AEGEE-Eskişehir was our Local of the Month of December, and the Turkish antenna is in full swing organising local events, but also international ones. It signed the Convention d’Adhesion in 2001 during Autumn Agora Ankara, organising the Balkans Regional Meeting one year later. Their activities are local projects, thematic events, Summer Universities, Network Meetings and weekly meetings on every Wednesday with a focus on thematic topics, and they also organised Autumn Agora Eskişehir in 2007. That is not all: from the 3rd to the 10th of April they will host the Fund Raising European School (FRES), in cooperation with AEGEE-Europe and AEGEE-Academy. We spoke with the president of the Antenna Toygar Öter and the Speaker of the Academy Antonis Triantafyllakis to know something more about the event. Remember, the deadline is on the 2nd of March!

The AEGEEan: Why did you decide to organise the FRES?

Toygar: To be honest, the former board applied for FRES, but I was on that board too and I wanted to have this event very much.  After our General Assembly, where I became President,  the new team adopted this event easily because there was not a European School event in AEGEE-Eskişehir history. Fundraising is a very attractive topic, every member of AEGEE-Eskişehir wants to do fundraising talks because it contributes to the development of the person and I think it is really entertaining. Most of the locals are facing with money and sponsorship issues. Fortunately, Eskişehir is a student city, most of the company knows us. In short, we trust ourselves in raising funds and we want to share our experiences.  When we found such an opportunity, we did not want to miss it.

Who are going to be the trainers of the event?

Antonis: We are lucky to have a team of trainers with diverse backgrounds and knowledge to offer to the event, ensuring an amazing learning experience for the participants of FRES Eskişehir: Daria Andreieva from BEST, Vladislav Andrijako from Euroavia, Antonis Triantafyllakis from AEGEE-Academy and Réka Salamon from AEGEE-Europe.

Can you give us a sneak peek of the program? What will the sessions be?

Antonis: Participants will enjoy an overall coverage of both institutional and corporate fundraising, including all you need to know about grants such as Erasmus+ and how to apply for them, corporate sponsors, how to approach them and maintain a long-term relationship with them, the psychology of marketing and how to apply it on fundraising, how to manage your funds and pretty much all you need to know in order to successfully carry on a strategic fundraising plan for the projects of your local. The main structure will be the familiar one from all AEGEE-Academy European Schools, with the theory given in the morning sessions in an interactive manner and practice being done in the afternoon based on working groups, fully incorporating the group dynamics into the learning process, as you would expect from an AEGEE-Academy training. Most importantly, we will put the FUN into fundraising!

What do you have in store for participants?

Toygar: We provide to participants seven days lodging in a villa (unfortunately we will have no pool), three meals per day, local transportation, sessions in Anadolu University, which is one of the most active universities in Turkey, city tour, parties, lots of fun and surprises!  And you may not believe but it is just for 75€!

What are your experience and your strategy with fundraising?
Toygar:  As I mentioned before Eskişehir is a small and student city. AEGEE-Eskişehir is a very known organisation in university and in the city. Almost every new board goes to meet with the university administration, mayors of municipalities and governor of Eskişehir. They support us as much as possible. On the other hand, we have lots of events in a year and we search different companies for each event.  For example, we carry out our common meetings every Wednesday and we have a tradition which after every common meeting we go to dinner together. We try to go to different places every week. All of this is making us very known in Eskişehir and making things easier in order to get supports. In my opinion, as AEGEE-Eskişehir we have a long history and traditions. Summing up, we take care of our work as a professional also we know how to live it up! Alumni, experienced members or new ones, we are a huge family!

What is the involvement of the Academy?

Antonis: FRES is a European School, so it is kind of a…child of AEGEE-Academy. Like all European Schools, the structure is fully based on non-formal education methodologies, so it is interactive, tailored to the needs of the learners, held in a participatory, learning by doing manner and, above all, fun! AEGEE-Academy coordinates the project, from design to implementation and evaluation, ensures the quality of the content, the harmonious collaboration between the trainers’ team and the local organisers. AEGEE-Academy also guarantees the positive impact of the event.

How is the cooperation with AEGEE-Eskişehir going?

Antonis: AEGEE-Eskişehir is full of absolutely lovable people who are also reliable organisers, so we are very happy to work with them and eager to meet them in the beautiful city of Eskişehir!

How is cooperation with the Academy going?

Toygar: We want to thank them for electing us to organise this event as AEGEE-Eskişehir. They are supporting us as much as they can.

What is the most amazing thing about your local and your city?

Toygar: Eskişehir is a small city, however, it is the best for students in Turkey. Even though it is a small city, it has two big universities. A city with all the opportunities for a student. If you are studying here, you know that you are very lucky!
Apply now here and here by the 2nd of March

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

The month of December brought us a new Local of the Month: AEGEE-Eskisehir, a Turkish local that is organising a Fundraising European School with some experienced trainers and is involved in a Project called ‘’Volunteer Your Future’’. In addition, AEGEE members are already preparing their Summer University, this time in cooperation with the Election Observation Project. 

The AEGEEan: After being nominated LoM, tell us a little bit about how AEGEE-Eskisehir began to write history.

AEGEE-Eskisehir Board: AEGEE-Eskisehir joined the AEGEE network during the Autumn Agora Ankara in 2001 and has a long tradition of organising events that are open to all AEGEE members. From that day on, we had lots of different kinds of events and projects. We do not think to write all of them individually. For example, in 2005, we organised our second biggest event called “What is Europe,” an event on what Europe exactly entails and the role of Turkey during the membership dialogue between Turkey and the EU.

The biggest of all was the Autumn Agora Eskisehir in 2007, around 700 AEGEEans hosted by AEGEE-Eskisehir participated. Finally, in 2008 and 2009 we organised the largest thematic event in our history so far; our “Disabled People Project Team” organised the “Empathy Days” – after four years of local success, the “Empathy Days” were included in the 2013 European Boards Meeting in Valletta. We have a long and successful history but still, we work to improve our local and members more!

How did the Meeting of the Turkish-speaking antennas, that took place between 4-5 February, go?

We can say that it was a kind of NWM with Turkish speaking locals. We talked about our issues and every local shared their future plans. According to the results we had from this meeting, we need to do something together to have nice contact as in the past and need to help each other more.

How do you keep your members motivated?

As a board, we try to make our members feel worthful. We want every member of AEGEE-Eskisehir – experienced or new, it does not matter – to feel they belong here. We are working together closely. For sure, enjoying things together! We never say ourselves that ”We are friends”. As AEGEE-Eskişehir ”We are family!”

What did you talk about with the governor of Eskisehir?

In general, boards of AEGEE-Eskisehir go to meet with the governor and mayors of Eskisehir to talk about AEGEE and AEGEE-Eskişehir. We, as the new board, went to meet with him and told him about our future plans. Fortunately, governors and mayors of Eskisehir do not refuse us. They are trying to provide what we need. We are grateful to them!

What is happening next in AEGEE-Eskisehir?

We have lots of plans. For example, in the near future, we are going to have Spring LTC for our members and also members of the other eight Turkish speaking antennas which will be able to attend.

We are also going to have a Fundraising European School with four amazing trainers, between 3rd and 10th of April: Antonis Triantafyllakis from AEGEE-Academy, Daria Andreieva from BEST, Réka Salamon from AEGEE-Europe and Vladislav Andrijako from Euroavia. The participant fee is 75 €, that includes hosting in a villa, three meals per day, amazing sessions in Anadolu University which is one of the biggest campuses in Turkey, city tour, transportation in intracity, lots of fun and surprises! If you want to improve your fundraising skills, do not miss this chance because the deadline is on 23rd of February. So, apply from here!

We also have a local project called ‘’Volunteer Your Future’’. Statistically, knowledge about NGOs and voluntary rate in our country is very low. From this point, we created a project and we will try to raise more awareness about the importance of volunteering.

And of course, the Summer University Project called “Fantastic Elections and Where to Observe Them”.  We have cooperated with the Election Observation Project this year, and trainers from EOP will have sessions about the Election Observation’s mission and training. We will also visit three beautiful cities and have plenty of activities. So, 15 amazing days are waiting for 25 crazy AEGEEans!

We hope that plenty of motivated members will work for AEGEE-Eskisehir to make it greater. I think lots of surprises will come in the next terms!

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari

Every month The AEGEEan selects a member of the month from the inputs we receive from the Network. In November the choice was Francesca Zorcolo from AEGEE-Cagliari. She has been a member of our association for some years, being in the team of Agora Cagliari 2014 organisers and President of the board of the Italian local 2015-2016. In November she was the Main Organiser of the Network Meeting (NWM) in Cagliari, the first in the history of the local, and was selected as SubCommissioner of NetCom Gabriele Scollo (AEGEE-Firenze) helping Italian and Maltese locals in FR. 

The AEGEEan: Who is Francesca in AEGEE?
Francesca: I have been a member of AEGEE since February 2014, and my passion for it has been growing since the first Agora I have been to, Spring Agora Patra, and even more with Autumn Agora Cagliari. I was part of the executive board for two years and my mandate has just expired. If people ask me who I think I am in AEGEE I always answer that I feel like I am kind of a mom to AEGEE kids. This year I am SubCommie for the Network Commissioner Gabriele until Autumn Agora Catania.

Who is Francesca outside of AEGEE?
I am a desperate economy student, a basketball referee and the former founder of a local LGBT association, as well as the founder of a start up about lateral thinking.

You have been nominated as Member of the Month of November. How do you feel?
I am embarrassed… Ahahha, just kidding, I feel very honored and proud, and I really want to thank everyone for it!

Your term as President of AEGEE-Cagliari just finished. How would you describe this year? What do you think is your biggest achievement with your board?
This past year has been one of the greatest of my entire life. One of the things I am most proud of is the fact that we were able to share more information about the European opportunities for our members and we were lucky enough to create a very well connected group of people!

You were the Main Organiser of NWM Cagliari. How did it go?
It was amazing! We pictured this event so many times before it happened, and when it did, our expectations were exceeded. This was because of the incredible people that participated and worked for it. I especially want to thank former Network Commissioner Lisa Gregis (AEGEE-Bergamo) and Financial Director Zvonimir Canjuga! We had so much fun, but it was also a learning experience for everyone.
What were the biggest challenges in organising the event? What were the biggest rewards?
I always want to keep up with everybody’s expectations. We were really worried about something going the wrong way, or not as we planned. But, as soon as we saw people very happy and proactive, we understood that everything was going in the right direction. I am very happy that we were able to talk about joining forces with other teams and many members have now double memberships. That is how networking works!

Name one good thing in AEGEE and one bad thing.

A downside can be that sometimes we are not able to share our stories with people outside AEGEE, and to let others know what we are, and in my opinion that is one of the reasons why the number of members is dropping.

On the other hand, the thing I love the most is the fact that it lets you feel like home in each part of Europe you are, and that inside AEGEE everyone gets the chance to grow and get experience in what interests them.

Let’s play a game. Describe yourself by using adjectives that start with the letters that compose your name.
Friendly

Reliable

Active

Naive

Curious

Emotional

Skilful

Creative

Altruist
What’s next for you?
I am not sure right now, but after spending these two amazing years working at local level, I think it is time to expand my horizons, and that is why I am very glad to be a SubCommie in Gabriele Scollo’s team, for something else we will see!

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

Organising an Agora is a huge effort in terms of human resources, time, but also economy. Hosting and feeding more than 1000 participants can be challenging and AEGEE-Bergamo found a way to raise some funds, especially for their helpers. We asked some questions to Silvia Cannarozzi from the PR team of the Agora.

The AEGEEan: Why did you decide to create the crowdfunding campaign?

Silvia: Organising an Agora, especially at the very beginning, when you face the budgeting phase, can be quite scary. Bergamo is placed in one of the most expensive regions of the continent, having the effect of a relevant increase of cost compared to all other recent Agora. So, as we always do in AEGEE-Bergamo, we tried to find various and creative ways to sustain the whole project. Crowdfunding came us in mind in an early stage of the project. It sounded a really interesting way to mix FR and PR and to get in connection with our community.

What is the goal? Since you decided for a platform that returns all the money in case the goal will not be reached, what you are going to do if you don’t reach it?

The goal is 3500 euros. It’s just a drop in the sea of the expenses we are facing, but for us it’s more valuable because it’s a great proof of closeness and support from our network. What we are going to do if we don’t reach it? We will embrace the failure and learn how to do better next time.

What will the money be used for?

The money will be used to cover part of the expenses of the meals for all the over 100 organisers and helpers which will donate fully their time and energies during the the event.

What are the rewards for those who are donating?

We wanted to do something more than the usual merchandise. If we’ve expected people to believe in us and support the campaign, we have to show them our commitment.

So we put ourselves on the plate proposing unique activities that were peculiar of each organizer. For example: as backer, you can choose between a wine tasting experience with Filippo Consoni or a portrait by Tiffany Pesenti. Having a romantic dinner with AEGEE-Bergamo president Davide Viero or choosing the profile picture of the main organiser Paolo Ghisleni during the Agora. More “serious” rewards: there’s the chance to get a booth in the AEGEE-Fair ((just for AEGEE antennaes or non-profit organisations) or one hour of consulting on many subjects with the most proficient members of AEGEE-Bergamo.

What is the target?

During our researches on the ingredients of a successful crowdfunding campaign, we discovered that most of the backers are primarily the people you know (friends, family) and secondarily, the network you belong to. They are called the 1st and 2nd circle of supporters. There’s also a third circle made of perfect strangers, but they are very difficult to reach, especially in a project like Agora. You’ll may be surprised to know that a lot of AEGEE-Bergamo organisers have already donated to the campaign. That shows how much passion and caring they are putting in it. That’s the target.

Agora fee is 55 euros and the statutory will last one day less than the previous Spring Agora, do you think it’s fair to ask more money to AEGEEans and Agora participants?

Sadly, the fees cover just a small part of the entire budget of the Agora. But crowdfunding isn’t about money, it’s about community. People don’t donate to a crowdfunding campaign to gain a gadget, they donate to support an idea they believe in.

We, as AEGEEans, have the great advantage of being part of a huge international network that’s a unique value to which the campaign is addressed. We wanted AEGEEans to connect with us and feel part of the organisation even before the Agora kicks off. We wanted the network to feel involved in part of the responsibilities that comes from a big event like this.

If the crowdfunding campaign succeeds, it will be a win not just to AEGEE-Bergamo and Agora, but for the whole network to prove that we are strong and willing to help each other. And that’s what matters to us most.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

The Corporate & Institutional Relations Committee (CIRC) is the natural evolution to the former Corporate Relations Committee (CRC) established at the Spring Agora Enschede in 2012. The main goal of this brand new committee is to provide and increase the funding for projects, events and other activities in our network. The AEGEEan met the current CIRC team in order to better understand the aim of this committee and in particular their plans to improve its activity.

Lyda Michopoulou

The AEGEEan: Thanks for having us. Could you introduce the members of CIRC?

Lyda: CIRC consists of: Ander Guerrero Ruiz (AEGEE-Zaragoza), Francesca Russo (AEGEE-Padova), Francesca Bormioli (AEGEE-Bergamo), Noemi Lowy (AEGEE-Debrecen), Christoph Denker (AEGEE-Osnabruck), Maria Matilde Albanese (AEGEE-Roma), Lyda Michopoulou (AEGEE-Thessaloniki).
The new board of CIRC consists of Lyda Michopoulou, Speaker of CIRC and Maria Matilde Albanese, Vice Speaker.

Maria Matilde Albanese

Tell us in your own words what the CIRC is.

Lyda: CIRC, the Corporate & Institutional Relations Committee, is a supporting committee of AEGEE-Europe and was established at Agora Enschede. Our mission is to support the work of AEGEE-Europe and ensure its financial sustainability providing help in its institutional and corporate relations on the European level, analyzing the needs of the network at the European level, implementing the fundraising strategy and increasing the financial resources of AEGEE-Europe, working on Institutional and Corporate Relations and supporting the Network on fundraising issues.

In your opinion why is it so important to have such a committee in our network?

Lyda: CIRC’s reestablishment will, first of all, improve the financial stability of AEGEE-Europe which means more projects would be funded by the Comité Directeur (CD) and also help the antennae improve their own financial stability, learn how to approach corporate and institutional stakeholders and develop their fundraising skills.

Francesca Russo

Why did you all decide to be active part of this committee?

Francesca: I attended the Fundraising European School 2014 (FRES) and I was so inspired that I decided to join the just established committee. I thought I could help AEGEE with my knowledge in the field. Moreover I like the continuous challenges that fundraising gives.

Ander: After being fundraiser for Agora Zaragoza and a few more events and participating in FRES last year, I wanted to do something else related with FR in AEGEE. During FRES I was discussing with Lyda and Ola (ed. Aleksandra Kluczka – Comité Directeur) about the missing potential of AEGEE in this field as well as the extreme need to increase FR in our associations… And several months later, here we are!

Noemi Lowy

Noemi: As I became the fundraiser responsible for the project Democracy in Practice, I could gain better insight in the grant writing processes and see how diverse and complex it is. Based on my experiences and AIESECer background, I thought it would be a good opportunity to help the network with fundraising and grant writing activities via this committee.

Francesca: I believe that we noticed that are missing some fundraising guideline and some financial security. We know that we have a big fundraising potential as an association and that we can do a lot for it.

Lyda: I think it was my love for fundraising and negotiations that drew me towards CIRC but FRES was the beginning of the reestablishment of CIRC. I’ve been a fundraiser for the last 9 years and I love it! The thrill, the excitement and satisfaction when you sign an agreement with a new partner is overwhelming!

Lyda, what does it mean for you to be the speaker of CIRC?

Christoph Denker

Lyda: When I see myself as Speaker of CIRC, I view my role as a facilitator and a leader when needed. I am here to facilitate and promote the work the members of CIRC do, represent CIRC in future Agorae and in the AEGEE network. Together with the rest of CIRC members, I want to start redesigning and organizing the career fair, bring financial stability to AEGEE-Europe, nurture and advise antennae on how to fundraise and further develop in this aspect. All of this cannot be done without CIRC members, together we are gonna take CIRC sky high!

Can you tell us about your plans and projects for this committee?

Lyda: Our plans for this committee are not many, but they are certainly diverse. We are working towards redesigning and improving the career fair, improving the financial stability of AEGEE-Europe and making AEGEE-Europe known to corporate and institutional stakeholders.

According to you what should be done to improve the activity and the visibility of CIRC?

Francesca: We’re already working well: objectives, timeline and clear goals for each person of the team is a good way to improve and have a good working group. Of course we are still too few. We need more members and for this we should work more on the visibility with a marketing strategy for social media where all the members see us and with our presence during Network Meetings and at Agora workshops.

Ander Guerrero Ruiz

Ander: Restarting a committee is always complicated. We have the passion and the knowledge, we saw it in our live meeting in Brussels. In order to perform correctly, we just need to learn how to work and try to motivate others members to join and see how much they can learn and they can help AEGEE in the CIRC. 

Noemi: I think a committee like CIRC is very much needed in our organisation since there are a lot of opportunities out there that support youth initiatives and that are not explored by us yet. It is fundamental that we make it as a well-structured committee that has clear processes and can be served as a useful “platform” for our network that provides knowledge and resources in fundraising.

Francesca Bormioli

Francesca: We need a bit of time, commitment and patience. We should find more people interested and show them the potential maybe by making some courses.

Lyda: In order to improve the activity, I would say we need some more people and to improve visibility, continue and expand our promotion campaign though all available AEGEE channels.

Since the team is brand new, are you still looking for motivated people to join your committee?

Lyda: As I said above, we are looking for motivated people to join CIRC. It doesn’t matter if they are experts in fundraising, advanced or beginners, there is always a place for motivated members in CIRC! Just fill in our Join the CIRC form.

How can our readers get in touch with you?

Lyda: At circ@aegee.org and on Facebook at CIRC

Written by Larisa Smajlagic, AEGEE-Verona

From Thursday 30^th April till Sunday 3^rd May another Spring Network Meeting (NWM) will take place in the second biggest city of the Czech Republic, Brno. This Network Meeting is open to 25 active AEGEEans, eager to learn more about Fundraising and Public Relations. Jana Védlová, main organiser, tells us more!

The AEGEEan: Can you tell us a bit more about AEGEE-Brno?
Jana: AEGEE-Brno was founded in 2007 on 21st March. Recently we celebrated our 8th birthday. Our antenna doesn’t belong to the huge ones, but hopefully to the active ones. We have around 60 members from which around 20 are active. This is for us quite an achievement.

What is the main reason for your local to organise this Network Meeting?

There are several reasons for us. First of all, our team grew bigger in the past few years and we have lots of new active members, who have never organised or experienced such an international event. Also it is already two years and a half since we have organised a European event, different from a Summer University. We were looking at possibilities and doubted between organising a Regional Training Course or Network Meeting and in the end we have decided to organise a Network Meeting.

What is the main topic of your Network Meeting?

The main topic of our NWM is Fundraising and PR of antennae. But of course, we will also have loads of other super interesting sessions that are supporting the Action Agenda of AEGEE. Besides, we are preparing a cool social program, but I will tell more about it later.

Why is this NWM interesting for the network?

We believe that every antenna in the network has some kind of problems with fundraising, finding resources, sponsors etc. That’s why we find this topic very relevant and important and we believe that bringing knowledge about this issue will help our network a lot. There will be sessions about communication with partners, Erasmus+ opportunities, Public Relations, plus many other sessions about hot AEGEE topics! Moreover, everything will take place in the capital of Moravian region. Brno is not as famous as Prague, but it is definitely a must see city. It is the second biggest city in Czech Republic and the centre of innovation and justice. It is a city with lots of students and full of bars and cafés. Also Brno has some buildings with beautiful architecture from the Art Nouveau and Functionalism era.

Who will join you from the Comité Directeur?

Antonija Parat, Secretary General of AEGEE-Europe, will join our Network Meeting.

Who do you have on your organising team?

We have a core team with four organisers: Tereza Mikšíková, Lucie Ostrá, Petra Védlová and me, Jana Védlová, as the main organiser. We will have a couple of helpers, although we hope most of our active members will participate as well!

How is the cooperation with your Network Commission team going?

Great! One of the organisers, who happens to be my sister, Petra Védlová, is also a SubCommie, so it’s good to have somebody from the NetCom in our team. Especially the communication with our Network Comissioner Tekla Hajdu is very easy-going. She is planning to visit us soon to discuss some matters in person as well, so I can say that we have established good relations. Hopefully it will continue in this direction and lead to successful NWM!

Why should people apply for your NWM?

Because simply it will be a great event! Our dear participants will have a chance to tackle all the important issues that are being now discussed in AEGEE, they can share best practices from their local reality, will gain new knowledge about fundraising and sponsorship opportunities, communication, good PR, etc. They will meet great active AEGEEans, make new friends, and that’s always inspiring. We promise they will learn and develop their skills as much as they will have fun!

Do you have any plans for a social program?

Of coooourse! We have prepared some traditional AEGEE stuff, ice-breaking games, a European night in a very special industrial place and some other activities that I won’t reveal now, because we want to keep it as a surprise. Of course, we are preparing a cool social program, an interesting city tour and our participants will have a chance to try delicious Czech beer and wine and experience the local culture and hopefully also sunny weather.

Ivan Bielik is now a member of the Comité Directeur. Is he still committed to your local?

Well, I believe he is quite busy working for AEGEE. There is a lot to do, since the Comité Directeur is preparing the EPM and AgorAsturias and 30th anniversary celebration. So that mostly occupies him, but we are still in good contact with him. He came to Brno to celebrate New Year’s Eve with us and he helps us and gives us advice anytime he can and we do the same for him. He’s a good friend and we are looking forward to have him back in Brno anytime he can.

What are other plans for your local? Do you have other big events coming up?

This year we are rather active in our local and international activities. We have created a new concept of local event based on European night, called International Dinner, which will happen for the fourth time since September 2014, on the 18th of April. Like every year, we are organising a Summer University in July, this time about self-development and leadership. It’s called Awake Your Inner Lion, Become a Leader! So don’t forget to apply, because it will be something to look forward to!

Written by Wietske Jousma, AEGEE-Enschede

Pick a topic; any topic, occupation, skill or subject and you will find a multitude of how-to guides in stores or online. Grossing over 1800 guides the For Dummies guides might be the very first of these to come to mind. However, until recently there wasn’t a guide yet that could tell you how to deal with the various aspects any member of AEGEE might encounter during his or her membership.

Go online, then go to the Members Portal and you will find a collection of eight, of which three still upcoming, how-to manuals, which are called toolkits. As the name suggests, these toolkits could prove to be very convenient whenever in a stressful situation. After all, a helpful tool could already do half the work for anyone. 

Back to our past

The first of the five already published toolkits is on the most fundamental of mankind’s philosophical questions and rightwing parties’ most vocally expressed standpoint: Identity. Much like the Bohemian artists in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge the identity of AEGEE and its members could be summed up in four pillars; vision, mission, means and statement of principles. While they might not seem as interesting to a reader as the exclamations of ‘beauty’, ‘truth’, ‘freedom’ and ‘love’, these four pillars do contain a bit of those four bohemian ones in them. Vision is to strive for a democratic, diverse, borderless and integrated Europe, in which there is an esteemed place for young people’s participation. It is in short, an aspiration of the generally youthful members of AEGEE for all to be able to enjoy and shape the different cultural flavours, which are in such a rich abundance on the European continent.

How to achieve this mission? Every European themed activity attended by every member of AEGEE had in fact paved the way for this vision. The international themes of these activities were not merely a decoration, but to either a greater or lesser extend something that made members more aware of the interconnections of the various cultures and likeminded communities throughout Europe. This in its proper terms gets summed up in the statement of principles, using keywords to describe the vision, mission and means: diversity, cooperation, freedom, a strong Europe and progress.

As any child is formed by his or her upbringing from an early age onward, a community is also defined by its history. Generally a student association’s history goes as far back as its longest existing member, except for AEGEE. Using the History Toolkit any member can dig up some fun facts about their association using the smart timeline. AEGEE for instance is not very old, however, it does exist longer than the age of most of its individual members. It has been established even before the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the middle of the nineteen eighties at the height of the Reganite anti-communist offense during the Cold War.

In 1985 EGEE, as it was called then, was founded in Paris by representatives from six cities from each a different country. Although it was inspired by an earlier 1950’s student protest for a more integrated Europe in Strasbourg, the name was based on neither its foundation nor its inspiration. The name EGEE (États Généraux des Étudiants de l’Europe) is in fact an onomatopoeia of the Aegean, a sea whose costal shores are one of the contenders for the oldest democratic political system on earth. More specifically the Greek colony of Patras on the north-western most part of the Peloponnesos. Furthermore, the choice of referring to itself as an ‘États Généraux’ or an Estates General is a conscious one. In many European countries the Estates General or the ‘Commons’ is a political body where representatives who are not of nobility or clergy can take a seat in. Like the Estates General, AEGEE consists of common members representing the general population of their respective country or antenna or to put it differently, direct democratic representation: no elitism. To cut a long story short, next time someone says he or she is a member of AEGEE they are referring to an organisation, which values both proponents of classical and modern democracy.

Fundraising, Public Relations and Human Resources Cycle

Fundraising manual is a helpful tool, which shows that fundraising can occur in a number of ways. From public to private funding of either money or goods, it shows that fundraising thrives on a mutual gain. How do you get these mutually beneficial donations? Check out the toolkit. So next time, when an antenna organizes a barbecue, there might be a chance that the meat is free and fresh, funded from the local butcher.

When members go on a Summer University they might have noticed that in their home country AEGEE is viewed as an association, whereas abroad it is a forum or a union. As languages differ, so do the concepts their words try to articulate. So, when something is called an ‘association’ in French the word ‘forum’ might cover the concept of AEGEE best in English. Spanning thirty-five languages, there is a name for AEGEE in each and every one of them. For more interesting notes on how to promote an antenna, check out the Public Relations toolkit.

Finally there is the Human Resources Cycle, which could be seen as the Book of the Living combined with the Book of the Dead, but AEGEE style. From a member’s introduction to their entry into alumni-hood, there is one manual to help them all the way. This guide could be seen as the mother of all toolkits, since it combines bits of all the other published toolkits. It has parts of the four pillars of AEGEE, to which each member is subtlety introduced to from their introduction onwards. It shows how to promote AEGEE and deals a bit with AEGEE’s history and its fundraising. However, above all it gives aspiring mentors some convenient tips on how to excel at an introduction. Being a mentor or parent is never easy and sometimes people might wish there was a guide. However, as an aspiring mentor of an introduction, how could you resist a toolkit that refers to you as “angels”?

Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen

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

Pilar Lop and Sara Alcolea

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

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

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

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

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

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

Celebration at the spa

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

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

The new board of AEGEE-Zaragoza

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

The running group of AEGEE-Zaragoza

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

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

Some of the members of AEGEE-Zaragoza

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

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

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

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

Structured Dialogue event in Zaragoza

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

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

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

The dates are set. From February 13^th until February 18^th 2014, AEGEE members will gather in Lublin to take part in EBM. An event organised not only by AEGEE-Lublin, but in cooperation with other Polish antennae. The AEGEEan interviewed the main coordinator Jakub Oleksy to get an update on the event.

 The AEGEEan: What have you been doing since the announcement at the Agora Rhein-Neckar that EBM would take place in Lublin ?

Jakub: We have done a lot of things concerning particular logistics, including finding accommodation and meeting places for the workshops, as well as developing promotion and a database of potential partners.

The AEGEEan: What are the next steps in the organisation of the event?

Jakub: The next step is to get further funding for this big project, including the Visegrad grant. We will also deal with the promotion of the project, social program and other organisational matters. Promotion of EBM will not only be through Facebook, but also through our website, YouTube and other media. In Zaragoza we will show up with a strong team, and do promotion there as well.

What is on most people’s minds when talking about organising a statutory event is fundraising (FR). Chema Rueda mentioned how the crisis is making it more difficult to gather funds and EBM coordinator Jakub Oleksy agrees. “Fundraising is a difficult task, but the scale of a project, a steadfastness of purpose, and eligibility make it easier than it would seem at first.”

Photographed by Roel van Engelen

Seeing that this task is so difficult, we decided to ask former Agora organisers to share their experience with gathering funds. Jannes Rupf and Alex Sieber from the organising team of Agora Rhein-Neckar were ready to answer all our questions.

So we asked them what the main obstacles were, when dealing with FR for Agora Rhein-Neckar and how they overcame them.

Jannes: The biggest obstacle was to find the first sponsors. Once we found them, we could use them as a reference and attract other new sponsors. But having none at the beginning was the most difficult bit.

Did it help that you had many antennae helping with the matter?

Jannes: Actually you would expect it to help having a lot of antennae involved in the FR, but as long as there are not any direct contacts to the companies it is quite difficult to do fundraising successfully.

Have you discussed this in the Knowledge Transfer to AEGEE-Zaragoza?

Alex: We had already discussed some issues during Agora Rhein-Neckar. There has also been some communication after the Agora, but I expect that most of KT will take place during the two months before Agora, as this is also the period during which we had a lot of questions to the organisers of Agora Budapest.

Following the interview with Agora Rhein-Neckar organisers it was time to go further back in time and talk with the main organiser of Agora Budapest: Márton Demeter. Márton gave us more details on the same topic but also how organising such a big event has affected AEGEE-Budapest as an antenna.  

Márton: FR does not only mean that there is a huge, rich and nice company that you just have to call and then they give you a pile of Euros. It is a bit more complicated: you can get cash, you can get products (FR ‘in kind’), you can get services, discounts, private donations and checks paid by someone else. We had all of these and thank God it was enough. It sounds easy, but it is not. Definitely not.

In the meantime the crisis is going on and the companies do not have enough money even for their own needs, so it was a really tough job. Usually if you have a list of 100 companies, you try to contact them, and 10 out of 100 will tell you that they might be interested. Usually 1 of these 10 will give you something. It is really demotivating that you get a lot of negative answers, but once you got a supportive one, that really rocks!

What really helped us was that we organized calling days, meaning the Agora team gathered in the office and called every single company we got in our contact database. Plus we recruited a lot of helpers for FR, not only experienced AEGEEans but also very fresh members! Any time we had any success in FR we posted it on Facebook so our members saw that we are doing something with tangible results and the very hard work of FR team members was also appreciated!

What did the Agora mean to your local financially?

Our budget was around €55.000. Around 50% was covered by the participation fee and the rest was covered by other sources.
In our partnership list we had non-governmental organisations, governmental organisations, universities, EU institutions, embassies, small local companies, state companies and also huge multinational corporations. Plus, it was very nice that we had private donations as well. The Agora team got a very decent amount of seed money from the board in order to start to organize the Agora and at the end we closed our budget with positive balance, which can be an indicator of success.

We hope the same will happen for AEGEE-Zaragoza and AEGEE-Lublin.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-Koebenhavn

It has been almost two months since Luis Alvarado Martínez moved to the AEGEE headoffice to start working as the Corporate Relations Officer of AEGEE-Europe. Following the announcement of an agreement between Monarch Airlines and AEGEE-Europe, we interviewed him to find out which direction AEGEE is taking in terms of fundraising (FR).

The AEGEEan: What has been your focus in terms of fundraising for AEGEE-Europe?
Luis: The idea from the start was to establish an official FR structure which would be sustainable and could be used in the future. The FR that has been done in AEGEE previously was sometimes very good – for example last year with Mirosław Krzanik and Kathrin Renner for the Study Fair – but never had a constant structure. This is what Marko Grdošić and I wanted to change. We wanted to have a new, official structure and an FR strategy for AEGEE-Europe which can be used both on the European and the local level. This would open a new scope of possibilities for our network and our members.

Types of partnerships offered by AEGEE-Europe

What does the new fundraising structure consist of?
It is about offering different types of partnership possibilities, namely educational, corporate, institutional, career, research, promotional, and supporters.

Besides developing this structure, what other projects have you been working on?
Apart from the FR structure, I have been working on the Study & Career Fair for Agora Enschede, contacting universities and other institutions. I have also worked on the concept of a future FR Committee to be implemented in the network. It would be an independent body working on study fairs, grant applications in cooperation with the CD and the Foundation AEGEE Trust Fund (FATF), managing corporate relations with companies, foundations and charities, patrons, working on merchandising, and arranging internship opportunities for our members. If we have a body which will boost this work, imagine all the possibilities we could have in AEGEE!
The concept of official merchandising for AEGEE-Europe has also been developed. The reason for this is that we are currently lacking common items such as a badge, a t-shirt or a sweater… Something which everybody could easily recognize and identify themselves with.

What can we expect from the Study & Career Fair at Agora Enschede?
This fair is under the patronage of European Commissioner Laszló Andor, who is in charge of Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. During the event we will have Universities like Central European University, Antwerp Management School and University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. La Laguna 2015 as European Youth Capital candidate will also be there to promote their project. We will have workshops organised by the European Personnel Selection Office and by the Youth in Action National Agency from the Netherlands. Once again we will have a questionaire about youth mobility by our partner Study Portals, which our members can fill in and win a prize.

Which agreements have been made since the beginning of your term as Corporate Relations Officer?
We currently have agreements with Monarch Airlines and Brussels Airlines which both give discounts to our members and their friends. We’ve established partnerships with Peace Revolution, Antwerp Management School, EU Careers, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and La Laguna as European Youth Capital Candidate for 2015. I am in contact with Interrail and Eurorail to have them as official partners. Also, we will soon reach an agreement with Hostelworld to get discounts for our members. And there are many more ideas that I would like to develop.

Luis Alvarado Martínez, Corporate Relations Officer of AEGEE-Europe

What is it like to work together with Marko Grdošić and the rest of the Comite Directeur (CD)?
Working with Marko has been amazing! I must say that at the beginning I thought it would be pretty much me doing secondary tasks as an assistant. Marko has given me freedom and flexibility to work, and I’ve been able to contribute with my own ideas, so I am very happy about us working together. He prepared me for the job before my arrival to the CD house, so from day one I’ve been able to focus on my tasks and work properly, without any lost time.
Regarding other CD members, it has also been quite nice. From the beginning I felt like a part of the team which I appreciate very much.

What have you learned from fundraising for AEGEE-Europe?
I’ve learned that we have to start fundraising much earlier before an event. Also, I see that having FR as a task for one of the CD members with other responsibilities is not an option. There are many possibilities for AEGEE but I am afraid that even one person might not be enough. One person can coordinate the process, but there should be a whole team working on FR.

If you will be in the CD the next term, what changes or improvements would you make in order to achieve more results in terms of fundraising?
I would get a Fundraising Committee, a team of FR experts working as soon as possible. We have incredibly valuable people in AEGEE who simply have a talent when it comes to doing FR. There is a long list of potential candidates whom I would for sure love to have in the FRC.
The final aim is to achieve better prices, offers and possibilities which will make the life of our members easier and more fun.

Written by Zsófia Komáromi, AEGEE-Budapest

Photos by Bálint Erdősi and Luis Alvarado Martínez