The workload of the Comité Directeur can be demanding and they might need some extra help to do their duties. It can happen that open calls are sent out and willing and courageous people join the CD and work for our association. Maria Maris from AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca is one of them, working on communications since October. Her term was extended also for February and we took the occasion to ask her some questions. 

The AEGEEan: Please introduce yourself.
Maria: Hey, I am Maria from AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca (hearts, hearts, hearts) or you can also call me Dani, as the Civic Education Working Group does.

Why did you decide to apply for the position of CD assistant?
Last year I finished my bachelor’s studies and decided to take a gap year before my master’s. Until now, I would say it was an amazing idea, because I managed to invest a lot of time in things I enjoy, which means AEGEE too. At the end of summer I was looking at many possibilities of internships and decided to apply for the position of Communications Assistant for the CD. I think it was a great opportunity because the internship is in my field of studies and I was always curious to see how the CD life and experience are.

What was your experience before joining CD as an assistant?
My first experience with AEGEE was the Summer University organised by AEGEE-Istanbul and AEGEE-Skopje in 2014. Afterwards, I slowly started to get more active in AEGEE and last summer I also joined the CEWG.

What are your tasks?
Most of the time I try to help the Communication and Project Director Joanna Pankowska as much as possible. There are always so many things to be done, even very small details that sometimes take quite a while to be done. Mainly, I was taking care of a part of the communications, such as social media, and worked on the ECI-More Than Education. Even though I was just a communications assistant, in the CD, as an assistant, if you wish to also work for other projects or teams, you are free to do so.
Besides these everyday tasks, another task was to cook for the Christmas party that we hosted. What I really liked about it was the moment when all of the people in the house started to prepare for the party, decorating the house and signing carols. Those moments make you feel like home.

What does one typical day in your life in Brussels look like?
Maybe you would expect something super interesting… Sorry, it is quite monotone. You have to go to the office and work. The nice moments of the day are the ones when you take a break from work, go into the kitchen and become sort of a magician trying to cook something very quickly from what you have in the fridge or left-overs. Also, what I love about the CD is that I do not have to attend the board meetings, because they seem to take so long it looks like an eternity. As an assistant, I just have to go for the first 15 minutes, when we update each other on our work. The weekends are more exciting, actually. EU-bodies come for their live meetings and other visitors are in the house. One weekend, we had something like 40 people who entered the house.

Name one good thing in AEGEE and one bad thing.
The best thing are the people. I am so happy and grateful to have met amazing and interesting people in AEGEE.
One bad thing is Tim’s French. Tim, one of CD house renters, improve your French [she smiles, ed.].

Let’s play a game. Describe yourself by using adjectives that start with the letters that compose your name.
Mysterious
Agreeable
Responsible
Intelligent
Awesome

What is next for you?
In February I will be back in Brussels for another month as an assistant and in March I will start another internship in Berlin.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

Just like we did for the last Agorae, for Spring Agora Bergamo again we want to provide you with a short and easy summary of the proposals submitted for the Agora. In this first round, we will be explaining you four proposals that are aimed at changing the elections and the work of Juridical Commission, namely “Clarifying the procedure for withdrawing motions (and proposals) from the agenda of the Agora”, “Proposal to introduce a maximum fee for statutory events”, “Simplify the CIA: Case Study Trips” and “Allowing Case Shadowers for the Mediation Commission”. 

Now you may wonder: “What is this CIA you are talking about? Is AEGEE-Europe secretly American?” Simply said, the CIA (Corpus Iuridicum Aegeense) is a document with over a hundred pages containing all the rules which govern AEGEE-Europe. It is therefore considered as the legal framework of the Association, and all members are obliged to follow its provisions. Although no secret agents are involved in it, it is one of the most important documents. In the CIA, which you can read here, you can find, for example, the Statutes of AEGEE-Europe, and, in another document, also the Working Formats of the different bodies and all kind of rules (General Rules, Rules of the Network Commission, Antennae Criteria, etc.).

Clarifying the procedure for withdrawing motions (and proposals) from the agenda of the Agora

Eveline Joore, Evelien Kroon and Wietske Jousma on behalf of AEGEE-Enschede submitted the proposal that aims to clarify the procedure of withdrawing motions and proposals. AEGEE-Enschede members start from the case when motions and proposals are withdrawn by submitters during Agora without discussing them further, for example because they don’t believe in the proposal anymore or there were some amendments that changed the original proposal/motion, regardless of the possible interest in the topic by other delegates. According to the proposers, once the items on the agenda are ratified, those become Agora properties, therefore in order to withdraw a proposal/motion, original proposers must do so with the approval of the Agora which has adopted an agenda indicating that the motion will be debated. Although this proposal aims to regulate how proposals are withdrawn, the changes involves the general approval of the possibility of the Agenda modification. Now, in order to modify the order of the topics listed in the agenda a simple majority is required. If this proposal would pass, a qualified majority is required to remove topics and and votings from the proposed agenda.

Proposal to introduce a maximum fee for statutory events

Also submitted by Eveline Joore, Evelien Kroon and Wietske Jousma on behalf of AEGEE-Enschede, this proposal describes the aim to have a maximum fee for our statutory events. Currently the participation of the Agora should be free for all members (of the Agora), but, in the same article of the Working Format of the Agora, it is specified that local organisers can charge participants for some additional services and the exception must be approved by the Financial Director. The average cost of Agora participation fee in the recent years is 50 euros. The proposers argue that a maximum fee for the statutory was never agreed on and they therefore propose to set a maximum fee of 14 euros per night in order to keep the Agora affordable for every AEGEE Members. Therefore the Autumn Agora, which normally lasts from the Wednesday to the Sunday (four nights), would have a maximum fee of  56 euros. The Spring Agora, having usually one day more opening on Tuesday and having people leaving on Sunday (five nights), would have a maximum fee of 70 euros. Also, the maximum fee can be increased by a maximum percentage based on the Eurostat Euro Area annual inflation statistics of the calendar year.

Simplify the CIA: Case Study Trips

Svenja van Der Tol and Aleksandra Kluczka on behalf of the Comité Directeur and Claudio Gennaro on behalf of Juridical Commission are proposing to simplify the articles concerning the Case Study Trips. A case study trip has been used a lot in the past, for instance when AEGEE was expanding to the East. The changes now specify that the Case Study Trip has the purpose of researching in the interest of AEGEE and the complementary aim is its promotion. Participants can be from a local or from a body, replacing the old Working Group or a Supporting Committee on the European level, and they will be selected by the organising team based on their motivation. Moreover, two third of the total participants must be an AEGEE member. In case the proposal will be adopted, it is added also that after the approval of the Comité Directeur, the organising team would decide on the topic, the time schedule and the locations covered and a report with results and a financial overview should be presented within one month after the trip took place.

Allowing Case Shadowers for the Mediation Commission

This proposal is presented by Damien Latacz on behalf of the Mediation Commission (MedCom). If approved, it would change the working format of the Mediation Commission by adding a new figure to the MedCom: the case shadower. Damien Latacz argues that cases that the MedCom are handling might proceed also after a term is finished, thus forbidding the previous team to advise the new one, except from the Knowledge Transfer period. With this proposal, the MedCom would have the possibility to have case shadowers on certain cases. The shadowers can only be previous members of the MedCom and they are assigned only on a specific case, not having access to any data but only to the ones of the case they are involved with. S/he wouldn’t have voting rights and s/he would be removed from his/her position once the case would be closed (no longer than two weeks after the closing). His/her role would be merely advisory.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona