Every year, on the 11th of November, the Network Commission celebrates its birthday, and this year, they turn twenty. To celebrate this special occasion, we interviewed a number of former Network Commissioners: Lia Touska, Mario Galea, Hanna Alajõe and Andrea Schmelz, to tell us about their time in the office, and to see how much the commission has changed.

The AEGEEan: Could you introduce yourself?

Lia: I am Lia Touska from AEGEE-Kastoria and AEGEE-Sofia. I was a NetCommie in the period starting from Agora Patra until AgorAsturias.

Mario: My name is Mario Galea, I am from AEGEE-Valleta.

Hanna: I am Hanna from AEGEE-Tartu and I have been a NetCommie until very recently, as my term has finished just after Agora Bergamo.

Andrea: I am Andrea Schmelz and still a happy member of AEGEE-Passau. I was a NetCommie from October 2014 until November 2015.

How was it being a NetCommie during your term?

Mario: At the beginning, we were eleven people who had to start working with their own locals immediately after the elections, in a mostly individualistic approach to our network. During our mandate, we changed the term periods to allow more team building and knowledge transfer, before actually starting our work. We have built a more unified approach towards the whole network with one functioning platform, a single massive working plan and one activity report, acting like a real body and not as individuals.

Andrea: It was a lot of work, almost like a part-time job, and luckily very rewarding. Most of the work happened online, but the best moments were when you actually went out in the field and met the members. AEGEE’s strength is the impact we make on the individuals and this is something you constantly experience as a NetCommie. To a large extent, the NetCom is responsible for a lot of administrative work, but it is also a hub of different political views and values. One should never underestimate the diversity of the network that influences our work – it is a huge challenge and learning experience for any NetCom team.

Lia: Being a NetCommie was, and still is, the best experience someone can come across. I took care of locals from two different areas (Dutch-speaking and Greek-speaking), I was always there when they had questions and I visited them during my NetCom trip. Lastly, the team spirit that we had within our NetCom team was the trigger of friendships that have been lasting until now.

How was this different from now?

Hanna: I think being a NetCommie during my term was quite similar to what it is now, and this is because my term is still very recent. The strange thing about being part of the NetCom is that, during your term, you can have two totally different experiences, as every half a year half of the team changes. That makes working in the NetCom so hard to explain. The group dynamics can be so different depending on who is part of your team, which locals you are working with, which apps are malfunctioning on Podio… et cetera.

Lia: Back in my time, the term of NetCommies was not equal, LTCs and RTCs were not antenna criteria yet and it was hard to find a hosting local for a NWM.

Andrea: Since my term was not so long ago, there have not been too many drastic changes. We have moved the entire work during our term to Podio, professionalised quite a lot and coordinated the work more as a team, rather than 11 individuals. I am glad to see that the NetCom kept this up, as it aims for a much better understanding of the network from a broad perspective. In this way, the ideas which have been developed before and during our term are kept alive and in progress by the current NetCom, and this really secures continuity. The present NetCom is very strong in supporting the network, it is inspiring! I am curious to see what comes out of the Antenna Criteria reform.

Why, if impactful, do you think these changes were necessary?

Andrea: I believe that if we want to have an impact as an entire association using the strengths of our network, then we also need to handle the network as a whole. I think the changes in the administration and coordination of our work helped us in monitoring this common impact, and understanding the needs across our entire network. In my opinion, society demands of us to keep up in handling such a large amount of members across so many countries, while still embracing diversity.

Lia: I believe that those changes have been impactful, because NetCommies have enough time for knowledge transfer to the new generation now, and more and more locals are organising LTCs and RTCs implementing the Strategy of Learning and Training. Also, the NetCommies do not struggle to find a local to host their NWMs anymore. Overall, the quality of the Network has been improved.

Mario: The changes we made were necessary, because only with a unified Network Commission, one can ultimately aim at a more unified network. Without a solid common vision, in line with the vision of AEGEE-Europe, the NetCom cannot effectively be that bridge that ties locals together.

What did you like the most about being a NetCommie?

Andrea: Lots of hugging happening during the NetCom trips and events.

 Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen

In 1994 honorary member Michael Merker made a benediction for the future of AEGEE, saying that “hope is always on our side”. He made this statement, when he was writing about AEGEE’s first decennial anniversary that would take place one year later. When we look back on AEGEE’s history of its third decennial anniversary, it becomes interesting to see if and how this optimism was shared. How has hope always been on our side?

In 1995 a total of 170 antennae celebrated AEGEE’s first ten years of existence. Six of which: AEGEE-Aachen, AEGEE-Baja, AEGEE-Bucureşti, AEGEE-Sevilla, AEGEE-Stockholm and AEGEE-Utrecht had special celebrations somewhat comparable to the Night of the Seven Antennae in 2015. AEGEE-Istanbul celebrated AEGEE’s ten year anniversary with a large cultural festival, there was a cycling tour from Basel to Maastricht, and AEGEE-Brussels/Bruxelles organised a large reception inside the European parliament.

One reason the individual events during the ten year celebrations were a bit more modest, compared to the first Night of the Seven Antennae on AEGEE’s first anniversary in 1986, might be that AEGEE-Brussels/Bruxelles nearly bankrupted itself by organising that one.  As a possible consequence there was not to be another edition of the Night of the Seven Antennae until AEGEE’s thirty year anniversary in 2015.

If living through the first decade of the twenty-first century has taught us anything, however it is arguably that hope cannot be expressed or diminished by wealth. The twenty year anniversary edition of the Key to Europe with two hopeful benedictions by the then MEP and Patron of AEGEE-Europe, Bronisław Geremek, and then President of AEGEE-Europe, Silvia Baita, was therefor unsurprising.

Geremek praised the democratising of Europe, and AEGEE’s role in this, as he reflected how twenty years before, his native country of Poland was at best a de facto oligarchy under the Communist Party. Baita also reflected on therole of the past as a teacher, but furthermore stresses the solid basis it forms to continue to build a splendid future.

During AEGEE’s second decennial anniversary the network had expanded to 241 antennae all over Europe. The year was also largely shaped by the pro-European Orange Revolution in Ukraine, much like how 2015 is shaped by another pro- and contra-European conflict in the same country.

Aside from the hope for a greater democratisation in Europe, the twentieth anniversary was also characterised by and known for the largest ‘Gala Event’ the network had ever organised in Prague, and by a twenty minutes documentary on the history of AEGEE.

The third decennial celebration is arguably like all those before. There is a ritualization of the past, as a sense of belonging is created by a recreation of past events. There was another instalment of the Night of Seven Antennae, just so as it is liked to have been 29 years ago. There was a conference in Brussels, which mimicked those gatherings in ‘the Capitol’ of Europe before, and in the Ukraine a political conflict, somewhat similar like the one of 2005, uncannily erupted.

Yet, as the previous anniversaries can be seen to be reflected in the thirtieth, perhaps as a result of the spirit of AEGEE, or possibly as a side effect of the invention of tradition, there is another benediction. While the first decennial celebration spoke of a universal hope, and the second about a greater democratising of Europe, this celebratory year speaks of improvement.

There is no shortage of optimism in this generation, but a decade of an even starker economic recession, and the possibilities of an increased European diversity have created an eagerness to shape the future for the better. For this generation it could be said, that hope has not always been on their side, and that the past has not always been a solid basis for a splendid future. Yet we press on, gazing hopefully at the future, remembering a troubled, yet celebrated past.

Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen

If you want to know more about the first and second editions of the Night of the Seven Antennae, check out these two great articles by Gunnar Erth and Svenja van der Tol respectively in the links below.

The first Night of the Seven Antennae:

http://www.aegeegoldentimes.eu/seven-antennae-1986/

The 2015 edition of the Night of the Seven Antennae:

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