Zvonimir in Passau

After the superbly organised EPM in Zagreb, and a short break with all CD members in my hometown, it was time to move forward with the second part of CD on Track. After eleven hours of train, my first destination was AEGEE-Wien. I spent my short stay in Wien with Bernhard and Christian, current and ex-president of AEGEE-Wien. In the discussion with them I got to understand that AEGEE-Wien is a small, but stable local. They have around 20 members, but they expect to have twice as much after the SU application period. They have around ten active members throughout the year and five former members that are helping when or if needed.  In last years, they organised mostly fun local events, but recently they got involved in meeting events with migrants, and events about environment and sustainability. They also shared their views on AEGEE as an organisation today and concluded that we are focusing on finding the identity and becoming more professional, but AEGEE is still offering more than enough place to have fun and AEGEE is open to everybody.

After a short morning trip from Wien to Passau, I was welcomed by Dominic, president of AEGEE-Passau. We were joined by more members for a nice city tour and we managed to discuss the local context in a nutshell.

I was planning to go to Passau for a long time, as I heard many stories about the local and how well they perform concerning antenna management. AEGEE-Passau has almost 200 members with around 40 active members, working mainly with international students. They have a close and good relation with the International Office of the University from which they receive most of the support. Also, a few members of the local are employed in the office. Dominic arranged the meeting with them where we discussed the collaboration of AEGEE-Passau and the International Office, but also the potential collaboration of the International Office and AEGEE-Europe.

Later in the evening, we had a meeting with the rest of the board and a few more members. They described how they see their local now and what they would like to see in the future. I am happy to see that board is listening to its members and more activities are in plans to be organised.  Also, we discussed the current political situation in Europe and engaged in an interesting discussion after it. After the meeting, we concluded our visit by checking the AEGEE-Passau office, in which I saw nice memories from the past years.

You can check here the interview with Dominic, President of AEGEE-Passau.

Written by Zvonimir Canjuga, Financial Director of AEGEE-Europe

In April AEGEE-Wien organised Model United Nations on Environment and Sustainable Development. For this reason they were chosen as the ACTive Local of the Month. We spoke to David Meinel to find out more!

ACT: Which emotions did you have when you found out that AEGEE-Wien has been chosen as ACTive local of April?

David: Well, at first we couldn’t believe it. We just freaked out. It is amazing to be chosen as Active Local of the Month and it is one of the biggest appreciations you can get.

Why did you decide to organise this activity?

It is crucial to teach the youth how difficult, but also how exciting international climate agreements are. Furthermore, it is necessary for them to develop a sustainable consciousness, think out of the box and overcome cultural obstacles.

What was the result of your activity?

The participants learned a lot and were grateful for the event. Most of them are already considering to join it next year as well. Just to quote some of our participants: “Everything about it was perfect and, moreover, the people were great.” or “Amazing!”. They learned how to develop a resolution while overcoming intercultural obstacles and positions of countries. In addition, they raised a lot of questions, while finding new ideas and solutions. Most of them made everlasting friendships.

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

We inform them by our newsletter, Facebook page and website as well as by face to face talks.

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

We organise different exchanges and try to become more involved with the Eastern Partnership Project.

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

It promotes your antenna, it is obviously a lot of work, but on the other hand a great experience which pays back the invested time and effort.

Do you have any tips for organising thematic activities?

Try to find some cooperation partners to organise the event with you. It doesn’t only mean sharing of workforce, but also having more visibility for your project. In addition, try to plan as early on as you can, have the financial plan ready, the outline of your project and a well-structured team with clear competences.

Can you tell us a bit more about your local?

As Vienna is a preferred city by Erasmus students, we always have a bit of a fluctuation within our member base. Nevertheless, we have a quite stable base of active and hardworking members to organise several events, like European evenings, Summer Universities, exchanges or visits to the United Nations headquarter in Vienna. Our antenna was founded in 1993.

Characterise your local in one sentence.

Our antenna is so diverse, we can only describe it with three sentences. One vision, one dream. Just do it. Connecting friends, connecting Europe.

Written by the Action Agenda Coordination Committee

Kyoto, Rio 20+, Paris 2015; there have been so many efforts to reach a common international environmental agreement and so much frustration among experts and the general population about a fair outcome. This is also what David Meinel, former AEGEE Liaison Officer to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), thought in May 2015 when he was wondering how young people would deal with the difficult situation of climate change, environmental destruction and a decrease in biodiversity.

After some talks with friends and people from UNEP, the project of a simulation conference with 150 young people from all over the world was born. The Carpathian Convention Interim Secretariat at UNEP was quickly acquired as a partner, offering to hold the Conference in a politically important setting, the Vienna International Centre, headquarter of many United Nations suborganisations and host of several UNEP divisions.
Over a short time several enthusiastic people came together to make this project possible. In a project-team composed by interested AEGEEans from different antennae in Germany, Spain, Turkey, Greece and, of course, Austria, the project could now rise to another stage.

After many skype-conversations and intensive working group meetings, the team finally got the chance to meet in person in Vienna in November 2015 and discuss directly further steps. The tour through the Vienna International Centre and the talks with the UNEP staff were impressive and made group members even more enthusiastic about the upcoming event. Over many hours of planning, even more cups of coffee and some chats over beer in the evening, the project started to get more precise. The name had to be redefined and the logo was changed several times. Maybe quite a stressful, but also funny time.

Now, it is only one and a half month till the opening ceremony of the Model United Nations Conference on Environment and Sustainable Development in Vienna: the 17th to the 22nd of April 2016. Over a period of 5 days young people in teams of one expert and one delegate per country will experience what is it like to represent their country in an international debate that differs only slightly from official conferences of the UN. The Carpathian Convention as a best-practise example and the IUCN Covenant as a draft convention developed by experts will serve as an outstanding basis for the discussions of students in the position of world leaders. On their first day in Vienna participants will be welcomed by people from UNEP and learn about its background. Also, the staff of UNEP will teach the participants about the COP of the Carpathian Convention. This is a once in a lifetime experience for MUNs.

Different from other Model United Nations Conferences is the big scientific support of the conferences. Several project team members with a degree in natural sciences managed to provide workshops on the biological background of environmental problems and got professors researching in that field to deliver speeches to inspire the participants. During a fair with NGOs, international organisations and education institutions, participants will be able to network and learn more about the diversity of actors influencing policy-making in environmental topics in real life. Supported by the Austrian Student Association UNYSA-AFA, participants will form coalitions over four days on the topics they perceive as most pressing and will draft a convention which will then be negotiated, amended, re-negotiated and agreed upon at the conference’s general assembly.
Participants will not only go home with an amazing new experience and knowledge about processes in international organisations, but their convention will be taken as a serious voice of young people. UNEP staff already emphasised the importance of the results of this simulation conference for their work and their interest in using the outcome as inspiration.

The application process is open and several applications from MUN- and Environmental-Enthusiasts have already arrived. Young people interested in the topic can still apply on the website to become a participant for this extraordinary Model United Nation Conference, specialised in Environment and Sustainable Development. Applications are still open till the 30th of March 2016 (for non visa applicants).

Written by Teresa Oberhauser, AEGEE-Passau