After one year in Brussels as Secretary General and counless experiences both with her local AEGEE-Nijmegen and at the European level, Svenja van der Tol has been really active in bringing back to life the Human Resources Committee of AEGEE-Europe and she is now candidating as Coordinator of the Youth Development Working Group. We interviewed her about it. 

The AEGEEan: Could you introduce yourself and your story in AEGEE?

Svenja: Besides a master student in Linguistics (although not studying as much as I maybe should [she laughs, ed.]), I am currently the Speaker of the Action Agenda Coordination Committee and responsible for the Agora Mentorship project that was relaunched by the Human Resources Committee. Before these activities, I have done quite some other things in AEGEE, including a year as Secretary General of the Comité Directeur (2015-2016), a year as Secretary of my own local AEGEE-Nijmegen (2012-2013) and being co-Editor-in-Chief of two editions of the Key to Europe (2013-2014 and 2015-2016). There is probably more, but not all of it is interesting to mention here, although you can find the full list in my candidature (hint, hint).

How did you meet with AEGEE?

I joined the introduction period of AEGEE-Nijmegen in 2011, because I had just moved to a new city and I was looking for a way to make new friends. The promised cheap travels and cultural exchanges seemed to be a nice added bonus. I learned rather fast though that AEGEE has a lot more to offer than just meeting people and travelling around Europe, so since then I have accepted it as my crazy, but never the less incredibly loved second family.

What are your plans if you are elected as coordinator of the Youth Development Working Group?

First and foremost, I would like to use my term as coordinator – if elected – to properly define the focus of this completely new Focus Area (pun intended), and especially the task division and specific role of the to-be-established Working Group, since we also have other bodies that are working in this field and I would like to combine rather than waste our resources. Since it is what the Working Groups are supposed to do, it will not be a surprise that I would also like to provide locals and fellow European Bodies with the means and support needed to implement the Action Agenda objectives. The exact actions that will make these two things happen will be decided together with my future team members, since the Working Group is not a one (wo)man show.

How are you going to contribute to this group?

As the coordinator, I consider my task to be the management of resources within the Working Group, meaning that I want to make sure all members can contribute with their own expertise and ideas to the work of the Working Group as a whole, while also ensuring that the Working Group functions as a team in which everyone feels heard and respected. Besides that, I would also feel the responsibility to ensure that an Activity Plan is created and, together with my future team, succesfully implemented.

You worked in many different positions in AEGEE. Which one is the best for you?

I have indeed done quite some things in AEGEE already, but I cannot pick one that is or was the best or most suitable for me. All the experiences I had together have given me the experience that I have right now, and often they have been a support to each other – like how I can use my experience in the Comité Directeur now to support the Network in other ways, such as answering questions that require rather specific knowledge. Having said that, however, for the upcoming year(s?), I would like to orientate myself mostly in the field of internal education and youth development as a whole, since I find these two are very important topics and I see a role for myself there to support them.

You have been really ACTive in the Action Agenda Coordination Committee, why did you decide to focus on Youth Development specifically?

First of all, I was already more involved in this Focus Area during the European Planning Meeting in Zagreb, where I supported the Comité Directeur as Drafting Manager, by attending and moderating the sessions on drafting the objectives for this Focus Area specifically, which gave me a good understanding of the direction the attendants would like to take with it. Besides that, out of personal interest and a strong belief that youth development is the core of many things in AEGEE, I would really like to make the Youth Development Focus Area more than words, but implement it into concrete actions and – pun intended again – developments.

You can read her full candidature here.

Written by Firdevs Cazim

One of the best part of being in an active and engaging group is that everyone can help each other reach their full potential in order to make the most use of each individual’s assets. This process is also known as Human Resources. After organising Local Training Courses (LTC) and Regional Training Courses (RTC), AEGEE-Chișinău decided to help people become experts in Human Resources at the Human Resources European School (HRES). Ana Gancearuc, former HR responsible for AEGEE-Chișinău and main organiser of HRES, was kind enough to tell us all about this training course with members from all over Europe.

The AEGEEan: What, in a nutshell, is HRES?

Ana: The long explanation is Human Resources European School, a seven-day international training course that aims to empower youth NGO members – who are involved in the field of Human Resources – to develop, implement and manage HR strategies in their organisations.

Why did you decide to host HRES in Moldova ? 

Because we are a very hospitable country and we have good and friendly people that can’t wait to meet all our participants. We have a beautiful city and a beautiful country and we’d love more people to find out about Moldovan traditions and culture.

What do you think is the most amazing bit about the HRES?

For me personally, working in the field of HR, is an amazing opportunity to gain knowledge on the challenges and solutions in HR management in youth organisations. Participants will learn what it takes to effectively attract, select, integrate, develop and maintain members. They will gain skills in the field of recruitment, group dynamics, motivation, conflict management, training design and delivery, leadership. Also they will get an insight into the impact and significance of being a student multiplier on a societal and a personal dimension. Trainers will consult and feedback each other on best practices and HR concepts used at home.

Why do you only aim your training course at young NGO members?

As we are members of AEGEE, one of the biggest European organisations, we focus first of all on our members to become more professional and get the knowledge they are seeking for. But we don’t close the door to people that are not necessarily members of NGO’s or members of our organisation. We welcome everybody who has interest in our projects and training courses.

Do you expect any young NGO members, who are not a member of AEGEE, to attend this training course?

The Academy provides some exceptional and professional trainers and I know that many NGO’s are looking forward to participate and be able to get the knowledge for their organisations, such as AISEC, BEST and different Youth Organisations from Moldova. Even my work colleagues form the HR department are very interested to participate.

Why did you decide on only allowing a maximum of 20 participants to attend your training course?

I think a group of 20 people is more easy to manage and everybody has the possibility to interact with each other and know each other during the whole week of training. But most important, as we are a small country, from a logistic point of view the hostels we have here can host maximum 20-25 people. And we would like to keep the whole group together, rather than divide them through the city.

Participants have to pay a fee of €100. What do the people get for this amount of money?

As everybody from AEGEE already knows, especially the ones who organised at least once a Summer University, the expenses are pretty big if you don’t have sponsors who can help you get things for free.

So basically for this €100 fee, participants will have a nice place to sleep, three meals per day, all necessary material for the training course and we reimburse 50% of the travel costs for the trainers.

We don’t have grants or financial help from anybody and we must achieve our goals from what we have. As we all know this is voluntary and nobody has a salary from what they are doing in AEGEE.

One of the requirements for the participants is that they can communicate in English fluently. What will happen if a participant’s proficiency in English actually seems to be too bad during the HRES?

Moldova first of all is not such a close or accessible location for most antennas, and I think the people who are going to apply and who already applied for HRES, are members who really know what they are looking for. And to be in a country, for a full week of training in the Human Resources course you must like it. Probably board members  and HR responsible are the most interested in this training course. But, as we are all open to help each other, I don’t think there will be a problem in helping each other so everybody gets the knowledge the trainers will provide us.

Of course before the training itself, we are going to get to know the participants a bit better, find out more about each other, and see if anybody from the applicants needs more help with English.

If this article has sparked your attention, maybe you’ll also enjoy this promotional video of HRES.

Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen

It’s September, the new academic year has just started, and this means that the recruitment season has just started too! Several AEGEE locals are making big efforts and organising lots of activities for fresh members and international students who can become potential AEGEE members, many of them starting from mid August already.

Organising such activities requires a big dose of creativity and innovation, as well as PR campaigns on social media, taking care of logistics, and much more. For all those locals that are working hard on recruiting new members, we have a special prize. AEGEE-Europe is now looking for our Master of Recruitment throughout the Network!

Holger Schmitt, Network Director of AEGEE-Europe, is launching this new competition in cooperation with the Network Commission and The AEGEEan. Following the example of The AEGEEan’s Local and Member of the Month awards, he came up with the idea of this recruitment competition. “Many locals have developed a very structured and exhaustive strategy how to recruit members. Now it is the time to highlight your concept, your activities and share it with all AEGEEans”, he stresses. Therefore, The AEGEEan is now looking for successful and innovative recruitment strategies that AEGEE locals have been using from August until October.

According to our Network Director, the recruitment strategies will be used as best-practices in order to develop a toolkit for recruitment strategies which will provide alternative ways of recruitment, which will be divided into categories, depending on the human resources available and the size of the local. Based on his experience as a board member and Network Commissioner, Holger highlights the three steps needed for recruitment:

1- Motivation: Get them interested by telling how awesome AEGEE is and explaining all the opportunities AEGEE has to offer

2- Communication: Give them a flyer, card, invite new members to the next meeting, activity and make sure they are on the mailing-list, Facebook group and they like your Facebook page.

3- Integration: Keep constant contact and give them a small task to fulfill in order to ensure that they will stay and want to contribute