Since the new Action Agenda Coordination Committee started working after Agora Patra, one of the main aims of the body has become spreading knowledge about the strategic work of AEGEE-Europe. This means giving a lot of attention to promoting the Action Agenda and Strategic Plan, and a good way to do it is, why not, rewarding the antennae fulfilling the objectives set in the Action Agenda.

The Strategic Plan and Action Agenda are two of the main documents of our organization, written and approved by the AEGEEans, which give us a path to follow regarding our thematic work. The first document, the Strategic Plan, contains four Focus Areas (namely Spreading Europtimism, Youth Employment, Youth Mobility, Civic Education) and gives us a general approach to the topics we will be working on in the upcoming three years (Strategic Plan 2014/17); while the second, drafted during the EPM gives us an insight of the specific aims and objectives we should be fulfilling within a year (Action Agenda 2014/15).

These two documents are one of AEGEE’s biggest achievements on structured thematic work, because they unite AEGEEans in the work they do. Without these documents, every member would follow their own way and our work would not have so much impact. Besides that, the Action Agenda and the Strategic Plan also unify the Vision and Mission of AEGEE, because at the end, they are based on them.

The Action Agenda Coordination Committee (ACT) helps the antennae implement the Action Agenda. It promotes the document, tracks its fulfillment and exists to connect bodies and locals; and more than that, they’re a team of people (the ACTies!) always willing to lend a hand and help with what sometimes has been called one of the less understandable documents of our organization. To do this, they presented the Guidelines to the Action Agenda after Agora Cagliari, which is a set of guidelines with examples to every aim and objective of the Action Agenda, easing the transition of a merely vague sentence in a document to a speech, a set of conferences, or even a whole event (Guidelines to the Action Agenda 2014/15).

And of course, with the will to reward those who put an effort to the fulfillment of the Action Agenda, ACT, in cooperation with the AEGEEan, has created the Active Local of the Month award! With this new award, ACT intends to spread awareness about the Action Agenda, as well as increase the implementation of it and motivate people to organize more thematic events. And even more, with the example of good practices, they want to show other antennae that great thematic events can be easily organized! It’s not hard to organize something implementing the Action Agenda. You can find a lot of examples in the Guidelines for the Action Agenda and you can also, of course, use your imagination. If you’re still doubting about it you can also ask our first Active Local of the Month, AEGEE-Heraklio, who organized a conference on the rights for deaf people and sign language in Greece.

Do you want to organize something related to the Action Agenda but you don’t know how? You can ask ACT to help you! See who is your responsible at ACT’s About Page and make sure you include your activity in your next monthly report!

Will your local be the next Active Local of the Month?

Written by Ruben Navarro, AEGEE-Tarragona

After the Open Call held last May, a new Action Agenda Coordination Committee (ACT) was selected. Despite having been announced only in August, the team has already started to work on new projects and on finding ways to bring the Action Agenda and the Strategic Plan closer to the Network. Members of the Speaker Team, Ruben Navarro and Monika Duda, talked to us about the program of the Committee, including a special focus on the PR of the committee. 

Ruben Navarro

The AEGEEan: Can you please introduce yourselves and your team?

Ruben: My name is Ruben Navarro, and I’m a member of AEGEE-Tarragona, a small antenna in the north east of Spain. I’m 22 years old and a student of electronical engineering. And, of course, Speaker of the Action Agenda Coordination Committee since the beginning of August.

Monika: My name is Monika Duda, I’m a member of AEGEE-Zielona Gora, but I’m also active in another local, namely AEGEE-Wroclaw. I’m 21 years old, student of Mechanical Engineering at Wroclaw University of Technology and Vice-Speaker of the Action Agenda Coordination Committee.

The rest of the team is formed by Doriana Chirilă (AEGEE-Cluj Napoca), Etibar Aliyev (AEGEE-Bakı), Katharina Krüll (AEGEE-Passau), Maksym Kovalenko (AEGEE-Kyiv), Mert Gökçüoğlu (AEGEE-Ankara), Silvija Perić (AEGEE-Zagreb) and Svenja van der Tol (AEGEE-Nijmegen).

Ruben: I decided to apply because I believed (and still believe) that the Action Agenda is one of the most important documents we, in AEGEE, create. Defined by our Mission and Means, the Action Agenda creates the basis of the thematic work of our association. Taking that into account, I consider the body taking care of its realisation one of the most important in AEGEE and I thought I could make a change to it.

Monika: I do believe that the Action Agenda, along with the Strategic Plan, is one of the most important documents in AEGEE, because it compresses the Mission of our organization into specific actions. The vision of AEGEE is very close to mine too. I got familiar with the Vision, Mission, Means and the Statement of Principles on my first Network Meeting, so I decided to do my best to contribute to them, which lead to my decision to candidate.

ACT works to help fulfill the Action Agenda, not by doing the thematic work ourselves, but by coordinating the antennae, Working Groups and other bodies, suggesting them ideas to implement it and encouraging them to do so. To do so, we actively collaborate with the Network Commission. To make our work more efficient, each member is in charge of a part of the network, working directly with the NetCommies to have the most direct approach to the locals as possible.

Our knowledge transfer period felt short (too many things to learn in a few weeks), but we can say that we’re happy with it. There weren’t too many instructions, so we can think of our own ideas and plans. Moreover, we are still in touch with the last Speaker Team, so they can help us whenever we need it.

We’re working on many things, such as the creation of new Guidelines, which we want to be completely different this year. We’re also working to establish a collaboration with several other bodies to make not only our work but also the Action Agenda more visible. We’re working on our PR strategy and writing and creating workshops about the Action Agenda and the Strategic Plan. And many, many more things!

Right now, we’re mostly focused on the preparation of Network Meetings, writing the new Guidelines and our first team meeting in Brussels (which is going to take place from the 3rd until the 5th of October). After Autumn Agora Cagliari, we’ll start working even harder, trying to collaborate much more with the locals and continuing to improve the work of the Committee.

Monika Duda

It is often said that the Network is rather distant from the work of the Action Agenda Coordination Committee and the Action Agenda in general. How do you plan to deal with this gap?

That’s, unfortunately, completely true. The Network is sometimes unconscious of the importance of the Strategic Plan and the Action Agenda. Therefore, we’re working and planning to have a really strong PR management and we’ll also try to provide workshops for antennae about the Action Agenda and the Strategic Plan, along with taking the advantage of a very active team spreading the word of the Action Agenda too. It won’t be an easy job, but we’re ready to put our energy and time into it as much as we can!

Want to stay updated about the work of the Action Agenda Coordination Committee? Follow their Facebookpage!

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia

The question asking what your personal opinion on homophobia is was the main focus of the first online consultation by policy officer E.G. that took place this week. The topic was not kept so much on personal opinions but did open up for many interesting areas in which AEGEE can progress on the topic of homophobia.

A mentioned before, combating homophobia in sports is a topic on the agenda of the Sports Working Group and therefore it took me only a few seconds to forward the invitation for the online consultation on homophobia by policy officer E.G. Unfortunately, the invitation was issued to ANNOUNCE-L on the day of the meeting making it quite difficult for members to plan ahead to attend it which also could be seen in the participation in the actual meeting. Nonetheless, it was still very interesting and granted knowledge about the situation of homophobia in the Netherlands, Greece, Spain and Denmark that Eline can move forward with.

Big city equals big minds and small city equals small minds?

First of all, the members of the meeting discussed the situation of homophobia in the different countries. On one side you would find countries quite religious such as Greece and Spain and less progressed in the terms of acknowledging homosexuals and on the other side there would be countries more open towards homosexuals celebrating gay parades, allowing gay marriage, adoption and more such as Denmark and the Netherlands. In one country it can be completely normal for straight people to go to parties at gay bars with their homosexual friends without friends and strangers questioning your sexuality whereas in other countries entering such a club will put a label on you in 30 seconds or less. Why do homosexual people go to parties at clubs filled with heterosexual people all the time, but if the tables were turned the frequency of club visits is much lower? This topic is not only something that has been discussed in this online consultation but has also been a suggestion that came forward when the Action Agenda Committee brainstormed on ideas for Activities for Summer University (SU) organisers to add to their preliminary program: take the participants of the SU to a gay club/bar, and it will be interesting to see if this will actually happen this summer.

Back to the online consultation, the talk went on, and the topic of big cities versus smaller cities did occur and it was discussed whether people in larger cities such as the capitals would be more open-minded than people from smaller cities. It was a pity that not more members could add information about the topic since we have members in AEGEE of a large range of different sizes. Hopefully that will happen in the next online consultation on this subject.

Are we more open-minded in AEGEE?

Question number one: Do you stop and stare in if two people of different genders kiss in public? Question number two: Do you stop and stare if two people of the same gender kiss in public?

This was an interesting topic of discussion that continued the meeting because it is not a rare case that people tend to look twice if they see something they are not used to. They might not mean harm, whereas in some cases they will try to be funny which ends up hurting other people but the reality is that when one thinks twice about the situation we might not be as open-minded as we think in AEGEE. This meeting made me wonder if we are open to inclusion of minorities in every single way in AEGEE or if the situation could be better.

In the end everybody agreed that the state of this subject differs very much from country to country and this raises the matter if it is even possible to achieve something within this area or if it is too delicate to discuss. Some people think that gay people do not exist, others use disgraceful taunts at homosexual people, and others welcome them with open arms (and hearts). Does this differentiation make it too difficult to work with homophobia in AEGEE? The Sports Working Group does it and Eline is not afraid either to take on the subject because as she said “if we don’t try then we don’t know if we can succeed!”

The session was one of many online consultations that will take place, and hopefully more people will join the discussion next time.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København