I’m sure that attending your first statutory event, especially Agora, was a great experience, but at the same time quite a shock; seeing 700 to 1000 AEGEEans gathered for the general assembly of our association, meeting your friends from all over Europe and of course making new ones. While every Agora is different, with a different location, different Chair teams, different participants, one figure stays the same; Gunnar. And then you ask yourself and your fellow AEGEE members; Who is this person taking pictures and posting on Facebook? Why is he still around? What stories and experiences does he possess? Spyros Papadatos from AEGEE-Ioannina interviewed Gunnar Erth and here is the full interview.

Spyros: We always see you active at events, taking pictures and posting on Facebook, but how does a normal day of your everyday life look like?

Gunnar: Currently I am working as editor for two business magazines in Stuttgart. However, at the moment there is no normal life. I decided to quit my job by the end of March 2018, so now I am searching for a new one! I already had some nice job interviews and one of them was successful. All this takes time, that’s why unfortunately I don’t have that much time for the Golden Times these days. Aside from that I am also supporting my mother who unfortunately has some health issues. Also this requires a lot of attention.

You were recently part of the “Project Lab” initiative. Can you share with us a few words about it?

The Project Lab was a training and brainstorming event about developing and organising projects in an AEGEE environment. It was a three-day event that took place right before Agora Catania in the beautiful location of Favara. The local organisation was done by Mario Luparello and his great AEGEE- Agrigento team, the trainers were Réka Salamon, Philipp Blum, my fellow honorary member Olivier Genkin and me. It was an honour to work with all of them!

Why did you decide to be part of it?

I decided to be part of it because a lot of AEGEE members have ideas about great projects, but they are not aware that it is actually really easy to turn them into AEGEE events! Because of this, the number of international thematic events in AEGEE has been in decline for the past ten years. We now tried to put a hold on it, the first Project Lab was only the first step!

We see that several projects that have written AEGEE history, like Europe on Track and Y Vote are now running or will run their 5th and 3rd editions respectively and of course Summer University its 30th edition. How possible is it to reinvent older projects?

It is actually very easy. Lots of international projects could easily take place in these days. I just want to give two very different examples:

• “Understanding Europe”, a series of lectures and discussion evenings with an expert journalist of a current affairs topic. Journalists are easy to get and know how to present a topic. This series of events was promoted European-wide under one project name and brand, but of course most participants came from the local and neighbouring antennae. It’s a zero euro project with great impact and easy to do;
• “Find your way”, a series of nine trainings and international conferences dealing with topics such as intercultural stereotypes and prejudices, media impact, nationalism, security policy and students rights in Central and Eastern Europe. If you see the current developments in this part of Europe, you can just copy the project. This requires a bit more funding though.

There are many more and whenever I tell this to our members, they are full of enthusiasm to create something similar. However, they lack information and training. AEGEE should create an international events database, with title, date, organisers and the detailed programme of every international thematic event or project. This would help people a lot, because it’s not always about the funding. AEGEE needs ideas, inspiration and skills how to put the ideas into practice!

How important can the projects be generally for AEGEE and Europe today?

Very important. International projects dealing with aspects of the wide framework of European integration have always been the unique selling point of AEGEE. Other associations such as BEST, ELSA or ESN have a concrete target group, a concrete topic to talk about – being it technology, law or mobility. AEGEE is interdisciplinary, which on first sight makes it a lot harder to explain the purpose of the association. However, being interdisciplinary is actually a great asset, because it opens us to many topics and to see problems from many angles. And our main topic since 1985 is European integration and its many cultural, political or economic aspects. Unfortunately AEGEE lost its way and focuses too much on the personal fun aspect and not on the aspect to discuss current issues on a European scale. We have to go back to this or AEGEE loses its purposes.

You were a CD member and one of the first Network Commissioners 20 years ago. How different did the Network look back then?

The task is the same: the NetCom is there to serve and protect the network. The difference: the NetCom had no money, no reimbursements and communication was a lot harder. There were no social media, phone calls abroad cost a fortune, no one except for a few Italians and Finns had a cell phone. When I was elected, I sent a mail to all my locals, introducing myself and offering my support. Then I realised that two of my locals in Romania did not even have an e-mail address. So I called them on the phone from my flat in Hungary – which was actually a great thing, because both antennae had a recruiting event the week after, so I visited them both. In general, Network Commissioners travelled a lot more to their locals. This was possible because our administrative workload was a lot less. We had to collect one antenna report per semester, not one per month. One more difference: at that time, the task of Network Commissioner was one you would do at the end of your AEGEE career, it was only for the most experienced people. We used our expertise not only to help antennae, but also to create new ones. Network enlargement was a core task and we really succeeded in it.

You have been an AEGEEan for several decades now and you are an honorary member of AEGEE- Europe, the biggest distinction of our association. What motivates you to still be an active alumnus and actively attend events?

It’s several things. First of all, AEGEE is my family. Every year I meet new family members, and they are all so amazing people. It makes it really hard to leave. I actually feel that I have much more in common with their positive spirit, their hunger for making Europe a better place than with many of my peers at home or elsewhere in Europe. Second, I want to give something back. I learnt so much through AEGEE, it made me a more open-minded person and provided me with awesome memories and many skills; therefore it’s only fair to show people how they can do things, to inspire them. It’s only an offer, but I am happy that most members react so positively!

How do you see the current alumni system of AEGEE?

AEGEE’s alumni system should be a lot better. On European level we have Les Anciens, which is organising lots of very interesting events every year and is open to every member who finished its active path and wants to join us oldies. However, many people don’t do that, despite the presentations of Les Anciens at each Agora. This is a pity. Moreover, AEGEE doesn’t use the full potential of its alumni. Many have jobs in parliaments, government bodies or own companies. However, there is no proper database for it. There is a lot of room for improvement. On local level alumni work does hardly exist. Some Dutch antennae are really good at it, also some German such as AEGEE-Passau. However, this is one of the points that AEGEE should really tackle. It’s a pity to see that many locals don’t even bother to invite their founders or other oldies to their annual antenna birthday celebrations. Please do it, guys!

What can the current generation of AEGEEans learn from our alumni?

A lot. They can get inspired, they can get actual useful contacts, they can also get trainings from them. However, many oldies want to be asked, they don’t approach the antenna directly. You are supposed to contact them. So, just find out who they are, contact them and you will see they are eager to help!

In the CD house, one can find hundreds of old publications (magazines, newspapers, booklets etc). How much can we learn from the past and our history? How can we use this knowledge today?

An association that doesn’t know its past has no future. AEGEE is repeating so many mistakes instead of reaching higher goals to build upon past knowledge. By analysing the path that AEGEE went in the past 20-30 years, you can recognise patterns and trends. And they are really important to know. On a more practical note, it’s easy to use the existing knowledge: for example in terms of event and project ideas, knowledge on how to structure trainings, but also by finding out which AEGEE legend now lives in your city and can provide lectures or contacts. All this is easy to find: in the pre-social media age information was stored in great magazines such as the NewsBulletins, it’s ready to take and easy to use since it’s not spread all over Facebook. Also the old mailing lists provide amazing information. And if you are looking for photos of your antenna’s events from the period 2001-2009, you have a great chance to find them on www.aegee.org/photo.

Many things are happening now in Europe. Towards which direction would you turn AEGEE’s attention if you could?

All issues related to European integration as well as peace and stability. AEGEE can give orientation in a phase where more and more people fall back to nationalism because the world has become too complicated for them. When AEGEE was founded, the EU was in a crisis. European integration had come to a halt. Politicians did not know what to do. In this period AEGEE came and said: “Look, we as students will deal with all relevant issues, provide a platform for students and actors or politics and society – and present suggestions.” That’s the task for AEGEE as well today, in the new crisis of Europe.

Any thoughts you would like to share with the Network?

Let’s show our face again to the world by creating more hallmark events that improve AEGEE’s identity, impress politicians, potential members and in general actors in society. How? Let’s create four big thematic conferences per year which have the same general topic every year. For example:

• Checking the status of the European institutions and making ideas for improvements;
• Checking which are the current most pressing areas of political crisis and discuss solutions;
• Checking the situation of formal higher education and non-formal education in Europe, including aspects such as local Erasmus support to make it more practical;
• A conference called European Society: dealing with issues of culture, gender, NGO rights, populism or other issues.

These four conferences should be fixed points in the annual calendar and strive for 150 to 200 participants. Antennae can apply to organise one of these four conferences, which could be in February, May, September and November. These hallmark events could be like the standing topics of AEGEE, which would give them a lot of visibility and identity internally and externally. Moreover, small local or European seminars could be a lead into the big conferences. Also follow-up events could be organised. Since it would be prestigious to host these events, we would have enough organisers and participants for them. And a lot of new thematically-oriented members. This could really help AEGEE.

Written by Spyros Papadatos, AEGEE-Ioannina

Being the Financial Director for AEGEE-Europe is not something that everybody wants, unfortunately. But the ones that do want are extremely motivated. We have Teresa Carene Kiambu from AEGEE-Udine as a candidate for this position, and below you can find her motivation for becoming the next Financial Director of AEGEE.

The AEGEEan: Teresa, can you describe yourself in five words?

Teresa: For who does not know me, my name is Teresa, but everybody calls me Terry. I am 25 years old and I come from Udine, a small city in the North-East of Italy, even if I have African origins. About myself I can say that I am ambitious, perfectionist, open minded, dynamic and a cheerful person. I love to make new experiences and to improve myself and the environment that is around me, so I hope that running for the Financial Director’s position will be for me a chance for adding something positive to AEGEE.

You started in your local as treasurer and then president. How do you think that this influenced you in deciding to run for Financial Director?

Since I was treasurer in my local, I dreamt to be Financial Director one day, because I really believe in the impact and in the power of AEGEE, but I didn’t have the possibility to run for it until now because I was focusing more on the local level and on the other responsibilities that I had. Being in the local board as Treasurer and then President and having to deal with many tasks, issues and experiences at local level, but also having the possibility to be part of the Audit Commission as SubCommissioner and of the Migration Interest Group at the European level, and seeing the good results I achieved with my mates at local and European level, despite some difficult moments; all these things, little by little increased my desire to become Financial Director. So, working in teams for so much time gave me the opportunity of experiencing teamwork, ripening the sense of responsibility, respecting deadlines.

You are the only candidate for the position of Financial Director. Why do you think is that?

I think that financial stuff has always been seen as something difficult and unintelligible within AEGEE and in the world. All things related to numbers, calculations, accounting have always been not appealing for people in general, and AEGEE as the mirror of the nowadays young Europe reflect this fact, the small appeal that finance has within people.

You have experience in the financial department, but mostly at local level and theoretical. How will the knowledge that you have help you manage some unknown situations at a higher level?

The theoretical knowledge I have about the financial subject is a strong foundation for the position I am running, as I will be engaged, in case I am elected, in accounting, budgeting, reporting. I have been studying economics for almost five years at University, and since I have started my master’s degree, I have been learning economics from the theoretical point of view but even from the practical point of view, as I attended some practical courses that gave me the opportunity to get in touch with some firms, analysing their balance sheets, budgets, reports and having to solve and give advice on some issues they had: in a few words, I can say I was engaged in consultancy manner and problem-solving processes, and this is a quite important part within AEGEE and the Comité Directeur, as AEGEE-Europe is comparable to a “firm”, where not every future situation is known in advance, but despite this, is faced. In fact, I know that not having been in the Comité Directeur before I will face some unknown situations, but it happened even at local level; this fact didn’t make me give up, rather made me understand that for achieving the best results you should fight and use the knowledge you have as a starting point. Let’s also not forget that I will be part of a team.

One of your direction in your programme is fundraising. How do you see fundraising as a candidate for Financial Director and for AEGEE-Europe?

To be Financial Director means to be the one who is engaged in the management and control of the economic flows, outflows and inflows. In fact the balance sheet, the budgets and the reports are documents that show people which was the performance of the entity they refer to. As I see the fundraising, it is a way of improving and increase the inflows, not only in monetary terms, but even in terms of having more opportunities for AEGEEans all over Europe, making some agreements and partnerships. In fact, AEGEE-Europe, meant as our European network, has the possibility to do all these things, as it is the biggest youth association and it is a huge network of young people spread in about 200 cities on our continent. Fundraising is also an instrument that can allow our network to do many other things and activities that we are not doing for now, or improve the ones that we have been doing for many years.

You are doing your master’s degree now, and next year by this time you will have to present your thesis, which is not something easy to do. In case you will get elected, how do you think that you will manage your duties as Financial Director and writing your thesis?

First of all, my idea is to write my thesis on my experience in AEGEE as Financial Director, in order to make a thesis that could be useful for some young people who are scared of starting the experience I have, to get them motivated and this can also be useful to make AEGEE well known. Secondly, we all know that being Financial Director, I won’t have so much free time but if I am running for this position now it is because I feel enthusiastic and ready for it. In fact I almost finished my exams, which were according to me the most important part of my master’s degree, so the thesis will not be a problem. If I don’t manage to write the thesis and being Financial Director at the same time, I will still have time to write my thesis after my experience in the Comité Directeur and finish my studies almost on time. It is worth to write my thesis not in the time I was thinking, but get the experience of being the one who can improve AEGEE and do something more for the association.

Tell us the most relevant aspects of your candidature and why should people vote for you.

My candidature is based on few important points as: continuing the job done by the previous Financial Directors, managing,  AEGEE’s money and finance in the best way that I will be capable of, having a good budgeting and planning scheme at the beginning of my mandate, so that everything will be clear from the beginning and we could save money; doing good fundraising and arising the awareness about the importance and how to deal with financial matters within the locals. Using few words, I can say that, on the one hand, I want AEGEE to be known and supported by more and more entities, so that will try to guarantee to AEGEEans many other opportunities that we don’t have within the association, and on the other hand, I would like to make financial matters less difficult to understand among the treasurers within AEGEE.

As conclusion, I would like to say that I am ready for being the Financial Director of AEGEE-Europe and work with other people in the Comité Directeur House. I am motivated and enthusiastic for it and I really want to work for AEGEE, for its improvement and wellness. I have the background needed for the position I am running for and the motivation. I have been in AEGEE for three years before taking this decision and I think that now is the right time for doing something bigger for and with AEGEE, to arise our power and influence within Europe and the world. Don’t forget I am perfectionist, so I will invest myself to be as perfect a treasurer as I will manage to be.

You can read is full candidature here.

Written by Raluca Radu, AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca

Somewhere in Brussels, near the European Commission, you can find a house that looks just like most other houses in the city from the outside, but contains a lot of rooms, people and ideas on the inside. What house am I talking about? The AEGEE house, which the new Comité Directeur has been calling their home since the 1st of August, when we moved in to start our work. “What is that work about?”, you may wonder, and probably other members wonder too. Read on to find out!

My alarm clock is set at 8:15 am. Fortunately, the distance from my bedroom to the office can be covered in less than one minute and there is not traffic jam that keeps me on my way to my desk – apart from some bathroom congestion. Once in the office I try to follow some sort of routine to make sure that the day will be fully effective: calendar-check; news-check; emails-check. Our life in the office gets basically full with meetings and more meetings, and emails and more emails so there is little time for the remaining creativity tasks that in some cases consume also our night and resting time.

In this Comité Directeur we have tried to divide our portfolios in a way that we share the workload and that the tasks are distributed according to our knowledge and motivations. In my case, I have quite a big field to cover which is Youth Employment that as one of our focus areas has a Working Group linked to it. I have to monitor the most relevant happenings related to Youth Employment in Europe and participate in activities to show what AEGEE stands for. Also, linked to this field, I’m the project manager of the MY-WAY project which is a Horizon2020 project funded by the European Commission striving at innovation in the web entrepreneurship ecosystem in Europe. Now we are in a phase where we have to develop an action plan for a city to improve the engagement and effectiveness of Student Support Centres.

Another big part of my time is spent on IT as I have to coordinate the development of MyAEGEE (the new cool name of the OMS) and in general, all the IT related things. In this sense, Anna Gumbau, the Communication Director, is also taking a piece of the puzzle as she is managing the content of the Members Portal and the aegee.org site and she is developing a brand new website that will hopefully be released soon. MyAEGEE will drastically change the way we work online in AEGEE so there is a pool of people led by Pavel Zbornik and Fabrizio Bellicano working on this.

The third pillar of my task distribution is the External impact overview. In this area I don’t play alone as it’s a task that is also distributed among the rest of the CD members. On the one hand, we have funding that can be corporated in which Ander Guerrero, the Financial Director, and me have to contact companies looking for sponsorship opportunities; and public funding that refers mainly to monitor grants as the EYF, Erasmus+, DEAR and others to later on help writing the applications. On the other hand, there is the soft external impact in which the main tasks are to advocate for AEGEE’s beliefs based on the approved papers and to be seen as an organisation to take into account for youth and students rights.

External Relations Director is a fancy name to say that I have to coordinate the different AEGEE bodies that are in touch with externals and also to have an overview on the different relations we have with other organisations. Therefore, we can differentiate two sides:

1 – The coordination of AEGEE bodies means that the Pool of Representatives, the Liaison Office and the Working Groups need to be briefed in the activities they participate in on behalf of AEGEE Europe. The new structure of the Working Groups has an external vocation having within the team a Policy Officer and a Working Group coordinator, so as External Relations director, I have to assess the development of Policy documents that they produce, their representation in events and the external outreach of their activities.

2 – The overview of AEGEE relations with other organisations is linked to the fact that the massive structure of AEGEE requires the entire board to get those organisations divided to increase our impact. My tasks as External Relations director is to structure and have an overview of which are the developments in the relations with those.

One of the highlights of the events I have participated in recently is the Council of Members of the European Youth Forum (COMEM of YFJ). AEGEE is full member of this association, and even represented in the board so it was a great experience for me to understand how the biggest umbrella organisation that gathers National Youth councils and International Youth NGOs works and how our voice can be heard.

On a playful side, this house every day is an adventure. Imagine that constantly you are living with eight other people who are almost non-stop travelling around Europe and you also receive almost every weekend a team of five or 10 people who increase the chaos in the house. It was very funny for me when we receive some members from AEGEE-Kyïv in the house and I got to know that they knew me as Mr. Fixer, because every time someone from the Ukranian local came in the house, I was repairing something as the fridge, computers, kitchen shelves… Maybe I’ll be a real handyman in the future.

You can read his interview part one here and part two here.

Written by Pablo Hernández Rodriguez, External Relations Director 2015 – 2016 

AEGEE is a student association which often receives some help from the universities. Obviously, every Antenna enjoys a different support from a university and in this article we verify the situation of some Locals (AEGEE-Skopje, AEGEE-Rostov-na-Donu, AEGEE-Kyïv and AEGEE-Verona) which have a good relation with the universities.

Marija Davcheva, External Relations Responsible of AEGEE Skopje, tells us AEGEE-Skopje office is registered at the University SS.Cyril and Methodius Skopje, Faculty of Law’s address and they have their office there. Also, the Macedonian University supports her Antenna by providing the office and rooms on request for events/workshops and general assembly. The faculty also covers the costs, monthly bills for the office including the wi-fi network. The Antenna has not had any other financial support from the University yet. Instead, the University helps AEGEE-Skopje to collect more new members by allowing it to promote its activities inside the areas and the hallways of the faculties. AEGEE members usually make info desks in certain periods of the academic year, for instance the beginning of a new semester or before the SU applications, when the students are motivated the most and are looking for new volunteering opportunities. The University allows AEGEE-Skopje to make info desks in the faculty areas, as well as presentations for AEGEE activities in some of the classrooms at the University. Until now the Macedonian Antenna has not promoted any collaborations with the University like a foreign language course.

Anna Bespalova and Elena Efremova, Board members of AEGEE-Rostov-na-Donu, tell us their University guarantees some kind of support to the Russian Antenna by offering an annual grant for student project and international events. Then, the Russian Antenna takes financing from the University for the Summer Universities, NWMs and LTCs, and is provided accomodation, meals and transport. The University helps AEGEE-Rostov-na-Donu to collect new members by giving information about its events on the official website and let it spread its promo materials in the areas of the University. The University allows the AEGEE members to promote their association inside the areas of the same University by providing the space for presentations and let them print their promo materials for free.

Sara Bottacini, Board member of AEGEE-Verona, tells us the University allows the AEGEE members to promote their association in the areas of the same University although they do not receive any other kind of support. The ESU, an office which tends to give offsite students canteen and accomodation, leaves some space for the office of the Italian Local and funds AEGEE-Verona a little for its activities.

Iryna Sheremeta, Board member of AEGEE-Kyïv, says that the Ukrainian Antenna does not receive any kind of support from the University and it does not have sponsorship as well. AEGEE-Kyïv members do not get any financing from the University, but they get rooms for free and possibility to make their events there (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyïv). Currently, they do not have an office but they are working on this. “We have good relationship with heading in the University after Autumn Agora Kyïv 2015, so hopefully we will get office for us” adds Iryna. The University helps them to collect more members because they do presentations about AEGEE in different universities in Kyïv. About the association promotion, they are placing posters inside the University and collaborating with student parliament. “In such a way we get promotion in University and on some events as well” says Iryna. 

This year is a very important one for AEGEE. Of course every one is important in it’s own way, but in 2015, AEGEE celebrates it’s 30th Anniversary. It was celebrated in almost every local, everywhere in its own way. We tried to summarise some of the events and the ways that this historical moment was celebrated among antennae.

The 16th of April, 1985 is the day when AEGEE was founded. EGEE(Etats Generaux Des Etudiants de l’Europe) conference organised  in cooperation with five Grands Écoles in Paris, was the one that marked the beginning of AEGEE. The whole process was led by Franck Biancheri and all the students who were involved wanted to turn the EGEE conference into an organisation in order to create a platform for young Europeans.

The aim of the founders was to create a platform so the European matters could be discussed and the youth could present their ideas to institutions on national and European level. Because it was not an idea wide spread among Europeans at that time, many students established antennae in their own cities.

The name EGEE is related to the Aegean Sea where democracy was created 2,000 years ago, but because it was confused with a French company, in 1988, the name was changed into what we all know today as AEGEE.

This year AEGEE celebrated 30 years of success, great projects and development. The date itself could not pass by unmarked, so there a big event was organised, The Night of the Seven Antennae, in order to recreate the conference that took place at the creation of AEGEE. This event was organised by seven locals: AEGEE-Aachen, AEGEE-Bergamo, AEGEE-Catania, AEGEE-Eskisehir, AEGEE-Kyiv, AEGEE-Leiden and AEGEE-Sofia and took place on 18th of April. The motto was 7 cities, 1 event.

The original conference was called Nights of Europe, and took place on 7th March 1986 in seven cities, different from the ones in which the 30th Anniversary took place: München, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Strasbourg, Bruxelles and Nice.

The Night of the Seven Antennae was connected through live streaming on the night of 18th of April. The ones involved, even if they watched the live stream relived the moments of the 30 years of AEGEE and connected to the night of 1986.

Many antennae celebrated the 30th anniversary in their own way. AEGEE-Brescia for example made a video with a short history about AEGEE, how the organisation made it through to today, and how AEGEEans are forever young because they help to create a border-less Europe.

AEGEE-Bratislava celebrated this event with a dinner and a small panel discussion about how the youth can get involved in the the EU and what future is awaiting the EU. Of course they could not forget about the cake as well.

AEGEE-Paris went Back to the Roots between 6th to 8th March. You can read more about it here.

Of course Brussels could not miss the celebration, so the event took place from 8th until 10th of May. The conference had the theme Schuman declaration 65 years later – wishes of the young generation for Europe and on the 8th of May, four panel discussions took place, regarding the European integration: social, political, economic integration – where are we heading?; democratic innovations and active citizenship; jobs and growth; education and learning mobility. The speakers were from the European Commission, representatives of civil society, politicians and students from all over Europe.

There were as well some antennae who did not create an event, but celebrated at a smaller scale, with some discussions about the history of AEGEE or a night out, partying, like AEGEE-Helsinki did.

The celebration among antennae will continue this year, because this moment should be celebrate all throughout the  year, not only on one day and AEGEE-Cagliari is organising one this July.

AEGEE will get older, will contribute to a lot more things that we can imagine, it will change members’ destinies and perspective about different things, it will grow as it did until now. We have to take care of it and do our best so the people that will follow can enjoy the moments and the project like we do. Happy Birthday AEGEE, many members, projects and years ahead!

Written by Raluca Radu, AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca

One of the plans of the Comité Directeur 2014 – 2015 was to bring the forum back to AEGEE as a means of communication and platform for discussion. We spoke to Ivan Bielik, Human Resources Director, about this potential new place-to-be in the world of AEGEE!

The AEGEEan: To start at the beginning: when, why, and how was the forum first set up?

Ivan: To be honest, I do not know when exactly the original forum was established. What is important, is that it is here right now. It exists to provide an online space for AEGEE where members can discuss, communicate their ideas and give feedback to others.

What other ways of communications have been and are still used?

As far as I remember there have been different tools for internal discussion – mailing lists, YPart, the forum and social media. YPart has not been used recently because we did not get what we wanted from the company to necessarily improve the tool for AEGEE. The mailing lists are still here and social media are used by members as well. In the last year, the forum has been reintroduced. With this Comité Directeur (CD), we wanted to create one coherent platform for internal discussion in AEGEE. YPart was not useful for this, because it is mostly a tool for feed-backing proposals, which makes the discussion limited. Mailing lists are not structured and not properly visualised for the audience. Usage of social media scatters the discussion into different places and there are serious concerns about the privacy of such discussion. Thus, the forum had the best trade-off from the four options. That’s why the CD would like to move every discussion to the forum, so that there is one coherent place.

What has changed for this new forum?

We changed the design of the forum to fulfill the need of a modern responsive design on cellphones and tablets. The biggest change however is that we finally started to talk again about the place where to discuss matters that are relevant to us. Participation in online discussion is not determined by how beautiful an online forum looks, but by people who care enough to go there and discuss what is relevant to them. Thus, the current CD believes that we need to talk about this online discussion in our organisation to slowly change the pattern of lack of online participation.

Which information can be found on the forum?

There are places for discussions about statutory events, internal matters and thematic discussions related to different interests in the Network. Moreover, there is a new area for local antennae to share solutions for their problems and to exchange best practices. It has a huge potential to be beneficial for locals, but right now it is heavily underused by members involved in local antennae.

Why should people join the forum too?

I do not have the need to forcefully persuade anyone to go there. In my opinion, it should be natural that if I am a part of an organisation that I care about, I am interested in discussions about matters that are relevant to all of its members. But I guess that is kind of idealistic to expect. The sad reality of our organisation is that the culture of discussion is low. And it takes time to change such patterns.

What are the future plans for the forum?

I would like to install a plugin on the forum that would create automatic digests once per week and then post it on the mailing list (either AEGEE-L or FORUM-L). This way, people get an overview of the developments on the forum directly in their email inboxes. And then there is the option to adjust the structure of the forum, so it reacts to the needs of the organisation. But I need others to express their needs and suggestion about it.

What are the advantages of the forum for users?

These are not different from any other online discussion place. An AEGEE member has an opportunity to take part in discussions and express their point of view. They can participate in forming the opinion that might spill over into something bigger than casual discussion. They can connect with people of similar interest. Additionally, they can help others either by explaining something (like why it is useful for organisation to have an online space for discussion), providing them with something (IT solutions for a local antenna, for example) or supporting other ideas (put forward any idea you support in AEGEE).

And what are the downsides?

It is an online tool, so the contact and bonds will never be as strong as they are with face-to-face discussions. Also, the structure of forum is not very intuitive and sometimes it is hard to find relevant things. It requires a bit of time to get acquainted with the structure of the forum. Even though it is not something everyone is willing to do, the structure is very fluid and easy to adjust if there is a constructive suggestion. The forum is not perfect and never will be, but as I said before the overall trade-off between benefits and problems is prevailing on the side of the forum.

How do you plan to attract more members to the forum?

The usage of online discussion platform is a long-term process. It will not happen from one week to another. I can use the analogy of the implementation of Visual Identity. Even after two years of existence, more or less only half of the organisation uses it. The same happens with the forum. I do not expect that people will start using it immediately. The best way to attract attention is to provide content that matters. If there is content on the forum that is relevant to AEGEE, its members will find the way how to gradually become involved.

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

Recently more and more contacts have been set up in the United Kingdom. After Manchester and Newcastle upon Tyne already joined the AEGEE family, it was announced in February that there was another addition in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. We spoke to Joona Juntunen to find out more about the newest contact!

From left to right: Michela (Italy), Julieth (Venezuela), Carlota (Portugal),
Sára (Czech Republic), Joona (Finland) & Michaela (Czech Republic)

The AEGEEan: How did you know about AEGEE-Europe?

Joona: Each of us got to know about AEGEE slightly differently. I heard about it first from my cousin who is an active member in AEGEE-Helsinki. Michela has already been part of AEGEE in her home city in Italy. And many of course have just now heard about it the first time.

What made you decide to start a contact?

I’ve been previously active in Youth in Action projects of the European Union. For example, last year I was doing European Voluntary Service in Germany. So I was already quite used to taking part in European projects and wanted to continue that after coming to study here in Aberdeen. After hearing about AEGEE, I felt that I had to seize the opportunity. Also I believe that AEGEE can have a positive impact on young people’s attitudes towards Europe here in Britain, which is quite important especially if the referendum on Brexit (a referendum on the British membership of the European Union, promised to take place in 2017, ed.) will take place. Founding a contact is really quite easy. Just being curious, open-minded and willing to take action is enough.

How many people are currently involved?

Around ten people attended the first meeting, from which around five are really active and engaged. Of course we intend to make this number much bigger in the future. It will be challenging to involve local students. So far most of us are from outside the UK.

What are your plans for the upcoming year?

In the long term we hope to establish ourselves as an antenna and organise international events and perhaps Summer Universities. Before that we’d also like to organise a bigger discussion/debate on Europe and the UK in cooperation with other societies. In the short term we are planning some promotional events to get people interested in taking part in international events. As an example we are planning to organise a pub quiz about Europe in a couple of weeks.

How will you promote yourself amongst students?

So far it has been just telling friends and posting something on Facebook. In the future we will use our contacts at other societies and organise publicity events to attract more attention. Also we want to connect with the other university in Aberdeen.

Do you get any support from other AEGEE-locals?

I have been in contact with people active in the contact in Manchester as well as members of AEGEE-Helsinki. This has been fruitful because as a new contact we are starting from zero. Hearing about others’ experiences can help a lot in the beginning. I hope the cooperation will grow in the future!

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

After several new contacts in Russia and Belgium, on the 19th of December it was announced that AEGEE-Europe is also expanding to England with a new contact in Manchester. The AEGEEan spoke to Pablo Palazón, member of AEGEE-Alicante, to find out more about the newest contact!

Pablo Palazón

Pablo Palazón got in contact with AEGEE in 2013, when he became a member of AEGEE-Alicante. “I went to a Summer University in Torino and became quite active. I ended up being the treasurer of the amazing Summer University of AEGEE-Alicante last year!” However, when he moved to Manchester last August, he noticed that there is a big need for organisations fostering Europtimism in the United Kingdom. “I was missing my AEGEE life so much that I decided to start working on the recovery of this AEGEE experience”, he says. “I had so many AEGEE friends wiling to visit me in Manchester too that I just needed to give them a good reason to come here!”

Bryn French

After Pablo met Bryn French, a member of AEGEE-Durham living in Manchester, the two guys agreed to found an AEGEE contact in Manchester. They got in contact with Domitille Simon, who founded the European Union Society in the University of Manchester some weeks before, and started to work together.  Together with the members that the European Union Society already had, the three are full of plans for the upcoming year. “We want to take advantage of the great opportunities that AEGEE offers, so we would be really happy to send people to European events”, Pablo explains. “We will be focused on recruiting members and activating the ones we already have! We are also planning to organise an event in May and open it to the AEGEE network and our Nordic Stars.”

To attract new members, there are plans to be present at the students’ fair that will take place in January at the University of Manchester. “We will organise interesting local events for members and we also want to have a good Summer University campaign”, Pablo says. “The relationship between the UK and Europe is one that is continually debated here, and we believe we can bring some much needed Europtimism!” Luckily, with help from other AEGEE-locals like AEGEE-Alicante, AEGEE-Dresden, AEGEE-London and AEGEE-Sheffield and support from Jorge Sánchez Hernández and Pablo Hernández, the new contact has more than enough support in order to achieve their plans and bring some Europtimism to the United Kingdom again.

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

Although the Comité Directeur Head Office is situated in Belgium, Brussels to be precise, until recently the country had only two AEGEE antenna, namely AEGEE-Brussel/Bruxelles and AEGEE-Leuven. On the 28^th of November this changed, when a new contact in Louvain-la-Neuve was announced. The AEGEEan spoke to Nada Lakkis to find out more about this new Belgian contact.
Before we start talking about the contact and its future, first it is time to look at the history of the city of the newest Belgian contact. It all started in Leuven, where the Catholic University at first only provided lectures in French, one of Belgium’s official languages, but started to provide lectures in Dutch, the other official language of Belgium and the language spoken in Leuven in 1930. In 1962 the French and Dutch sections of the university became autonomous, but Flemish nationalists demanded a division of the university and expressed their resentment at privileges given to French-speaking academic. In June 1968 this dispute was solved by turning the Dutch section of the university into the independent Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, while the French section was moved to the French-speaking part of the province, where a campus called Louvain-la-Neuve was founded for the Université Catholique de Louvain. The city was later build around this campus, although the university still owns the site.

Seeing that Louvain-la-Neuve is completely built around the university, it would come as no surprise that it is full of students and therefore a good place for future AEGEE members to get in contact with AEGEE-Europe. Nada Lakkis was one of them. She found out about AEGEE through her friend Lana Tomic. “She told me about all the experiences she had the opportunity to go through with AEGEE and this made me want to join the adventure. I lately found myself passionate by the kind of European dream we have the chance to experience here, during our university time, with the mobility programs and other EU-linked cultural opportunities. This interest made me want to get involved in a student union or project related to Europe, but this is when I discovered that such initiative was sadly lacking in the, however very international, student town of Louvain-la-Neuve.”

Nada turned to AEGEE-Brussel/Bruxelles, who answered her and the idea for the founding of a new contact in Louvain-la-Neuve quickly rose. “After discussing it with enthusiastic AEGEE-Brussel/Bruxelles and Comité Directeur members, I was glad to find support for the plan, which I immediately implemented by finding a motivated team of students”, said Nada. Right now, the core of this team is made up of eight active members, but the complete group consists of fourteen members. Although still a small group, they already have some plans for the upcoming year! “We would like to start with the organization of conferences in the university, in collaboration with other institutions here, as we think this is also a great way to make the association better known among students”, Nada states. Next to these conferences, the group wants to organize cultural activities and a visit to the European Parliament.

However, the plans aren’t limited to activities only. “We are definitely going to use social media, as this is probably the most powerful tool for any kind of promotion nowadays.” The new contact already has some great plans, and luckily also a lot of support from AEGEE-Brussel/Bruxelles. “I think their enthusiasm and sympathy has somehow been a catalyst for the initiative and now that the contact is created, they’re still willing to assist us. I sincerely appreciate it, and I’m looking forward to meeting new locals too.”

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

After Contacts in Tyumen and Yekaterinburg were added to the Network, on the 28^th of November yet another contact in Russia was announced: Yaroslavl. The AEGEEan spoke to Evgenii Potapov to find out more about the newest addition to the Network!

Evgenii found out about AEGEE-Europe through a very good friend, who took part in an AEGEE event organized in Azerbaijan. “She came back to Yaroslavl and told me about this amazing student organisation and the opportunities it provides, and I immediately decided to start a contact there!” At the moment of the interview there were only five people involved, but the contact was only open for a week at that time so it can be seen as a good start!

Asked about the plans, Evgenii explains us that the main goals are to sign the Convention d’Adhesion at the Agora and build up a strong, unique (contact) antenna in Yaroslavl. “To achieve this, I have to build a perfect team of at least ten members. I think in the beginning the team will consist of my friend, because they are very active and positive people that I can trust. I have already made a presentation using AEGEE’s Visual Identity, which I will use to present AEGEE at the Yaroslavl State University. I also have some ideas for two local projects, but I won’t talk about it before all the details have been discussed. Yaroslavl is a very old and beautiful city, so why wouldn’t we hold a Summer University here?”

Although only recently started, the new Contact already gets a lot of support from AEGEE-Voronezh and NetCom Natalia Ivleva. Let’s hope we will hear more about Yaroslavl in the upcoming months!

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen