Last July, AEGEE-Madrid organised two events directly connected to the Action Agenda. Thematic event “Democracy: Where Are You Going?” and Summer University “LEARN SPAIN: Bear Spanish” were about Civic Education and Spreading Europtimism. For this reason, they were chosen as the ACTive Local of the Month. We spoke to Alberto Arroyo, President of the local, to find out more!

Can you tell us a bit more about your local?

We are one of the founding antennae of EGEE. Our antenna was founded the 16th of January 1986. Currently, we have about 100 members, and around 15 active members. We do not have any committees or working groups.

Why did you decide to organise these activities?

Our antenna did not have a tradition for such activities, but when the new board was elected, we all agreed to organise some activities focused on the Action Agenda (in fact, we wrote it in our Activity Plan).

What was the result of your activity? (I.e.: how many people visited it, what were the opinions about it, etc.)

In “Democracy: Where Are You Going?” we had five lovely participants, and from what we read in the evaluation form, people were satisfied with the content and the logistics of the event. It was a small number of participants, but the debates and the results of the event made it a success. In “LEARN SPAIN: Bear Spanish” we had 25 participants; for this event we don’t have feedback yet (as you know) but our general perception is that the group was happy with the program.

How do you inform your members about the Action Agenda and the Strategic Plan?

Usually, we inform our members about the Action Agenda and the Strategic Plan at our Local Training Courses and in some of the weekly social meetings. As we are implementing a new Mentorship Program, soon we will inform them about this through our mentors.

Do you have any other activities related to the Action Agenda/Strategic Plan plan?

Yes, before the end of our term in December, we are planning to do some workshops in two Local Training Courses that we will organise during October and December.

Why should other locals organise activities related to the Action Agenda and the Strategic Plan?

In our opinion, if, as an antenna, you do not do activities related to the Action Agenda, you do not share AEGEE’s mission, but only the name. Moreover, without the Action Agenda, we would lose one of the main pillars of AEGEE, our advocacy and our will to create awareness and change young minds.

Do you have any tips for organising thematic activities?

Our tip is that you have to be the change that you want to see in AEGEE. The only thing that you need to organise is motivation, a good topic and a better team. If you have these three things, everything can be done.

Written by the Action Agenda Coordination Committee

There we were again. Back in Manjirón, where this popular event took place for the very first time back in 2011 and where some of the most active members of our area nowadays also started!

In some way, this event became kind of compulsory for the members of our area (La Nave, the area of the French-, Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking antennae). We cannot finish a summer period without celebrating a Renove. The main purpose of this event is to have a big reunion of motivated members, to make participants have a good time after a wonderful and exciting experience in their Summer Universities, to let them discover a bit more about AEGEE and to gather together newbies and oldies from each antennae so they can make future plans for the upcoming year. Fun, experiences and team-building are the key elements of the event.

After great organisational work from AEGEE-Madrid, we can say the event was a success and people came back home full of happiness and motivation. Thank you for it and congratulations!

As a starter, participants were divided in groups representing different urban tribes in a good combination of oldies and newbies from different antennae to help people meet each other even before the event. Emos, rappers, heavies, hunkies, hipsters, chavs, hicks, preppies, nerds and hippies went around the lodging, even if the first night it was more animal like as we started with a Cat party (Madrileños’ style).

Next day in the morning we went for a walk: to some people a delight and to others mostly annoyance. We talked about our experiences in AEGEE in groups which is interesting and also inspiring for others. There was a fun gymkhana on Saturday afternoon where all groups worked together and did their best to complete every task. And after it… let’s go for recovery tasks! As there was an antenna which kidnapped loads of mascots from other close (or not so close) antennae, there were tasks to get them back for nearly everyone. Thank you, AEGEE-Oviedo!

At night it was time to let the tribes out and most of them impressed us with their characterisation and performance during the party. On Sunday it was time for some serious stuff; workshops and talks. Before the event, La Tripulación (NetCom Team) asked all members to send their SU pictures and share their experiences with a sentence. A video was released there for the joy of the lucky participants.

The sessions started with “AEGEE in your resume” held by Gerardo García, Olga Rivero (AEGEE-Oviedo), Marta Martinez (AEGEE-Santander) and Iker Iraizoz (AEGEE-Valladolid) followed by “My life in AEGEE” by Álvaro Espinosa, Fernando Campo (AEGEE-Santander), Pablo Ruiz (AEGEE-Zaragoza) and myself. Last but not least, there was time for AEGEE-Burgos to inform everyone about the upcoming EPM Burgos 2015, to present their project and their team; as well as for AEGEE-Oviedo to present Autumn AgorAsturias.

People left on Sunday after lunch and, after a short but intense weekend full of AEGEE spirit, farewell time was as difficult as in a SU. We believe many new members will be active after Renove IV… let’s keep working and being awesome!

Written by Carmen María López Banegas (AEGEE-Alicante)

Pictures by Ksenia Lupanova (AEGEE-Moskva) and Alberto Arroyo (AEGEE-Madrid)

Have you ever thought you can get to know one culture by experiencing its dark side? Have you ever thought you can learn so much about something by being evil? Have you ever wanted to be bad for at least a moment, to escape everyday life and go crazy, and that nobody would know? Well, we had a chance to do all of that for two whole weeks in Madrid!

You know that awkward moment when you meet someone new and you do not know how to act or to talk? Well, that did not happen to the participants of the Summer University (SU) of Madrid. It was like an instant bond between the people, like everyone could sense the rotten part inside of the other person and find something in common. Even though people did not know each other and the first night was supposed to be the ‘quiet night’, we went together to a bar to discover more about the bad side of each other. It was like we were friends for a long time.

In the following days, we learned more about the Spanish history suring the history workshop and sightseeing. Among other things, we learned about the most famous kings of Spain and how the Spanish Inquisition functioned. We visited the Royal Palace and learned more about it and its history. Also we made a trip to the famous residence of the royals, El Escorial, and learned more about Felipe II, the king who built it and was famous as a villain king, so he was closer to the heart of the participants than the other kings as we were as evil as he was.

Beside of the historical sightseeing of the city, we visited Museo del Prado, an amazing museum filled not only with paintings of Spanish painters but also with works by Rembrandt and Caravaggio.

After some sightseeing of the city, we went and enjoyed nature in the parks of Madrid, like Parque del Oeste and Retiro, where we played various games, relaxed and had some Spanish siesta time after hard partying the previous day. For sure the favorite game was the one called ‘ninja’, which was played also on train stations while waiting or wherever we had a chance.

One of the workshops we did on this SU was the sangria workshop. The organizers decided to teach the participants how NOT to make sangria. But as they are evil and rotten to the bone like the participants, their real plan was to make us “kill” each other with poisonous sangria. One of their tricks was to give onions as one of the ingredients for making sangria. Yes, it was a really good choice, because some participants fell for it and “poisoned” the other participants. Their evil plan worked. Also, there were sangrias like sugar bombs, which were as poisonous as the onion ones. In the end, the evil organizers showed how to make real and good Spanish sangria, so the participants will “poison” their families at home in a proper way. A lot of fun was also the salsa workshop. We learned a lot of killer moves so we were even more ready to discover the amazing clubs of Madrid and to heat things up a bit.

Water fights in part of Madrid called Vallecas were a complete revelation for a lot of participants, as many of them did not experience such an adventure. Vallecas was closed for the traffic and became a real battlefield, so evilness of the participants could rise to the maximum. Some people brought water-guns, some bottles and the games began! Everyone was splashing each other and having a lot of fun. There was also a DJ, so while splashing each other, people were dancing like there was no tomorrow.

For a lot of people the water fights were a treat, but also for a lot of them, especially for the male participants, the football stadium Santiago Bernabeuwas even better. The participants got to go through the halls filled with the football cups and pictures of the players and to sit in the press conference room of one of the best football clubs in the world. Inspired by the stadium and feeling the energy of it, we felt ourselves like a dream team.

Probably one of the best days for the participants to express their inner craziness was the day spent at the amusement park. Going on various roller coasters and feeling the adrenaline made our inner devil come out and a lot of us spent almost twelve hours on the rides.

Beside experiencing Madrid, we visited Toledo and Segovia. We felt the ancient and religious spirit of Toledo, learning about it and its importance for Spain through history. In Segovia, we enjoyed the architecture and monuments like the Roman aqueduct and Gothic cathedral which are UNESCO heritage sites. For sure people could feel even more the spirit of Spain while learning about this cities.

The SU Break Bad in Madrid was the best mixture of the past and the present. While we were learning about the history of the country and of the cities Madrid, Toledo and Segovia, we experienced the modern life of Madrid. We tasted the food (tapas, montaditos), drinks (sangria, tinto de verano and, of course, beer) and everyday life of people of Madrid. We got the full experience of Madrid so we almost felt like home. Then we can only say this Spanish saying “de Madrid al cielo”, which means “from Madrid to heaven”.

Written by Emilija Kesic, AEGEE-Beograd

Renove is a common term for members of La Nave, the nickname for the locals in France, Spain, Portugal and AEGEE-Brussels/Bruxelles. This year the 4^th edition of Renove will be hosted, bringing back the event to where it originally started, namely in a small village close to Madrid.

AEGEE-Madrid will already host the fourth edition of Renove, but even though the event has existed for years, still not many members outside of La Nave know about it. The AEGEEan therefore interviewed newly elected NetCom assistant Carmen Maria about the idea behind the event. “The idea was to have a common event right after the period of Summer Universities (when new members are really motivated and want to know more about AEGEE). An event which combines funny activities and information about AEGEE in the right doses, as well as allows antennae members to get to know each other by mixing oldies and newbies while promoting teambuilding.”

After the first edition of the event, Antonio Velez then President of AEGEE-Madrid explained to The AEGEEan that the idea included having a team based competition, some light workshops and a lot of fun and parties to make it an attractive event for newbies. “As one of the main objectives (and results) of this event was to activate new people in order to gain new board members, Maria Laglera (PR of SUCT 2011) suggested the name Renove, which in Spain is the name of a goverment program to replace old cars, and we all agreed,” he told the magazine when being interviewed by The AEGEEan in 2011.

In the last years the event has been hosted by AEGEE-Madrid, AEGEE-Valladolid and AEGEE-Burgos. The NetCom team, La Tripulación, ensured that the event created back in 2011 kept its original spirit and main purpose and has over the years taken further control of the content in order for it not to divert its aim.

As mentioned, the event this year goes back to where it started, in a small village close to the Spanish capital and again hosted by AEGEE-Madrid. Carmen Maria tells us: “Clearly, Madrid is geographically the most convenient city for the whole area. Connections are better and easier for people than to other cities. It will also be good for the antenna to motivate and activate members which is a bit difficult in such a big city.”

Renove in Valladolid

As always it will be a busy autumn for the antennae in “La Nave” having several interesting events to go to. There will be Renove in September, sending delegates and visitors to the Autumn Agora in Cagliari in October and the Autumn Network Meeting in November in Zaragoza. The AEGEEan asked Carmen Maria if she believes the event participation in Renove and later the NWM in Zaragoza will be affected by the busy schedule and she says: “Renove is taking place right in the middle of Spain and Zaragoza is in the Northwest. These cities have quite a good location regarding the rest of the antennae of our area so we don’t really see a problem. The content and aim of these events are also pretty different so they can attract a wide variety of members. Moreover, we love Renoves and NWMs!”

Next to these events, early next year there will also be plenty of work for AEGEE antennae as the EPM will take place in Burgos in February and a few months later there will be the Spring Agora in Gijon organized by AEGEE-Oviedo. The Autumn NWM as well as Renove will be of great importance for these two statutory events “They will be really relevant as many people might get active and find the motivation to take part in these upcoming events. They will also be the perfect place to learn a bit more about event’s organisation, functioning of the teams and so on, so we expect these events to be a help for the future organisers and helpers of the EPM and the Agora. They will be perfect places to bond together,” Carmen Maria tells The AEGEEan.

Renove hosted by AEGEE-Burgos

Of course The AEGEEan also interview the board of AEGEE-Madrid about their motivation to organise the event. It was already said last year that the antenna wanted to organise the event again but in the end the participants enjoyed a fruitful event hosted by AEGEE-Burgos. So instead of Renove 3.0 it turned out that Renove 4.0 would be the follow-up event for AEGEE-Madrid on their great success in 2011 and they tell us: “Well, for us, it was about time to do it.  Last year we were in a rush and we didn’t have enough time to prepare a project like this one. This year, with a fresh new board and some new active members there was a constant factor that always appeared in our projects: Renove IV. Since the very beginning, it was proposed to organise the Renove in 2014, and all the new and old board member agreed on that. As the time was passing, we were more and more excited about the idea of organising an event like this for our region.We have worked hard lately on it and finally we decided to send our application to “La Tripulación”.”

Even though about three years have gone by, there are still people in AEGEE-Madrid that have the experience of hosting the first event that will offer their expertise for the 4^th edition, for example Sergio Recuero, who was part of the team that organized the first Renove. For Renove 4.0, he will be in charge of the social programme and activities before and during the event. Also Antonio Vélez who used to be a subcommisioner for the Network Commission, and who is another experienced member from AEGEE-Madrid will help the antenna with the organisation of this big project. Javier Uceda, the Vice president, was also involved with the same enthusiasm in the first one as he is in this one. “With their experience, ideas, patience and hard work, we are sure we will make the difference for Renove IV,” the rest of the board of AEGEE-Madrid ensures The AEGEEan.

These experienced members work together with the group of organisers with new motivated members such as Alberto Arroyo and Silvia de Gregorio that are very motivated and want to get involved in the organization of such an event for the whole region. They will also make use of the experience of Cintia Pérez, Eva Alcolea and Ana Gómez (Anita), who have already organized events not only on a local level, but also in the European level, which surely will be a great contribution.

 However, the event won’t all be the same as the first year. First of all, the first thing that will be different is the accommodation. The lodging has been renovated during the last year and the participants will be in wood huts instead of a hostel. Furthermore, the owners of the place have also renovated the facilities and there will also be a greater arrangement of the parties this time around. But changes aren’t only made to the accommodation, AEGEE-Madrid has a lot of surprises in mind as well as activities, games, a big gymkana and the thematic for this Renove that they unfortunately cannot reveal yet, but they ensure that everyone is going to have a great time. “The key of the last success was the place chosen, Manjirón, (which, would be the same but a little bit changed) but also the new team of organisers, one of them will be organiser of this Renove too (Sergio Recuero) and the social programme. We would like to contribute to repeat that success this year with fresh ideas and activities to make sure everyone is going to remember this event. However, as everyone knows, we will keep in mind what happened during the first Renove, but we won’t like to reenact it, as if we were reenacting a historical battle. As Heraclitus said: “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man,” the board says.

Former Network Commissioner Pauline at Renove in Burgos. The Network Commission is of course also very involved in Renove 4.0 that will be in Madrid

AEGEE-Madrid has many plans for the events and have already chosen the thematic for the making of the groups, as in other Renoves the participants will be divided into different groups during the event. “It is so great that we cannot tell you anything else, it is a secret (part of the surprises that we are planning). However, we know that you will love it. Our idea is to bring people from different places together and mixed the “oldies” with the “start-to-be-active” and “newbies”, so the event can be more fun and productive. Through this groups, we will make contact with all the participants and it will increase the relations of the people before and after the event,” the board finishes the interview with excitement for the event.

Renove is not the only event that AEGEE-Madrid is working on. Every week they gather the members to motivate new ones and get them in contact with the board and the rest of the people from AEGEE either at a meeting or a social drink. Besides that, as many other antennae, AEGEE-Madrid is also busy working on their upcoming Summer University and they have plenty more events in mind to ensure that AEGEE members will enjoy happenings hosted by their antenna several times of the year in different shapes of events.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-Zaragoza.

 »De Madrid al cielo (From Madrid to the sky)« is the official slogan for the Spanish capital. However, for us, participants of the SU “Waka Waka Madrid Waka,” it should be renamed to »From Madrid to heaven!« Because… those two weeks in Madrid were nothing, but paradise.

In two weeks’ time we have not only had the opportunity to discover every bit of Madrid and its corners, we also visited Segovia and

Toledo, cities that embody the antique touch of dust from the Roman empire.

We embraced Madrid and Spanish culture in its best way. – Doing sightseeings, going to museums, speaking with the locals, playing Gymkhana games, experiencing the famous Spanish nightlife etc. As you see, we were very active, but we also tried some siesta and in this way, we fully embraced the Spanish spirit.

And just to give you a glimpse…

Our eyes were blinded by the extreme beauty of the museums and architecture. Just in two weeks’ time we managed to establish our own race, as we were called ‘the orange people’ nowhere else but in Royal Palace. Our stomachs were awarded by the best food. Yes: Jamon, Gazpacho and Paella, we praise you. We learned all the right words on a surviving Spanish course. – »Tengo novio, pero el es muy lejos (I have a boyfriend, but he is far away.).« For one night we became the most passionate Salsa dancers. We loved how Sangrias and Tequilas cheered us up despite our already all around brilliant and special »orange« nature.

Due to Olympic games in London and our supporting spirit, we even organised our own Waka Waka Olympic games. We had the awesomest organisers that always found creative ways of waking participants up. – Spanish style, of course, with olé olé olé megaphone. It surely was an adventure and a half. We laughed, we cried and even though we did not spend much time together, we became great friends.

This was just a glimpse, since all the details can not be revealed. And as the saying itself says: »What happens in Madrid, stays in Madrid!«

 Written by Maja Planinc, AEGEE-Maribor

Let us gather 130 people in the mountains of Madrid for one weekend! That was the “proposal” made by AEGEE-Madrid for a future event. At first glance this idea seemed unrealistic. How in the world could AEGEE-Madrid organise such event and for so many people? However, that is exactly what happened last October and the event turned out to be such a great success that it has been nominated for The AEGEEans Choice Awards 2012.

Photo courtesy of Guillermo Macía Diaz

The thoughts behind Renove

During the Network Meeting (NWM) in Granada some informal talks were made with some people from the Network Comission (NetCom) team regarding the lack of an event for AEGEE newbies who had just returned from a Summer University (SU) or who never got accepted to a SU. Then the idea came up to organise a massive event that would bring these people together with active members and “oldies” in a funny, team building oriented event. Thus, people who had attended a SU could meet their SU mates from the Network again and the boards had the opportunity to meet all their new members and try to engage them to become more active. Since AEGEE-Madrid knew the perfect place for such event (a hostel that previously had been used for NWM Madrid) it was easy to start with the organisation right away.

Why Renove?

Photo courtesy of Guillermo Macía Diaz

Now AEGEE-Madrid and friends knew where they were going for this event, next step was to build the concept of the event. Former president Antonio Velez of AEGEE-Madrid explains the process: “We involved as many experienced people from the Network as we could in the brainstorming process, but we had in mind that it had to include a team based competition, some light workshops and a lot of fun and parties to make this event attractive to the newbies. As one of the main objectives (and results) of this event was to activate new people in order to gain new board members, Maria Laglera (PR of SUCT 2011) suggested the name “Renove“, that in Spain is the name of a goverment program to replace old cars, and we all agreed.”

Game of Thrones

Photo courtesy of Alexandre Huynh

Some have seen the books, some have seen the television series, and some are still clueless when hearing the words “Game of Thrones”. These exact words in fact formed the setting of Renove. As it was expected to have a lot of participants (more than 150 people), the organisers had to divide the participants into teams for the competition with an unified theme for all the activities that also could be funny for the costume party. Antonio then came to think of “Game of Thrones” since there many “houses” in the books, creating the possibility of naming the teams the same names as the different houses. It gave the organisers a lot of possibilities for the presentation which they in the end performed as a little theatrical play, and there were used a broad creativity when the participants had to dress up as princesses (the guys) and prince (the girls).

Designing the T-shirts

Yellow team, green team, orange team, and the list goes on. The Renove participants were divided into numerous teams, requiring a lot of effort for creating the Renove t-shirt. T-shirt designing is apparently not the hardest task to overcome for an experienced t-shirt designer as Antonio; however what was difficult was to combine the incoming info with the teams.

Different team members together. Photo courtesy of Alexandre Huynh

Once all the teams were created, they had to collect all the t-shirt sizes and make the t-shirts according (more or less) with the colours of houses in the book. As if that was not enough, Antonio and the team encountered even more trouble when going to pick up the t-shirts on the first day of the event. There were mistakes in the sizes and colours leading to negotiation with the owner of the shop to get more t-shirt and another reorganization of the teams.

Renove 2.0

When asked if there is going to be a “Renove 2” the answer was a clear yes. It is believed to be a good “tool” for the Network to activate people, and it makes the newbies meet new people who are geographically near to them. “Maybe it is a little soon to evaluate the
results of this event, but some people who attended have become more active, such as Andres Monge, who attended this event as a newbie and now is one of the founders of the new AEGEE-Seville. Furthermore, we really enjoyed organising this event because we know the place, we have experience in these kind of events which again stresses the fact that there is no reason to say no to Renove 2. This event is a place for the people in the Network to have a good time with new and old friends, and in my opinion, friendship is one of the most important driving forces of AEGEE,” Antonio tells by the end of the interview with The AEGEEan.

Judging by the friendships that have been formed in this event, the joy that can be seen in the numerous Renove pictures on Facebook, and the motivation a high number of the participants gained to be more active AEGEEans Renove was definitely a success. Hopefully “Renove 2” will be able to live up to the expectations!

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København