19th and 20th of February – Réka, Tekla and Zvonimir

Next stop on my route was AEGEE-Udine. On my way from Bologna to the Udine, I stopped in Mestre to have a short meeting and discussion with Erika Bettin, our lovely support from The AEGEEan and Interim Vice-Chair. Yet, let’s go back to the AEGEE-Udine, whose Summer University was the best in 2016, and I expected to see enthusiastic and young people, new leaders and plans for new Summer University that will be one of the best again. Those expectations were met, even if the local is facing a change of the generations. As soon as I arrived I was welcomed by Filippo, president of AEGEE-Udine, and we went to the city tour where I reunited with Tekla, and later with Reka. During a nice Italian dinner, we had some informal talks about events and European Schools.

On the 20th, our day started with a meeting of the representative of the International Office at the University of Udine, where we gave a short overview of what AEGEE’s contribution is in Brussels, and what the possibilities are to collaborate with both AEGEE-Udine and AEGEE-Europe. Before the meeting in the afternoon with members, through some adventures, we managed to enter our host’s place and work/prepare a bit. In the afternoon, we had a meeting with the whole board and with some of the active members of AEGEE-Udine where we introduced our work in CD, discussed some upcoming plans of the local and gave some recommendations on how to collaborate with nearby locals, how to improve their collaboration with the university and with other possible partners, and how to activate their members. The evening was closed with the birthday celebrations of AEGEE-Udine, as the local turned 25, and for us to take the next train towards Ljubljana, our next stop for CD on Track.

In addition please check the short interview with Filippo, president of AEGEE-Udine.

Written by Zvonimir Canjuga, Financial Director of AEGEE-Europe, and Tekla Hajdu, Network Director

Summer seems distant but AEGEEans, as busy bees, are already in the process to organise Summer Universities. The Summer University Coordination Team gave the future SU organisers the possibility to collaborate with AEGEE bodies and give their Summer Universities a content twist. We asked the bodies involved to give us some more information about how they envision the collaboration. In this first article we will understand more about Civic Education Working Group, Your Vision for Europe, The Academy, Human Resource Committee and Youth Employment working group.  

Even if summer is the season for relaxation, vacations and parties, a content Summer University is still possible. The Civic Education Working Group launched the motto “a SU that matters” last year, and a lot of locals followed them organising a Civic Education-themed Summer University. This year, the Working Group proposes to organise an event related to Civic Education, intercultural communication, environmental sustainability, human rights or active citizenship like LGBT, Democracy, Refugees/immigrants, Green SU, Climate change, Intercultural communication through music, Volunteering, European Citizenship, Debating SU, Sexual Education and much more.

Last year, 17 Summer Universities were organised in collaboration with Civic Education or on a topic related to it. We asked some of those locals to explain why you should think about it. If you think that a SU with content might be boring, you may be thinking it twice if you consider that last year AEGEE-Udine placed its SU in the first place with their The Dark Side of the Boot SU.

AEGEE-Udine Summer University The Dark Side of the Boot

Stefano Dal Farra, main organiser, says that they chose “this topic for our SU last year because we thought that, in order to create an amazing SU, participants had to know the real Italy, the real conditions in which we are living. We did not want them to see and experience Italy perceived from an idyllic point of view, as if they were seeing it from a postcard. They had to experience the reality of our country, and that meant making them realise and see Italy for what it is right now, with all its problems”. One of the problems in Italy is the refugee crisis and a lot of activities were done with refugees, in the places where they are being hosted. “Participants met them, played volleyball with them, had a human library and an open table with them,  learnt Italian with them, volunteered for them. All these activities helped the participants to clear their ideas about the refugee crisis in Europe, to really understand the causes that are behind it and to meet them, to talk with them, and to understand that they are normal and common people like us, who had to leave their countries because of the war or because of the difficult living conditions”, concludes Stefano.

AEGEE-Leuven and AEGEE-Tilburg Summer University Burgundian Bicycles Vol III: Biking through SUmmer

AEGEE-Leuven, together with AEGEE-Tilburg, organised the Summer University Burgundian Bicycles Vol III: Biking through SUmmer. Elinne Mertens from AEGEE-Leuven told us that they collaborated with the Civic Education Working Group “because all people should (learn how to) act as a responsible citizen, which is exactly what civic education is about. Besides, our European Citizen Initiative is about Civic education and a SU on it can help us reaching the goal of one million signatures and will make people aware of what Civic Education is, also raising the understanding about it”.

CrEATe the Peace with your heART was the Summer University organised by AEGEE-Eskişehir last year. Tuğçe Demir, Treasurer and External Relations Manager of the Turkish local, said that “Civic education is a theme that appeals to everyone and it is very common nowadays”. Positive with the previous experience and the active participation of their participants, AEGEE-Eskişehir decided to choose the same path for their Summer University 2017 as well: “This year we will work on the subject of volunteering under the name of green water and Civic Education. One of the biggest reasons is that the NGOs in our country and the world are working on this issue, but can we give a sense of volunteerism at a sufficient level? We have chosen this theme in order to be able to give and to allow participants to look at it from different perspectives”.

You can contact them at su@civiceducation.eu. 

Your Vision For Europe Project team members

Your Vision for Europe is a project which aims at spreading Europtimism in- and outside the AEGEE-Network, but not only. According to Elinne Mertens, member of the project’s team, they give “tools to encourage young Europeans to think about important European topics, to discuss them with others and in that way, to formulate and express their vision for Europe – an informed and critical view on certain European topics”. During the Summer University, with the help of the project’s team who will act as trainers, participants will develop critical thinking stimulating opinion-formation. They proposed a variety of broad topics as explained by Elinne: “We have proposed some broad topics – more specifically bridging Europe, envisioning Europe, peace building and conflict resolution, refugees and policy and advocacy processes – that can be specified more in different sessions according to the wishes of the SU organisers. Other topics can be proposed too, we are very flexible. Just tell us on which topic you want to stimulate ‘visions for Europe’!”

You can contact them at yourvisionforeurope@aegee.org. 

The Youth Employment Working Group works in the frame of our focus area and it aims at providing participants with the necessary skills and trainings to have a smooth transition from the educational system to the job market. To do so, the working group proposes several workshops on entrepreneurship, but also some visits to companies and activities on self-presentations. At the end, participants should acquire the skills to use and present their “AEGEE skills” on a professional level; the process of becoming an entrepreneur; resumé writing, Motivational Letters, Interviews and so on.

You can contact them at yewg@aegee.org.

The Human Resources Committee and their members want to stress the importance of volunteering and  the possibility it gives to people to develop themselves as human beings. Summer Universities represent a perfect opportunity to develop our members’ skills in a friendly and rather unconventional environment. The workshops they propose are studied to push participants out of their comfort zone, to think about their gained skills and experiences and to reflect about the value of volunteering and the importance of its recognition.

You can contact them at hrc@aegee.org.

The Academy is a partner association that “works” as our pool of trainers: for this summer they proposed to the Summer University organisers the HRESSU (Human Resources European School Summer University). The Secretary Eugenia Casariego has no doubt about why a local should choose them: “Training and Non-formal Education are the best choice for this awesome summer: fun, learning, skills development, and workshops delivered by experienced Trainers, so they will not be the typical workshops you have been through in many other events”. The topic, Human Resources, is very important for locals and bodies that rely massively onto that. “Thus, -she continues- developing skills to support, empower, train, motivate and retain members are key in the functioning of a successful local or body”.

You can contact them at board@aegee-academy.org.

Here the other bodies you can collaborate with.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

Giulia Caberlotto (AEGEE-Udine) wrote her thesis, in order to complete her studies in Public Relations, about AEGEE. She has been an AEGEE member for two years now and is currently the President of her local, an experience which gives her the sufficient knowledge in order to complete this task.

The AEGEEan: Hey, Giulia! How was the idea born to write a thesis about AEGEE? 

Giulia: The idea was born because I had to find an argument for my thesis, obviously! And since I was running out of time, I thought that I had to find an argument that could inspire me and keep my motivation up… The choice was pretty easy, indeed, because AEGEE is a source of motivation itself. The difficult part was to adapt it to my field of studies [she smiles, ed.], therefore I have changed millions of focuses before finding the perfect one!

Which AEGEE event did you decide to use for your study?

This was the hardest part, to choose just one of the aspects of AEGEE… In the end, after consulting with my professor, I came up with the idea of writing about the Agora, specifically the one organised by AEGEE-Cagliari since I participated as a helper. I wanted to implement the follow-up of the event so I decided to create a survey and sent it to the people who participated. I decided to analyse it through the tools of internal communication, public relations and marketing since I studied Public Relations.

 Can you tell us more about the structure of the thesis?

I divided the thesis into five chapters: the first three are theoretical, while the fourth is about AEGEE and the fifth is about the case history of Agora Cagliari.

In general, the first chapter is about the non-profit sector, the associations, the contribution of volunteers and the role of motivation in human resources strategies; the second one is about communication in this sector, primarily internal communication tools, while the third one is focused on PR and marketing tools for NGOs, with reference to events as a tool of internal PR/communication.

Regarding the survey, which categories did you use for the questions?

The questions were divided into macro-categories: evaluation of the communication tools (website and social network), evaluation of welcome pack and merchandising, questions about the event overall and the influence of promotion. I am so thankful to all the people that helped me out by filling in the survey.

 What did the majority of the AEGEEans answer to these questions?

This is a secret I will never tell  [she smile, ed.]

The answers were pretty positive, actually. I won’t get into details, but the evaluations of website and Facebook were very positive, as well as the ones of the event itself (more than 87% of people gave an evaluation between 4/5 and 5/5). The rest of my analysis was a combination of variables, so it’s difficult for me to explain it without having to show charts and diagrams.

Would your thesis be of any benefit for AEGEE as well, on the European or Local level?

It depends on what you’re expecting from it. Many people told me they wanted to read my thesis expecting it to be an AEGEE manual, but it’s actually focused on one specific topic. It could be useful, indeed, but you have to consider the general overview of the topic, the “AEGEE part” covers two chapters out of five as it is the practical case that fits the theoretical analysis.

You graduated in April! How did the professors see your thesis?

I graduated on the 13^th of April! And that is the exact day in which, two years ago, I joined AEGEE, so it was a double lucky day for me [she smile, ed.]. During the final evaluation, when I had the chance to present my work, the commission seemed very interested and asked me many questions. In the end I got the maximum result, so I am extra satisfied with my research.

How are things going in AEGEE-Udine?

The antenna is growing a lot at the moment, we have a lot of fresh members because we really worked on promotion in March and April. Now it’s time to motivate and integrate the newbies.

Written by Gabriela Cioată, AEGEE-București

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

In my first step in AEGEE, I’ve been trampled by hordes of emotions. A laugh, a new meeting, a teaching, a strong drink from each single event we have been part of something remains firmly impressed into our hearts forever. This privilege that we members experience is as rare, as it is fragile. But honestly how could the association survive and be active for 28 years if its members were not trained about its structure, activities and projects?

To satisfy this formative necessity, AEGEE-Udine with the help of AEGEE-Treviso enthusiastically organized a Regional Training Course (RTC) opened to all the antennae of the Rainbow Network. One year after the first edition, the event was repeated in Cesclans, a peaceful village north of Udine between the hills, and thanks also to the success of the last year, it attracted the attention of many interested students from all the Italian peninsula.

Around 60 participants attended the three days course, coming from all area: from Bergamo to Rome and from Pisa to Venice. Two of them even came by plane, one from Sardinia and the other from Sicily. Fleets of new recruits poured into the embedded pearl of the Carnic pre-Alps, animated by spirit of initiative, intellectual furor and a healthy amount of madness.

Even if the prohibitive temperatures pushed us to hide in beds, workshops were a real success. Day by day trainers tried to explain as many issues as possible, answer questions  and share thoughts.

Mattia Abis (AEGGE-Cagliari), the new Network Commissioner of the Rainbow, developed topics about Event Planning and explained the possible roles and tasks in the board of a Local. Obviously, as the Sardinian Antenna was elected as location of the Autumn Agora 2014, everybody was curious to know the advice of one of the supporters of this deed.

Erika Bettin (AEGEE-Venezia), after a presentation focused on Public Relations, involved all in a striking sale of common objects, stimulating us to find new imaginative utilities. Besides that she succeeded in describing AEGEE in an hour, going over all of the opportunities that our association offers.

On the other hand, Paolo Svegli, professional coach and one of the founders of AEGEE-Udine, was controversial in describing of Human Resources. With a behavior between a pot salesman and a Tibetan monk, this man divided the audience bringing up different opinions. Although many were captured by his mission of “supporting the continuous improvement that exist in any of us, both at individual level and as association, trough methods that spand from NeuroLinguistics Programming to the principles of the total emotional integration”, many remained perplexed on the real utility of such methods since the absorption is not easy nor immediate. Anyway all of the participants followed his session with interest, increasing their self-esteem and learning some self-motivation techniques.

For sure the ones who absorbed the most the concepts, expressed in these three Friulian (the area around Udine) days, were the members of the reborn AEGEE-Verona, that through the voice of its secretary Giulia Recoaro, enthusiastically admitted that: “the RTC gave us the right amount of enthusiasm, motivation and formation to give the best contribution possible to Verona. We promise to pass all this knowledge to our members so that our antenna will grow, involving more and more people who might be able to organize an event like this!” Recognizing in these intentions the joyful trampling impulse of effort, I personally believe that the whole Network will benefit of the contribution and strength of this antenna in Verona.

Dulcis in fundo, how not to talk about the social nights: happy moments of authentic fun. Always preceded by delicious and lavish meals, prepared by two incredible women (Chiara and Patrizia, members of the welcoming antenna, who cooked for 60 people!) in a hall that shifted from conference room, to dining room, to disco, these moments gave us with more smiles and needed relaxation after days so full and challenging. The AEGEE spirit fulfilled creatures of the forest and superheroes (these were the dressing codes of two parties) and Dionysus raised the curtains on scenes of body painting since all the participants could taste wines from all over Italy on the last party, the Regional Night.

So to find a moral, as Patrizia and Chiara taught us with their cake: “the more effort you make, the sweeter is the result”.

Written by Christian Spagnol, AEGEE-Udine