I’m sure that attending your first statutory event, especially Agora, was a great experience, but at the same time quite a shock; seeing 700 to 1000 AEGEEans gathered for the general assembly of our association, meeting your friends from all over Europe and of course making new ones. While every Agora is different, with a different location, different Chair teams, different participants, one figure stays the same; Gunnar. And then you ask yourself and your fellow AEGEE members; Who is this person taking pictures and posting on Facebook? Why is he still around? What stories and experiences does he possess? Spyros Papadatos from AEGEE-Ioannina interviewed Gunnar Erth and here is the full interview.

Spyros: We always see you active at events, taking pictures and posting on Facebook, but how does a normal day of your everyday life look like?

Gunnar: Currently I am working as editor for two business magazines in Stuttgart. However, at the moment there is no normal life. I decided to quit my job by the end of March 2018, so now I am searching for a new one! I already had some nice job interviews and one of them was successful. All this takes time, that’s why unfortunately I don’t have that much time for the Golden Times these days. Aside from that I am also supporting my mother who unfortunately has some health issues. Also this requires a lot of attention.

You were recently part of the “Project Lab” initiative. Can you share with us a few words about it?

The Project Lab was a training and brainstorming event about developing and organising projects in an AEGEE environment. It was a three-day event that took place right before Agora Catania in the beautiful location of Favara. The local organisation was done by Mario Luparello and his great AEGEE- Agrigento team, the trainers were Réka Salamon, Philipp Blum, my fellow honorary member Olivier Genkin and me. It was an honour to work with all of them!

Why did you decide to be part of it?

I decided to be part of it because a lot of AEGEE members have ideas about great projects, but they are not aware that it is actually really easy to turn them into AEGEE events! Because of this, the number of international thematic events in AEGEE has been in decline for the past ten years. We now tried to put a hold on it, the first Project Lab was only the first step!

We see that several projects that have written AEGEE history, like Europe on Track and Y Vote are now running or will run their 5th and 3rd editions respectively and of course Summer University its 30th edition. How possible is it to reinvent older projects?

It is actually very easy. Lots of international projects could easily take place in these days. I just want to give two very different examples:

• “Understanding Europe”, a series of lectures and discussion evenings with an expert journalist of a current affairs topic. Journalists are easy to get and know how to present a topic. This series of events was promoted European-wide under one project name and brand, but of course most participants came from the local and neighbouring antennae. It’s a zero euro project with great impact and easy to do;
• “Find your way”, a series of nine trainings and international conferences dealing with topics such as intercultural stereotypes and prejudices, media impact, nationalism, security policy and students rights in Central and Eastern Europe. If you see the current developments in this part of Europe, you can just copy the project. This requires a bit more funding though.

There are many more and whenever I tell this to our members, they are full of enthusiasm to create something similar. However, they lack information and training. AEGEE should create an international events database, with title, date, organisers and the detailed programme of every international thematic event or project. This would help people a lot, because it’s not always about the funding. AEGEE needs ideas, inspiration and skills how to put the ideas into practice!

How important can the projects be generally for AEGEE and Europe today?

Very important. International projects dealing with aspects of the wide framework of European integration have always been the unique selling point of AEGEE. Other associations such as BEST, ELSA or ESN have a concrete target group, a concrete topic to talk about – being it technology, law or mobility. AEGEE is interdisciplinary, which on first sight makes it a lot harder to explain the purpose of the association. However, being interdisciplinary is actually a great asset, because it opens us to many topics and to see problems from many angles. And our main topic since 1985 is European integration and its many cultural, political or economic aspects. Unfortunately AEGEE lost its way and focuses too much on the personal fun aspect and not on the aspect to discuss current issues on a European scale. We have to go back to this or AEGEE loses its purposes.

You were a CD member and one of the first Network Commissioners 20 years ago. How different did the Network look back then?

The task is the same: the NetCom is there to serve and protect the network. The difference: the NetCom had no money, no reimbursements and communication was a lot harder. There were no social media, phone calls abroad cost a fortune, no one except for a few Italians and Finns had a cell phone. When I was elected, I sent a mail to all my locals, introducing myself and offering my support. Then I realised that two of my locals in Romania did not even have an e-mail address. So I called them on the phone from my flat in Hungary – which was actually a great thing, because both antennae had a recruiting event the week after, so I visited them both. In general, Network Commissioners travelled a lot more to their locals. This was possible because our administrative workload was a lot less. We had to collect one antenna report per semester, not one per month. One more difference: at that time, the task of Network Commissioner was one you would do at the end of your AEGEE career, it was only for the most experienced people. We used our expertise not only to help antennae, but also to create new ones. Network enlargement was a core task and we really succeeded in it.

You have been an AEGEEan for several decades now and you are an honorary member of AEGEE- Europe, the biggest distinction of our association. What motivates you to still be an active alumnus and actively attend events?

It’s several things. First of all, AEGEE is my family. Every year I meet new family members, and they are all so amazing people. It makes it really hard to leave. I actually feel that I have much more in common with their positive spirit, their hunger for making Europe a better place than with many of my peers at home or elsewhere in Europe. Second, I want to give something back. I learnt so much through AEGEE, it made me a more open-minded person and provided me with awesome memories and many skills; therefore it’s only fair to show people how they can do things, to inspire them. It’s only an offer, but I am happy that most members react so positively!

How do you see the current alumni system of AEGEE?

AEGEE’s alumni system should be a lot better. On European level we have Les Anciens, which is organising lots of very interesting events every year and is open to every member who finished its active path and wants to join us oldies. However, many people don’t do that, despite the presentations of Les Anciens at each Agora. This is a pity. Moreover, AEGEE doesn’t use the full potential of its alumni. Many have jobs in parliaments, government bodies or own companies. However, there is no proper database for it. There is a lot of room for improvement. On local level alumni work does hardly exist. Some Dutch antennae are really good at it, also some German such as AEGEE-Passau. However, this is one of the points that AEGEE should really tackle. It’s a pity to see that many locals don’t even bother to invite their founders or other oldies to their annual antenna birthday celebrations. Please do it, guys!

What can the current generation of AEGEEans learn from our alumni?

A lot. They can get inspired, they can get actual useful contacts, they can also get trainings from them. However, many oldies want to be asked, they don’t approach the antenna directly. You are supposed to contact them. So, just find out who they are, contact them and you will see they are eager to help!

In the CD house, one can find hundreds of old publications (magazines, newspapers, booklets etc). How much can we learn from the past and our history? How can we use this knowledge today?

An association that doesn’t know its past has no future. AEGEE is repeating so many mistakes instead of reaching higher goals to build upon past knowledge. By analysing the path that AEGEE went in the past 20-30 years, you can recognise patterns and trends. And they are really important to know. On a more practical note, it’s easy to use the existing knowledge: for example in terms of event and project ideas, knowledge on how to structure trainings, but also by finding out which AEGEE legend now lives in your city and can provide lectures or contacts. All this is easy to find: in the pre-social media age information was stored in great magazines such as the NewsBulletins, it’s ready to take and easy to use since it’s not spread all over Facebook. Also the old mailing lists provide amazing information. And if you are looking for photos of your antenna’s events from the period 2001-2009, you have a great chance to find them on www.aegee.org/photo.

Many things are happening now in Europe. Towards which direction would you turn AEGEE’s attention if you could?

All issues related to European integration as well as peace and stability. AEGEE can give orientation in a phase where more and more people fall back to nationalism because the world has become too complicated for them. When AEGEE was founded, the EU was in a crisis. European integration had come to a halt. Politicians did not know what to do. In this period AEGEE came and said: “Look, we as students will deal with all relevant issues, provide a platform for students and actors or politics and society – and present suggestions.” That’s the task for AEGEE as well today, in the new crisis of Europe.

Any thoughts you would like to share with the Network?

Let’s show our face again to the world by creating more hallmark events that improve AEGEE’s identity, impress politicians, potential members and in general actors in society. How? Let’s create four big thematic conferences per year which have the same general topic every year. For example:

• Checking the status of the European institutions and making ideas for improvements;
• Checking which are the current most pressing areas of political crisis and discuss solutions;
• Checking the situation of formal higher education and non-formal education in Europe, including aspects such as local Erasmus support to make it more practical;
• A conference called European Society: dealing with issues of culture, gender, NGO rights, populism or other issues.

These four conferences should be fixed points in the annual calendar and strive for 150 to 200 participants. Antennae can apply to organise one of these four conferences, which could be in February, May, September and November. These hallmark events could be like the standing topics of AEGEE, which would give them a lot of visibility and identity internally and externally. Moreover, small local or European seminars could be a lead into the big conferences. Also follow-up events could be organised. Since it would be prestigious to host these events, we would have enough organisers and participants for them. And a lot of new thematically-oriented members. This could really help AEGEE.

Written by Spyros Papadatos, AEGEE-Ioannina

One might say that Summer days for AEGEEans are filled only with Summer Universities, vacations and some deserved rest. But, every year, there is a group of people who is working hard to collect all the most relevant happenings of the AEGEE Network in order to create the annual publication of the Key to Europe. With an obvious reference to our logo, the Key-to-Europe-people are not afraid of the heat, the sun or an incredible amount of mails, checking endlessly for spellings errors, for layouts and for pictures. We asked some questions to the two people who coordinated the 2015-2016 edition: former Secretary General Svenja van der Tol and former Communication Director Anna Gumbau – with a contribution by Angelos Pappas (AEGEE-Athina) as the creative director. 

Anna and Svenja

The AEGEEan: Please, introduce your project. 

Anna: The Key to Europe is the annual publication of AEGEE-Europe (not to be confused with The Song). Every year, during summertime, there is a group of AEGEEans who collect information about all the the events of the past year, write articles, check them, and ensure that all the great things that our organisation has done and witnessed are reflected on. The final result, the Key to Europe itself, can be used by AEGEE antennae for their external relations, fundraising or recruitment purposes, or just to have a nice piece of history on their shelves to look at every now and then.

Who is in the team?

Svenja: This will probably be considered the ultimate cheesy answer, but we got really lucky with a team full of amazing people. There were first of all our Editors who helped us decide on what we wanted to write about in this Key to Europe; Anna Inazemtsava (AEGEE-Grodno), Daria Lovkova (AEGEE-Moskva) and Tatiana Rodina (AEGEE-Moskva).

The articles they edited with a lot of care would not have been there without our journalists: Erik Redli (AEGEE-Bratislava), Firdevs Çazem (AEGEE-Hatay), Erika Bettin (AEGEE-Verona), Matteo Lai (AEGEE-Cagliari) and Laura Pérez Álvarez (AEGEE-León), and they would not have been picture-perfect without our proofreaders: Erik Redli (AEGEE-Brasislava) (again), Maria Zwartkruis (AEGEE-Utrecht), Sabina Guja (AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca), Mireille Voorendt (AEGEE-Utrecht) and Federica Soro (AEGEE-Cagliari).

Last but not least, to make the whole publication not just a nice read but a nice view too, we had our Research and Statistics Manager and multitasking proofreader Maria, Photo Database Manager Elena Agulló Cantos (AEGEE-Alicante) and, of course, our Creative Director Angelos Pappas (AEGEE-Athina), who made the whole design of the Key to Europe. And of course there were Anna and myself as the Editors-in-Chief. You can find all of their pretty faces on the team page, and read more about their contributions in the word of thanks (#shamelessselfpromotion).

Why did you decide to run this project? 

Anna: Hmm, initially it was not in our plans to run the project. Svenja was appointed as the Comité Directeur responsible for the Key to Europe in our initial task division, as she had a strong involvement in the last two editions and knew the job, and as the responsible for communications I wanted to be around too. However, when the open call for team members was launched, nobody applied to become the Editor-in-Chief.

Therefore, after giving a lot of thought, Svenja and I looked at each other while enjoying a rare sunny day outside in the garden of the AEGEE house and said: “shall we do this?”, “let’s do this!”. (The sun might have played a big role in this decision). We knew that we would have to devote a lot of time to it, but we wanted to ensure the highest possible quality and, after all, I think I can speak for both when I say that this is a project where two of our passions collide – AEGEE and communication! (Svenja would just like to add here that she agrees 100%).

typical example of a K2E team member working

How is the publication structured?

Svenja: Of course we start the publication with AEGEE’s Statement of Principles (#basics). After that, we continue with the prefaces by ourselves (#awkward), European Commissioner Tibor Navracsics and the former President of AEGEE-Europe Aleksandra Kluczka. Then, we have the ‘About AEGEE’ section, which explains all that you need to know about AEGEE, ranging from the visual identity to our different European bodies and from the Action Agenda to the magical AEGEE house.

More information about other organisations that AEGEE-Europe cooperates with can be found it in the section ‘AEGEE Cooperates’ and in the ‘Faces of the Network’ section you will find some people that have contributed to AEGEE in the past year, like our Members of the Month and Les Anciens. In the ‘In the spotlight’ section you can find all the big happenings and challenges of the last year, and in the ‘Happenings around the Network’ you can read even more about remarkable events taking place. As it can be expected, in the ‘Projects’ section you can find out more about our different internal and external projects, and to top it off, the ‘Looking forward’ section gives you a flash forward to the upcoming year.

What are the highlights of the publication this year? 

Anna: We tried to squeeze as many topics as possible in our publication. Of course, happenings like Brexit, the refugee crisis and the situation in Turkey could not be missed. We tried to highlight as many inspiring events as possible, and have as many voices from all over the Network represented! We also have several great, high-quality infographics and statistics in pretty Visual Identity colours (#makingPRChappy). Moreover, this year we introduced a tweet-wall, where a ton of different AEGEE members share with you what our organisation means to them! These are just a few of the highlights of the Key to Europe this year.

What is the idea behind the design? 

Angelos: On the cover, we tried to depict the typical AEGEE experience, with the different icons representing different aspects of our organisation. Inspired by the design of the publication last year [which was created by Philipp Blum and Vincent Baas, ed.], we kept the design of the articles a bit more simple to keep the attention on the articles themselves and not distract the reader too much. You can find the icons on the cover back on each of the section pages, which mark the start of a new section.

What was the hardest part of dealing with Key to Europe? 

Anna: In general, it is difficult to keep the motivation, work and consistency up during the whole summer. Svenja and I had to take some holidays at some point: even if we could not fully disconnect because we had plenty of articles to edit [she smiles, ed.]. And since most people usually have holidays as well, we often had to head-hunt people to get the articles finished. But there they are! We knew this was part of our job so we were prepared for it.

Key to Europe in numbers. Give us some. 

Svenja: 120 pages of fun, 6 sections, 16 team members, 637 likes on our Facebook page (that’s a hint, yeah), countless hours of work, 10 new grey hairs on my head, and, sadly, zero hidden unicorns.  

Unfortunately the publication was not presented during Autumn Agora Chișinău. Where and when can AEGEE members see it? 

Anna: AEGEE antennae will find them soon in their mailboxes, as the General Mailing will be coming around early December. So brace yourselves, K2E is coming!

Is there any fun fact you want to share with us? 

Svenja: The Editors-in-Chief were not supposed to be the Editors-in-Chief but rather busy enough CD-responsibles, but in the end they are very happy that they took on the job. Or is that not fun enough?

You can check the online version of the publication here. Following this link, you can read all the previous editions. 

Key to Europe team 2015-2016

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona