Incredible things always happen during an Agora. The AEGEEan checked old material and asked some old members for interesting stories about this issue, a funny way to approach the upcoming Spring Agora Bergamo and read some legends of the past. 

The Agora can be something legendary for those who have never been there, since they probably heard many stories before departure. For those who already experienced it at least once, it is something incredible: a thousand of people from all over Europe, a huge common commitment, great discussions, fabulous encounters, moments of sharing and great parties. For the people organising it, it is something very different. More than one year ago, I had the honour of being an organiser of Autumn Agora Cagliari. If you ask me to say what it looks like, I would probably say tiring, challenging and agitating. If you ask me why, the answer is easy: anything can happen, even if you planned it in detail.

For every organiser there is always a precise moment when s/he realises that the event started, in my case was the following episode:

On the 28^th of October 2014, a sponsor gave us two cars and a big van. They were quite big and none of us had used a van before. We drove them to pick up CD members at the airport and, after greeting them, we put the luggage inside the last one. Once ready to drive it, an alarm rang showing that the trunk was open, we closed it many times without any result and then we thought it was a van problem. Of course the reality was very different, because as soon as we had entered the highway we heard dozens of horns around us: two bags of our former president Paul Smits broke out in the street forcing uncountable cars to make extraordinary riggings and we had to walk in the middle of the street to take them back.

Anything can happen

After that moment, many stories I heard about disasters during previous Agorae came to my mind. Maybe you do not know but a lot of weird things happened during our statutory events in the past. Not all the things regarded only organisers or were bad, some of there were actually very positive. But of course at that moment I started thinking about the worst possible scenarios.

To start: one of the things to know about the Agora is that it didn’t always look like it does today, at the first ones there were not that many participants. During Agora Salerno 1989, about two or three hundred participants were present and local organisers picked them up at the train station by car! It was the very same Agora during which the Berlin wall fell down and a participant said: “We did not know about the fall of the Wall. There were no mobiles, no one saw the news. I read about it on Monday after the Agora”.

In 1994, Agora Montpellier started at a plenary hall but finished on the market square of the French city. Why? According to our source “the freshly re-elected President of AEGEE-Europe, Dorian Selz, did not accept the election result, because he got only 52% of the votes. Before a new candidate could be voted, all the members of the Agora had to leave the building since it was closing time. So they gathered in front of the building and elected the successor, Christina Thorsson, there”. Still, it was not the worst result ever for a presidential candidate. In 1998 Stefan Seidel from AEGEE-Augsburg was elected with a poor 38%. At first he did not want to accept it and said: “I will go home now”. But people convinced him to stay in office. A bad mistake since at the next Agora his CD got a vote of confidence and lost it.

The first day of the Agora in Athina in November 2002 was overshadowed by a blackout. Suddenly the plenary hall went dark. In this case, the reaction was amazing since organisers lightened a couple of hundreds of small candles and gave the Juridical Commission president, Yuriy Tokarsky, a flashlight which he held on the Agora booklet so that President Tomak Helbin could present the CD report. It was accepted with an overwhelming majority. The organisers of autumn Agora Zaragoza in 2003 had bad luck. They could not get the promised location and had to move the Agora to an old fair instead. The participants were sleeping inside that giant hall, when one of them turned on a switch, which he mistook for a light switch.

It was the switch for the ventilation and a dead bird, which had ended its life near the ventilator, fell down – right on the sleeping bag of a Dutch participant. The history had a revival in the last years when AEGEE-Zaragoza was chosen as host of the Autumn Agora 2013, some people in fact wondered if participants were going to stay in the same place again: it was not, the event was hosted in a brand new structure used for Expo Zaragoza 2008 and the organisation was simply amazing!

An incredible year: 2006!

If there is a year champion for incredible statutory events, that’s definitely 2006, since in both the Agorae which took place an incredible fact occured. At Agora Warsawa 2006, about twenty couples which found a lonely corner in a garage to spend some nice time with the respective partner: they got registered by a surveillance camera and watched live stream by the guards.

As this history can be familiar to the readers, not so known is the case of Agora Napoli 2006: in the late afternoon of the 1st of November the water boiler plant of the Fair broke down. It was the All Saint’s day, national holiday in Italy, and the same is the 2^nd of November (All Souls’ day). Organisers desperately tried to find a plumber but it resulted in an impossible mission! One of them said: “The only solution to find a plumber in Napoli on the 2^nd of November is to look for him at a cemetery”. The situation was not fixed and participants started a huge protest because of cold water in the showers.

Recent years

Lately there have not been such big cases if we exclude huge delays in the agenda, a vote of confidence, some locals which left the plenary for protest, a broken motorbike in Agora Patra 2014 or participants who had to move their luggage because of handball match (they were already informed about it). These can be considered as funny or sad thing things which happened. Except for two cases.

Most of us probably remember the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland, which stopped the flight traffic from the 14^th till 23^rd of April of the same year. I guess you can imagine what happened: Agora Leiden was taking place from the 15^th till 18^th of the very same month: the perfect moment to destroy the travel plans of hundreds of AEGEEans, especially for their route back home, and create difficulties for organisers who had to take care of them.

If we also consider the CD members as organisers, since AEGEE-Europe is a partner organiser of the Agora, we cannot forget Agora Struga 2011 organised by AEGEE-Skopje. Because of an argue between the CD and local organisers, who increased the event fee one month before the event, for the last days of the event, the organisers disappeared leaving the CD and some other improvised helper managing the whole organisation – starting from the wake up till the welcome pack preparations!

The good God of AEGEE resides in Athina

It is possible that some organisers of Agora Bergamo or Autumn Agora Chisinau are getting scared while reading this article. In that case we should also remind them that AEGEE has a good God ready to solve every situation…and probably he is a member of AEGEE-Athina. Somehow the Greek local managed to solve not just a difficult situation but even two!

In the far 1992, this local organised an Agora which not took place in Athens but in Kōs, a Dodecanese island in front of the Turkish coast. You may wonder why they wanted to host the event there and the answer is quite easy: Agora was taking place in Spring, in Greece the weather is always nice so let’s gather all the participants in Athens to make a nice boat trip all together! While the organisation was running perfectly, only four days before the event an organiser switched on the TV and saw the sailor’s Labour Union president declaring started an unlimited duration strike because of high taxes. A panic attack caught the Greek organisers which started thinking about all the participants meandering around the Pireaus port and possible solutions to avoid it. One of them, was to meet the same president of the Union Labour – which they did but without results. The second solution, which now can sound very funny but probably in those moments was not, was to get an appointment with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and ask him to talk with the minister for the Defence to get a military vessel and transport all the participants to Kōs. Through some contact they succeeded to get the appointment.

At 11 am, two days before the Agora. The minister is taking part in a high level meeting with the Greek PM and the president of the Republic. Organisers are in front of the office ready to meet him, but at 11.05 they see everyone leaving the building and packing their things. They wonder why and they ask one of the officials “Is he coming?” – “No he is not coming at all, he just resigned 5 minutes ago because of disagreements on foreign policies”.

In case you wonder how participants reached the location, the story says that the greek minister of Finances (of course pure coincidence) accepted the requests of the labour union the day right before the boat departure. That’s how Agora Kōs could take place.

In case you do not believe to this story, you can download the 10th AEGEE anniversary booklet and read about it there (p. 92).

To end

Dear future Agora organisers, as you could see, also in the darkest situations there is always light and space for hope, and the people of AEGEE-Athina can confirm it for sure!

It has not been an isolated case since we also heard that while spring Agora in Barcelona 1999 was taking place overshadowed by the Nato air strikes against Serbia (with lots of people arriving late, because of many flights cancelled or rerouted), among the participants was Jasna Bogdanovic, President of AEGEE-Novi Sad. She took the opportunity to leave the country and was hosted by the President of AEGEE-Barcelona. They fell in love and got married.

So we wish you good luck and may the good God of AEGEE be with you!

Written by Mattia Abis, AEGEE-Cagliari

For the first time in AEGEE history, the Pool of Representatives (PoR) that can speak on behalf of the Comité Directeur and represent AEGEE externally has been created. The PoR consists of 17 AEGEE members who share motivation, significant experience and sufficient knowledge about the organisation to be capable of giving a proper image of AEGEE towards various external stakeholders.

As a part of the Activity Plan for the upcoming year to create more expertise outside the Comité Directeur, it had issued an open call looking for members who are motivated to become “the faces of AEGEE”. Out of more than 30 candidates who applied, the CD finally selected 17 people taking into account their profiles, expertise, geographical location and nationality. These people constituting the new structure within AEGEE – PoR are going to represent AEGEE at conferences, meetings, projects and on other occasions which are important for the organisation to be present at the times when the CD lacks human resources to attend these events itself.

For the period of 2013-2014 the CD has chosen and Agora in Zaragoza ratified the PoR that includes following members:

• Selin Sivis (AEGEE-Ankara);
• Turgut Tosun (AEGEE-Ankara);
• Ivan Bielik (AEGEE-Brno);
• Roland Papp (AEGEE-Budapest);
• Benjamin Feyen (AEGEE-Dusseldorf);
• Paul Smits (AEGEE-Enschede);
• Mert Can (AEGEE-Istanbul);
• Karolina Mazetyte (AEGEE-Kaunas);
• Aleksandra Kluczka (AEGEE-Krakow);
• Sandra Oborska (AEGEE-Krakow);
• Jorge Miguel (AEGEE-León);
• Mathieu Soete (AEGEE-Leuven / AEGEE-Enschede);
• Claudio Armandi (AEGEE-Napoli);
• Nicola Guida (AEGEE-Napoli);
• Louise Pahisa (AEGEE-Paris);
• Diana Ondza (AEGEE-Riga);
• Mayri Tiido (AEGEE-Tartu).

It is certainly true that each member of the Pool is excited about the opportunity to make AEGEE’s external image and feels honoured having this trust from the Comité Directeur. “When you are out, you are all the President of AEGEE-Europe. The highest representative towards the organisation. … make us proud, and you will carry on going to even higher level events.”  were the encouraging words of Luis Alvarado Martinez, the president of AEGEE-Europe, towards the newly created PoR. The PoR commits their performance to be exemplary and to make the network proud!

The first time the PoR was ‘functioning’ was the Presidents’ Meeting of BEST in Brno (Czech Republic) attended by Ivan Bielik. Nicola Guida visited the World Forum on Democracy and Paul Smits was at the European Movement International Council Meeting. After coming back from the conference, Ivan concluded: “I did enjoy the representation of AEGEE-Europe at the BEST Presidential Meeting very much. I really appreciate the trust CD gave me with this task. I had the possibility to observe how other student/youth NGOs work and to meet new people as well.” The PoR is looking forward to attending more events and increase AEGEE’s visibility around Europe!

Written by Diana Ondza, AEGEE-Riga

AEGEE-Zaragoza was founded on January 24, 1998. More than 15 years of history, with lights and (some) shades. It is a big antenna with 146 members, a number they are eager to raise every year but do not complain about. Here’s the story of our Local of the Month from December, the organizers from the past Autumn Agora 2013!

Pilar Lop and Sara Alcolea

Former Network Commissioner Pilar Lop is from Zaragoza herself and for her the Agora was even more special having her friends organising such a huge event and she has seen the antenna grow: “It is quite funny to see that, when I joined the antenna was living a small crisis because most of the board that year was formed by new members who came back motivated from Summer Universities and now only a few years later we are a very big family that cannot live without seeing each other.”

Sara Alcolea, who people can remember from the opening ceremony, has been part of the antenna for more than four years agrees and adds “Board members were leaving Zaragoza so it was a kind of a critical moment for the antenna. I think the time we appeared was like water flowing again in a dry river. Without control. But they managed to lead those “crazy newbies” and we quickly “got the flow”. Since then, the antenna has been growing and growing even more every year. Nowadays we are a huge antenna with a high number of active members (35) and I have to say remembering all the paths travelled during these years makes me very happy and proud.”

For her one of the highlights was realising that after all the work done, all the time spent, effort and dreams they can say “we have been able to organise an AGORA!” and confesses that during the event she had some great moments when she forgot the rush, stopped and thought to herself: “Wow, this is really happening”.

When asked about how AEGEE-Zaragoza celebrated having organised such a big event, Sara affirms that the celebration also happened during the event. “Celebrating the success (after solving the problems, of course) every day and night kept us full of energy and motivation. That was also a very good point of the ZarAGORA team. The motivation was always high. Even if tired, you would always get smiles and hugs from the team and some participants that were around.” Beatriz Nasarrre was the President of the antenna the past year and for her there were two highlights: The first is the difficulty which was cleaning all the food elements (trays and cutlery) because it seems so easy but it was a really hard task impossible to do it alone by the cleaning team, so we had to help them and when finished, we were really exhausted. The second moment of difficulty was the closing ceremony, where we could be happy of our hard job and see how people said thanks about that. It was a very beautiful moment.”

 Jonathan del Castillo Gil has been in AEGEE-Zaragoza for ten years and has been a part of two very different Agorae in his city. With the Expo in 2008 the whole city was positively refurbished and equipped and he says that people face Europe in a more active way making it easier to involve government, University, companies and media. He adds; “2003 organisers are still for me real Heroes. They had to solve a lot of last minute problems like hosting cancellation. We all remember that Old Agora as something crazy and fun as we did a lot with really few things. They have been following closely the organisation of Zaragora to help us to improve ourselves giving valuable advise. Both Agorae have a warm place in our hearts.” In those ten years Jonathan has really seen the antenna grow having survived hard conditions in the past; “In Zaragoza we imposed a horizontal structure to make sure everyone feels important. We worked hard to integrate every personality and promote them to squeeze their skills to improve AEGEE-Zaragoza. In my case I had to be a tough dictator when I became president in a year of a complicated collapse. I love excess and performance and I think everyone accepted “that theatrical icon” as a way of Team-building. Most of the brilliant minds that produced this Agora come from those hard times.”

The main organiser of ZarAgora, Chema Rueda, repeated the importance of strong friendships; “The most important is the fact that the people who will work together know each other perfectly because we believed that this makes people work together in a better way.” Jonathan highlights the new members: “We all had our respective obligations and precise tasks to fulfill, but everyone was always aware of helping wherever it was necessary. I was impressed by all the newbies, really young people, with few months’ experience as members of AEGEE and no idea about the craziness exploding in an Agora. They put in all their energy and positive feelings, always smiling to raise the project and keep this idea of doing it transparent and perfect.”

Celebration at the spa

Of course organising an Agora had to be celebrated and when Sunday came and cleaning of the Congress Palace had finished almost the whole team went to the spa to relax and have lunch together. “It was a really cute moment because the whole team was with a very big smile on their faces after such a big success of the event. Nowadays, we are thinking about doing a big meeting for all the organisers, but we are waiting for the final result of the event to see if we can do something more,” Chema tells The AEGEEan.

In terms of finances the question is still up in the air about how much money AEGEE-Zaragoza will lose. The support from the more than 30 sponsors was determinant for the great success for the event, however, it does not keep the Aragón antenna for paying for the event. “As far as we know, there are some other European student associations that work on the European level to get some important grants from Europe to organise their statutory events. Why don’t we do that also, since we do a lot of effort for other things at European level? Why doesn’t AEGEE apply for European grants to organise their statutory meetings? That’s the question I asked myself every morning when I woke up lasts months seeing the economic problems we had. Maybe there are other important things to do on the European level instead of working on these basic needs,” Chema raises an interesting question. Maybe the ZarAgora organisers can help AEGEE-Patra with the upcoming Agora with sponsors’ advise. Chema assures that the help that AEGEE-Zaragoza received from Márton Demeter (main organizer of Autumn Agora Budapest 2012) and Alexander Sieber (main organizer of Spring Agora Rhein-Neckar 2013) was very important and of course AEGEE-Zaragoza wants to help the Greek organisers to get their success in the same way!

The new board of AEGEE-Zaragoza

Last year, AEGEE-Zaragoza had a very large board (16 members, plus advisory board) but this year they decided to have a small, agile and efficient board instead (five members, plus advisory board). Javier Aguerri was recently elected new president of AEGEE-Zaragoza and he is full of motivation after being treasurer, IT responsible, Local Events and ZarAgora organizer. He agrees that it is a challenge to take over after the large board from the past term, that did an exceptional job. But he also feels very fortunate of the pool of fantastic and numerous new members of whom many were helpers at the Agora.

The running group of AEGEE-Zaragoza

As many other antennae across the Network, AEGEE-Zaragoza works with the Erasmus students and have increased the activities this year. Following the tradition, once the University starts they organise the famous “Erasmus Welcome Week” with the aim to make members and Erasmus get to know each other and so that together they can discover the different traditions of the autonomous region of Aragón and also Spain.

It is especially good for involvement of the new members: “It helps a lot as it is very useful for the members in order to learn how to organise and be in charge of events and activities. All this knowledge acquired with this Erasmus activity has been very useful to face big events such as the Agora,” Beatriz says. Members of AEGEE-Zaragoza sweat every week in salsa dance lessons or with the newly created running group that faces the wind every week. Two years ago AEGEE-Zaragoza used to organise language exchange activities but they were cancelled, but as a new great step forward they are trying it again and so far it works out great! Additionally, AEGEE-Zaragoza also travels all over Spain through organising several trips each semester. All of these activities have a coordinator and, depending on the needs of each activity, more people to organise them. But the board (especially the Local Events responsible) supervise everything and their problems are discussed in the weekly meetings of AEGEE-Zaragoza and the mailing lists, so everybody is more or less up-to-date and can participate when they wish.

Some of the members of AEGEE-Zaragoza

Fresh from organising the Agora, AEGEE-Zaragoza is ready to host a new event; this time a Local Training Course (LTC). Public Relations & Fund Raising responsible in the board Carlota Castel is one of the coordinators of the event and says “The situation in AEGEE-Zaragoza right now is quite unusual. We have a lot of relatively new members who have only experienced two events: their first Summer University as participants and their first Agora, as organizers. Now it is time for them to learn more about AEGEE and to become active members who are able to organise projects by themselves, so most of the workshops are related to the practical part: How to organise a project, how to use social networks properly, how to use online banking and more” It is an LTC that is organised in Zaragoza every year and always a success in terms of team-building and also a great help to clarify the ideas and improve the skills of the new members.

From left: Beatriz, Sara, Carlota and Pilar promoting AEGEE-Zaragoza

What Javier is eager to focus on with AEGEE-Zaragoza is to ensure that the newest members are well prepared when they will be the ones in charge of the antenna. The LTC is one tool to achieve this result but also frequent workshops about different topics (basic knowledge of accounting, video and text editing, PR… etc) that will boost everybody’s aptitude to work in AEGEE.

Another important aspect of PR for Carlota is to continue the excellent relationship with the University and make them and the members know that AEGEE-Zaragoza is much more than a Summer University project. There is no doubt that AEGEE-Zaragoza puts in a lot of effort for promotion. This can be seen by the high number of members and also the fact that fresh from the Agora, two days, they promoted the antennae at a student’s fair at the university and promotion will be intensified in a few months in connections with the SU application period where posters, presentations of AEGEE, flyers, stickers and hopefully drawing even more attention to the antenna! In terms of FR the idea is to keep a good communication with the sponsors of the Agora, especially Lindt who made the event a lot sweeter!

Structured Dialogue event in Zaragoza

AEGEE-Zaragoza had two European Level events in a short period of time: European Structured Dialogue in July and the AGORA  in November. That left them exhausted but they are already planning the Summer University and a weekend event in spring. Ending the interview Javier informs The AEGEEan about his ambitions “Finally, it is just a very innovating idea and I still have to talk with my board about it, but I may propose to the antenna to organize another European event (but not an Agora) in the next year. Maybe something like a European School or a Network Meeting. We will see!”

It will be interesting to see what AEGEE-Zaragoza comes up with next, Jonathan Gil predicts the future to be very bright saying “The close future of AEGEE-Zaragoza has its roots in the Zaragora. I’m sure 2014 will be probably the best year of the antenna.”

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

Last month there were elections in all the Working Groups of AEGEE. Anna Gumbau Martínez got elected into the board of the International Politics Working Group and at the same time the super motivated AEGEE-Barcelona member became the editor-in-chief of The AEGEEan Magazine. The former editor-in-chief Patricia Anthony introduces you to the new leading lady of AEGEE’s online magazine. 

You have lots of AEGEE experience, but can you tell us a bit about your favourite experience so far?

I have only been active in AEGEE for a year, but there are already so many experiences that I have learnt from. At the local level it was organising a Summer University with AEGEE-Las Palmas, which was completely challenging and time-consuming, but I have learnt a lot and had a great time. The Agora Budapest was the event that got me interested in the European level of AEGEE, so it will always remain very special for me. And being editor for the Thematics section of The AEGEEan was the starting point of some very good times for me… I just can’t decide on one, and I know there are still so many good experiences to come!

What made you interested in becoming editor-in-chief of The AEGEEan?

I felt extremely motivated to take one step forward, I thought I got the experience in journalism needed for that and I got the feeling I was prepared to take up the position. Besides, I felt very encouraged by other team members of the magazine who gave me lots of support. All in all, I am in love with this project: I just love journalism and I love AEGEEing… so The AEGEEan is the point where my two biggest passions meet! I always answer the same thing, but this is exactly how I feel about it. I want to keep improving it and I feel extremely honoured to be leading the magazine.

The AEGEEan team members in Zagreb

What is special about being part of The AEGEEan?

It is the ideal starting point to understand and have a bigger picture of our organisation. In just a couple of months you can learn so much about it! You manage to meet lots of interesting people and their inspiring stories: I always say that each one of us has a story to be told. Moreover, your English writing skills improve at a high speed, and you learn a lot from each one of the editors, journalists and proofreaders. Each one of us has a very different profile and it becomes a very enriching experience.

What would you like to achieve as editor-in-chief?

First, I want to keep up informing on the stories that happen to our members, locals and European level bodies, thus being committed to have a well-informed Network. I would also like to work on our human resources by giving them opportunities for training and self-development, and to assure that there is a well-prepared new generation of AEGEEan journalists rocking the magazine in the next years. Besides this, I would like to work on new, innovative ways to communicate and to present stories, and especially focus on a good strategy to cover Statutory events.

Recently you were fair manager for the Agora in Zaragoza, how was that experience?

The overall experience was very enriching. I felt very lucky to work with my “fairies” (Dasha Onokhova, Olga Rivero, Kathrin Renner and Madalena Sousa), the previous work before the Agora went almost perfect and I wasn’t as stressed as I expected myself to be. It is true that, once the day arrived, there were a few inconveniences that we did not expect at all. But, despite the circumstances, we were fast addressing these issues and adapted our idea without losing our nerves, so I think we did a good job. Besides, I got very positive feedback about the content that the different bodies provided at the Fair, which made me really happy.

How did it help that it was former fair manager Olga Rivero (AEGEE-Oviedo) who was helping you and Dasha with organising the fair?

Having Olga in our Fair team was definitely a plus. She was helpful from the start: I got lots of advice from her even before applying and afterwards she was our contact person with the local organisers and made our work much smoother. I will never be grateful enough for all the efforts she put on the Fair, it was so easy to work with her that I would love to team up again!

How did it help being two fair managers instead of one?

It helped a lot indeed, especially regarding the task division. Dasha is a really creative soul and did a great job with the visual conception of the Fair, so she was indeed a perfect workmate for me. And it is always better when you have someone else to share your nervousness and stress with!

Why would you encourage others to become fair managers?

I would encourage them because, even if you might look extremely stressed and about to pull someone’s hair on the day of the Fair, it is a very fun and rewarding task. It is a unique experience to get deep into the plans of different European level bodies and engage the participants of the Agora with their activities. I was recently talking to one of the organisers of Spring Agora Patra and told him I had so much fun that I might even take up the challenge and apply as the AEGEE Fair Manager again! Just kidding… or maybe not.

What do you think about the organisation of the Agora in general?

It’s extremely hard to organise an event for more than 800 people, AEGEE-Zaragoza has succeeded and I admire them a lot for that. It was great to have the plenaries and the accommodation at the same location, and they made a great effort when it comes to fundraising… so my overall impression is really good!

You have recently joined the International Politics Working Group (IPWG) board, what made you interested in that?

I was a member of the IPWG for a year because I have always had a strong interest in international politics; I am currently doing my specialisation seminar in International Journalism, and I am planning to obtain a Master’s degree on something related to the field of international affairs once I finish my bachelor’s. I have always followed the world news quite closely, and as PR responsible, I can also take up some tasks related to my current field of studies.

What are your plans with the IPWG?

Our main task will be to keep it alive and rocking! We want to activate our members and I am happy to see that there are ambitious plans. For instance, the IPWG will have a strong role in the upcoming Election Observation Project, which you will hear from very soon in the magazine. There are other projects and actions still to be defined, but I would also like to introduce the topic of nationalisms and separatism in Europe in the agenda of our Working Group.

You are going to Belgium next year on Erasmus, what made you choose that place?

During my first AEGEE event I visited Leuven, the city I chose, and I completely loved it! I still keep in touch with some members from AEGEE-Leuven, and there are some other AEGEE friends around whom I would love to pay a visit during my stay. Besides, my cousin also did her Erasmus there and she was absolutely delighted… and I just love beer, so that is definitely a plus. The only “minus” I see that I absolutely hate the rain, but maybe this is the perfect time for me to overcome it.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

How do you feel about being an antenna already?
We are really proud of it, because we have been working very hard to be upgraded. It was our dream when we started and now it has become true. But this is only the beginning.

What local activities do you organize to motivate members?

Normally we arrange social meetings in bars, go for tapas and wine, have endless dinners where we discuss about our next steps… On the other hand, we also enjoy hiking, cycling and going on weekend trips, an amazing opportunity to make knowledge transfer with a less intense planning than a Local Training Course (LTC).

This summer you organised your first Summer University, how did it go?
At first we had to do a huge effort because we did not have all the contacts we needed in Valladolid. Eventually, and after a lot of lodging problems, we found very interesting contacts and they were nice enough to organize quite a good TSU, according to the evaluations.

Will you organize a Summer University (SU) next year as well?

We are not sure. It depends on how many active members we can count on during the Summer period in Valladolid. Nevertheless, we have such good memories from our last SU that we will try our best to organize it again.

You also organized a Y Vote 2014 event, why did you choose to do so?

At that moment our motivation was growing and several of our most active members were really interested in the topic of the next Parliament Elections, so we decided this was the best opportunity for our antenna to show that we could also organize an event focused on a serious topic for youth and really contribute to the important projects being developed within our association. With regard to the topic, AEGEE-Valladolid liked the focus and the objectives of Y Vote 2014 project, therefore we supported it very strongly. We consider that, in these hard times for Europe, it is important that the voice of youth is heard by the European leaders, especially the EU parliament members, so we can help improve the future of Europe.

How did the event go?
Undertaking this project was a true challenge for such a young antenna and we are really happy about the results. The organization was tough, due to the lack of active members in our antenna, but we were happy to see how all our members came together to help out during those days. The event was a success especially thanks to our highly-motivated participants and all agreed on the relevant lessons learnt through the interesting program developed by the Y Vote 2014 team and the logistics and cultural activities we provided. More importantly, thanks to this project AEGEE-Valladolid gained greater recognition within our City Hall, our university and quite a few local and regional institutions and we are convinced this will come in handy during future events.

What lies in the future plans of AEGEE-Valladolid? What will you be working on in 2014?
We are thinking about organizing a language tandem in the city to be in contact with Erasmus students, attract new members and activate the ones we already have.

Moreover, as AEGEE didn’t exist in Valladolid, the antenna is establishing contacts with all kind of bodies and entities (University, associations, City Hall…) so it’s very complicated in the beginning. That’s why our biggest milestone is getting the full recognition from the University of Valladolid and we will continue working very hard on it. This recognition will make it possible to reach a significant step for us in Valladolid, so we will be able to access a huge amount of students and an important support to organise events and to establish alliances.

It is great to see a new antenna working on so many projects, contributing to the Network in a great manner and at the same time managing to grow. 

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

AEGEE-Alicante and the Health4Youth project decided to work together on organising a healthy lifestyle pre-event to Agora Zaragoza already before the summer. And when the event was finally there, a small but very active group of participants, a lot of organisers and helpers from AEGEE-Alicante, and Maria Arends (AEGEE-Groningen) and Sygrit Andringa (AEGEE-Groningen) from the Health4Youth project gathered in Alicante to take part in this amazing pre-event: Mediterraneanly.

A busy four day programme on the topic of the Mediterranean healthy way of life was waiting for the participants. There were workshops on healthy lifestyle, a lot of sports activities (almost all given by professional instructors), cooking activities, and a visit to a biodynamic fruit and vegetable garden. Of course, there was also time for socialising, parties and getting to know the lovely city of Alicante, including its nice weather and beach. Every day started with a nice breakfast and all lunches and dinners were prepared by the participants and organisers themselves.

One of the highlights was the tapas workshop, were the participants made tapas in the public kitchen of the local market. The participants had to work with a budget, buy the ingredients at the market and prepare different tapas in groups. After that, a lovely meal was eaten together in this public kitchen.

One of the participants, Carlos Castillo Perez, wrote about the pre-event. Carlos is a fresh member of AEGEE-Alicante, but he already joined several events in the network. As he did not have enough time to be an organiser for the pre-event because of exams, he decided to apply as a participant, to an event in his own city. This is his story:

MEDITERRANEANLY, UNDOUBTEDLY, IS THE BEST WAY OF LIVING:

There was no better way of warming up for Agora Zaragoza 2013, than with a pre-event on the Mediterranean shore, in the welcoming city of Alicante. We were five minutes away from the beach, and three minutes away from the the city’s party area.  In this city there are just two seasons: spring and summer. Given that the event took place between the 26^th and 30th of October, we could say that we were in the cool period of our summer, with temperatures around 20-25 degrees Celsius.

It all started at 16:00 on the day of arrival. However I have to confess I was not present in that first gathering, as the football match between Real Madrid and F.C. Barcelona forced me to arrive some minutes late (240 minutes to be specific). The rest of the participants had a pleasant walk through the streets of Alicante, and a great first contact with the city that was going to be their home for the next days. Once the night had fallen, the amazing, awesome, attentive, charming, outstanding organisers had prepared an authentic Mediterranean dinner, with a varied mixture of meat, vegetables, eggs and more, to the delight of their participants. Throughout the event, they did not only maintain that level of cooking, but they even improved! Legend has it that one of the organisers made the bread every day, and twice a day she carried it to the hostel and delivered it to the participants, freshly baked, and with a huge smile.

The second day started with a yoga class at 8:30 AM (a typical time when everybody takes yoga classes, obviously), followed by the breakfast right there, and thanks to the high temperature we went to swim in the sea.  Some of us went to swim as well the second day, after the “Zumba” class. Simply fantastic.

In addition to all those sports (yoga, beach volleyball, football, jogging, salsa, zumba, or the hardest one, beer-pong), we did a lot of different workshops. A broad range of them: some were more dynamic, others funnier (the one about alcohol. Though it was supposed not to be exactly funny, with Spanish people and our anecdotes relative to that topic, it was really hard to take it entirely seriously) some more reflective (as the one about the effects of the lack of sleep, conscious eating, or the one about healthy lifestyle) or more cultural (the astronomy workshop).

Unfortunately, the nice weather betrayed us the last day, but our organisers had a back-up plan. The first plan had been to go to the mountains and camp there. But because of the weather forecast, we decided to stay in Alicante, and have a Ukulele class. This class was really funny, even for me, despite the fact that I could not play the Sponge Bob-Ukulele (I am still quite upset with that). After that, some of us went to visit the Castle of Santa Bárbara. And after living in Alicante for seven years, it was incredible that I did it for the first time…

As you can see, in spite of this being “only” a pre-event, and relatively short, much could be written about the event and about its people (both all the participants and all the organisers) because in AEGEE we will always have a lot of things to tell (not only because with AEGEE we sleep very little and therefore, days are very long), because every AEGEE experience turns out to be an unforgettable experience.

As “Participelper” (half participant, half helper) I can speak in the name of everybody when I say THANK YOU both to the participants for being so funny and collaborating in every activity with a great smile, and to the organisers and helpers for their hard work and for their positive attitude throughout all the event. And AEGEE-Alicante was not alone in this, as Maria and Sygrit from the Health4Youth project were also involved, whom showed us many interesting and useful things about how to live in a healthy way.

P.s. another participant, Elmar Guliyev, AEGEE-Baki, made a nice compilation movie about the pre-event.

Written by Carlos Castillo Perez (AEGEE-Alicante) & Sygrit Andringa of the Health4Youth Project Team.

 Nicola Guida (AEGEE-Napoli) and Anna van den Berg (AEGEE-Groningen) are part of the new Action Agenda Coordination Committee (ACT) team. Besides being members of ACT they are also subcommies of different Network Commissioners, so even though they had many tasks at Agora Zaragoza, The AEGEEan managed to catch up with the two of them.

Anne (To the left)

Why did you decide to join ACT?

Anna: At the EBM in Valetta, I got to know a lot about the Action Agenda and everything AEGEE stands for. All the meetings at the EBM really got me thinking more about the Network, and how much we could achieve as AEGEE and that was when I decided to join the ACT.

Nicola: I also got really interested in the thematic side of AEGEE during the EBM. There I had the chance to actively discuss with other members on a huge variety of topics. In the sessions I got input on how we as a young students association can contribute to society as a whole. At the same time I learned a lot about the Action Agenda and the Strategic Plan: I finally understood the importance of having common guidelines in order to enhance the cooperation between the local and the European Level and to have a more effective impact inside and outside our Network. On the other hand I realized that many people know nothing of those tools and I wanted to try to change it somehow. When I saw the open call to become a member of the ACT, I understood it was the perfect chance to contribute.

We were informed that the work was a bit difficult in the beginning due to the lack of Knowledge Transfer, are things improving now?

Anna: I think for us it’s quite hard to identify all the things that we have to do. A lot of the members are really busy with other AEGEE stuff, and it’s pretty hard to get to do all the things we want to do. But I am confident that this will improve once we get to know each other better!

Nicola: Definitely. We managed to get some coordination between each other, thanks to several discussions on the mailing list and a fruitful Skype meeting.

How would you like to improve the work of the Action Agenda Coordination Committee?

Anna: I would like the ACT to have more to say in the Network. Right now, it’s more like we’re only working in the team and not so much with all the members of the Network. I think the fact that we are working with the Network Commission (NetCom) right now is already a very big improvement.

Nicola: I think it’s important for the ACT members should be as close as they can to the locals, keeping a constant communication with them and doing their best in making people understand how much the activities and the events they organise can improve by adding thematic parts.

Nicola by Sybren Frederico Porfirio

Why do you think that there is a lack of knowledge about the Action Agenda in the Network?

Anna: I think this is due to the fact that the ACT only works with very active AEGEE members, especially board members. The rest of the Network doesn’t get to see so much of us because there is so little we can do at this moment, but I also feel that this is the biggest point of improvement.

Nicola: Well, I’ve been in the board of my local for one year and what I can tell you is that there are so many things to take care of – fundraising, getting new members, making them active, organising events – that it is really difficult to find the time to actually get interested in the Action Agenda, something that (apparently!) does not have a significant importance in your daily work.

How would you like to help antennae know more about the Action Agenda?

Anna: Right now we are working on a survey for all board members, so we will know how much they know about the Action Agenda and improve their knowledge. This way, they also know they can ask us for help if needed.

Nicola: First of all explaining to them what Action Agenda is, then helping them getting ideas on how to contribute to it and making those ideas happen by providing them examples of thematic events organised by other antennae.

At times there have been antennae saying that they find it difficult to create an event (on the Intranet) because they have no clue how it relates to the Action Agenda or in worst case say that it doesn’t relate at all. Do you think there is a manner to change this?

Anna: I think the best way to change this is to make the boards more aware of what the Action Agenda is and that we are here to help them if needed. Also, we can of course keep track of the antennae in our regions to see what kind of activities they are organising.

Nicola: Of course. In my opinion the main problem is that people actually don’t know anything about Action Agenda and Strategic Plan and the only moment they face them is when the deadline for an activity plan, report or submission of events shows up. Inevitably they cannot but read them superficially and then get totally confused. We as ACT members should directly get in touch with the locals in Network Meetings (NWMs) or via internet and make them aware beforehand.

The CD and Events Committee would like to improve the quality of European Events, would you like to help in that process as a member of ACT? (And how?)

Nicola: Only sharing information about Action Agenda and Strategic Plan, so the serious thematics in which AEGEE is involved, would already be an important contribution in my opinion.

In addition we could try to push directly on locals by being more demanding on the contribution they have to give to the Action Agenda in order to get the criterion, but I think the first and most important step is the communication: how can people improve events if they don’t know what they can or should do?

We think this is a good question and we support the way these ACT members are trying to solve the communication gap, by presenting at different workshops related to the Action Agenda and Strategic Plan during Agora Zaragoza and upcoming Network Meetings.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-Koebenhavn

Feature picture courtesy of Golden Times

The Network Commission is a team full of people that several AEGEEans know due to all the communication they have with antennae across Europe. However, the work of the NetCom would not be efficient without teams of subcommissioners and in this interview you get an insight into what it is like being a subcommie for a Network Commissioner.

Carmen Maria

Alvaro Espinosa (AEGEE-Santander, Pauline Létard (AEGEE-Toulouse) and Carmen Maria Benegas (AEGEE-Alicante) are subcommissioners of Pilar Lop. Silvija Peric (AEGEE-Zagreb) helps Antonija Parat, Maria Arends (AEGEE-Groningen) helps Patricia Anthony and Erika Bettin (AEGEE-Venezia) helps Claudio Armandi. All of them share a deep passion for helping the Network and being part of seeing antennae improve.

For most of the subcommies the reason to help the NetCom team was to be more active on the European Level of AEGEE. For example; Pauline worked together with Lucille Rieux, who herself was a subcommie of Luis Alvarado Martinez at this time, in the Speak Up project. The aim was to develop the French part of the Network by doing a bus tour in several big French cities with one message – “young people, get involve and participate”! Unfortunately, the project did not get through but it was a really good experience for Pauline and her first on European level. Network development and Youth participation had been key topics of interest for her since her beginning in AEGEE. Then Lucille who Pauline refers to as somewhat her mentor in AEGEE strongly encouraged her to become a subcommie.

Alvaro, who is part of the same team says “Being a subcommissioner was an opportunity, this is something that never crossed my mind before. However, Pilar, together with the previous team thought that I could fit because they trust me and in my work on the local level. Receiving that kind of confidence from these great and experienced people was the reason I decided to become one of them.” For Silvija this idea was first introduced by her former NetCom – Ana Dragić, but at that time, she had a lot of other obligations and had just started her term as President of AEGEE-Zagreb. However, she continued with the idea stuck in her brain and when Antonija Parat was elected as NetCom, she decided to apply. What she enjoys is working on European level too, because she knew it would increase her knowledge about AEGEE and give her the opportunity to help other locals as well as improving her own local: AEGEE-Zagreb.

For Maria there are too many reasons, as she says it. She talked with newly elected NetCom Patricia Anthony after Agora Rhein-Neckar about the need for a strong team of subcommies in the Nordic area, because of the problems we are facing (especially in Scandinavia, even though AEGEE does not have many locals there) due to Euroscepticism. The idea arose to try to work on this topic together with the locals in the UK, and that is the main reason she wanted to become involved. Apart from that she believes that the UK, Scandinavia, and the Baltics are wonderful places in Europe, which are, unfortunately, underrepresented in AEGEE, and Maria truly hopes to be able to make a change. Carmen joined when there was somebody leaving the team and she was ready to continue that person’s work as she loves the Network and helping others. She is a big fan of organisation in terms of administration and procedures inside any organisation and selects that as the main reason why she wanted to join.

As one can imagine the subcommies tasks and functions mainly relate to contact with some of the antennae that the NetCom is responsible for. When asked about what they do, subcommie Pauline answers :“First I worked with the members of the antennae I’m in charge of taking care of. I talk with them on a regular basis, at least once a month when everything goes smoothly and sometimes everyday when they need it. I’m trying to take the pulse of the antenna, to find out in there are any problems or tensions but also find out about the assets and richness that the antennae have to make them share it with the rest of the Network when it’s possible. Every month, I send them a reminder saying that they have to fill in the monthly report. I sometimes have to harass them a bit to get them to do it but it is important as when antennae does not submit the reports on time it delays the work of NetCommie Pilar. Then I’m part of the Tripulacion, Pilar, her other subcommies and I form a team. Together we organise the Network Meetings and the Renove, we prepare the delegates for the Agora, and we inform the members about interesting opportunities…”. In the case of Maria it is similar as she has the responsibility of AEGEE-Durham, AEGEE-London and AEGEE-Sheffield whom she also asks for Activity Reports and at times they work on a PR strategy. Basically she is trying to help out wherever they want her, as she puts it, and of course she also helps with the organisation of NWM in Tartu this autumn.

Alvaro Espinosa

Pauline continues the interview with telling us about the differences between the antennae she is responsible for. “In my opinion, an antenna relies mostly on people and on a good team. So the difference is in who is part of this team, who animate and dynamise the antenna. There are little tiny teams that sometimes rely on two or three or more person-teams with around 10 really active people. I’m responsible for AEGEE-Paris, AEGEE-Lyon, AEGEE-Brussels/Bruxelles and the two contacts in Lille and Nantes. They mainly have the same profile of antenna but of course the situation in each city is different. For example, AEGEE-Paris is really famous in the Network and in France too  (more than the other French speaking locals anyway) but as Paris is a very expensive city with a lot of student associations, it’s a bit challenging for them. In my opinion, this year they are all facing the same challenge: their experienced and most active members left or are leaving soon. That’s why together with Léa Charlet (AEGEE-Paris), Louise Pahisa (AEGEE-Paris), Marine Betrancourt (AEGEE-Lyon), Inana Namet(Former member of AEGEE-Toulouse and now AEGEE-Paris), Lisa Fanget (AEGEE-Paris) and AEGEE-Paris’s team, we organize a Regional Training Course in Paris. The objective was to make the newly elected boards meet and train them.”

Alvaro sees huge differences between the antennae: “AEGEE-Santander, for instance, was a challenge. They faced some problems and solved them, they also grew a lot, changed their statutes, created a new online database, a new website. Their members are incredible and the communication with them was really fluent so, at the end, it was a pleasure to work together. Then, we have AEGEE-Zaragoza which was just on another level with all the “Agora stuff”. Finally, AEGEE-Bilbao which in my opinion has also grown the last year thanks to the work of their members and the collaboration with their AEGEE neighbors.”

However, there are some other tasks for subcommies around the Network. For example Pauline is also coordinating the organisation of board meetings in the French speaking locals and the RTC.

Maria Arends (to the right) together with Antonija Parat

The AEGEEan: What do you like the most about being a subcommie?

Pauline: Meeting amazing people who have taught me so much!

Silvija: Working in an intercultural team with great people, having the opportunity to learn and grow more and to help others with my experience and knowledge.

Carmen: Mainly working in a team and getting in touch with different people which is making me learn a lot from others. I also like helping antennae with their problems; if they are solved, that’s the best reward.

Erika: The Rainbow (responsible for Italian speaking antennae) subcommie team is great. We created a very good group spirit. Plus, I learned a lot in this year and more important I helped and I was helped.

Maria: Keeping in touch with the locals, seeing how they work and what we can improve is one of the task related things that I really enjoy. Apart from this, of course, the team is amazing! With Patricia and the three other subcommies, I think we really have an amazing and good working team.

Erika Bettin (to the left)

What challenges do you face as a subcommie?

Pauline: Keeping myself updated, there are a lot of informations circulating in AEGEE, you want the antennae to know about it but you don’t want to spam them.

Carmen: Some locals are complicated to run, mainly because they have not many active members and that is always a problem when it comes to fulfilling antenna criteria, filling out questionnaires, respect deadlines and this kind of administrative stuff. As a subcommie, I try to be properly informed and help them understand the procedures and encourage them to cooperate with other antennae that might be able to help or give advice as well.

Silvija: helping other locals in my Network to become stronger, overcome all challenges they are facing and at the same time being updated and knowing everything about what is going on in AEGEE in order to help them

Erika: I was lucky with locals and there weren’t big challenges to face. Before Agora Rhein- Neckar, NetCommie Claudio Armandi and I tried to do everything possible to save AEGEE-Trieste, but there were no signals from them. It is always sad when a local is deleted.

Silvija Peric (to the right)

What has been your favorite moment as a subcommie?

Pauline: Network Meeting Paris : Back on tracks! The first time I met Léa was in Paris and she is a bit like my sister in AEGEE, we joined AEGEE at the same time and we work together a lot. On top of this, it had been a while since we had a NWM in France, so this event was symbolic for us, it was the result of a strong solidarity between the French speaking locals, but also the success of AEGEE-Paris’ amazing team and also of the Tripulacion!

Silvija: My favorite moment was meeting other people in my team and working with them because they have a lot of great ideas and a lot of positive spirit.

Why would you encourage others to become a subcommie?

Pauline: Because you learn so much, because you give so much to the Network and to the antennae too, because it’s an amazing experience!

Silvija: It is the best place to start working on a European level and get to know things better, also, helping others is something priceless and on top of it all you will meet fantastic people and get a lot of experience.

Erika: Being subcommie is such a beautiful experience. You meet a lot of wonderful people. You share your experiences, your doubts, your fears, and it’s a good way to have a “first taste” of European Level.

Carmen: I would encourage people if they are interested in the organisational and internal aspects of AEGEE. If you have experience in your antenna and feel motivated, you can do it. The best thing is that you will learn a lot from working with that many different people.

As for whether we will see any of the subcommies as a Network Commissioner in the future depends on many things, but one thing is for sure: they all enjoy their work together with the Network Commission a lot!

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-Koebenhavn 

David Garcia Rodriguez from AEGEE-León has been active in AEGEE for a long time. After being subcommissioner of the Audit Commission for some time he has decided to put forward a candidature for that particular commission and The AEGEEan interviewed him about his interests.

When and why did you join AEGEE?

David: I joined AEGEE after my Erasmus studies in The Netherlands, as I missed the European feeling and I speak only English. I wanted to feel that again. After joining, I attended to some local events and training courses. Summer came and I attended a Summer University in Istanbul, were I discovered what it is like to be active in AEGEE. After my return to León, I attended the Fundraising European School (FRES) Zaragoza, where I learned even more about how AEGEE works internally and at the European level. Right after that I applied for a board position in my local as FR-responsible. In a few weeks I was organizing events and encouraging all my friends and classmates to join AEGEE. Not only for parties,but for the experience and knowledge they could earn with it.

I have to mention my mentor in this Article, which is Jorge Ruíz Quintela from AEGEE-León, because he introduced me to the wonderful world of AEGEE.

The Audit Commission is a very serious Commission which primary goal is not to provide a cool experience for the Commissioners but to supervise the Financial Director. We now have a very competent, experienced and hard-working Financial Director (FD), so do you consider yourself to be capable of supervising such a Financial Director? And what are your qualifications for this task?

You are right, our current Financial Director is fully capable to deal with all financial AEGEE-tasks. I really admire her, and on my first visit to the CD House I was really impressed. From my point of view, the Audit Commission is an internal organ whose main task is to supervise the FD, but further than auditing, we are here to provide support in her tasks.

I still have a lot to learn and I believe I have the full support from former Audit Commissions, to whom we can ask for help and advice, but, replying to your question, I feel motivated enough to take care properly of that task. I have attended the two Audit meetings I was invited to, and I have observed their practices.

You have only taken part in 1,5 Agora, do you plan to be more active in terms of statutory events?

Unfortunately I have only attended, as you said one and a half Agorae. In that time I was looking for a job and I could not spend time on traveling during the week days. Now I have a stable job, so I can attend them. However, I was following the news of the other statutory events I could not attend, such as EBM Izmir, Agora Enschede, EBM Valleta, and Agora Rhein-Neckar, and I will participate actively in this Agora Zaragoza.

On the contrary you have been in many different trainings such as the European School. How have the experiences of ES1 & FRES prepared you for the Audit Commission?

FRES, as my first event, prepared me for the local level, and European School 2 Castelló prepared me for focusing on project development, but I don’t think that those events prepared me for the Audit Commission. This is something that you cannot learn in any event. In my program I am proposing an idea which will be Traesury European School and Treasury Workshops on NWM´s, more focused on helping those antennae which are having difficulties with treasury and financial reports. This is something that I have learnt on my work environment together with the European knowledge I got on those AEGEE events, and my business studies.

Why did you join CRC, what have you done in CRC so far and how do you plan to help in CRC?

I joined CRC (Corporate Relations Comitee) with the aim of helping them to collect money in order to give economical support to the organization of events, but, I have to say that my activity in it has been very passive.I would say that I did not put too much effort on this activity and it is one of my limitations in AEGEE. However I appreciate the work thy are doing and the opportunity and confidence they put in me.

What have you learned as job shadower of the Audit Commission?

I have learned basically the main tasks an Audit Commissioner should know. Which things we should check on the reports, and which reports we need to check. How to validate the Financial report of AEGEE Europe and all the locals. But if I am elected I hope I will learn much more.

How would you like to help treasurers across the Network as Audit Commission?

Taken the idea from the former Audit Commission, we will deliver an AEGEE Treasurers Manual, and we will help them on any treasury query they would have trough mail, or Facebook Group. Also, as I said, I will promote the idea of Treasury European School and Workshops on events, so they can get more skills related to their tasks and share experiences and questions.

How do you plan to make sure that all antennae submit their Financial Reports, which is an important antenna criteria that not all locals fullfill?

With the idea of the Treasury European School and Workshops on events, plus he treasury manual, they will be able to elaborate Financial Reports, and they will submit it (theoretically). However we will be in touch with them and we will remind and help them on doing it.

How have you gained deep knowledge about how the AEGEE Network works?

By attending the already mentioned events, and staying tuned up to AEGEE mailing lists, I got a general idea of the AEGEE Network, but the most revealing experience was my first visit to the CD house, where they are very glad to explain their daily tasks. Then you have have a real idea what AEGEE is and why those guys are there.

How do you plan to increase the recognition of the Audit Commission in the Network?

By making us more active and accessible to all members and specially for treasurers, we hope they will be more encouraged to join the Audit Commission in future terms as Job Shadowers or as members.

Those are all very interesting plans for the Audit Commission and The AEGEEan wishes David good luck with his candidature.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-Koebenhavn