AEGEE is unfortunately disappearing in Sweden. Thus having fought for months to keep AEGEE-Lund alive it appears that Network Commissioner Karolina Mazetyte and subcomissioner Patricia Anthony have to say “see you soon” to AEGEE in Sweden at Spring Agora Rhein-Neckar.

Some AEGEE members in Lund have decided that they need to move on from our organisation, and others will join former twin-antenna AEGEE-København just across the bridge. However, there is also a third option and that is Les Anciens, the body of AEGEE where former active AEGEE members can join at some point in their AEGEE life. This is the choice made by Carolina Andersson and The AEGEEan interviewed her about her past and future AEGEE life.

AEGEE-Lund members a few years ago

The AEGEEan: How long time have you been a member of AEGEE?

Carolina: I joined the local mailing list of AEGEE-Lund already in 2002, but regrettably I didn’t get active until around 2007 when I was about to finish my studies… Better late than never, though!

Why did you join AEGEE?

Having studied abroad twice through the Erasmus exchange, the first time in Göttingen (Germany) and the second time in Lancaster (England), I was happy to continue interacting with people from all over Europe and also help organizing AEGEE events. Furthermore I have been blessed with many great friends and unforgettable moments thanks to AEGEE! 

You have recently joined Les Anciens, why?

Since I’m no longer a student (apart from an evening class in Italian) and AEGEE-Lund is about to close down due to lack of active members, I have started to mentally prepare for life after AEGEE… Then a friend of mine suggested me to join the New Year’s Event with Les Anciens in Berlin, and I thought “why not?”… It turned out to be a good choice! 

You spent New Years Eve with Les Anciens, how many were you and what did you do?

We were about 40 Les Anciens members celebrating New Year in Berlin, and it turned out that the AEGEE spirit was still very much alive and kicking! We went to restaurants and pubs, had a guided tour through the Stasi museum, drank Glühwein at the Christmas market near Alexanderplatz, visited Potsdam and the Sanssouci Castle, and last but not least the highlight of the event: The huge open-air party by Brandenburger Tor, a two km long party zone with about a million visitors and artists like Bonnie Tyler, Pet Shop Boys and Loreen performing live… An unforgettable night! 

Are you planning to become more involved with Les Anciens?

I definitely plan to become more involved with Les Anciens! In mid-March I’m going to Brussels to attend the annual Les Anciens gathering “Back to Brussels” and in the summer we are planning a Midsummer event in southern Sweden. And before that there is the annual General Assembly, which will take place in Malta in the end of May. I have never been to Malta before, so I’m really excited about going there! To be continued…

The AEGEEan wishes Carolina good luck with her future AEGEE life, and hopes to see that a miracle will happen and AEGEE-Lund won’t close or that it will return sooner than later!

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

In the coming weeks you will all be voting for the AEGEE Award Best Project 2012 rewarding the most efficient project of 2011. So the question is who had the most effective project team last year? Over the next weeks, The AEGEEan will try to inspire you to choose a project team that, in your opinion, deserves the award.

First up is the Where Does Europe End (WDEE) project:

What exactly did the WDEE project team do last year, besides getting their flag stolen all the time? Well this question can be answered in an exhaustive report with plenty of details and information, but we know that your time is precious and will therefore focus on informing you about some of the most important work of the WDEE last year: organising a WDEE event in Scandinavia.

Destination: Lund

After organising a successful event in León, Spain, which had been a wish for the project team for a long time, the time came for heading towards to the North with destination Lund. It was the 5^th event for the WDEE project which raised the bar even higher for the WDEE project given the high expectations from the demanding participants. This high demand came from the large awareness on the Human Rights subject and the high level of English in the Scandinavian countries.

Tour De Scandinavia

Packing, re-packing and travelling is something that most AEGEEans already can consider one of their expertise, but this especially counts for the participants of this event that visited four cities (Lund, Malmø, Skannor and København) in the duration of six days. They for example walked the dark rainy streets of Lund at 5.30 in the morning when they were on their way to visit the Danish capital. A day in which they were active 21 hours before closing to their eyes again.

“Hi my name is Percin, I’m an exchange student…”

Now getting the famous WDEE questionnaires filled out was not as difficult in Scandinavia as in previous WDEE events such as Spain, but it did take some creativity to get the Swedish and Danish students to use five minutes of their time for an organisation that they had probably never even heard about. How did the WDEE solve this? Easy! They used home-made methods such as entering a class room, interrupting class and pretending to be Erasmus students that were fulfilling a task that the university had given them which resulted in the project team recieving answers from more than 400 Scandinavians.

Expanding and renovation of the project team

The WDEE team chose to expand and renovate their team after a longer standstill and due to some members having to leave the team for different reasons e.g. such as Percin Imrek who stepped from his position as project manager (and became content advisor) because of his his obligations of being Mr. Chair for the EBM Riga and the two Agoras in respectively Alicante and Struga. Juan Sordo from AEGEE-Oviedo replaced him after being elected as the new PM. It is hard to succeed such a hard working person as Percin but Juan managed to do follow the same standards that project founder Percin had set. I have myself attended workshops hosted by both and I do not know if there is some secret recipe within the WDEE project team on how to set up a highly interesting workshop, but I can personally say that the WDEE workshops that I have attended while being in AEGEE have been the workshops in which I have learned the most. Another experienced workshop host and WDEE project team member is Alperen Yavuz from AEGEE-Istanbul who became treasurer and FR of the project after hesitating for a long time to join it. One remarkable quote from an unknown source concerning Alperen joining the team is “Alperen is in WDEE? Then you’re going to be a succesfull project”. A quote which I believe pretty much says it all. Besides Alperen, Juan and Percin the team consists of five more members:  Nolwenn Donsimoni (AEGEE-Toulouse), Jovana Milic (AEGEE-Nis), Alicia Quiroga (AEGEE-León), Lavinia Manea (AEGEE-Bucuresti) and Katarzyna Bitka (AEGEE-Krakow). You can find much more information about the project and the team at their blog and their Facebook page. I am sure that they would be more than happy with sharing information, my impression is that they love to talk!

Coming to an end

The WDEE project is coming to an end and is currently in the process of organising their final conference which will take place in Utrecht this May. They have the aim of raising awareness about European identity and issues related to European integration process and have managed to do that through activating non-AEGEEans, including local student communities in the cities of the different project team members’ with the help of AEGEEans from all over the Network.

Best Project 2012?

Why should the WDEE project win the Best Project award 2012? Well the project team did dedicate many hours last year to their beloved project. The number of stories about the WDEE flag getting stolen last year give us an idea about the high number of events in which there was a representant from the project. In these events they used to effort to look deeper into problems of human rights, share their opinions with peers, attract attention of the local population in Scandinavian cities to the topic of human rights and European identity with their street actions, and they have managed to affect AEGEEans to become more active citizens in their respective countries while encouraging their friends to the same.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

Over the years the flag stealing game in AEGEE has developed to a battle in between locals in stealing not only flags, but also mascots and toilet paper belonging to other locals or their members.

Pre-Agora Skopje 2011 participants with the stolen AEGEE-Sofia flag

If you ever consider taking the risk of stealing a flag or another valuable item from another antenna, there are a few things to consider at first. The base of the game is that the aim is to steal a flag or an icon from another local in order to bring the locals closer together, but it is not as simple as it sounds, there are rules.

The basic rules of the game

You can steal everything from the presidential hammer, flags and receptions books till mascots, things with logos etc. when it is publically exposed. It does not count if you take it from personal belongings or in the house of your host which happened when AEGEE-Madrid mascot Retirito was stolen. It had to be given back, without any punishment, because the game has to be done in fair-play.

Faruk is trying to steal AEGEE-Lund/AEGEE-København flag

Now you have the possibility to identify what you can steal, the next step is to know how. First of all, one of the main rules is that you have to steal the item unnoticed/leaving the room without getting caught or you will have to give it back. This is the part where you analyse your opponent and the nearest exit.

During EBM Izmir 2012 Faruk Sayin, President of AEGEE-Canakkale, seemed to have analysed the exit but forgot to analyse his opponent Ilker Bildircin when he tried to steal the twin-flag of AEGEE-København and AEGEE-Lund. Faruk started running towards the nearest exit but Ilker caught up with him and tackled him in true American football style, which is exactly what Ilker practices in his spare time.

A good excuse to enjoy some beers

If you actually do manage to escape with the flag, it is time to come up with an idea for the punishment. The rule is that you are allowed to come up with a punishment that the local has to do in order to get the flag back, as long as the antenna agree to do it.

AEGEE-Budapest in flag-stealing action

This is what happend when AEGEE-Budapest  representative Gábor Pető stole AEGEE-Passau flag during an AEGEE conference with social business as a theme in Passau.  During the event AEGEE-Passau put the flag up everywhere in order to promote AEGEE, but Gábor had something else in his mind. It was an event full of new AEGEE people who were unaware of the flag stealing game, so Gábor found a co-partner in crime from Passau with whom he managed to steal the flag after one session.

Gábor explains the story saying:  “We stole the flag after a session on the last day, but it was quite adventurous. That day it was put in the biggest conference room and it was always crowded. When we almost took down the flag a girl came up to us asking whether we liked the program of the event etc. Later we found out that she was the president of the local, but she did not notice that we are about to steal her flag, which was quite funny because the flag was literally in our hands.”

The flag was returned at the Agora Skopje in which a beer-drinking competion was held between AEGEE-Budapest and AEGEE-Passau because of the interest in Bavarian beers. This all proves that it actually do bring the locals together.

A flag about to be returned to its owner after being away from home for many years

Another succesfull story contains AEGEE-Izmir legendary members Berat Ezel and Ufuk Bal who stole the AEGEE-Europe flag one month before Agora Izmir in 2005. AEGEE-Praha had organized AEGEE’s 20th year celebration event “The Happening.” The flag was stolen in the Czech Senato Building where the workshops and the plenary meetings of the event took place.

AEGEE-Izmir’s member  Tunca Ayyilidiz tells the story with a smile: “The way they stole the flag makes the whole story even funnier, because the two guys recognized that the flag was on the table in the plenary hall and there was only one person from AEGEE-Europe next to the flag, doing some things

AEGEE-Izmir revealing the punishment for the CD house during EBM Izmir

on the table. They asked him for a “scissor” and the guy was so helpful that he gave it to them. But the thing is that they asked for this scissor to cut the strings which attached the flag to the table. So in a blink of an eye, while he was not looking, they took the flag and ran out of the plenary hall.” The flag has yet to be returned to the CD house and the punishment was actually given during EBM Izmir ’12 which requires the CD to send a historic and symbolic item from the CD house in Brussels to AEGEE-Izmir and then the flag will be returned.

AEGEE-Peiraias looking forward soft accomodation during Agora Enschede ’12

These are only two examples of numerous “crimes” that have taken place in our organization, and the creativity regarding the punishment task is indeed wide. AEGEE-Oviedo’s representative Juan Sordo Barriero had to speak negatively about Asturias in a duration of five minutes during the Network Meeting (NWM) in Porto after the WDEE flag got stolen.

Others are more experience flag-stealers such as AEGEE-Peiraias representative Manos Valasis who was responsible of two punishmnets during Agora Skopje. He managed to steal the AEGEE-Enschede flag when it was left ungarded before the opening plenary which required AEGEE-Enschede to sign an agreement that they will provide lucky AEGEE-Peiraias members with up to 12 members

Proof of AEGEE-Enschede's signature on agreeing to provide 12 beds for AEGEE-Peiraias

with beds during the upcomming Agora, in order to get it back. Another flag that Manos had managed to steal during a visit to the CD house in Brussels belongs to AEGEE-Zagreb. CD member Marko and other representatives from AEGEE-Zagreb had to entertain the Agora participatns with performing “I just had sex”, which they succesfully managed to do and got their flag back.

The last case includes Chair team members Yvonne Antonovic and Percin Imrek who entertained a full plenary room during Agora Skopje with their cover version of the Danish pop plague “Barbie Girl” after the Where Does Europe End flag was stolen.

In the end, do not be scared to bring mascots and flags to AEGEE events but hold on tight, especially during Agora’s and EBM’s.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

Main Photo courtesy of Tunca Ayyildiz, AEGEE-Izmir

Thanks to Tunca Ayyildiz, Dasha Panther, Deby Gabisson, Hara Kogkou and  Gábor Pető for providing pictures.