There is a body in AEGEE that deals with what is most important in our association: members. It’s the Human Resources Committee, working on the wiki, knowledge transfer and mentorship system among others. We spoke with the soon-to-be-former speaker of the HRC, Carmelo De Marco from AEGEE-Agrigento, who was a Member of the Month nominee some time ago.

The AEGEEan: Please describe yourself.

Carmelo: I am from Agrigento, Sicily, in the South of Italy. I am 1.78 metres tall, I’m 25 years old and what I want is world peace!

What? This is not a beauty pageant?  The AEGEEan’s interview?!?!  Oh… Ok! So… I’m a luthier (yes, I make guitars), a musician, an engineering student, a traveller, and an AEGEE addict!

… But I’m trying to quit, fortunately without any results!

What is your experience in AEGEE?

I discovered AEGEE in 2012: a friend of mine posted a video on Facebook about a cultural exchange organised by AEGEE-Agrigento in Belgrade. “What is that? Can I participate?” I wrote him, and now I’m here. It completely changed my mind about Europe, about integration, about friendship… It has completely changed me!

Since then, I have been to seven Agorae, six Summer Universities, a couple of pre-agora events, one EPM, one NWM, and I don’t know exactly how many RTCs, LTCs, official and unofficial “small” events around Europe as organiser, participant, helper or all of them together. I was HR responsible in my Antenna (Agrigento) in 2012 and 2013. In 2013 I joined the HRC as member. I quickly became Fair responsible for both Agorae and I was elected speaker one year later.

What is the best memory of your life in AEGEE?

In my head, I have a kind of big amazing puzzle made of all the experiences I had in AEGEE. That’s why I can’t choose only one piece of it as best memory. But I want to share a relevant moment of my life in AEGEE with you: it was during AgorAsturias, my first speech on stage as speaker of the HRC. I was really nervous, and I thought “they will all be there to listen to you, you will have a lot of eyes on you!”  On the stairs my legs were shaking… When I was on stage I looked at the people and I discovered that you can sleep on the chairs in so many different ways. I promised myself I will try them all!

What is the HRC?

HRC is the Human Resources Committee. Our role is to support and to help the development of Human Resources in AEGEE, in all fields. We worked on the Wiki, we created and modified documents and materials related to Human Resources and Knowledge Management, we are still developing some ways to help locals and new members of AEGEE. We want to create online trainings and a well prepared trainers database, that’s why we are collaborating, or we will, with the NetComs, the Academy, the ITC and all the bodies of AEGEE.

On what the HRC is currently working?

Right now, we have two big projects that we are trying to develop. One is to directly help the locals, maybe with the collaboration of the NetComs, but we still have a lot to do about it.

The other one is the Mentorship System during Agora: if you were there at the last two Agorae, you saw some people with a big blue M on the badge for sure: they were Mentors! The HRC Agora Mentorship Programme aimes to support new AEGEEans during their first Agora through activities such as knowledge transfer, motivation, involvement and inspiration. All the new members that apply have a Mentor with great experience in AEGEE, ready to answer to all their questions (all the questions not related to AEGEE will not have any answer).

When speaking about Human resources, what is the most important thing AEGEE needs?

AEGEE in an association based on people, the most important thing AEGEE needs is the easiest at the same time: you! You are the power that moves our association, AEGEE simply needs people who want to develop and improve themselves, because AEGEE gives you this opportunity, directly or indirectly. You just have to go out on the field and play your game.

What are your future plans in AEGEE (and in life)?

My “circle” in AEGEE is already at its latest stage, I’m working on the knowledge transfer to share my experience with the new members. My real (or just other) life takes me a lot of time, and if, in the beginning I attended an event every one or maximum two months, now I can go only one or two times per year. Probably I will go to Agora Bergamo, I think as HRC member, but for sure not as HRC speaker [we have elections during these days and I am not a candidate n.a.]. I will be still active in my local, and for sure “See you somewhere in Europe”!

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

At Agora Rhein-Neckar several different merchandise products were presented to the Network and it is proving to be more and more popular to have different types of products carrying the AEGEE logo in one form or the other.

One antenna that proves to be good in promoting themselves through merchandise production is AEGEE-Agrigento. The Italians were nominated for The AEGEEans Choice Awards by several AEGEE members showing that their merchandise reaches far beyond the city of Agrigento. When questioned why they produce hats, T-shirts, stickers and more, the answer was simple “our idea of merchandising is: If you can wear it, it should have an AEGEE-Agrigento logo! We love our local and we want to show it to everybody keeping always with us our logo. We are planning to launch merchandise and part of it was distributed for free already during Agora Rhein-Neckar.”

And it is not only AEGEE-Agrigento that tries to add AEGEE logos to different type of products. The Summer University Coordination Team brought inflatable pillows, SU buttons and new microfiber towels to Mannheim. The Comité Directeur brought a new grey version of the AEGEE-Europe hoodie together with the popular travel cups, and as always there were also stickers everywhere.

There were of course also AEGEE T-shirts to be seen everywhere in Germany and some pink T-shirts from a certain Spanish city especially stood out. Once they were nominated for The AEGEEans Choice Awards, AEGEE-Burgos said the typical “We are a small antenna, and we’re just happy to be nominated.” However, it was clear at the Agora that they had high hopes to bring home to the North of Spain The AEGEEans Choice Award for best merchandise. The award went to AEGEE-Helsinki, however AEGEE-Burgos president Rubén Sanz still shared information about the merchandise production in their city.

The AEGEEan: How did you come up with the design for your T-shirt? 

Rubén: We are a small antenna, and we have no resources. When we were chosen to organize a Network Meeting (NWM) last year, all of us were so happy that we wanted to create something that would be unforgettable. And our final idea was to create the first AEGEE-Burgos T-shirt. We are very proud of our mascot Morcillote the pig, and we wanted to show him in our T-shirts somehow.

Why do you think it is important to design merchandise for AEGEE?

Merchandise can be used in several ways, one is for fundraising, but for me it is most important in creating brand image. Now a lot of people in Europe know that the pink T-shirt with a pig is from Burgos! Maybe it is not the best T-shirt in the world, but it works, and now it’s our window to Europe.

Are you plannning to launch any new merchandise this year?

Yes! We are in constant evolution, just now we have created a new design in lighter pink , all of you must come to Burgos to get it ! “La vie en rose” with AEGEE-Burgos Pink Pig Power!!

It will be interesting to continue seeing what type of merchandise the different antennae and project teams of AEGEE create in the future.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

Agrigento, Summer University 2012

Fifty participants from all corners of Europe – Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, above eighty applications for this Summer University, more than three months of organisers’ hard work, and we arrived in the Kingdom of SEAcily.

Akragas is the ancient name of Agrigento, one of the oldest cities in the Mediterranean. There is a UNESCO world heritage site called the Valley of the Temples that we had the chance to see. We immersed ourselves in Sicilian culture and tasted the traditional Sicilian food. That way we have been in the centre of promotion of Agrigento’s culture Stoai. The municipality and the mayors of Realmonte and Siculiana welcomed the young  European guests. The student association of Raffadali spent the evening with us in the restaurant and then in the foam party.

Except for the cultural visits, we visited the places with beautiful nature like Taormina, the world-famous luxury resort, Scala dei Turchi beach, the unique complex of completely white rocks, national park Torre Salsa.

Moreover, the goal of our Summer University is the study of Italian language. That way our group was divided according to the level: beginner and intermediate. The lessons were very lively and interesting. We have studied the true Italian language by “italiani veri”. The greatest opportunity that was given to us by the organisers was the stage in the net of Agrigento’s hotel.

Of course, every AEGEE event or  Summer University has parties – many of them… Among them we had the foam party, the beach parties and the biggest party at Ferragosto Night with the night swimming. I should add that the warmest sea that I have been in in my life is the sea of Sicily. I think the temperature was the same as the body temperature.

“Akragas in the Kingdom of SEAcily”, this is the truth.

Written by Svetlana Zatyupa, AEGEE-Moskva