action”, which would determine, at most, five areas AEGEE should focus on. Alongside with it the “Strategy Plan” would define AEGEE’s actions for the next three years. Thus, at the Autumn Agora Udine in 2000, AEGEE-Europe introduced four Main Fields of Action: Education, Peace and Stability, Cultural Exchanges and Active Citizenship. 

At the same time, the President’s Meeting was changed into the Planning Meeting, where several hundreds of members would discuss the future direction of AEGEE. The name was again changed into European Boards Meeting in 2004, as it was intended to specifically involve the boards of antennas in the process.

2005-2012: Planning Working Format & ACT

The Planning Working Format was the section of the Corpus Iuridicum AEGEEnse (CIA) that described in detail the structure of AEGEE’s Strategy. It was first created at the Autumn Agora Izmir in 2005 to replace the former “Main Fields of Action, Year Plan, Strategy Plan”.

At the Spring Agora Valletta in 2007, the Planning Working Format was reformed with the introduction of Focus Areas in the scope of a 3-year Strategic Plan. The new set of six Focus Areas was clearly divided into two groups – the first three were thematic, the last three organisational. Together with them, Action Agenda was added and the Year Plan had finally been deleted (Picture 2).

In 2008 a five-months-long drafting process for the new Strategic Plan took place, which included two Progress Sessions and a Strategic Planning Meeting in Brussels. As a result, the Strategic Plan 2009-2011 was approved at the Autumn Agora Aachen in 2008. It was the first one to be drafted according to the new Planning Working Format from 2007.

In order to facilitate the implementation of the Action Agenda by the network, the Action Agenda Coordination Committee (ACT) was created at the Spring Agora Enschede 2012. Its task was to spread knowledge about AEGEE’s Thematic Focus Areas within the Network and to work closely with the Network Commission in organising work on the topics at the local level.

2013: The Identity Reform

The Comité Directeur, which entered office in August 2012, decided to focus their efforts on reforming AEGEE’s identity. After a year of consultations, an Identity meeting took place in Brussels in July 2013, where the current version of Vision, Mission and Means of AEGEE was drafted. The results were ratified by the network at the Autumn Agora 2013 in Zaragoza.

In the same year the “Main Fields of Action” was finally abolished to emphasise the importance of the Strategic Plan.

2014-2015: Fulfilment Problems,  Working Groups Reform & European Planning Meeting

Between the proposal in Autumn Agora Zaragoza in 2013 and the Spring Agora Asturias in 2015, there were no dedicated teams working on the Focus Areas of AEGEE. This meant that it was a difficult task to focus and reach any measurable progress on the defined goals. 

At the Spring Agora Asturias 2015, a proposal to have one Working Group per Focus Area was accepted. The intent was to ensure a greater precision of AEGEE’s strategy and making the work on it more efficient. Former Working Groups, not connected to the Strategic Plan, were renamed to Interest groups, but continued to serve the same purpose as before. 

Also in 2015, the European Boards Meeting made its third and so far the last change of name, and was now named European Planning Meeting. This was done to explicitly include all members of AEGEE in the discussion about the future of the organisation.

2016-2017: Planning Meeting becomes a Statutory Event

The Planning Meeting “Ideas Factory Leon” that was held in 2016 for drafting the strategy 2017-2019 was the first one to involve even AEGEEans that couldn’t attend it via live-streaming and online-polls.
At Agora Enschede 2017 the Planning Meeting was officially added to the CIA as a statutory event for drafting the Strategic Plan.

2019-2020: Strategic Framework & Strategy Committee (StC)

In 2019, there were still many issues related to the coordination, distribution of responsibilities and promotion of the strategy towards the network, resulting in problems with reaching the desired goals. On advice of the Planning Team 2019, which was responsible for the preparation and facilitation of the drafting of the new Strategic Plan 2020-2023, the Comité Directeur proposed two new reforms.

The first one was to restructure the documents related to the Strategic Plan and incorporate them into the Strategic Framework. The second one was to create the Strategy Committee (StC). Previously, Agenda Coordination Committee (ACT) had focused on the implementation of the Action Agenda on the local level. StC, as opposed to ACT, has the goal of overviewing the whole Strategic Process, encouraging and facilitating communication between different Bodies and individuals who are working on the implementation of the Strategic Plan. Additionally, it creates, maintains and evaluates the effectiveness of the structure of all documents related to the Strategic Framework. 

Those two reforms were done based on research, consultations of the network and feedback gathered on the Strategic Planning Meeting Köln 2019 and ratified by the Autumn Agora Salerno 2019.

At this point, we have reached the present. During the last 35 years, AEGEE has changed and evolved, remaining updated to the needs and dreams of young Europeans. Today it is a place to share ideas, develop oneself and to bring change for Europe. This generation, like the ones before us, has now the opportunity to continue shaping AEGEE, to contribute to its mission and to remain at the forefront of European integration. 

In case you would like to get to know more about strategy in AEGEE and/or help with its implementation feel free to contact strategy@aegee.eu. 

Sources:

This article has presented a brief summary of all the events which have happened during the 35 years of AEGEE’s existence. You can find all the sources for this article here in case you want to further research certain parts.

The content of this article has been carefully researched by the Strategy Committee using official sources like various editions of KeyToEurope, the CIA as well as Agora minutes & proposals. Due to the long historic time-span and sometimes scarce data, it is still possible that the text contains mistakes, especially of how certain things were carried out in practice in AEGEE. In case you have any corrections or additions please contact us at strategy@aegee.eu. 

• Foundation phase:
  • KeyToEurope 1991/1992 Page 8,
  •  KeyToEurope 20 Page 10
• First structure
  • KeyToEurope 1994/1995 Page 8
• Statement of Principles
  • KeyToEurope 1993/1994 Page 8
• Year plan 1993
  • KeyToEurope 1991/1992 Page 31

• Long-Term-Programme
  • CIA 6.0, 1994, page 39
  • Key 2 Europe 2018-2019, page 37

• Main Fields of Action & 3-year Strategy Plan
  • Key2Europe 2000-2001, page 59
  • Key2Europe 2000-2001, page 62
  • Key2Europe 2000-2001, page 5

• Planning Working Format
  • CIA 16.1, 2005, page 4
  • Spring Agora Valletta 2007 Proposals booklet, pages 5-10
  • Minutes of the Spring Agora Valletta 2007, page 32
  • Key2Europe 2008-2009, p. 11
  • AEGEE Strategic Plan 2009‐2011
  • AEGEE Strategic Plan 2009‐2011

• ACT
  • CIA 23.1, page 83
• Identity Reform
  • KeyToEurope, 2012-2013, page 26
  • CIA 24.1, Article 2 and 3, page 5 
  • Minutes of Autumn Agora Zaragoza, page 36
• Working Groups Reform
  • Proposals booklet, Agora Asturias, page 19-32 
  • KeyToEurope 2014-2015, page 17
• Ideas Factory Leon
  • Key to Europe 2016-2017, page 57
• Planning Meeting as a Statutory Event
  • Proposals Booklet of Spring Agora Enschede, page 9
  • CIA 28.0, Article 2, p. 75
• Strategic Framework & Strategy Committee
  • Strategic Plan 2020-2023
  • Proposals Booklet of Autumn Agora Salerno 2019

We thank the whole Strategy Committee for their support in creating this article.

Each year on 22nd of May, we celebrate the International Day of Biodiversity. From the Sustainability Committee we wanted to raise awareness of this topic. We all know a lot of species that are in danger of extinction, and this is really bad for the environment and its normal functioning. In this article we will show you what biodiversity means  and its importance in nature. 

Today is the International Day of Biodiversity – we are in the midst of the 6th mass extinction hence we have to act now!  Biodiversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is typically a measure of variation at the genetic, species, and ecosystem level. 

The theme of the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) in 2020 is “Our solutions are in nature”. 

Did you know that 1 million species face the threat of extinction more than at any other point in human history? Land use changes, climate change, pollution and invasive species are some of the drivers.  Signed by 150 government leaders at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the Convention on Biological Diversity is dedicated to promoting sustainable development. The Convention recognizes that biological diversity is about more than plants, animals and micro organisms and their ecosystems – it is about people and our need for food security, medicines, fresh air and water, shelter, and a clean and healthy environment to live in.

Why is it important to have Biodiversity?

A basic concept is that species depend on each other. Having more variety of species increases the ecosystem productivity. Each species has a specific role, so all roles together contribute to having a richer environment. 

• Having more species will support a larger number of plants and, therefore, a greater variety of crops. Related to that it also promotes the soil formation and protection, the quantity of plants and it protects freshwater resources. 

• It provides nutrient storage as well as recycling and breaking down of pollutants. 

• It also contributes to climate stability, speed recovery from natural disasters and provides more food resources. 

Biodiversity is about resilience. Diversity in abilities, roles, tasks etc. of different species, allows the system as a whole to recover when something changes. For example, if the temperature, the amount of water in a system or the amount of sun-hours changes, some species will die. If you have a biodiverse system, other species can then take over the role of those species that disappeared. In the absence of a biodiverse system it is possible that when a species dies off, a certain role cannot be performed anymore. If for example all the bees die out, there are a small number of other insects that exactly perform the same role, which is to fertilize the flowers, so that next year the plants can blossom again and fruits will grow. 

Biodiversity is essential for human health and well-being, economic prosperity, food safety and security, and other critical areas necessary for the individual and collective thriving of all humans and all human societies. Food systems depend on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Threats to inland water biodiversity are significant, oceans contain a wealth of biodiversity, climate change is a major and growing driver of biodiversity loss.

We love diversity in nature, but we all love diversity in our communities and organisations! The best part about AEGEE is the different cultures, the best part about nature is the different species.

To finalise, I would like to say thanks to all the people who helped with this article! 

Sources

• https://www.cbd.int/
• https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/evolution/mass-extinction1.htm
• You can get more information, get involved and engage in websites like GYBN, WWF or IUCN.