Réka, Tekla and Zvonimir: Day 7 and 8 – Ljubljana (21st – 22nd February)

Having our last stop in Italy in Udine, we continued our journey to Ljubljana, where we got via two night trains and a long waiting period in Villach, so the morning for us started with getting to our host’s place and catching up with some sleep.

After having a traditional Slovenian lunch, we went to the new student centre in the city where we prepared three sessions for AEGEE-Ljubljana: HR, Fundraising and Financial Management. During the sessions, we discussed why their members joined AEGEE and how to build on this, some smaller tips to keep the members active by organising regular activities, how to build on the support from the university or municipality and the fact that last year they were Green capital of the EU. For AEGEE-Ljubljana members, the main reason to join AEGEE is travelling and self-development: we discussed how to take advantage of this factor as the city already offers a wide range of training activities, but there are still some niches where AEGEE could offer something unique. They also got some tips from Zvonimir about how to better control finances, a detailed explanation on Membership fees, and Réka gave a summary about Erasmus+ and how to use these opportunities for the local activities. In the evening we just stayed at our host’s place and tried out some games and we prepared for EPM due to the event coming up within a few days.

The next day Zvonimir and I took the train to Zagreb to be more  involved in the preparations of the EPM, while Réka departed for Maribor, her last stop before EPM. CD on Track will resume after EPM – stay tuned for more articles in March!

Written by Tekla Hajdu, Network Director

Spring Agora Bergamo starts on the 18^th of May this year, and its arrival is solemnly heralded by its many Facebook invites and by those of the Pre-Agora events. If you go to the Agora, you can go directly or you can go via one of the six Pre-Agora events (or just go to one of the six Pre-Agora events, no obligations). Regardless of which, the deadlines to apply for these six events are approaching soon, that’s why we, at the AEGEEan, have decided to make a list of all the six pre-events. This… is the road to the Agora.

Sail Forward

The Pre-Agora event that starts first is AEGEE-Genova’s “Sail Forward”, continuing from the 12^th until the 18^th of May. It is both the longest and most expensive of the Pre-Agora events, encompassing almost an entire week and costing €120. The event will take place in both the city of Genova itself, and Cinque Terre (Five Lands), a collection of five villages and tourist hotspot on rugged bit of coastal area on the Italian Riviera between Genova and La Spezia. “Sail Forward” is also perhaps the most sportive of the six pre-events, because the hills of Genova and especially Cinque Terre are perfect for hiking and exploration.

Deadline 29th of March. Application here and here.

Amusic Mi(lano)

AEGEE-Milano’s pre-event could be considered to be the most exclusive of the Pre-Agora events: it is one of the shortest (lasting only five days), the most expensive per day (€19,80 or €22,80, including the costs for the optional fee), together with “All EU need is Love” takes in the least amount of people (only 20), and the culturally most sophisticated (the programme includes, among which, a visit to at least one museum, as well as a live performance of classical music). As mentioned before, there is an optional fee to visit Como, on the shores of lake Como, which has an interesting connection with dictators. There was Julius Caesar, who, in the first century B.C., came, saw and decided that the settlement of Como should  move to its current location, and Benito Mussolini, who was captured and promptly executed on the northern banks of lake Como.

Deadline 3rd of April. Application here and here.

25 and Looking Forward!

Also starting on the 13^th of May is AEGEE-Firenze’s “25 and Looking Forward!”, a pre-event combined with a celebration of their twenty-fifth anniversary, which they promise will be “epic”. Part of this Pre-Agora event will be spent in a country house in the Tuscan hills, while the other part will be spent in the city of Florence itself. There will be a tour of the city, which is arguably most famous for its citizens like the artists, Donatello (1386-1466) and Botticelli (1445-1510), the writers, Dante (1265-1321) and Machiavelli (1469-1527), half of the De’ Medici family, and some people you might not even realise were born in Florence. These being explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512), nurse Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), and fashion designer Guccio Gucci (1881-1953).

Deadline 30th of March. Application here and here.

All EU need is Love

As mentioned before, AEGEE-Verona’s All EU Need Is Love might contend with AEGEE-Milano’s “Amusic Mi(lano)” to be one of the most exclusive 2016 Pre-Agora events: both accept only 20 participants, and both last relatively short. That being said, AEGEE-Verona has one of the lowest fees of all the six Pre-Agora events. Its participants sleep in a gym, and, instead of museums and classical music, AEGEE-Verona offers workshops about Italian cooking, and language & gestures workshops. They also offer a trip to lake Garda (in between Verona and Bergamo), transportation to Bergamo that is included in the fee, and a city tour at night in a city (so nice) where Shakespeare set his plays thrice.

Deadline 5th of April. Application here and here.

Feel sLOVEnija

Another local that’s tying into the love motif is AEGEE-Ljubljana with their “feel sLOVEnija” Pre-Agora event. It is the only pre-event that does not take place in Italy, and it’s the only one that allows for up to thirty participants to enter. It has some similarities with “All EU need is Love”, in that both take place on the same dates (14-05 till 18-05), offer local drinks, delicious food, a visit to a stunning lake, and provide transportation to Bergamo that is included in the fee. AEGEE-Verona teaches you Italian gestures, whereas AEGEE-Ljubljana teaches you how to flirt in Slovenian. It just comes to show that love comes in many varieties.

Deadline 31st of March. Application here and here.

AAAB: Amazing AEGEEan Adventure Brixiæ

The final Pre-Agora event is AEGEE-Brescia’s “AAAB”, or “Amazing AEGEEan Adventure Brixiæ”, which sounds funny, because of the letter ‘B’ ends a series of ‘A’s, but also because the name of the city, Brescia, is written in Latin, Brixia. This may have something to do with the city’s rich historical heritage, which can be seen during this pre-event. ”AAAB” is also unique in that it’s the shortest of the six pre-events, lasting from Monday evening on the 16^th till Wednesday morning on the 18^th. It also has the cheapest overall fee, which is in part, because, like in Verona, you’ll sleep in a gym, and it’s the pre-event that is closest to the Agora itself.

Deadline 3rd of April. Application here and here.

So there you go… if you go, take a pick of your road to the Agora.

Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen

It has been almost three weeks from the time that I came back from my Summer University and I still feel like having no words to explain my feelings and all the experiences that I have gained from it.

Travelling for almost 18 hours by taking every mean of transport, passing through 4 different countries until we reach Ljubljana and the only thing that I can remember from the time that I entered the gym is our smileing organizers welcomeing us into this wonderful experience.

“Cultures beyond the border”; the game began in Ljubljana where we spent almost four days. But of course, not all of them! Ljubljana was our homebase from where we were travelling around Slovenia. We spent the first day in the capital of Slovenia learning how to say “Levo” to local people and several things about the history of Ljubljana. I cannot forget to mention that we were canoeing for an hour around the city. But our adventure did not stop in Ljubljana as we also visited Bled and Bohijn. The first one is supposed to be in the top 10 of the most beautiful cities in Europe. After our visit there I can understand why, even if the weather was not on our side. I think that if you asked any of the participants what they remember most from Slovenia(after our Van and Bench parties in Tolmin), the answer will for sure be “the hours that we spent hiking in the mountains of Velika Planina”. Haveing survived that challenge , I am ready to climb up the Olympus mountain. Apart from being really tiring, I think that it was really worth it because after the hike, you had the feeling of being on top of the world while having Milka cows to keep you company.

But why would you name the event “cultures beyond the border” if you do not move to Italy? Udine was waiting for us and the partytime began there! We spent the first day in Italy by attending a city tour and then we had to find out if the Italian stereotypes are true or not. For example, almost all the Italians that we asked have any kind of pasta as a favorite dish. In the next days, we visited Venzone and Gemona where we visited the Earthquake Museum where we learned what happened during and after the serious earthquake of 1976 and how the whole village was rebuilt after this. We visited Trieste and Venice with its famous gondolas.
But all good things come to an end and after those wonderful 15 days we had to say goodbye by throwing a great white t-shirt party.

I am sure that I can write pages and pages about our Summer University, for everything that we learnt and we visited, for our parties, for the great time that we all had together but I will not do it. I just want to say a big THANK YOU to all the organisers and the participants for having the time of my life and tell them “See you soon somewhere around Europe”

Written by Evdokia Psylla, AEGEE-Patra

And the Local of the Month of July is…. AEGEE-Udine. Located in north-east of Italy, AEGEE-Udine “in the last months was the most dynamic within my area (Italian speaking locals, AEGEE-Valletta and Contact of AEGEE-Europe in Lugano ed.), and probably in the whole Network” quoting the words of Mattia Abis, Network Commissioner (AEGEE-Cagliari). We spoke with the President Alberto De Nardi and two active members, namely Laura Garbelotto and Giancarlo Nicolò, about their past events and their upcoming plans.

The AEGEEan: Tell us a little bit about the history of your local.

Alberto: I could write a book! Where should I start? I’d say that we are experiencing a positive trend started more than one year ago, characterized by an increasing number of active members, projects, partnerships and promotional activities. In the first months of the year we introduced many changes, mainly with the purpose of giving visibility to the antenna and creating a distinctive image of the association to the external public: new logo and stickers, new t-shirt and hoody, new mascot (Mandi), new flag and banner, new web site. The next phase of this improvement process has just started. It will be deeper and it will take some time. It’s a structural change in the antenna and in the human resources management. We are introducing the committees, the mentor system and a kind of membership criteria that each member has to fulfill. It won’t be easy to implement, but the idea is to have active and motivated members from the moment of their subscription. They have to feel like part of a family and we wish that they don’t take the membership for granted, but as something that has to be conquered.

The AEGEEan: You organized a conference about CIEs (immigrants’ detention centers) and immigration problem in Europe. Why choose such a delicate topic? How was the reception?

Laura: We believe that caring about this topic is our responsibility, as citizens and AEGEE members. Being aware about the social and political reality around us doesn’t mean only to learn how to socialize and respect the different culture of the European natives. We need to consider also how the freedom of people’s mobility inside the European Union emphasizes the existence of an external border around Europe and raises the difference in the rights between European citizens and those who comes from outside, who do not have the same freedom of movement. After the conference, more than a few were surprised and astonished. People would have never expected that this could be happening inside the borders of the civilized and advanced EU, a few kilometers away from their houses, in the total silence of the mainstream media.

The AEGEEan: Not only Udine, but the entire region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. The EVS Tour with Europe Direct was organized in Trieste, can you tell us more about that? Why Trieste?

Alberto: Despite the fact that our region, Friuli Venezia Giulia, is quite small, there are two universities: Udine and Trieste. As Udine is the only local of our region (AEGEE-Trieste was deleted during Autumn Agora Budapest 2012), we decided to promote AEGEE in the city of Trieste too. The promotion is of course not as intense as in Udine, but we still manage to publish some posts online about AEGEE events. The EVS Tour was organized by the youth association Europe Direct Trieste, and consisted in the organization of many events around the region to present the EVS project. We thought: what a good chance to promote AEGEE amongst youth locals. So we contacted them and attended two meetings introducing our association and activities.

The AEGEEan: The BBalkans were hit by floods and a lot of locals and members showed a lot of support. You organized an info desk to get funds/goods for the flood victims. How did you come up with the idea? How did it go?

Giancarlo: As soon as the floods hit the Balkans we wanted to do something to help our neighbors, so we decided to contact the local Balkan community. Udine is close to the border and lots of people from the Balkans live in our region. The first idea was to inform and make students aware of the situation, so we began to collaborate with other university associations in order to be more efficient, according to the Balkan example United we stand. The result was a conference to explain the project, to inform about the emergency, the sanitary problems, the needs and the collection points. Then we created an info-desk inside the university campus to give information and collect goods to ship to the flooded territories. The whole process was very difficult to manage due to time limits and very slow official communication channels of the university, but thanks to the AEGEE spirit the result was great.

The AEGEEan: AEGEE-Udine in the last year almost doubled the number of members and elected a brand new board. How do you deal with knowledge transfer and activating fresh members?

Alberto: At the moment,  knowledge transfer is the most important task of our local. That’s why we organized a Regional Training Course (RTC) in December and a Local Training Course (LTC) in April. The timing of the LTC was strategic: right after the end of the application period for the SUs, because we had the highest number of fresher members. The LTC took place for two full days during the weekend (no classes), far away from exam sessions, not overlapping other events and completely for free. Then we created an online database to store all the useful materials we need such as documents, forms, tool kits, flyers, presentations, contacts and so on. Finally, besides the direct knowledge transfer between each role of former and new board, we just started to introduce the mentor system and the committees as these are two powerful ways of training and integrating new members in the team.

The AEGEEan: Three of your members went to the European School 1 (ES1) in Enschede and one to the Summer University Project School (SUPS). How was it? How important are for you those kind of trainings?

Alberto: Besides them four, another member attended the Training for Trainers (T4T) and one more applied to the IT School, but it was unfortunately cancelled. Personally I attended the ES1 and I’m extremely satisfied with the program and the trainers of the Academy. We covered all the important managerial aspects for a local, the sessions were stimulating and most important the School was inspiring because I came back with some very useful suggestions that we already started to implement. In the same way, another member went to SUPS in Izmir and claimed that it was an incredible experience as well. Trainers were really experienced and motivating and they shared a lot of good ideas. So we strongly believe in the power and utility of trainings and European schools, we always push our members to attend them giving also a partial reimbursement.

The AEGEEans: What are the next plans of your local?

Alberto: First of all, our Travel Summer University, that will start in Ljubljana in a couple of days. We’ll spend seven days in Slovenia and seven in Italy. Everything is ready and we are very happy about the collaboration with AEGEE-Ljubljana. There is a big team of motivated organizers and the program is fantastic, so we have all the ingredients for a great event. But we have also started to work already on the next big event organized by our antenna…drum roll…the 3rd RTC in a row. The first two were memorable, so we are thinking to repeat it every year. Last year we had 60 participants and we reached the limit of the lodging place and we don’t expect less people to come this year. The dates are already set: 5th-8th of December.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia

The election for Member of the Month for July is different than the others. Instead of choosing one member, the honor goes to nine AEGEE members that took part in the Identity meeting in the beginning of July.

Anja Köngeter joined AEGEE-Heidelberg in March 2011 because  she felt like giving something back to international students after her Erasmus and spreading the spirit of tolerance and solidarity among young people from all over the world. Another girl who joined AEGEE a little bit later is Ana Potočnik from AEGEE-Ljubljana, and she has a different story about joining AEGEE than the one you usually hear: “One of my friends decided it is time to find a boyfriend, so she asked me to join her on the meeting for the New Year’s event. I had no idea what AEGEE is, what kind of event they were organizing or for whom, but as a good friend I decided to support her “let’s find me a boyfriend” mission. One and a half year later she has a guy and I have AEGEE”. 

Another new Action Agenda Coordination Committee (ACT) member and Subcommissioner of Network Commissioner Patricia Anthony, Ruta Jankauskaité (AEGEE-Kaunas) was convinced by the former Network Commissioner Karolina Mazetyte to join. “Hers was the most important role, as there was no antenna in my city and AEGEE was something I knew nothing about, but there was something I still do not understand that made me stay”. Another Subcommissioner in Patricia’s team is Maria Arends (AEGEE-Groningen) and she was also in Brussels for the Identity meeting. She joined AEGEE in 2011 because she liked travelling and she heard about AEGEE a couple of times before, but never took the step to actually become a member. Then she met some people, they told her about an exchange they wanted to do a month later with AEGEE-Budapest, and that convinced her!

Francesca Russo (AEGEE-Padova) has the typical AEGEE story of joining – she joined to take part in a Summer University and she is the one who has been in AEGEE the longest in this group, having joined back in 2006. Ivan Bielik (AEGEE-Brno), an active member who frequently publishes articles in The AEGEEan, has been in AEGEE since the beginning of 2011. He joined because he wanted to become active in some student associations during his university studies. Opportunities that AEGEE offers were, and still are of high interest for him.

Matthijs Overhaal joined AEGEE-Nijmegen in 2010 but is one of AEGEE members that have since changed antennae – he proudly become a part of AEGEE-Tartu. When asking how he joined AEGEE he says: “That is a funny story actually. I just came to live in Nijmegen and basically did not have much social contacts there yet. I would not say that joining AEGEE was a random lucky guess, but all I was looking for was social interaction. I certainly found that!” Mayri Tiido who is also from AEGEE-Tartu has been Member of the Month before as well, and her story can be read in the article that was already published.

Matthijs & Mayri

These members have done many different things in AEGEE, so The AEGEEan asked some of them about their experience in our organisation so far.

Ana: One month after I joined AEGEE I became a board member of AEGEE-Ljubljana. Since then I was the main organiser of Summer University, SUPS, NWM in Ljubljana and helped organise other events in our antenna. This summer I also became Antonija Parat’s Subcommie and now I am member of ACT.

Maria: First of all, I started to do some things on the local level, organise some activities, etc., and I joined the trips. Then I became involved in the establishment of the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG), of which I will be Speaker until next October. After a while, I also became a member of Health4Youth project. Next came Agorae, EBM Valletta, Planning Meeting in Poznan, an SU every summer, Network Meetings and some other events. At the moment I am Patricia’s Subcommie taking care of AEGEE-Durham, AEGEE-London, and AEGEE-Sheffield. Last but definitely not least, I am now in the Planning Team.

Maria Arends

Matthijs: For a year I was not present in the European level of AEGEE. I had no idea who/what was important whatsoever and was only (overly) active on the local level. However, things started changing, mainly thanks to Mayri Tiido. She showed me how cool and amazing it is to broaden your horizons, share opinions etc. In the end, it led to the foundation of Health4Youth project, which I and the others are very proud of. In between, I went to Training4Trainers in Warsaw, which turned around everything I believed in. I became a trainer in the Academy, was a trainer in local events, Agorae and European School Summer University (ESSU) Patra.

Francesca: Local level: board member, secretary and now president of my antenna (for the last two years). European level : statistics analysis assistant of Mickey Turati and now Secretary of Human Rights Working Group and Subcommie of Network Commissioner Claudio Armandi.

Ivan: I started on the local level and then after one year spent in the board of AEGEE-Brno, I moved to the European level and became a Speaker of International Politics Working Group, developed my own project – AEGEEDebate, and took part in other smaller activities as well.

What drives you to be active in AEGEE?

Maria: A gazillion things! First of all, the people. You work with so many other motivated members, and together you feel like you can do something, you can achieve something. That feels wonderful. Besides that, AEGEE is an addiction. Every time I do something with AEGEE, I want more. So in short, I do not know what drives me, but there is a powerful force that I cannot resist! 

Matthijs: Young people are the future and our generation faces so many challenges, not the least of which are health-related. Being an active young citizen makes me feel that I try to help this generation further and add something of myself to it. 

Ana: I love AEGEE because it is something completely different from my studies (biochemistry). Sometimes I need my brain to take a rest from all the molecules and working in AEGEE is always fun. You meet so many interesting people with different backgrounds. What is most important  is that you always learn something new. I was active since the very beginning, so it is the only way I know how to be a member.

Francesca: AEGEE spirit! It is about what AEGEE can give me – meeting really cool people, finding interesting opportunities, having amazing experiences and then inspiring people to show them how cool it is to be active European citizens. I love helping youngsters to feel Europe!

Ivan: Self-development of skills which I cannot develop through formal education and the motivation to change AEGEE for better.

Ruta: Without a doubt, people you meet in European events, because here you learn but not through studying.

What made you interested in taking part in the meeting?

Mayri: I must admit that after attending my first Agora (Alicante 2011) I understood that AEGEE means so many different things to everybody. This made me passionate about what AEGEE is and I have had endless discussions about that with my friends. After hearing at Agora Budapest that there will be an Identity meeting, I knew I had to be there!

Maria: Have you ever tried to explain someone what AEGEE is and what it does? In that case, I think you know! I mean, once I spent an incredible time to try to explain to a friend of mine and I thought, if I as an active member have problems with this, then how is it going for people that are not yet active? How do you even motivate people to join AEGEE?

Matthijs: I followed the process since (almost) the very beginning and have always had my troubles with AEGEE’s identity. Being culturally, socially, politically and geographically diverse is a part of a double-sided medal which can be/is very troublesome. Analysing the opinions of all AEGEEans and drafting conclusions from them only seemed a logical step after that.

Francesca: ‘I’m AEGEE’ – me and all the other 13000 members. I wanted to be one of the AEGEEans who helped develop our association, who took the challenge to do something that was needed: clarify the essence of AEGEE, the things we do not yet have stated in a few words – vision, mission and means. So that every AEGEEan will not have any doubt when asked who we are!

Anja: AEGEE’s need of a consistent and updated identity is obvious – it is difficult to have a “common identity” among all antennae AND to keep the special characteristics of each local at the same time. Since I am writing my Master’s thesis on European identity and I was working in an advertisement company (which also faces the challenge of clarification of identity) I thought that I could help out finding a good result!

Ana: It was the everyday struggle to explain to people what AEGEE is. I wanted to find a common idea about what AEGEE is and “update” our identity to make it clear and simple.

Ruta: The wish to make it clear for myself (as well as everyone else) what AEGEE is (not).

Ivan: Since I joined AEGEE I do not have a clear idea what AEGEE is and what it stands for. That was my initial problem which caused my interest in participating in Identity meeting. I wanted to change this problem and to come up with some ideas.

What was the best part of the event for you?

Mayri: I sort of guessed that it would be a lot of work and that we would most likely run out of time. Although all that was true, I really enjoyed working late with other participants. In between useful discussions we were laughing in tears. I guess that was the best part for me – working hard while having fun.

Maria: I think the group. The group was really motivated and driven and we worked hard together. As it was a serious event, people sometimes get bored, but that did not happen this time. Because we were all motivated to come up with a good result, we all kept each other motivated. 

Matthijs: Not so much a part, but rather the feeling that remains. The feeling of really wanting to finish this meeting successfully, no matter if that meant that we had to work very late. We just could not let go of the things that were unfinished for that day. I will not be the first one to say this, but the feeling of working hard with people just as inspired as you is incredible. Also, I totally rocked charades!

Francesca: It was amazing to be a part of the process and to feel the commitment and passion everyone was putting in it. The best moment was working, facilitated by Ivan, until midnight to start re-arranging the statement of principles because everyone was actively participating and no one was complaining about the duration of the work. I love even how we started the meeting, with an exercise: ‘explain AEGEE in one minute’. I found it surprising and interesting to see that everyone has their own and often very different way to do it.

Ivan: Best moment for me was the active participation of every member there during sessions. I did not expect such involvement. Apart from this, I also celebrated my birthday during the event, so that was pleasant for me too.

Anja: I learned so much about group dynamics, project management and really enjoyed visiting the CD house.

Ana: It was definitely working late in the office on the last day. We had a lot of fun working on statements of principles.

Ruta: Night in the CD house without any of CD members in the house!

Some of the members have followed up on the event after being in the Belgian capital:

Francesca: After the event I went to the Leadership Summer School (LSS) and then we had our Summer University. Every time I had the chance, I explained to all AEGEEans I met (mostly during LSS) what we did and why. Soon a paper will be sent to everyone to understand better everything we did and it will be easier to explain!

Maria: We have finished the draft documents, discussed a strategy on how to implement it, and now I am really looking forward to start with the preparations for the Agora. I hope you will all like it!

The topic of AEGEE identity continues not only for these nine people but for the whole organisation. It is certain that their participation in this weekend meeting in the CD house has contributed a lot to the topic and The AEGEEan congratulates them once more for being Members of the Month.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

N.B. Jorge Miguel, AEGEE-Valladolid as well as Antonio Sanna are also chosen as Member of the Month but chose not to take part in the interview.