It’s the closing plenary of Spring Agora Enschede 2017 and the next European Planning Meeting hosting local has been announced: it is AEGEE-Yerevan! We reached out to them and spoke to Armenak Minasyants from the Armenian local to ask them more about their reaction to the good news and some sneak peeks. 

The AEGEEan: Why did you apply to host European Planning Meeting 2018?

Armenak: There are many reasons behind the motivation of our local to apply for hosting the European Planning Meeting 2018. We have a strong belief towards our own institutional and administrative resources to host such a big event in our city. In AEGEE-Yerevan we are people who believe that the objective of life is to hit and not get hit. We are looking to expand our portfolio while we are on top and while we are extremely motivated. In the last seven years, we have set the model for showing to thousands of young people in Armenia how they should be responsible citizens and youth workers in and out of AEGEE. Now, it is high time also to deliver this on the European level!

Another amazing reason and motivation for applying is that practically EPM Yerevan 2018 will become the biggest youth European event ever organised in Armenia and AEGEE, in our perception, shall be the organisation making the history in different corners of Europe! We welcome the approach of the CDs in recent years to grant the locals in non-EU countries an opportunity to host statutory events. Our Network is amazingly diverse and it is great to have these synergies of hosting for instance Agora in Western Europe and afterwards coming to the very South-East of Europe and experiencing ideally a different reality during EPM. This will surely contribute to internal transformations within AEGEE and will boost our sense of being European not just as a matter of geography, as being European is first and foremost caring about the same universal system of values. Hence, we are motivated to have the EPM and allow everyone to discover one of the oldest cradles of European culture.

How did you react when you first heard the news that you were accepted?

Ohhhhh my God! OMG OMG OMG! I mean, this is literally the biggest moment in my life! When it was announced it literally took almost a day from me to calm down, as I have been calling everyone to inform about the news! On the next day, we hosted a board meeting and pumped a bottle of the best local champagne, thus marking the start of our preparations! Yes, we have started it already! The emotions are too hard to describe, this is something you need to go through.

How would you describe AEGEE-Yerevan?

We are young, talented, passionate and very professional local! Our ultimate goal is to always break records and the EPM 2018 is the next milestone for us! Our local now has successfully undergone the period of reconstruction and revival, the generational change has been finalised, the institutional memory of the organisation is better than ever, and the organisational matters are handled in the most professional manner with six board members constantly working. We have extremely experienced board members, who are flavoured with very young newcomers’ enthusiasts striving for experience.

Who will be in the core team of EPM Yerevan?

Let me first of all pass words of thankfulness to Ani, Kalipso, Anna, Nirvana, Izabella, Armine, Davit, Anush, Vika, Suren, Tereza and everyone who has helped us to make this application happen!

The core team of EPM Yerevan has eight members and is indeed amazingly strong! We have decided to bring out the best we have in the wardrobe. We will have former Network Commissioner Tereza “China” as one of the logistics officers working on the preparatory, we will have Ani Khachatryan – our long running and very experienced Secretary General, and surely another 40 local organisers and helpers coming up to help on any matter.

Furthermore, EPM Yerevan will be also special as all the external promotion, PR materials, merchandise will be made by professionals, as we will be working with professional PR and design agencies such as Ktor Designs and Deem Communications. This will help us having qualitatively new branding for such a big and important event.

Last but not the least, I have decided to be the head of the core team and I want to dedicate myself fully to the biggest project of my life, which the EPM is! Probably this will be the best way to end my long European AEGEE journey and retire from the association right at the EPM stage surrounded by my friends, AEGEEans and the organisation, which has given to me so much in past eight years.

Does AEGEE-Yerevan have any past experience in organising an event similar to the EPM?

Every year in Autumn we host a thematic EU-funded conference – Armenia Model EU Conference, which brings to Armenia up to 150 young people, youth workers and civic activists from all over Europe. This four-days project consists not only of a typical simulation conference style activity, but also of almost two days full of encounters, thematic panel discussions and open space discussions with leading European and local experts, mainly focusing on European political agenda matters.

It is worth to mention that in February 2017 we solely organised and hosted a thematic conference attended by Mr. Christian Danielsson, who is the Director General for Enlargement at the European Commission (DG NEAR). This has been a tremendous experience for us: just imagine we hosted a thematic event for 250 students with the attendance of a top EU official.

So, we are looking forward to comprehend our resources, experience and build up on our success stories for making the upcoming EPM really groundbreaking.

What do you have in mind for the facilities and the programme?

Even though it is a bit early now to discuss the facilities, it has been agreed preliminarily that the event will take place at the auspices of one of the best universities in Yerevan, which has the highest quality of technical equipment and facilities, which will be surely available to any EPM participant. We want participants not to face any technical problem during their activities. More notably, we want to suggest participants the most comfortable ever conditions of stay during an AEGEE statutory event. I really do not want to fold all our cards now, let’s keep it still as a surprise, but we will try to set up ideally a new benchmark in project quality and fundraising in AEGEE.

The programme will be amazingly packed, and not only because of the sessions, as we want every participant to feel the magic and spirit of our city, which will be marking its 2800th birthday in 2018!

Hence, everyone will have a chance to climb over the heights of the Cascade Stairs of Yerevan and admire the city panorama view, we will have an AEGEE flashmob on the longest pedestrian avenue, we will taste the best of our local wines and just enjoy the hospitality of any ordinary Yerevan resident, suggesting participants classical Armenian coffee and pastries.  

What will be your biggest challenges in hosting the EPM?

We treat every challenge as a new opportunity to develop our skills and grow stronger as an organization. Hence there are no challenges for us to host the EPM – it is all about opportunities – ain’t no boundaries, ain’t no limits. However, focusing more on the technical ground, I think the biggest challenge will be in supporting every participant with the travelling matters. Basically, we are going to help as much as possible in any transportation related matter. They are four ways for travelling to Yerevan (counting also Tbilisi and Kutaisi) and we are going to work at maximum to help each participant to reach Yerevan in the most cost effective and budgetary way.

What makes Yerevan attractive to visit?

 Yerevan is all about people! The hospitality and friendly attitude are probably the most common features of any Armenian and you can feel that hospitality on every step in Yerevan! Yerevan is rocking Europe since 786 BC! For millennia Yerevan has been at the crossroads of cultural trends, intellectual thought, groundbreaking research, and incredible inventions. Now it is bursting with a rocking nightlife and a buzzing restaurant scene. The city center is full of great wine houses and our city is owning the title of one of the world’s top 10 safest cities. Yerevan is an incredibly walkable city. As one of the safest cities in Europe, you will never find yourself in trouble, no matter how shabby the neighborhood appearance may be and how much drunk you might be. Around 82% of Yerevan residents feel quite safe walking home alone at night. So yes, life in Yerevan goes on in a safe, tiny, and sunny spot. The day of Yerevan residents starts with the bright sun greeting them in the morning, as we have sunny weather almost 300 days per year! The smell of “Armenian” coffee is spreading everywhere since the morning, and everyone from schoolchildren to officials doing their everyday work feel safe about their lives. Truly, if you are top AEGEE talent wanting to change the world, our organisation and enjoy yourself while doing it all, there is no better place to come and join than EPM Yerevan 2018!

Written by Federica Soro, AEGEE-Cagliari and Maria Zwartkruis, AEGEE-Utrecht

With only a few weeks left, European Planning Meeting (EPM) Zagreb is approaching. The conferences and workshops about this year’s topic: Europe under Siege – Populism and Anti-European Agitation. What we will see is the result of the work of two AEGEE members: Eirini Kyriakidi (AEGEE-Athina) and Florian Hauger (AEGEE-Heidelberg). The EPM content managers are working together with the Comité Directeur and local organisers since last November and they will give us a small preview of what participants should expect. 

The AEGEEan: Present yourself.

Eyrin and Florian: Hey, we are Eyrin from AEGEE-Athina and Florian from AEGEE-Heidelberg, as your Content Managers. We are responsible for EPM Zagreb’s thematic conference “Populism and Anti-European Agitation”. Both of us are political science students, local board members and incredibly AEGEE-addicted… oh, and we figured out that the EPM preparation turned us into an old couple. [They smile, ed.]

 
Why did you decide to apply as the content manager of EPM?

Florian: Developing a strategy of how to react on anti-European populism has been one of my best projects since I joined AEGEE in spring 2015. It is an important issue we need to talk about. This is why I decided to propose it as an EPM topic and apply as the content manager.

Eyrin: I wanted to be more active on the European level of AEGEE. Later, the open call for the Content Managers of EPM was announced and I knew I had to apply as soon as I saw the topic! It is an issue that is all around us, not a simple policy on a few papers.

 
What are your previous experience in Populism and the topic of EPM in general?

Florian: Populism and Anti-European Agitation affects both my studies and my work as a parliament employee. I did some research and read quite a lot political science literature on populism. Understanding dynamics and organisation of populist parties or movements is both incredibly interesting and frightening.

Eyrin: I am currently in my last semester of Political Science and International Relations. Therefore, Populism and Anti-European Agitation are more or less part of my everyday life, since I always end up studying about this topic or reading something relevant.

Can you give us a sneak peek of how the content will be? In what will you focus more?

Since Populism and anti-European agitation are deeply interconnected, we couldn’t possibly think of them separating from each other when it came to speakers and workshops. However, our intention is to present many points of view for the same issues, so one could say that we are focusing on the pluralism of opinions.

 
Who are going to be external speakers? What will be more or less the content of workshops?

We are very happy to confirm the engagement of Claudia Chwalisz of Populus UK, LEAP-President Marie-Hélèn Caillol, Gordan Bosanac from the Centre for Peace Studies and Marko Grdosic from the Advisory Council of the Council of Europe. Most of our upcoming workshops proceed to populist mindsets and intentions while others focus further on their strategies, tools and actions.

 
How did you decide to develop the topic? From which perspective will you treat it?

Since the chosen topic is highly controversial, it is absolutely crucial to start with an academic introduction. Lectures and panel discussions will cast light on this subject from diverse points of view.  However, since we both have a political science background, we have already taken into consideration the diversity within AEGEE. So there is no need to be afraid that it will become too much of a lecture! We can actually promise to keep it interesting and engaging for every single one of the participants.

 
How are you connecting the topic with the strategic plan?

Our task is to issue the topic of populism and Euroscepticism and discuss strategies of how to react to its latest developments. The audience will decide if this is put it into action. If you ask us, the new focus areas European Citizenship, Equal Rights, Youth Development and Civic Education could match quite well with topic-related objectives.

 
Who is the CD appointed member?

Maarten de Groot. He is doing a great job and we are incredibly grateful for his support. Thank you, Maarten! You rock! We would also like to thank Viola, who was appointed as a Content Manager at the beginning but had to resign for personal reasons. Thank you for your hard work!

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

For this article, we interviewed the Main Organizer Marina Klanjčić and the EPM Zagreb PR team. This statutory event will take place between the 23rd and the 27th of February. Listen to the EPM Zagreb PR Team to get to know everything about the motivation for organising an EPM and how EPM Zagreb is structured around the topic of populism.

The AEGEEan: Could you tell us a bit more about the history of your Local?

EPM Zagreb PR Team: AEGEE-Zagreb was founded back in 1993, and, since then, we have been getting more active and more prominent, both in Zagreb and in AEGEE, every year! While we do not rival some locals in size, with highly motivated people we have achieved a lot and we do not want to stop now – just to prove size is not all that matters [she winks, ed.].

We decided to hold the Advent event “Zagreb ADVENTure: Walking in the Christmas Wonderland” due to the fact that our city was declared the best Christmas destination in all of Europe last year, and we wanted to share this joy with the Network! Most of the members who are currently active have been in AEGEE for no more than two years, but we are already becoming pros at event organisation – even more will come, we promise you!

Why did you decide to organise an EPM?

The idea of organising a European Planning Meeting in Zagreb came years ago, when our former president, Zvonimir Canjuga, who is currently the Financial Director of AEGEE-Europe, participated in EBM Valletta back in 2013.

For years and years he waited, and then last year, when he decided the Antenna was finally ready to organise an event of such magnitude, he presented his idea to the Board of AEGEE-Zagreb, who backed him fully! We were overjoyed when we received the news during Spring Agora in Bergamo! Even though we lost Zvonimir to the CD, we knew our team would be able to carry on successfully [she smiles, ed.].

How is the organisation going so far? Is everything running as expected?

This great adventure of organising an EPM is quite a challenge indeed, but nothing is impossible if you have the spirit! So, even the obstacles we face do not seem so terrifying, and every next one seems like even less of a problem if you look at those we have already overcome!

A bunch of active members in the Antenna are involved in the organisation, and that is the key of every successful project. We always offer support and help to one another whenever we need it, and this team of ours is what keeps us going strong! Together we can and will achieve greatness, just wait until February and see for yourself!

What is the thing that will make this EPM more special than the previous ones?

Without giving out our secrets, AEGEE Zagreb will definitely show you that there is more in Croatia than just the seaside, and we will bring our traditional hospitality into the organisation of the EPM, which we believe is something that was missing from the statutory events for a really long time! When we say we are a city of million hearts, we do mean it and we certainly plan to show it [she smiles, ed.].

How will you deal with the topic of the EPM “Europe under Siege: Populism and Anti-European Agitation”?

We will cooperate closely with the content managers, and there are going to be constructive discussions on the topic. The rise of populism is an actual current problem, which we believe all of us can relate to as engaged Europeans, having experienced the radicalisation of the society, making the future much different from the world we knew and grew up in. Overall, we are happy to be discussing something that many perceive as a serious threat to the kind of Europe we dream of and promote in AEGEE.

What is the one thing that participants must see or visit when they come to Zagreb?

Zagreb is often nicknamed “Little Vienna”, but that definitely does not mean we are in anyone’s shadow! While it may not be chock-full of instantaneously recognisable landmarks on every single corner, we have our fair share of unique sights that will leave you breathless! However, what you must experience in the city is its special atmosphere, due to our position on the crossroads of many different civilisations and cultures, making this area into a huge melting pot, with influences from the north, the south, the east and the west. You need to feel it to believe it!

Is there any advice you would give to Antennas that plan on hosting a future European Planning Meeting?

Our advice is to work hard, to be motivated, and, above all, to form close bonds with your entire team. To value everyone’s input and to have much fun in the process. To believe in yourself and push yourselves to the limits, and beyond. To out-best your best and to never lose your enthusiasm. To make new friends in the whole process. Those moments where you feel overwhelmed will soon pass, and you will come out of it even stronger than before. The end result, we are sure, will be well worth the sleepless nights. This was undoubtedly the right choice to make and a cause to fully commit ourselves to.

What should the participants expect after their experience of the EPM and the city of Zagreb?

The city of million hearts will keep you warm and motivated to make a change in your local for a long time after the EPM is over. We are absolutely certain that all of you will return from Zagreb with nostalgia and a wish to come back! And we will be more than happy to welcome you back!

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari.

It is September and although this month rewarded us with really great weather and an unexpected late summer, we have to admit that summertime and – even worse – the time of Summer Universities is over. But what comes after those two weeks in which you are surrounded by Aeggeans every minute and forget your everyday life? How can you deal with suddenly being alone again? The AEGEEan asked around to find out how to best deal with Post Event Syndrome (PES).

Agoras, Network Meetings (NWM), Summer Universities (SU), European Schools (ES)… Our international network offers many different and interesting events for everybody who is interested. Especially during the summertime thousands of AEGEEans are travelling through Europe to take part in SUs.

The time shared with others is exciting and offers so much: new experiences, new friends, and so much to learn! It is an exciting ride of a few days or weeks, during which you might experience more new insights than you normally do in months. Most importantly, you get to know people and you get to know them well.

Carolina Alfano from AEGEE-Salarno sums it up as follows:  “Adrenaline! During the event everything happens so fast: a lot of things to do, not much time, a lot of people, friends, parties. In this way the adrenaline is on top“.

After spending days after days together, at first shyly playing some energisers together, but a few days after sharing the most intimate stories – you built friendships that will last a lifetime. But, at the end of every event, stands the dreaded moment of saying good-bye. You see your new friends waving while you step into the bus to the airport. You then come home to your empty flat, where you are alone and where it is just too quiet to deal with.

“When you understand you are at home, no gym, no friends, nothing to do tomorrow, you start to be depressed, you climb up in your bed and the only thing you want to do is start to sleep”, Carolina says.

Tekla Hajdu

Tekla Hajdu, Network Director, has also experienced this feeling. She tells us that it does not matter whether it is a fun or even a serious thematic event, you can always be sad after an event you organised. “Most of the times, I felt kind of depressed and I wanted to go back immediately to be part of the event again and have more adventures with the participants and the organisers”, Tekla says.

Some know that feeling from events outside of AEGEE too. Carolina, for example, experienced something similar after her Erasmus semester. Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona, was an exchange student a while back and had more trouble keeping in touch back then, because Facebook was not yet even a thing. This made the situation even worse.

But what about the worst cases of PES when it comes to AEGEE-events? Tekla shares: “I had some bad PES cases after my Network Meetings as Network Commissioner, but my personal worst was after pre-event EPM Leiden: I’ll be AmsterDamned, as apart from missing the people and the memories from the event I also had to go back to my university for an intensive course instead of proceeding to the EPM, which had me really depressed”. Erika’s personal worst case was after Agora Cagliari in 2014: “Once back home it took me more than two weeks to get back to reality, to start to adapt again to my old routine, to even start sleeping properly“.

Erika Bettin

In the end, while taking part in an event, you live in a “bubble” as Erika calls it: “You feel comfortable, you feel protected and you feel loved”. You meet people who think similarly, discover Europe and dream together about making it an even better place. Suddenly coming home and realising that it was just a time-limited bubble, that reality and daily routine have you back is the reason for feeling so bad afterwards. Because it was just so good before.

Moreover, Tekla already mentioned that people who are a big factor too when it comes to PES. You get to know the other participants so well and you experience a lot together. “When the event ends, I think people start to realise that these moments will never be repeated in the same way with the same people again”. It therefore actually is saying good-bye forever, at least in that group dynamic. The important question remains: is there a way to deal with it?

Carolina shares with us that when she felt bad after the end of an event, she just kept to herself in the house for two or three days. But then she “decided to be strong and go out for a walk, call some friends, restart my normal life”. It is you who has to find the right moment to motivate yourself to get up again. Carolina continues: “There will be other events in the future, time is running out and staying powerless is not a solution“.

Erika has a positive attitude too: “The important thing is to keep in mind that in AEGEE and in life there are only ‘see-you-soons’ and never ‘good-byes’. Eventually everybody is going to see each other one more time. You should sleep, turn off the alarm and then try to come back to your old routine as fast as possible.”

Similarly, Tekla agrees that time heals all wounds. She is sure that after some time your symptoms will decline naturally. Especially of course, if you don’t have a lot of time to be nostalgic since you have to start working again. She gives us a great advise: “Look forward and plan your next adventure to have more awesome memories”!

Written by Katja Sontag, AEGEE-Aachen

Just like we did for the past Agorae, for Autumn Agora Chisinau, once again we would like to provide you with a short and easy summary of the proposals submitted for the Agora. In this second, and last round, we will be explaining you three proposals: “Remove Chair Team from EPM”, “Proposal to remove nationalities and countries from the CIA”, and “Give the Juridical Commission a more neutral role”. 

Remove Chair Team from EPM

Proposed by Lia Tuska, Human Resource Director and CD appointed member for the Chair Team, this proposal aims to finally regulate the role of the Chair Team at the EPM. Currently, the Chair Person, along with the Chair Team, presides over the EPM, choosing participants, all of this being done in cooperation with the Comité Directeur, ACT, Working Groups, Content Manager(s) and Local Organisers. In recent years, the relevance of the Chair Team has decreased and, according to the proposer, the EPM can be organised without the input of the Chair Team. Instead it will be organised by a team, representing the Comité Directeur, ACT, Working Groups and Content Manager(s).

The proposal, provided it will be accepted, will change some articles of the statutes. In the Working format of the Agora, all the references to EPM in the work of the Chair Team will be removed. In the General Financial Rules, the part that grants reimbursement to the Chair Team will also be removed.

The most substantial changes will be applied to the Working format of the European Planning Meeting. With these changes, the organisation, the selection of participants, the moderation of the sessions, the execution of the Agenda, and the collection of minutes fall to the Comité Directeur, with the help of one or more appointed people. The Comité Directeur is still in charge of appointing the Content Team who will prepare the Agenda and organise the content part in order to develop the EPM topic.

You can read the full proposal here.

Proposal to remove nationalities and countries from the CIA

Evelien Kroon, Steyn Ten Kate and Lea Watzlawek, on behalf of AEGEE-Enschede, are presenting the proposal that aims to remove any kind of reference to nationality or country in the CIA, especially in the composition of the elected bodies. In case this proposal will pass, there will be no limitation on the nationality of the elected candidate.

The local has already presented this proposal during Spring Agora 2014, but it was rejected. At this point, the Dutch local’s representatives are proposing it again, with the assumption that, according to our vision, AEGEE strives for a borderless Europe and rules regarding nationalities and countries.

For example, the Comité Directeur should not contain more than three members that share the same nationality, and at least four nationalities must be represented. In case more than three people share the same nationality, only the three that gather more votes will be elected, while the rest of the vacancies shall remain open. If this proposal passes, there will be no limitation on the nationality of the elected candidates. This means that hypothetically the (up to seven) members of the Comité Directeur can be from the same country.

You can read the full proposal here.

Give the Juridical Commission a more neutral role

During Spring Agora Bergamo, a proposal gave the Juridical Commission the power to fix small mistakes and inconsistencies, without submitting proposals in case changes need to be made. Evelien Kroon, Steyn Ten Kate and Lea Watzlawek, on behalf of AEGEE-Enschede, are proposing to offer the Juridical Commission a more neutral role by removing them from the legislative process during the Agora. They propose to compare the duties of the JC on an abstract level to those of the Chair Team; helping in its preparation and execution, but in a strictly impartial role.

In case this proposal will be accepted, the status of the JC during the Agora will change in the Statutes of AEGEE-Europe, and they will no longer be members of the Agora. In the Working Format of the Agora, the JC will not have the status of Envoy anymore, they will not be in charge of the voting and the procedure of counting the votes cast,  and a new paragraph explaining the role of the JC in the Agora would be added.

You can read the full proposal here.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

The announce has just been made… the next EPM hosting local is AEGEE-Zagreb from the 23rd to the 27th of February . The Croatian antenna will finally bring back to Balkans a statutory event. Excited? Well… We asked some questions to Zvonimir Canjuga to have the first sneak peek on it.

The AEGEEan: Why did you decide to apply?

Zvonimir: It was not some random decision for us. The idea of organising an EPM at that time in Zagreb was born on EBM Valletta in 2013 which Silvija (ex president) and I attended. As that was my first event, I was impressed with concept and since then I believed that AEGEE-Zagreb was capable to organise such an event. At that point we had all new members in the local so we decided to prepare our local and our members for EPM by organising smaller events like Summer University, and to educate our members about Project Management, event management, time management etc. Such programs took exactly three years from first plans about EPM to be finally realized.

There are several reasons why we wanted and we are organizing EPM. Firstly, we want to show to the youth of Zagreb, but also AEGEE members that Europe and EU is more than traveling without passports. EU offers much more: chance to activate yourself, develop softskills, learn languages, take anactive role in your community or be active in EU circles.

Secondly, with refugee crises we can see how the core values of Europe are weak and some important are threatened. We can see wire fences rising and border patrols all across Europe. We can see some nations want to leave EU. This is not the picture of the Europe that generations before us fighted for. With organising EPM we want to take a chance and participate in fight for rights of youth and values that we cherish.

Thirdly, we want to organise it for all former and current members of AEGEE-Zagreb. As I already said, since 2013 we worked very hard and in several different fields to prepare our members for such big project as European Planning Meeting 2017. We organised a great number of local and European events and we know we are more then ready for task ahead.

Fourthly, we were amazed with the support that we received both from institutional partners and 34 AEGEE locals. With so many people believing in us we owe to them to do our best and work as hard as we can do not let them down.

Last but not least, we want to organise a statutory event on Balkan, the first after Agora Skopje 2011. Balkan countries are all slowly approaching the EU entering process, but we do not see EU as bureaucratic machine, but as community of young people, ideas, knowledge, experiences and inspiration. Organizing the European Planning Meeting 2017 would have great impact for them and their community as well.

What were you doing when the Comité Directeur delivered you the news?

Well it took a long time for the CD to decide who will host EPM, but we knew that it will take time to give someone such great responsibility to organise statutory event. With every email from CD, and we passed two rounds of additional questions, my heart went trough the roof because I was hoping that somewhere in that emails was hidden that we got it. The night when we actually received the good news I was home in my bed almost went to sleep. When I saw email I must admit that I was positively shocked and I started to cry. My mind went crazy and I was wondering “What now? How will we do it?”, but I soon calmed down and i notified my dear Core team. The excitement between the Core team was amazing and  we are very proud when we look on our work in local and on our application. Now we are 100% focused on work for EPM and we cannot wait to host AEGEEans in Zagreb next February.

Please, present your local.

AEGEE-Zagreb was founded in 1993 and now we have around 60 members. I can say that we are a small local,l but we have awesome members with great experience and motivation to work for local. We learned long time ago that a local is our members, and we, leaders of AEGEE-Zagreb are really trying to offer a lot of different things except travels and SUs to them. We meet once per week on our regular weekly meeting in our office, but teams and projects have different meetings days during week. Also our members are active in European bodies of AEGEE-Europe, from project teams to Commissions, and maybe we will have a CD member again soon, who knows. Now we are more focused on local internal work to strengthen our members’ base and work on EPM preparations. All in all this is it, I invite everyone to visit and contact us if someone is in Zagreb.

Who will be in the core team? Do you have already decide?

Core team is consisted of people who were with me from the start. So firstly I want to take opportunity and thank every each of them for their work and support on this. I’m very proud of them. So, I would like to present you my dream team:

1. Vinka Suhin is alongside me most experienced person and person of great trust and she is Vice- Coordinator
2. Andrea Završki  will be Incoming group team leader
3. Nika Krnjak is  our Human Resources group team leader
4. Marina Klanjčić will be IT and PR group team leader with help of Manuela Džankić and Nika Alujević to help her
5. Jakov Rakić will be Fundraising team leader with help of Ana Drmić
6. Lucija Kozjan will be Logistics support team leader
7. Dominik Vukošić will be Social program coordinator
8. Me as Main Coordinator

So this is team that I will lead as Main Coordinator and we are fully confident and prepared to work hard and organize awesome EPM.

Tell us three things that make your local special.

The first thing that makes us special are our members. Although we are a small local, we are full of ambitious, motivated and skillful people who really care about AEGEE and want to make our antenna the best possible. Furthermore, we are very active for a small local. Apart from our weekly meetings, so far this year we have organized exchanges with AEGEE Ljubljana and Amsterdam, various language workshops, PR and public speaking workshops, teambuildings, social drinks, a fundraising concert and so on. Also, we have good relations with other locals and with other student associations in Zagreb.

And now three things that make your city special…

Zagreb is the capital of Croatia, but its main attraction is its peaceful and welcoming atmosphere. It makes you slow down and teaches you how to relax. Although people are very busy, there is always time grab a cup of coffee with your friends or have lunch at delicious nearby restaurants. If you are walking through the centre, don’t be surprised to see cafés full of people all the time. The second thing is that Zagreb has a lot of greenery at the city centre and with mountain Medvednica and lakes Jarun and Bundek within easy reach, you can find spaces for recreation almost anywhere. Finally, most of the city attractions are free and easily reachable by foot, which allows you to really experience the vibe and the atmosphere of Zagreb and discover little things which you cannot find in travel guides. The charming appearance, relaxing atmosphere and accessibility make it very easy to feel like home in Zagreb.

Can you give us already some sneak peeks of what we will see once there?

We were really brainstorming a lot about several options where to hold EPM and we decided that it will be  Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER). This faculty offered us huge gym, 5 workshop rooms and  plenary room within range of 100m. At Student Center which is 300m from FER we will organize all three meals in student canteen per day. In general Faculty is very well connected and its is really easy to reach it from airport, bus or train station which are really close to Faculty.  For more informations about EPM I invite all members to follow us on social media and other channels.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

This Agora we won’t only elect the new Comité Directeur and members of different Commissions, but we will also vote on the new Action Agenda. If you are asking yourself: “What agenda?”, this article is for you, but also those who already know what the Action Agenda is, are welcome to check out what the new one will look like.

To begin at the beginning, not of the founding of the earth but of the planning in AEGEE, our association is built upon a vision, mission and means, defining who we are, what we do and what we want the future to look like. Based on that, every three years a Strategic Plan, defining Focus Areas that we want AEGEE to focus on, is created at the Planning Meeting (stay tuned for the next one taking place this autumn).

To make sure we can actually contribute to these Focus Areas, every year at the European Planning Meeting (EPM) an Action Agenda is created, which gives concrete objectives that our locals and European bodies have to achieve. Shortly said, you can consider the Strategic Plan as AEGEE’s long term vision, and the Action Agenda as the association’s homework to contribute to the vision. If you want to know more about these two documents, take a look at the EPM booklet starting on page 16.

In Bergamo, you will be voting on the Action Agenda that will start on the 1^st of August 2016 and last until the 31^st of July 2017. As you just read, it was created by participants of the European Planning Meeting, which took place in Leiden this year. After 1,5 day of a thematic conference on migration, members of locals all over the Network took a closer look at the Focus Areas we have and created a draft of new goals to achieve in the fields of Spreading Europtimism, Youth Mobility, Youth Employment and Civic Education.

Based on this draft and the feedback given on the forum, the Comité Directeur created a final version of the Action Agenda that will be presented at the upcoming Agora. Curious what you will be presented? You can find the new objectives here. In case you have any questions or suggestions to improve them, feel free to share them on the forum or come on stage after the presentation of the next Action Agenda!

Written by Svenja van der Tol, Secretary General of AEGEE-Europe 2015-2016

Did you miss the European Planning Meeting this year? It was organised by AEGEE-Leiden and took place between the 25th and 29th of February. Thanks to their amazing work and team coordination, they managed to organise a great European Planning Meeting. Not suprisingly, AEGEE-Leiden was voted Local of the Month for February for this great accomplishment. So, we had a talk with Boudewijn Steenhof, Main Organiser, and also Casper Renting, Vice Main Organiser of the event to tell us a few details about the challenges the team encountered  and the antenna’s future plans.

The AEGEEan: First of all, congratulations for being voted Local of the Month for February! What are your future plans in AEGEE?

Casper: Thanks on behalf of everyone from -Leiden! I’m sure that all these active and intelligent members will continue to do great things for our local and the Network. For example, I’ve heard things about a NWM next year… Personally, the EPM feels like a transition from Leiden to Europe. I recently joined the LIG & HRC and started as SubCom for Loes.

Boudewijn: For me, organising the EPM was the last big thing I will do in AEGEE-Leiden. I’ve had five great years, learnt a lot and made quite a few good friends. But what AEGEE-Europe has in store for me, you never know…

What was your overall impression as a hosting local of the EPM?

Boudewijn: Apart from it being very tiring, it was amazing. To see all these participants enjoying all we have worked for in the last year was simply great. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we have learnt a lot from organising the EPM about ourselves, each other, and AEGEE! A hosting local receives a lot of attention during this time, which can be overwhelming. But I think we dealt with it well, and everyone knows AEGEE-Leiden for whole different reasons now!

What do you think you could have done better?

Casper: Oh, so many things! No seriously, we are really proud on what we have accomplished, but we also see room for improvement. Happily these were things mostly invisible for participants. For example, we lost quite a lot of stuff during the event. Apparently it’s not that hard to lose a big professional trolley, or 40 forks.

There were also quite a few participants who thought the food was a bit too ‘Dutch’, meaning, too many sandwiches. But I don’t think this is something we would have done differently, as trying different cuisines is part of exploring other cultures.

Do you plan to also organise an Agora at one point?

Casper: We already did! In 1987 (EGEE-III) and 2010 to be exact. But also if we hadn’t, I don’t think we would soon organise the Agora. It’s not like the EPM is a stepping stone to the bigger and maybe more prestigious Agora. Actually, it’s better to do something smaller really well, than something big so so, and because the city of Leiden arguably doesn’t have the facilities to host an event with this scale, I don’t think we should consider it. This is the sad reality I know other antenna deal with as well. They are very capable and would do great, but their city lacks the facilities.

What do you think was the biggest challenge in organising the EPM? 

Boudewijn: Definitely the logistics. Having the right locations, with the right stuff and the right people all come together to form a well-working machine has been a great challenge.

Casper: I’d add to that satisfying everyone’s needs. Obviously participants are very diverse in their preferences, but also in our team we had different ideas of what “EPM Leiden 2016” should be like. Combined with requests from the Content Team, Chair Team and Comité Directeur, all within our limited financial and logistical possiblities, this created a complex but interesting challenge.

After this experience, what piece of advice would you give to a local who has just decided to host an EPM?

Casper: Don’t ‘just decide’ it, haha. Make sure you have full support from your university and municipality, as you will very likely need them. Related to that, money is everything. Don’t even consider applying if you’re not sure you can get your funding sorted out. Lastly, you’re not going to organise it yourself. Make sure your whole antenna (especially if you’re small) supports the idea and is willing to put time and effort in it, and be aware that your local activities and plans will suffer. I’d say these are the three most important checks you should do before you can decide to host an event on this size.

What did you think of the theme (the refugees’crisis) for this EPM?

Casper: I think it’s a very important and relevant topic that deserves attention in the Network. From an organiser’s perspective, it was way easier to ‘sell’ an event with this topic to financial partners and media, than an EPM without a specific topic would have been. Combined, I’m proud we could facilitate a discussion about this topic. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to actually participate.

The AEGEEan: Thank you for your time!

Written by Gabriela Geană, AEGEE-București

European Planning Meeting will see the debut of the Chair Team of AEGEE-Europe 2015-2016. For two years in a row, Tom Simons (AEGEE-Enschede) will be the Chairperson of the Agora/EPM with Marta Wnuk (AEGEE-Warszawa) acting as Vice-Chairperson. The line continues with the Secretary of the Agora – Lia Tuska (AEGEE-Kastoria/Sofia), and the IT assistant- Erik Steenman (AEGEE-Enschede).

 
The most experienced team member is Chairperson Tom Simons, who successfully run for a second time during Autumn Agora Kyiv. Being member of AEGEE-Enschede since 2010 and having attended many statutory events, he has certainly a big expertise when it comes to statutory events. Those can, however, be implemented and Tom has a clear vision on what can be changed. “In my opinion, there is currently an imbalance between discussing CIA (Corpus Iuricum Aegeeanse) text and time spent on elections. I hope that in the upcoming Agora we will have a plan in place to properly balance these two aspects.” says Tom. He will certainly have a useful hand with the Agora Reform Task who is currently studying our principal statutory event. “As Chair Team we still have a lot of standard work we need to take care of. So, having a motivated team to think about improvements is very much welcome.” he states, “But definitely it would also be a challenge when it comes to implement all the eventual changes during the next Agora. In fact they are currently working on a lot of good ideas to make the Agora more efficient, improve the quality of existing content and add new content.”

 
Marta Wnuk, the Vice-Chairperson, is thrilled to be a part of the team and she is looking forward to working for Spring Agora Bergamo and Autumn Agora Chișinău and seeing eventually their results. Also for her, reforming our statutory event is very high on her agenda, therefore Chair Team’s one, and she identified two major problems she would like to work on. “I see the importance in tackling lack of time for asking questions and sufficient debate and at the same time, losing precious minutes on parts of the agenda that are not of utmost relevance. Secondly, I would look at ways to make prytania more efficient” she continues. Coming from a year working in the Network Commission, when she worked closely with the local, she thinks she will be ‘able to bring more of local perspective into work of the Chair Team’. “What I mean by that”, she continues “is that I will try to include in our actions what I learnt during my term as a NetCommie – how Statutory Events are perceived and what challenges are connected with them. I believe it’s beneficial that Chair Team has a broad overview of the organisation.”

 
After losing the elections in Agora Cagliari against the current Secretary General Svenja van der Tol, Lia Tuska was elected in Kyiv. She was already secretary assistant several times and she said that secretaries need to have a good time management, be organised and have good listening skills and “you need to love what you are doing” she adds. The Secretary of the Agora is a task that not everybody wants to take, but minutes of the Agora are very important for us, as Lia confirmed: “I’ve been member of three different locals and only one of them actually shares the minutes of the local Agorae. I don’t live close to any of those cities anymore, so I cannot attend the local Agorae feeling that I don’t know anything about what is happening there if I don’t ask some of the members. […] That’s why I believe that minutes are important for people who cannot be there at the Agorae, for future generations, but also for the ones who are there to read what happened from an objective point of view”. According to CIA, minutes must be delivered within two months after the Agora/Epm and Lia is confident she will be able to meet the deadline. “I am glad that one of the most useful things that Leadership Summer School taught me is time management. I have already organised my time for after EPM and Agora Bergamo in order my minutes to be on time” she concludes.

 
Last but not least, Erik Steenman is the new IT assistant who decided to apply for the position because “ it will likely be my last chance to get a real taste of AEGEE-Europe. […] When I heard the applications for the IT-Responsible would open, I realised that if I would look back on my student life at that moment, I would likely regret not using my membership with AEGEE to go out into Europe more”. The IT position is prominent in an event that rely a lot on presentations and internet connection, that’s why Erik’s main task will be “making sure the Chair Team has a working internet connection, and that the correct presentation will be on-screen at the correct time. This shouldn’t be too hard if everyone would hand in their presentations in time. But of course that never happens”. Of course he will be actively involved in all Chair Team tasks. Erik will also deal with the Euth project that will be introduced during the upcoming Spring Agora Bergamo. Despite not being actively involved in the current work, he says that he will be in “setting up the infrastructure so we can test the new tools for the EUth project during the upcoming Agorae”.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

Somewhere in Brussels, near the European Commission, you can find a house that looks just like most other houses in the city from the outside, but contains a lot of rooms, people and ideas on the inside. What house am I talking about? The AEGEE house, which the new Comité Directeur has been calling their home since the 1st of August, when we moved in to start our work. “What is that work about?”, you may wonder, and probably other members wonder too. Read on to find out!

In a (cheesy, but true) nutshell: the Comité Directeur works for you, the members of AEGEE-Europe. The exact ways we use to do so depend on our function and tasks, but we all share the aim of making sure that we do what is best for AEGEE-Europe [ endofcheesiness, an.]. As the Secretary General, quite some of my tasks are rather administrative, including staff management, but I also work on the preparation of our beloved statutory events, the European Planning Meeting (EPM) and Agorae, in cooperation with the Chair Team.

With the next EPM upcoming in Leiden, a lot of my days (and sometimes nights) are spent with the Strategic Plan and Action Agenda, which I am starting to consider as new close friends looking at how much I know about them by now. While Anna [Gumbau, Communication Director, an.] works on the content part of the EPM together with the Content Managers, I am responsible for the part of the event when we will draft the Action Agenda for 2016 – 2017, which means I have been drafting the program together with the Chair Team, translated the Focus Areas into hashtags – stay tuned for the EPM booklet – and sent and received many, many e-mails. Luckily, I will get to work with my friends after the EPM too, because I am the responsible for the Action Agenda Coordination Committee (ACT) too.

Another body I am responsible for is The AEGEEan, for which my tasks aren’t limited to writing this article, but I am also checking the articles in the Comité Directeur section, make sure there are enough contributions and follow the work of the online magazine in general. At the end of the year, I will also be working with another reporting team; the Key to Europe to create our annual year report of 2015 – 2016.

Last but not least, besides the internal bodies of AEGEE, I am responsible for one of our external projects, which is the Lifestyle in Mobility project – a research project on the effects of studying abroad on your lifestyle. And let’s not forget about the tasks that show up on a random basis, like the sudden need to call a company because you are the only one with knowledge of Dutch, the feedback sessions for our new Intranet, translations from German to English or the other way around or spontaneous archives digging for members.

The working days are long, sometimes going on until the next morning, and the to do list never seems to end, but this is easily compensated by the people I meet, places I discover and things I learn. After all, who needs sleep if you can AEGEE? As Secretary General, sometimes all you need is an office full of people ready to work, some loud reggaeton music and lots of e-mails from and to members. To be continued …

Written by Svenja van der Tol, Secretary General 2015 – 2016 

PS: Besides all these tasks, sometimes you also just have to be a pirate.