Due to the fact that NWM in Zaragoza took place only a few weeks after Agora Cagliari, it was mainly organised by former NetCom Carmen María and her team, although some members of the new team (Olga Rivero’s Tripulación) were also involved in the programme preparation and presentations.

Another Network Meeting (NWM), another pleasant and different experience with the members of our Network. We needed some winds of change in our NWMs, so we tried to implement some changes and improvements suggested by the participants in our last Spring NWM in Alicante, although the new team will have to continue working on it in order to keep improving the format. This time, we tried to make the content more practical and we held more sessions to share knowledge and experiences. There was more time for participants to talk and share their concerns, doubts and ideas, even if the outcome was not as dynamic and energetic as expected after all the discussions we had during the Spring NWM in Alicante and in our Facebook group before Agora Cagliari, where the participation in discussions increased notably.

The team was lucky to count on experienced people from different European bodies, people who contributed and shared a lot with the rest; Antonija Parat from the Comité Directeur (CD) who showed us the achievements of AEGEE so far and made us think about our motivation while also clarifying loads of interesting topics, Policy Officers Léa Charlet and Pablo Hernández who conducted a consultation on Gender Equality and Youth Employment, Speaker of the Action Agenda Coordination Team (ACT) Ruben Navarro who led a great session about the Action Agenda, Esperanza Rodriguez from AEGEE-Las Palmas who taught us more about Financial Reports and Erasmus +, Anna Gumbau from the 30^th Anniversary Team who informed us about the project, Liaison Officer Laia García who was always there to raise discussions, Regional Advisor from BEST Carlos Freire who was representing our beloved partner association and many other involved and active members from our area.

Not to talk about the nice social programme AEGEE-Zaragoza prepared! A tourist bus tour around Zaragoza to start knowing the city, their great work with the location of the accommodation and the facilities (in the middle of the city!), nice meals and many details thanks to their excellent fundraising work and, of course, a Celebrities party where participants let their imagination soar and became famous for that night. It should be pointed out that our current president, Paul Smits, was more than present there! 

Below you can find some experiences from participants and presenters with different backgrounds:

Antonija Parat from CD: ‘I enjoyed the event very much. The atmosphere was just perfect: engaged participants, caring organisers, an experienced NetCom team and quality content. For me as a CD member it was nice to see face-to-face where our members stand, what the topics are they care about, and what they hope to see in the future in our organisation. I was truly happy to be there.’

Silvia Sierra from AEGEE-Zaragoza, main organiser of the NWM: ‘It has been a pleasure to coordinate such a great event, the zNWM, and we hope this event has been really productive and fruitful. We have learned from our own successes and problems to continue growing up without falling in the same old errors. Afterwards, the organisers’ reward has been to know that our participants have been happy during the event and have enjoyed it in every moment.’

Pablo Ruiz from AEGEE-Zaragoza, subcommissioner: ‘When I think of the last Network Meeting, I smile to myself seeing the great atmosphere that surrounded the event. Excellent lodging in the center of the city, quite good meals, devoted organisers and, above all, a group of participants who have shown they don’t only share a common region, but what they actually share is a strong friendship and a really good vibe between them. Could I ask for anything else from a NWM in my beloved city? The only thing I disliked about the event is the fact it had to finish.’

Esperanza Rodriguez from Las Palmas ‘After being away from Europe for some time, I was excited but a bit afraid before this NWM. It was my 4th but after missing the previous four, I wasn’t exactly an oldie nor a newbie… But I came back with my batteries fully charged after such a weekend! For me, everything was perfect: the organisation, the content, the social program and the team spirit!’

Julien Denis from AEGEE-Paris: ‘This was my first AEGEE meeting and besides my admiration for the perfect job made by the organising committee, I was impressed by the commitment of all those young people to this association, all of them sharing a similar vision and working hand in hand. This experience made me want to commit myself to a greater extent in AEGEE and work harder to develop my antenna.’

Olga Rivero, current NetCom: ‘Even though I was expecting more discussions and productive talks at some points, I think that with this event we were really on the way of organising the kind of NWM that participants want! Everybody was really happy and motivated at the end of the weekend, and for those who work on the content of the event that is just amazing and inspiring to keep on working to make it even better.’

Once more, many thanks to AEGEE-Zaragoza’s organising team for their great help and wonderful work with the logistics of the event, making everyone comfortable and happy. Thanks again to Antonija for all her help and contribution to this NWM. And a special mention from my side to my team, La Tripulación, and the other collaborators for their support during the organisation of this NWM and their outstanding work. And of course, last but not least, thanks to every participant who took part in this NWM.

Let’s keep on rocking “La Nave” and AEGEE! 

Written by Carmen María López Banegas, AEGEE-Alicante.
Pictures courtesy of Alberto Arroyo from AEGEE-Madrid and of AEGEE-Zaragoza’s team.

Less than one year after the closing ceremony of Autumn Agora-Zaragoza took place in Palacio de Congresos in the capital of Aragón, another important AEGEE event is approaching in Zaragoza. Combining the expertise of “oldies” together with the motivation of the “newbies” AEGEE-Zaragoza is taking up the challenge of hosting the Autumn Network Meeting (NWM) Zaragoza 2014.

As announced recently, Carmen Maria has become the NetCom assistant of the area of “La Nave” (antennae in France, Portugal, Spain and also the one in Brussels) and one of her first tasks is helping with the coordination of the Autumn NWM that will take place in Zaragoza, most probably this November (dates not confirmed yet).

Many times, after hosting a large statutory event, antenna experience the activity level dropping, since this is usually the time when the older generation decides to leave AEGEE.

The AEGEEan: Why did you decide to apply to host the Autumn NWM?  

Carlos: We felt that after organizing ZarAGORA the new and passive members became active and, as it usually happens after events in the association, AEGEE-Zaragoza grew in terms of not only more active members but of course also experience in hosting events.

Concretely, some of the new members of AEGEE-Zaragoza couldn’t go to the Spring NWM Alicante 2014 for different reasons, so after being informed by Pablo Ruiz about the application period for the NWM, some of them proposed to apply for the autumn NWM, and the “oldies” of AEGEE-Zaragoza encouraged them to complete this new objective: prepare the application. After that, the first goal was to get selected to host the NWM. The second is to make the NWM the best network meeting ever thanks to the volunteers who have already started with the organization of the event.

So that’s why it is an interesting new challenge for AEGEE-Zaragoza to be the host of the Autumn Network Meeting 2014, working closely with the Network Commission. We truly appreciate the opportunity given by the NetCom to realize our idea of the NWM and to work once again together for another great event.

The AEGEEan: How will it help that you have Pablo Ruiz who is a subcommie of “La Tripulación” (The team with the Network Commissioner of “La Nave” and his/her subcommissioners ed.) and a member of AEGEE-Zaragoza?

Carlos: He’s actually one of the most important people in AEGEE-Zaragoza, working hard for AEGEE from several levels. He’s a real AEGEEan and as such, he is helping the new members all the time. After Pablo, who knew of our intentions, told us to apply for the NWM, he came to us and he said “I can’t believe that you want to do it”, so I think that he couldn’t believe how active AEGEE-Zaragoza wants to be.

Fortunately has been helping us, as if he were an organizer, from the beginning.We know that if we have some problem, we can just take the telephone and call him. While we were working on the application and also after we knew the results, he told us that he will be there if we need help, or to solve any problem.

Also, as we are from the same antenna it is quite easy, we can meet on the street, or in the bar, at the university. Also, speaking Spanish helps us avoid some misunderstandings, and the speed of his answers is very important.

The AEGEEan: What are your plans for the NWM?

Carlos: First of all, to organize the best NWM in history. With AEGEE-Zaragoza you never know what to expect, we learned to work in secret… just kidding. We have some objectives that we have to accomplish.

First, we want to create an entertaining program, that would be complete and go beyond the typical expectations of a NWM. We want the people to think that coming to the NWM will be worth it and will solve their doubts. It’s about coming to a NWM where the speakers feel comfortable and can explain everything with confidence, and where every attendee learns about our Network and where they can have their doubts dissolved, a place where you can surely feel AEGEE spirit.

The main thing is that the NWM has to be useful and an ideal formative event, where doing a workshop is easy and where people have all necessary equipment. We want to look for a quality place, with adequate temperature, with good lighting and where people want to learn easily. The antennae will be our guests and we want the best for our guests.

We will prepare a very interactive social program in which teambuilding will be the main focus point. With it, we would like to encourage the rest of the antennae to be more and more participative in organizing European events. To sum up, we want everybody to think that it was the best NWM in AEGEE’s history.

The AEGEEan: Does it help that you have recently organized the Agora, a Local Training Course and Maños?

Carlos: Undoubtedly yes. Maybe hosting the Agora contributed with more energy. After it, many people got really involved and some of our new members dared to travel, managing weekly activities and bringing us incredible energy or just participating and making our meetings more colorful.

About the  Local Training Course, it was in nature. We were in a town called Borja, the Ecce Homo (the famous painting “restored” by an amateur painter ed.) place, and the workshops were interesting and funny at the same time. Furthermore, we managed to do a lot of activities in 24 hours and took advantage of our time without stopping at any moment and the people liked it, so they became more and more active afterwards.

The AEGEEan: Who will be part of the organization team?

Carlos: Really we have a great and well connected group. We belong to the same generation, and we work actually in many activities and programs together. Almost every week, we are together in our reunions or in private meeting having a picnic, or coffees, studying, etc. Another good point about it is that we come from different fields of professional life, such as future lawyers, nurses, doctors, programmers, engineers… so we can share our knowledge to do a better job.

Our structured work is really simple: we are in contact all the time and we take all the decisions together. Thereby, the whole group is responsible of our actions, and we are trying to do the best for the event. Even if some special task needs a lot of time, such as looking for the best accommodation for participants, we are together just as one body, one voice.

Silvia Sierra is the main coordinator and the actual secretary of our antenna. But she’s not alone, she has the best team she could ever have: Carlos Embid – PR, Sara Urdaniz – social program responsible, Juan Valles – incoming responsible, Alejandra Pérez – logistics responsible, Raúl Lapeña – meals responsible, Ava Rasekh – treasurer, and Ander Guerrero – Fundraising.

The AEGEEan: You organize many events in your antenna, how do you make it all possible?

Carlos: The point that we have to highlight is the organisation. We explain each week in our reunion how every activity or travel is going, we do weekly evaluations. There are also individual decisions taken by the leader, which are respected and he/she is the go-to-person with solutions to potential problems.

This year we worked very hard, and the system is really good.  We don’t have any secrets just work, communication, consensus and decision.

The AEGEEan: You also recently won two The AEGEEans Choice Awards. One of them was once again for Best Merchandise. Are you working or will you work on any new merchandise for the NWM?

Carlos: Actually, we stopped some programs because of the exams, but we plan some possible programs, and maybe we will totally modify our merchandise or we will just do a few changes. We have not chosen anything. I can’t tell you more about it at the moment, but I will keep you informed. However, I think that in the next meeting we will make a decision, and we hope that it will have the success of the Agora merchandise.