The upcoming Agora is a place where a new generation of NetCommies is going to be elected. The Network Commission has always been one of the most crucial Commission we had in our Network, but now maybe even more than ever. Celia believes she is motivated enough and ready to take the job. She would like to lead by example her assigned locals, pushing them to fulfill the Antenna Criteria and getting stronger.

The AEGEEan: Who are you? For what do we know you?

Celia: To define myself there are some aspects that I consider essential.
First of all, talking about me inside AEGEE I have been a member of AEGEE-Zaragoza since 2013 and I am active from the beginning. Currently, I am president of this antenna and also subcommissioner of the Network Commission. Additionally, I collaborate with the Gender Equality Interest Group.
Secondly, I consider myself as a hurricane of energy, I love doing always new things and getting engaged with new projects. I am a tidy and responsible girl, but at the same time, I have a lot of creativity and a pinch of craziness, I love enjoying every moment of my life.
Last but not least, as many members of AEGEE, I love travelling and meeting new people and new cultures around the world.

Describe your ideal leader. Is a Netcommie a leader? Why? How can you be that leader you described?

In my opinion, a leader has to be an example to follow, a role model, a person who knows how to develop strategies to achieve common a goal making everyone feel involved and working on the things they are best on. I think a leader is also a person willing to receive feedback and continuously making the team grow.
A Netcommie then has many similarities with this definition: I believe it’s important to be willing to listen to its team and to the different locals. It’s crucial to have great teamwork to bear in mind all the opinions and feelings of the team members trying to get everyone on board, feeling comfortable and heard in every moment.
In my case, I consider myself a person open to feedback and to work within a team. Along these years in AEGEE I have worked in a team in several occasions as leader (being president or main organiser of events for instance) feeling comfortable and trying to get better little by little.

What are the NetCom projects you are more interested to contribute to? Why?

If I have to choose one, I would choose the Mentorship system. I think it’s always very interesting to be able to learn from other locals and to put people in touch so that they can share their experiences and anecdotes. In this way they can develop stronger bonds among locals and learn from each other. Related to this, I would want to work on a Toolkit for contacts to make it more accessible for people interested in founding an antenna to achieve what they want in every moment.

What do you think about the Antenna Criteria Reform introduced at Agora Enschede? Would you like to change something?

In my opinion the Antenna Criteria Reform has been a great method to make the Antenna Criteria more adequate to the reality of the locals. I think this is the kind of revisions that should be carried out constantly getting adapted to the needs of the locals so they don’t become a barrier for the locals to grow but a method to make them stronger. Antenna Criteria currently don’t reflect the needs of the locals and therefore I would not want just to check if all the locals have everything done but also to get to know the reasons behind an antenna not accomplishing them. This would allow me to help them grow and get stronger.

In the Network Status Update email that the Network received some days ago, there were many locals in danger, would you like to comment this? How will you work to change this situation?

It’s truly sad to see that many antennae are in risk to be downgraded but I am aware of the huge work that some people are doing in order to avoid that. I trust in the work of the Network Commission to improve the situation every time and help locals to get developed. With the collaboration of the subcommies, I would like to have a permanent contact with the locals and get more approachable to them to understand fully their needs. This would help us not just to make sure the Antenna Criteria are followed but also to motivate the local to work in the right direction. Many times, antennae don’t fully understand antenna criteria work or which are the AC they have to fulfill. There could be a project to be implemented all along the network to explain properly what AC are, which one each antenna should fulfill and more importantly, how to fulfill them. There could be a very visual manual containing links to forms, KT documents explaining things in details, etc.

In your programme you say that you would like to bring the AEGEE Bodies closer to the members, but the strategy you proposed seems the other way around: to bring the members closer to the AEGEE Bodies. Can you tell us something you would do in order to bring the AEGEE bodies closer to the members?

Actually I think both are important. On the one hand, it’s crucial to allow members to know the European Bodies, what do they work on, how they can get in touch with each other, to show they are friendly and they are willing to help. On the other hand, it’s also very important to work with different European Bodies to be able to help the locals in any issue they may find. As Network Commissioner, I would want to count on the support of the European Bodies and to be able to work with them. To put them in touch I would want them to collaborate not just at NWM but also at LTCs or RTCs for instance.

To ensure continuity and stability, among the other things, you wrote that you would like to continue the projects made by “La Nave” locals called “Connecting Locals” and “Local of the Month”. What would you do to ensure continuity if “La Nave” locals won’t be assigned to you?

All the projects carried out in La Nave locals could be easily transferable to any other local. Having the experience of being Alejandra’s subcommie, I would be able to take those and apply them into the reality of the specific locals or even to the whole Network.
It would also motivate other Netcommies to continue and implement these projects.

Describe the features of “the perfect NetCommie”.

First of all, I would want to emphasise that it would have to be a friendly person, open to new ideas, to receive feedback, to include changes and to improve for the Network. Additionally, I think this perfect NetCommie would have to be a hard worker and proactive person open to try new things, learn from mistakes and not fearing to make new mistakes by changing for the better

How would you like to support the CD in your daily work?

I think it’s important to work in close relation with the CD as they are also aware of the Network status and they are a great source of ideas and information which is very convenient for the work of the Netcom team.
I also like the Netcom-CD pair system that is already in play and I would want to keep it as I think it’s a great way of working together having two European bodies in touch. Furthermore, I want to work closely with the CD to organise the NWMs together with the team of subcommies and the hosting local in order to have a fruitful and nice cooperation. I think it’s also very important to bring closer the work of the CD to the locals and make more visible what they do and how friendly they are to help in any issue the members may have.

Why would we need to vote for you?

One of the most important things I think it’s needed for any position you run for is the motivation and, that, I have way more than enough!
I’m willing to start to work in this new adventure and face the new challenges it brings me. Every time I take any responsibility, I fight until the last moment and I do whatever is in my hand to achieve my objectives. I can’t imagine giving up or not doing my best every day. I would like to bring this motivation to the rest of the team to be able to have a nice working atmosphere and to coordinate plenty of project helping the locals every time. I love helping and being in touch with people, understanding the different cases and trying to empathise, giving always my help and my hand for anything that´s needed. I’m a real doer and I love getting really involved to solve all different sort of challenges!

You can read her full candidature here.

Written by Lisa Gregis, AEGEE-Bergamo

In the AEGEE structure, you can find the Audit Commission, a two-member-group which checks AEGEE antennae’s accounting. Normally, it should have three members, but the two Commissioners elected during Autumn Agora Kyïv can count on some job shadowers. We spoke to Deborah Pistori, 26 years old, member of AEGEE-Cagliari since 2012, and Mateusz Muszalski, 23 years old, member of AEGEE-Krakòw since 2013, to discover something more about the tasks of the Audit Commission.

Before Deborah and Mateusz became AC members, they were just two students not involved in any scientific subjects. Deborah studies Political Science and International Relations, so this is something that has not changed after the election. At the same time, she can boast about some previous experience in AEGEE: in 2014 she was a sub commissioner of the Network Commission on Financial Matters and she became a member of the Human Resources Committee. She was also in charge of Human Resources and Treasury at her local’s board, as well as Autumn Agora Cagliari’s Core Team member.

Mateusz studies Mechatronics. Like Deborah, he was also elected board member, but as Vice-President and in charge of Fundraising. He was also subcommissioner of Marta Wnuk dedicated to fundraising and he conducted some workshops as trainer in fourteen LTCs and many other AEGEE and non-AEGEE events.

Audit Commission’s main aims and tasks consist on checking the bookkeeping and approving the financial reports of AEGEE-Europe, AEGEE locals, AEGEE Working Groups and AEGEE-Europe events and presenting their results at each Agora. Although the AC deals with AEGEE-Europe and locals’ finances, “We would like to be treated by all of the AEGEEans as a supportive body in financial cases. AEGEE locals, do not hesitate to contact us!” says Deborah.

IIn order to become an AC member, every experience in the field of finances and budgeting is important and it would also be really helpful to know and understand what AEGEE-Europe’s budget and finances look like. Deborah explains us what the Financial Report is. First of all, for very young AEGEE members: “The Financial Report is the most basic document that every local should prepare after each financial year. However, if you are asking about the Financial Report that AEGEE locals have to send at the beginning of each year to AC, it is a structured form that presents the financial condition of the local”.

This year, the AC thought about being more helpful to locals, so it will try to have a direct communication with them and give them a thorough explanation to make the submission easier and understandable. Asking about how much time they devote to locals and working groups accounting checking, Mateusz says: “February and March will be a really tough moment for us. Even though you might think there is not a lot of effort behind the auditing of the locals, in fact it is actually the opposite. We do not know how much time it will take us exactly, but seeing that if every local submits it – and we definitely hope so – we will have to check around two-hundred financial reports. Luckily, we will have the job shadowers helping us out”.

Working with numbers and figures is a little boring according to many AEGEEans, but not for Mateusz; “To deal with finances, you need to be passionate about it because it is something really specific that also requires a lot of commitment and effort. We know that some people can find it boring or hard to understand, but we are happy we made this choice and we wouldn’t change it”.

Deborah reminds us what every antenna risks being downgraded if it does not work and its balance sheet is not approved, “You have certainly heard about the Antenna Criteria. The submission of the Financial Report is one of these criteria. When a local submits the Financial Report, we check it and see if everything is correct, and in case we find minor issues, we contact the local to solve this problem. If there are major issues, we have to go deeper to solve the problem, asking the local for a full audit, checking its bank account and all the incomes and expenses they had in the period concerned by the Financial Report”.

About an eventual planning to have more job shadowers, Mateusz says: “Arnau and Matthijs are now covering the position of subcommissioners and they will finish auditing the finances of the former Comité Directeur. Concerning the position of job shadowers, we will shortly issue an open call. We have lots of ideas about this position and we will try to get them more involved in the work of the AC”.

According to the CIA, the Audit Commission can have up to three financially competent members but in Agora Kyïv only two were elected. “We will most probably have the position opened for candidature in Agora Bergamo” Mateusz adds.

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari

As the Agora Asturias 2015 is approaching at a high speed, our ‘Proposals for Dummies’ series is still ongoing! Today we are taking a look at three proposals which mainly concern Statutory Meetings, namely Agorae, European Planning Meetings and Network Meetings, and which aim at introducing some changes to the Antenna Criteria and the Working Format of the Agora.

The first one of the proposals that we will analyse today, Proxy voting for locals, has been proposed by Léa Charlet from AEGEE-Paris, Olga Rivero from AEGEE-Oviedo and Ruben Navarro from AEGEE-Tarragona. It addresses a problem that some of our locals are facing since some of them don’t the money, time and resources to send their delegates to the Agorae. It means that these locals cannot participate in the decisions taken at the Agora, as they are unable to cast their votes. The proposal suggests that locals who cannot attend the Agorae can delegate their votes to another antenna, who will cast it on their behalf.

The proposers argue that smaller locals often face disadvantages, as they usually have lesser chances to send delegates to Agorae. Moreover, they argue that often, the city where an Agora takes place “is also decisive for a candidate to be elected or a proposal to be approved, just because the attendance from the nearby antennae is bigger” than others.

However, this doesn’t mean that antennae who delegate their votes to others will fulfil the antenna criterion of being present at Statutory events. It will only mean that some other antenna will vote on their behalf, so they will not be in any way present in Agorae. According to the initial proposal, antennae who would like to delegate their votes would have to inform the Juridical Commission two weeks in advance, and approve their decision of delegating the vote in their own local Agora. Find the proposal here.

The second one of the proposals we will take a look at today concerns the attendance to statutory meetings, too. It aims at Changing Criteria for Representative Attendance during Meetings, referring to Agorae, European Planning Meetings (EPM) and Network Meetings (NWMs). Mario Galea (AEGEE-Valletta), on behalf of the Network Commission, proposes to change the current criterion of attendance to plenaries (currently stated as “full attendance”) and set a minimum percentage of plenary attendance instead (80% of them), and as many prytania per slot as it has representatives – so, if a local sends only two delegates, this local should send these two delegates in two prytania slots.

Concerning Network Meetings, Mario argues that the current criterion implies that locals have to send a participant at a Network Meeting, but this presence is not usually counted – meaning that participants can be free of skipping the sessions or simply visiting the city. The proposal aims to avoid this by setting a minimum percentage of the sessions to be attended in order to make this criterion fulfilled. The full proposal can be found here.

Our last daily proposal, Providing Room for Deliberation on Motions, is proposed by Gijs van Amerongen and Maarten de Groot, from AEGEE-Amsterdam. Currently, there is enough space for deliberation before voting candidatures and proposals. However, this doesn’t happen when it comes to motions, which are proposed during the Agora itself and often voted on within the same plenary session, with not enough space for discussion.

As the proposers from AEGEE-Amsterdam suggest, sometimes delegates do not have the time to deliberate and to discuss before making a decision. Because of that, they propose a minimum of three minutes during the plenary session in order to provide the delegates with some time for deliberation among one another and the members from their local. The full proposal can be found here.

Written by Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona

Just like we did for the last two Agorae (namely Spring Agora Patra and Autumn Agora Cagliari) this year again we want to provide you with a short and easy summary of the proposals submitted for Spring Agorasturias. In this round, we will explain you three proposals that will affect the Antennae Criteria, one of them specifically clarifying what happens if a local modifies its Statutes. Read more about ‘Antenna Criteria: Restructuring and Improvements’, ‘Making Activity Report and Activity Plan coherent to board term’ and ‘Modification of the Statutes of Locals’.

The first two proposals were submitted by Andrea Schmelz and Mario Galea on behalf of the Network Commission. The first one, ‘Antenna Criteria: Restructuring and Improvements’, wants to restructure the Antennae Criteria in order to make it easier for locals to find which are all the criteria that they have to fulfill. Right now, if you are an Antenna, you have to follow the criteria to become an Antenna too. What this proposal wants to do, is to separate the criteria to become a Contact, to become a Contact Antenna, to remain a Contact Antenna, to become an Antenna and to remain an Antenna in order for locals to find them easier, without changing their content. Besides that, there are also some content changes that will make some criteria more clear. The changes made in this proposal can be found here.

The second proposal, ‘Making Activity Report and Activity Plan coherent to board term’, intends to clarify and cohere when the Activity Report and the Activity Plan should be sent. Right now, the Activity Plan is sent by the new board one month after their election, stating their future plans. Once per year, they send the Activity Report where they present the achievements of the year that passed. The Comité Directeur and Network Commission use this information to make sure that the locals are doing well. In order to make it clear when the new board should send the Activity Plan, the proposers suggest to have the new board send their Activity Plan one month after they start their term instead of the election, since some boards begin their term several weeks after the elections. The Activity Report would then be sent after the board term is over. You can find all the changes of this proposal here.

The third proposal, ‘Modification of the Statutes of Locals’, is submitted by Joris Veenhuis, Claudio Gennaro and Glòria Llopart on behalf of the Juridical Commission and aims to ensure the equality between AEGEE-Europe and the locals. How? When a local modifies its statutes, they should send them to Juridical Commission. Why? AEGEE-Europe and the locals have signed the Convention d’Adhesion (CdA), the partnership contract between two associations which are engaged to be clear to each other. Locals are aware of the changes in AEGEE-Europe’s statutes since they must be approved at an Agora. However, after the first approval of the statutes, which happens before a local signs the CdA, AEGEE-Europe can only access the statutes of the locals upon demand. This is inequitable. If a local changes its statutes in a way that does not follow AEGEE-Europe’s principles, AEGEE-Europe will only know if a member exposes that issue. With this proposal, future problems about statutes can be avoided. All changes made to achieve that can be found here.

Written by Lia Tuska, AEGEE-Sofia/Thessaloniki

AEGEE-Thessaloniki is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and when we evaluate their achievements by completion of the antennae criteria, they receive a good score. This is the reason why they organised a Network Meeting (NWM) recently. The AEGEEan interviewed the President of AEGEE-Thessaloniki, Arsenis Tselengidis, Treasurer Ioannis Soultanidis and Georgia Grolliou who they call “the future of AEGEE-Thessaloniki”.

Can you inform the readers about your antenna? When was it founded, how many members do you have, how many are active. etc?

Arsenis: This… -awesome- local, was founded during a cold December’s night of the year 1993, the 16th to be exact. This year, 20 years after the local was founded, the situation became very difficult. The local was almost ready to be downgraded, because of a lack of active members. Ioannis and I (the only full time active members then) took the responsibility to give one last big effort to save our local. Our two main aims were: survival of the local without loosing any of the Antenna Criteria and activating at least seven members.  Nine months later, AEGEE-Thessaloniki has 31 members and 13 of them are active!

Ioannis: Our local might not be the oldest or largest, but it still is here after 20 years no matter the difficulties it met in the past. And we also survived this time. Thessaloniki has had glorious moments in the first decade of this millennium, but because old members were stepping down, and new members were leaving for Erasmus in other countries (among them myself and the current president), it became dormant. However, after a lot of work, running around and entertaining random guys and girls, AEGEE-Thessaloniki is back on it’s feet with new, active members full of excitement plus many more living in the shadows, waiting for the next breathtaking AEGEE event.

Georgia: As Ioannis said, maybe we don’t have a lot of members, but it is not the quantity but the quality of our members that counts! I cannot say a lot about my antenna’s history, but I can tell you about its future. I have seen a lot of smiling and promising faces in our first recruitment meetings and of course we have a fantastic team to surround them!

Why did you decide to organise the Network Meeting?

Arsenis: When our board term started (January 2013), we knew that our last European Event had been two years ago,  in 2011. So we would not fulfill an antenna criterium if we didn’t organise anything. The NWM was the ‘easiest’ European event we could organise. The second reason was that after the recruitment period in April, the Summer Universities (SUs) start and we thought that the best way to keep our members active, is to have them help organise an European event right after the SU’s end…

Ioannis: We have been talking for quite some time within the board about organising an event, mainly because it is an Antenna Criterium and we didn’t want to see our antenna losing one. We brainstormed to try and find the best way to use our limited funds and members, so when the Open Call came for the organisation of a NWM, we grabbed it.

Georgia: I was not a member of the team of AEGEE-Thessaloniki at that time the decision was taken, but I totally understand it! We managed to fulfill two Antenna Criteria at the same time: the organisation of a European event, and attendance of a board member at a Network Meeting. All the reasons and ideas of our board team have been proven to be right. A European Event right after the SU’s activated both participants and organizers. It’s really nice to see the names of all the participants come up in mails announcing the new boards of their cities Antenna. I am really happy and enthusiastic to be part of this team and this Antenna.

What challenges did you come across while organising the NWM?

Arsenis: The most important was the fact that the most members returned from their SU’s quite late. The second was that in September we have exams in Greece. We were informed about our selection as organisers on the 15th of August, but until the 30th our members were not coming to the meetings because they were studying. As the exam periods last 1 month here and the event started on the 3rd of October, we knew that all work would have to be done in ten days, between the 20th-30th when the majority of the members has already finished the exams. However, we also know that organising a great event event, last minute… is in our blood.

Ioannis: Add to that the exam period-problems, cancellation problems, both with participants and wih adequate offers for food, lodging and seminar rooms. We were in deep… It felt almost like a miracle when the first day of the NWM arrived and everything was resolved!

Main organiser of Agora Patra, Costas, told us recently that working on fundraising (FR) is a challenge because of the economic situation in Greece. How did you handle this?

Arsenis: After a successfull promotion of the SUs, two days before the NWM we faced a nightmare! We got the mail from financial director Anna about the Membership Fees at the Agora…. The biggest project of AEGEE (Summer Universities) were leading our local into the first debt in the last decade! When we started organising two months ago, our first calculations were saying that we were going to need 226 Euros extra for this event. In two days Ioannis did a great job, and the final result was that we spent only 35 Euro! Ioannis will explain how we got there.

Ioannis: It is near impossible to raise funds these days. We sent a couple of our well connected members out to ask certain businesses either for help with funds or free food, but it didn’t work, with the exception of one beverage producer. So the budget was strict, no deals worked out and we were on our own. We tried to reduce expenses on every single occasion (if you ask any participant they will certify they had to walk a lot and one of the offered dinner was not enough.. Sorry!). We had to withdraw all our savings and be ready to spend them. However surprisingly, at the end, we spent only 35 euro. Saving a little everywhere works like a charm. My biggest regret is that because of the tight budget and uncertainty untill the very start of the NWM we did not buy t-shirts for the participants.

How did it go with organising the NWM in the end?

Arsenis: After three sleepless nights and four days of running, organising and re-organising the feeling of seeing people smiling and listening to them about how wonderful these days were for them, makes you feel so special!

Ioannis: AEGEE spirit rocked our city and fueled us to keep on going for three days! It all worked out in the end, whether it was fully prepared or not, and I think we got our members activated.

Georgia: As with all AEGEE events I have experienced so far, there were the normal complaints in the begining and a lot of hugs and melancholy at the end. It’s really satisfying to see that everybody had a perfect, awesome time after organising an event  and to feel like you have a lot of new friends, you will meet somewhere in Europe!

Would you encourage other Antennae to organise Network Meetings? 

Arsenis: I have been in four NWMs in my AEGEE life: in London, in Istanbul, and now twice in Thessaloniki. Both as a participant and as a organiser, it feels wonderful! As a participant you have a lot of fun and gain a huge amount of knowledge, but being an organiser is something different. You are going to need to use your creativity, train your public relations skills,  and you will gain experience and improve your administrative qualities. Moreover, you will see the new members of your local participating actively. I am sure that after a NWM, none of them will want to return to their previous inactive state. In four days they can be been turned into AEGEEans!

Ioannis: Yep, it can be a great first step towards creating a team that is able to organise a good SU.

Georgia: A Network Meeting is a good chance for a small Antennae to organise a European event and teach both participants and organisers about the town’s history and culture. We have to admit that even we  didn’t know everything about our town before. Furthermore, it can help newbies to learn about the structure of AEGEE and get involved more! As far as the organisation is concerned, I would say a NWM helps you realise coordination is essential for everything in AEGEE. A great team is built to make the event reality and as a member of that team the level of your creativity, administrative and, public relations’ skills, suddenly grow.

What lies in the future for AEGEE-Thessaloniki?

Arsenis: We have are some ideas. First, we want to participate in the European Youth Capital Project 2014, and second maybe organise a SU. However, our term is finishing after this Autumn Agora, so the new “youth” aka. Georgia have the power now!

Ioannis: An exchange programme with AEGEE-Tenerife, to discuss about Thessaloniki as the European Youth Capital for 2014, then more team building projects to keep our active members happy. After that, the next board is up!

Georgia: Considering Thessaloniki is the European Youth Capital 2014, we cannot leave this year without organising anything special! An SU -maybe in cooperation with another antenna, could be a really nice idea!

Will you organise a pre-event for Agora Patra?

Arsenis: This is a decision of the next board. But, I would love to see one! It would be very helpful for the next board to get more active members from the recruitment we will do this month.

Georgia: We still do not have anything official but it could be a nice idea. By now, we are ready to provide any help to our friends in Patra. We want them to know that they can definitely count on us.

Will you be involved in any way with the organisation of Agora Patra?

Georgia: Right now, our help is limited to some public relations actions to promote the Agora Patra! Thereafter, I suppose that some of our members could provide their work and creativity as helpers. They must know that they can ask any help from us and we will do our best!

It is nice to see an antenna working so hard on keeping the local alive and completing all the antenna critieria. The AEGEEan wishes AEGEE-Thessaloniki good luck with their work and any future plans.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-Koebenhavn

As many board members already know, each local has to submit an annual report about the events that they organised, as required in the antenna criteria. But what about the plans for the future? The General Subvention from the European Commission represents around 40% of AEGEE-Europe’s annual budget, and the application for this grant has to include the activity plans of locals as well. This was the issue raised by Pavel Zborník, European Institutions and Communications Director of AEGEE-Europe, who proposed (on behalf of the Comité Directeur) to include the submission of a yearly Activity Plan in the antenna criteria.

The AEGEEan: Could you, please, sum up the main points of the proposal?

Pavel: I think the point of the proposal is quite clear: I would like to make sure that my successor – meaning not just the successor dealing with the operational grant – will have enough information about what members of our Network plan to do during the following year. Such information is also very interesting for the Network Commission, at least from what I’ve seen during my experience in the NetCom.
This proposal has two aims: the first one is to get information from locals about their planned activities, and the second is more or less the introduction of a planning system in AEGEE. Obviously, if you want to achieve something, it is very important to know how, this is why we need plans. I believe that our locals are able to achieve very good results, and this rule would help them in this by incenting them to set a concrete plan for their activities. I’m sure that for most locals, this is already a common practise and it will not create any problems for them. As for the rest, together with the NetCom we will help to start this process by providing all the necessary information and knowledge about the planning process.

Why did you see the need for the proposed changes?

Right now, submitting a report of activities from the previous period is included  in the antenna criteria, but we don’t require locals to also submit a plan for the future, and this is a bit strange for me. As the person responsible for submitting the application for the General Subvention, I can only kindly ask locals for such kind of information – the information that I need to write this application, and therefore secure necessary funding for AEGEE-Europe.

So how will AEGEE and AEGEE members benefit from it?

You might know that the operational grant from the Youth in Action is 50 000 €, which in my eyes is a quite visible result. As I mentioned earlier, by introducing  requirement for planning, locals will have more precise ideas about what they will organise during the upcoming year. And this would also help us in order to manage our big Network.

Writte by Zsófia Komáromi, AEGEE-Budapest