In their Facebook Page, you can read that the Network Commission is always open. This is not far from the truth! The NetCom has been established in 1996 and it has been caring and serving our Network locals for 21 years already. In Autumn Agora Chișinău we elected six new Netcommies, who, together with Network Director Tekla Hajdu, are working hard to collaborate, protect and look after our locals. We asked them some questions and here are the answers of Kristina Reshetova, Gabriele Scollo, Stanislav Mahula, and Mareike Ritter.

Stas Mahula
netcom-stas@aegee.org

The AEGEEan: Please introduce yourself.
Kristina: My name is Kristina Reshetova, I am from AEGEE-Moskva and I was elected as a member of the Network Commission at Agora Bergamo.

Gabriele: Hi everybody! I am Gabriele Scollo, a proud member of AEGEE-Torino and former member of AEGEE-Firenze, the antenna that made me passionate about our organisation. I am 27 years old and I will graduate in February in sustainable tourism management.

Mareike: Hi, I am Mareike, a member of AEGEE-Heidelberg living in Leipzig. I am in the middle of my Bachelor’s on Studies of Religion and I was elected NetCommie at Agora Chisinau. I am responsible for: AEGEE-Aachen, AEGEE-Bamberg, AEGEE-Darmstadt, AEGEE-Düsseldorf, AEGEE-Erfurt, AEGEE-Frankfurt am Main, AEGEE-Heidelberg, AEGEE-Kaiserslautern, AEGEE-Karlsruhe, AEGEE-Köln, AEGEE-Ljubljana, AEGEE-Maastricht, AEGEE-Mainz-Wiesbaden, AEGEE-Mannheim, AEGEE-München, AEGEE-Osnabrück, AEGEE-Passau and AEGEE-Stuttgart.

Stas: Pryvit/Cześć/Ahoj! I am Stas from AEGEE-Kyïv, the responsible for Ukrainian and Polish speaking locals, currently finishing my Erasmus in the Czech Republic, so I more or less have to manage communication with those three languages [he smiles, ed.]. My teammates call me “The baby commissioner” because I am the youngest there, but I think it is even better to experience all this awesome AEGEE stuff when you are young. I like what I do in the Network Commission, so all my doubts are gone for sure.

Mareike Ritter
netcom-mareike.r@aegee.org

What is the strongest point of your assigned locals? What are your plans for the locals in your area?
Kristina: My locals are located in different parts of Europe such as Turkey, Armenia, Russia, Georgia and Belarus. I think the strongest point is motivation and desire to do what you love despite on challenges real life throws towards us. By that I mean, for example, the Summer of 2016 when some SUs in Turkey were under threat or even cancelled. Or constant lack (huge lack) of participants in the events of Russian locals. How many of you know that there are locals not only in Moscow but in Samara, Ryazan, Rostov-na-Donu, Voronezh, Tuymen? And they are doing amazing events by the way! My plans for this term did not change a lot: I still plan to visit my locals before Agora. There are some other thoughts, but let’s see if I manage to make all of them real before my term ends [she smiles, ed.].

Gabriele: The strongest point of my locals is the ambition of always aiming at doing better. This year will be no exception and I see that many locals are already planning training courses, thematic activities, amazing Summer Universities and more! All I have to do is support them in any possible way. An aspect I would like to improve is the visibility of AEGEE in general, especially towards universities, that too often ignore our locals.

Mareike: Hm, that is hard to say. Generally, the majority of the locals have a good internal structure and most of them have a good number of motivated members. But I definitely want to focus more on HR as recruitment itself might not the biggest problem for some members (though for some it is), but actually making new members stay active in AEGEE in order to have a healthy change of generations. Here I think good and interactive training courses, a well though-through knowledge transfer concept as well as mentoring systems can make a difference.

Loes Rutten
netcom-loes@aegee.org

Stas: My locals are more or less close to each other (the closest two are just 25 km from each other), so what I see is a very good communication between them: they organise common events or just visit each other for local events. And yes, speaking about local events, this is one of the strengths of my locals. They usually have very good and big events on a local level, so my plan is to promote the European level more. That is why my team and I will start promoting the Twinning project very soon.

For you, what is the meaning of the NetCom Motto “To Serve and Protect”?
Kristina: First of all, it means dedication and commitment. I think once you are a Netcom you cannot be connected to just one local. You start to think more globally and you take care about at least 12 different locals. It may sound silly and trivial but you do become parents, trying to treat everyone equally and be sure that everyone is happy, has enough events and participants, does not have internal problems and feel motivated to surprise members of AEGEE all around Europe.

Gabriele: It means that the locals do not have to see us as a sort of bureaucratic body that only asks for reports and checks criteria, but as a resource, they can use to fulfil their projects and their potential. Of course, I am not saying that bureaucracy is totally useless, as in order to do our job properly we also need some information.

Mareike: The NetCom’s job is – like no other European body in AEGEE – to focus primarily on the performances of antennae. So “To Serve and Protect” means to me that we are not making antennae feel comfortable with what they have and do (although of course, some antennae are doing an excellent job), but instead challenging them and making them strive for more by keeping an eye on them, giving them some guidance and also guidelines and connecting them with others. That is the point for Network Meetings, to exchange ideas and ways of working and by that to inspire and motivate members to come up with something new.

Kristina Reshetova
netcom-kristina@aegee.org

Stas: To
Step into
Every
Road
Very
Enthusiastically.
Paint a
Rainbow
Of
The
Events we
Created
Together.

A day in the NetCom shoes. How does your typical day look like?
Kristina: Uuuh! Sometimes I think that I can define myself as a walking laptop! Also, I am falling asleep with my phone and the first thing I do when I wake up is checking my e-mail. But every day is different. Sometimes your day is full of Skype meetings, one after the other, some other day you just check the local monthly reports and answer e-mails. But you are always talking with someone, checking or doing something. Moreover, you always have time for having fun with your fellow Netcommies.

Gabriele: Mostly in front of a computer so far (I am starting to really hate Skype), but soon spring will come and I am planning many trips!

Mareike: Honestly, I have a quite laid-back schedule for university so my day does not start too early. But then there are E-Mails to be written and answered, Skype meetings to be arranged and held, posts on Facebook to be created and of course internal work regarding our work plan or other issues to be discussed. The advantage of it is that I can do that anytime, the disadvantage is, that you sometimes “forget” the work you have to do for the university.
Stas: A day in the NetCom shoes. How does your typical day look like? Tortures, stress, pain and suffering 24\7. Of course, it is a joke [he smiles, ed.]. It is endless communication, emails, and joy of discovering new horizons of AEGEE together with my team and my locals. So basically it is the same it would be without NetCom – chatting on Facebook, sending or posting something. But in my case, it is certainly not a wasting of time!

Gabriele Scollo
netcom-gasko@aegee.org

Why did you decide to run for a place in the Netcom during Autumn Agora Chisinau?

Gabriele: Because during my two years of AEGEE experience I had the opportunity to work closely with previous NetCommies and other people at the European level of AEGEE. Despite being people with very different ideas, their dedication inspired me to also put myself at the service of the locals. I am not an expert on many things, but I am very good at networking and creating synergies, so I cannot see a better role for myself.

Mareike: Being an AEGEE member, you often have to deal with many different kinds of issues. Bureaucracy, recruitment and too much work can easily take over the fun part. The only cure against these struggles is to be shown again what AEGEE is about: to gain skills, exchange ideas, make them concrete while connecting with people from all around Europe. I believe that the Network Commission plays a crucial role in that: Network meetings, LTCs and RTCs, Skype meetings and exchanges – these are the occasions during which one grasps the power of our borderless cooperation. I wanted to not only take part in that but also facilitate these occasions in order to give something back to the network.

Stas: I do not know actually. It happened very naturally, frankly speaking. It was just another day, I was thinking about joining some European Body in order to direct my energy into something useful. But then I saw the Open Call for this position, and no application from my Network. And then I decided to try because there was a chance, there was me. Match? Probably. So far I have not regretted it, not even for a second.

You met in Brussels for your team meeting. How did it go? What were the main topics of discussions? Funny moments that occurred?
Mareike: The weekend was intense with five hours of sleep and an average of 12 hours of work per day. But it was worth it: we became a team during this weekend, we shared loads of fun moments and we had a lot of worthy discussions and sessions, some of them together with CD. And if anything goes wrong, such as #babycommissionerfellasleep, #oopscommission will find a suitable meme and/or hashtag.

the old and new team during locals distribution in Chisinau

What is the Netcom Plan for Chisinau-Enschede Term?
Mareike: We will continue some projects of the previous term: tWinder, Contact toolkit, mentorship system and antennae criteria reform. We want to finish them until Agora Enschede. We will also work on internal education, such as the RTC reform implementation and on some guidelines for the local distribution. Besides that, AeGeENDA will be a great new project and our 20th anniversary should be properly celebrated – stay tuned.

You can read their Activity Plan here. Do not forget you can attend one of the ten Network Meetings that will take place this spring in Thessaloniki, Debrecen, Nijmegen, Torino, Yerevan, Gdansk, Bamberg, Novi-Sad, Heidelberg and Bilbao.  

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

During Autumn Agora Kyїv, six new members of the Network Commission (NetCom) were elected, namely: Lavinia Ţole (AEGEE-București), Lisa Gregis (AEGEE-Bergamo), Loes Rutten (AEGEE-Utrecht), Malwina Zielińska (AEGEE-Toruń), Mareike Wegener (AEGEE-Aachen/Köln), Melissa Carreres Candela (AEGEE-Alicante). Their term started on the 1st of December and they have already had a meeting in Brussels to discuss about their future plans. Let’s find out what they are preparing for the upcoming term!

The AEGEEan: Why did you apply to be NetCom?

Lavinia Ţole: After my term as a SubCom ended, I felt I have a pretty good understanding of AEGEE locals, how they work, what struggles they usually encounter, etc., and I wanted to contribute more to their development. In my opinion, AEGEE locals are the very heart of AEGEE and the Network Commission is the body that is always in touch with them, so it was a great opportunity to put into practice the skills and knowledge I earned being an active member for more than 3 years.

Lisa Gregis: I candidated as Network Commissioner because I always thought that it was the perfect job for me: helping the locals and having the chance to be close to their members have always given me the motivation to be a better person and a better AEGEE member. The Network Commission is a particular branch of AEGEE which requires a particular motivation because you have to serve and protect, and I had it.

Loes Rutten: When I joined AEGEE three years ago, I became active within my local, but because of my studies, I was not able to attend any statutory events or other events related to European projects. Last year I took the time to join more events connected to the European bodies. Moreover, I became CD assistant of Holger for Network development research, subcommissioner of Boudewijn and since summer, I have been a member of the ACT. During this year, I was truly inspired by other AEGEEans and I realised how our commitment allows us to contribute to democracy by supporting fair elections, by drafting EU recommendations, by sharing our knowledge, and by all the other things that AEGEE has achieved in the past 30 years. I would like to provide continuity to our Network by following the course that was set out by the current Network Commission, and also to bring in new ideas, together with a fresh team of NetComs. I am excited to be a communicative and cooperative member of the Network Commission, while providing motivation and support for the antennae I am responsible for.

Mareike Wegener: I love working with people, therefore I am really excited to get to know the boards and all the other AEGEEans in my Network better. I like the idea behind the Network Commission about sharing and caring, and I hope we will all have a creative time together by working on this. I talked to a lot of people about my decision to run for NetCommie, but first of all, it was my own idea because I felt it is the right moment for me to become NetCommie. NetCom Andrea and NetCom Assistant Julia pushed me a lot and supported me by answering all my questions, but my locals supported me as well. I had a lot of discussions about different topics concerning my candidature and I got a lot of feedback, positive and sometimes also negative, from friends from different locals. In the end, I think it was this huge amount of feedback that helped me run for NetCommie.

Melissa Carreres Candela: Even though networking was, in my opinion, one of the most attractive opportunities that AEGEE provides you, being part of Network Commission was never before in my plans. After finishing my term as a President in AEGEE-Alicante, I wanted to take a step forward in my AEGEE life, and then Pablo Hernández persuaded me to take this leap. Actually, without him maybe I would have never run to be a NetCom!

What was your first reaction when you heard that you got elected as NetCom?

Lavinia: I was super happy, but also a bit confused, not knowing exactly what do I have to do next, but we had 6 weeks of knowledge transfer. The team is open-minded and always ready to help, so now I feel much more confident.
Lisa: Since I am a very emotional person, I wanted it so much and I had to face a tough Agora, I cried for almost half an hour. I finally reached my goal to become a Network Commissioner, now I just have to work to achieve my dream to be a good NetCommie.

Mareike: I was sitting next to Damien who was elected as President of Mediation Commission just a few seconds before. I was so still, so excited to see his name on the screen that first of all I could not realise what I saw. It was so fast, just a few seconds. But then friends around me started to congratulate me and finally Andrea, the former NetCommie and my mentor, brought me back to reality.
But I think I only finally realised it, when we had the first meeting in the evening with new team and started to talk about knowledge transfer and network distribution. After 4 days of Agora, parties and not enough sleep, everyone was still highly motivated to work.

Melissa: When the results came out, I had to check more than twice that my name was among the first 6 ones, then lots of people came to congratulate me, and Pablo was among them. At that moment, I thought “I’m here because of you”!

What are your plans for the locals in your area?

Lavinia: Well, we have an integrated strategy for the whole Network: the ups and downs of AEGEE locals are more similar than you think. Nonetheless, I want to improve locals’ knowledge on Antenna Criteria, AEGEE’s projects and opportunities by sending monthly newsletters, and to organise hangout meetings. Furthermore, I want to encourage locals to collaborate and to organise exchanges or any other kind of international projects or gatherings.

Lisa: I would like to establish a good communication with them and to give them all the tools they need to carry out their daily activities. Furthermore, I would like to create new sharing moments between them in order to deepen their cooperation and motivation. Sharing best practices and non-formal education are for sure in my top 5 objectives.

Loes: Throughout my term, I want to promote active participation of AEGEEans in European bodies, to encourage knowledge transfer and sharing best practices between locals in the form of thematic hangouts. With Andry Gontsjarenko, we try to revive AEGEE-Den Haag and after I get to know all the locals that I am responsible for, I want to set up AEGEE-Wageningen. I will support the locals to carry out activities related to the Strategic Plan and Action Agenda. Since I’m also ACT-responsible for this area, I am able to provide them with an explanation of what the Action Agenda is, as well as with concrete ideas for activities. Lastly, I will encourage and support locals to organise thematic Summer Universities.

Mareike: I want to visit my locals, meet the boards and talk to them. Hopefully, I can start my first trip in January. I think we all deserve a few peaceful and quiet days during Christmas with our family and friends.

Melissa: I would like to focus especially on the collaboration between locals. As a President, I learnt a lot from members of different antennae. I really believe there is a lot of potential that is not used because the knowledge gets stuck. Sharing best practices, problems and solutions would help a lot to develop the Network. Like it is said, “Sharing is caring”.
I also want to guarantee a good communication between locals and NetCom. I already know most of the boards of my locals, so they can easily contact me and feel more confident. It is also important to have frequent contact with them in order to see how they are doing and how the problems are developing.
In my working plan, I want to help weak locals and teach them about antenna management, Antenna Criteria and European level.

Do you have a team of SubCommies? If so, who are they and what do they do?

Lavinia: I’ve just launched the Open Call, so there is no official SubCom yet, but I had some informal conversations and I am pretty excited about the next SubCom team.

Lisa: I don’t have it yet, but I will. I have launched an Open Call for SubCommissioners and I’m very looking forward to define my team. They will work with the locals and they will develop their own projects and ideas in collaboration with me and the locals.

Loes: I have no subcommies yet.

Melissa: Yes, I actually had my whole team before presenting my candidature in Agora Kyiv. When I decided to run for NetCom, I had some people in mind, and it was really nice to see they supported me and that they were willing to work with me. That supported my determination and gave me extra motivation to run for NetCom.
My subcommies will support me being in contact with all the antennae and helping solving problems and internal tensions. They will also help me to resolve doubts about Antenna Criteria and European level for every single local.

What are your plans for the NetCom team?

Lavinia: I am really proud of the working plan we put together during our NetCom meeting in Brussels. We have a lot of projects, but my personal favourite are Antenna Criteria for Dummies and Twinder, a form that helps antennae find their soulmate local.

Lisa: I will work on Network Meeting reform and sharing best practices in team with other NetCommies. I will also help my team mates whenever it’s needed!

Loes: I will contribute to the NetCom team by communication, cooperation, credibility, creativity and content! Also, I will provide cooperation between ACT and NetCom team.

Mareike: We have a super cool team of Network Commissioners and I am looking forward to getting to know them better and working with them in order to strengthen and develop our Network.

Melissa: In our NetCom Meeting which has recently taken place in Brussels, we drafted our Working Plan with lots of sexy ideas to improve and develop the Network. Every NetCom has to be involved in all projects and also manage some of them. I would be especially involved in two of them: firstly, in promoting our tool Twinder for creating twins and spreading the mentorship programme between weak and strong antennae, and secondly, I will manage the launch of a new monthly newsletter that would make the work of the NetCom more visible and would provide better communication of the news throughout the rest of the Network.

Malwina Zielińska was approached, but she never replied.

You can find Network Commission Working Plan for the current term (Agora Kyїv-Agora Bergamo) here.

Written by Lia Tuska, AEGEE-Kastoria/Sofia

AEGEE-Thessaloniki is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and when we evaluate their achievements by completion of the antennae criteria, they receive a good score. This is the reason why they organised a Network Meeting (NWM) recently. The AEGEEan interviewed the President of AEGEE-Thessaloniki, Arsenis Tselengidis, Treasurer Ioannis Soultanidis and Georgia Grolliou who they call “the future of AEGEE-Thessaloniki”.

Can you inform the readers about your antenna? When was it founded, how many members do you have, how many are active. etc?

Arsenis: This… -awesome- local, was founded during a cold December’s night of the year 1993, the 16th to be exact. This year, 20 years after the local was founded, the situation became very difficult. The local was almost ready to be downgraded, because of a lack of active members. Ioannis and I (the only full time active members then) took the responsibility to give one last big effort to save our local. Our two main aims were: survival of the local without loosing any of the Antenna Criteria and activating at least seven members.  Nine months later, AEGEE-Thessaloniki has 31 members and 13 of them are active!

Ioannis: Our local might not be the oldest or largest, but it still is here after 20 years no matter the difficulties it met in the past. And we also survived this time. Thessaloniki has had glorious moments in the first decade of this millennium, but because old members were stepping down, and new members were leaving for Erasmus in other countries (among them myself and the current president), it became dormant. However, after a lot of work, running around and entertaining random guys and girls, AEGEE-Thessaloniki is back on it’s feet with new, active members full of excitement plus many more living in the shadows, waiting for the next breathtaking AEGEE event.

Georgia: As Ioannis said, maybe we don’t have a lot of members, but it is not the quantity but the quality of our members that counts! I cannot say a lot about my antenna’s history, but I can tell you about its future. I have seen a lot of smiling and promising faces in our first recruitment meetings and of course we have a fantastic team to surround them!

Why did you decide to organise the Network Meeting?

Arsenis: When our board term started (January 2013), we knew that our last European Event had been two years ago,  in 2011. So we would not fulfill an antenna criterium if we didn’t organise anything. The NWM was the ‘easiest’ European event we could organise. The second reason was that after the recruitment period in April, the Summer Universities (SUs) start and we thought that the best way to keep our members active, is to have them help organise an European event right after the SU’s end…

Ioannis: We have been talking for quite some time within the board about organising an event, mainly because it is an Antenna Criterium and we didn’t want to see our antenna losing one. We brainstormed to try and find the best way to use our limited funds and members, so when the Open Call came for the organisation of a NWM, we grabbed it.

Georgia: I was not a member of the team of AEGEE-Thessaloniki at that time the decision was taken, but I totally understand it! We managed to fulfill two Antenna Criteria at the same time: the organisation of a European event, and attendance of a board member at a Network Meeting. All the reasons and ideas of our board team have been proven to be right. A European Event right after the SU’s activated both participants and organizers. It’s really nice to see the names of all the participants come up in mails announcing the new boards of their cities Antenna. I am really happy and enthusiastic to be part of this team and this Antenna.

What challenges did you come across while organising the NWM?

Arsenis: The most important was the fact that the most members returned from their SU’s quite late. The second was that in September we have exams in Greece. We were informed about our selection as organisers on the 15th of August, but until the 30th our members were not coming to the meetings because they were studying. As the exam periods last 1 month here and the event started on the 3rd of October, we knew that all work would have to be done in ten days, between the 20th-30th when the majority of the members has already finished the exams. However, we also know that organising a great event event, last minute… is in our blood.

Ioannis: Add to that the exam period-problems, cancellation problems, both with participants and wih adequate offers for food, lodging and seminar rooms. We were in deep… It felt almost like a miracle when the first day of the NWM arrived and everything was resolved!

Main organiser of Agora Patra, Costas, told us recently that working on fundraising (FR) is a challenge because of the economic situation in Greece. How did you handle this?

Arsenis: After a successfull promotion of the SUs, two days before the NWM we faced a nightmare! We got the mail from financial director Anna about the Membership Fees at the Agora…. The biggest project of AEGEE (Summer Universities) were leading our local into the first debt in the last decade! When we started organising two months ago, our first calculations were saying that we were going to need 226 Euros extra for this event. In two days Ioannis did a great job, and the final result was that we spent only 35 Euro! Ioannis will explain how we got there.

Ioannis: It is near impossible to raise funds these days. We sent a couple of our well connected members out to ask certain businesses either for help with funds or free food, but it didn’t work, with the exception of one beverage producer. So the budget was strict, no deals worked out and we were on our own. We tried to reduce expenses on every single occasion (if you ask any participant they will certify they had to walk a lot and one of the offered dinner was not enough.. Sorry!). We had to withdraw all our savings and be ready to spend them. However surprisingly, at the end, we spent only 35 euro. Saving a little everywhere works like a charm. My biggest regret is that because of the tight budget and uncertainty untill the very start of the NWM we did not buy t-shirts for the participants.

How did it go with organising the NWM in the end?

Arsenis: After three sleepless nights and four days of running, organising and re-organising the feeling of seeing people smiling and listening to them about how wonderful these days were for them, makes you feel so special!

Ioannis: AEGEE spirit rocked our city and fueled us to keep on going for three days! It all worked out in the end, whether it was fully prepared or not, and I think we got our members activated.

Georgia: As with all AEGEE events I have experienced so far, there were the normal complaints in the begining and a lot of hugs and melancholy at the end. It’s really satisfying to see that everybody had a perfect, awesome time after organising an event  and to feel like you have a lot of new friends, you will meet somewhere in Europe!

Would you encourage other Antennae to organise Network Meetings? 

Arsenis: I have been in four NWMs in my AEGEE life: in London, in Istanbul, and now twice in Thessaloniki. Both as a participant and as a organiser, it feels wonderful! As a participant you have a lot of fun and gain a huge amount of knowledge, but being an organiser is something different. You are going to need to use your creativity, train your public relations skills,  and you will gain experience and improve your administrative qualities. Moreover, you will see the new members of your local participating actively. I am sure that after a NWM, none of them will want to return to their previous inactive state. In four days they can be been turned into AEGEEans!

Ioannis: Yep, it can be a great first step towards creating a team that is able to organise a good SU.

Georgia: A Network Meeting is a good chance for a small Antennae to organise a European event and teach both participants and organisers about the town’s history and culture. We have to admit that even we  didn’t know everything about our town before. Furthermore, it can help newbies to learn about the structure of AEGEE and get involved more! As far as the organisation is concerned, I would say a NWM helps you realise coordination is essential for everything in AEGEE. A great team is built to make the event reality and as a member of that team the level of your creativity, administrative and, public relations’ skills, suddenly grow.

What lies in the future for AEGEE-Thessaloniki?

Arsenis: We have are some ideas. First, we want to participate in the European Youth Capital Project 2014, and second maybe organise a SU. However, our term is finishing after this Autumn Agora, so the new “youth” aka. Georgia have the power now!

Ioannis: An exchange programme with AEGEE-Tenerife, to discuss about Thessaloniki as the European Youth Capital for 2014, then more team building projects to keep our active members happy. After that, the next board is up!

Georgia: Considering Thessaloniki is the European Youth Capital 2014, we cannot leave this year without organising anything special! An SU -maybe in cooperation with another antenna, could be a really nice idea!

Will you organise a pre-event for Agora Patra?

Arsenis: This is a decision of the next board. But, I would love to see one! It would be very helpful for the next board to get more active members from the recruitment we will do this month.

Georgia: We still do not have anything official but it could be a nice idea. By now, we are ready to provide any help to our friends in Patra. We want them to know that they can definitely count on us.

Will you be involved in any way with the organisation of Agora Patra?

Georgia: Right now, our help is limited to some public relations actions to promote the Agora Patra! Thereafter, I suppose that some of our members could provide their work and creativity as helpers. They must know that they can ask any help from us and we will do our best!

It is nice to see an antenna working so hard on keeping the local alive and completing all the antenna critieria. The AEGEEan wishes AEGEE-Thessaloniki good luck with their work and any future plans.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-Koebenhavn

In September 2012 AEGEE-Tilburg consisted of just two guys. Two experienced members: Tjeerd Kosse and Yunhai Su decided to make a re-start with AEGEE-Tilburg.  After a search two new board members joined. First Matei Zamfirescu and right after Sintija Saurina. In October the board was formed with Tjeerd as president, Sintjia as secretary, Yunhai as treasurer and Matei as visuals & marketing; four different characters who  formed a great team together. Now AEGEE-Tilburg has over 30 members. This is their story…

The enthusiasm only grew bigger. Soon after the forming of the board the board plan was presented. Our idea was simple: get AEGEE-Tilburg back on track in one year and set the basis for the next board to make AEGEE-Tilburg a stable student organization in Tilburg. Because we made a fresh new start we were able to make big changes and improvements that otherwise would be unthinkable. We were the first board that consisted of completely different nationalities and we changed the working language to English. We are proud of the fact that we are one of the boards in AEGEE who made this change to be inclusive towards international students.

Another big change that we could make is to create a very European culture in AEGEE-Tilburg. Because we just started we were able to imprint in our AEGEE-Tilburg a culture that we, as an antenna, are just one part of a bigger organization called AEGEE, and that our focus lies on Europe. Our local is aware of the fact that AEGEE is ‘one big family’, not just 200 lonely antennae. Therefore we encourage our own board and members to engage actively in European activities. In the remaining months of this academic year we’re planning to visit Budapest,  organize a TSU with AEGEE-Eindhoven and -Maastricht and much more. And we are always looking forward to work together with locals all over Europe.

We were also successful in achieving our goals. After starting with just two enthusiastic guys, we already have had one outgoing exchange with Valletta and two incoming exchanges with both Budapest and Valletta. Tilburg took a group of 30 exchange participants to Valletta, being the largest antenna during the EBM week. A majority of the group consists of new members, who experienced their first European event. The activities that Valletta organized for us were so fun and interesting that we now have several active members; people really fell in love with AEGEE. Now the number of members has tripled. Proud as we are of this achievement, we still strive to quintuple the amount of members by the end summer to have a sturdy basis for next year.

Dear boards of all the AEGEE-locals, AEGEE-committees and –commissions, Working Groups and Project Groups; Keep your eyes on AEGEE-Tilburg! We are a very enthusiastic local looking to collaborate to achieve great things within AEGEE. Come and talk to us during the Agora and if we do not already happen to bump in to each other! Hope to see you soon, somewhere in Europe!

Written for The NetCom Times by Tjeerd Kosse, AEGEE-Tilburg.

Sustainable development… Green growth… Sustainability… The air is packed with sustainable buzzwords and it is hard to open a newspaper these days without finding an article on some sustainability topic. Regardless of the many empty uses ofthe word, it cannot be denied that sustainability is thé challenge of our generation, as was confirmed by over 40% of respondents in the recent AEGEE Survey on sustainability.

Photo by Mathieu Soete

Realising this importance, AEGEE chose Sustainability as one of its policy fields for the term 2012/2013. Within this complex field, focus is put on the subtopics of Education for sustainability and Sustainable entrepreneurship, while also paying attention to making AEGEE more sustainable in its day-to-day activities and projects.

Education for sustainability

An endless sequence of campaigns has had some success in raising people’s awareness about the major global and local sustainability issues. People around the world are familiar with the 2°C rise in global temperature related to climate change, and many know that a lot of our food is being wasted on the way from farm to fork. Any system of Education for sustainability (ESD) with a chance of success, however, should be developed through participation of all stakeholders, including students. This subtopic therefore aims at finding out the perceptions and demands of AEGEEans towards ESD, and its place in their education.Sustainable entrepreneurship

“Sustainable entrepreneurship” generates just over 100 million hits when googled, but what is it exactly? If used without any significant changes to the company policy, it becomes “greenwashing”, not only fooling customers in their search for more sustainable products, but also spreading doubt about the credibility of genuinely sustainable companies.

Map of survey responses

Put simply, a sustainable entrepreneur is an entrepreneur with the explicit objective of improving a social or environmental situation. 42% of respondents agreed that, eventually, all companies will have to become sustainable, so we better get started today. It takes more than just a good idea to build a company though,  and with only 12% reporting any experience with entrepreneurship, there is still much to learn.

This is where both subtopics intersect, providing skills and knowledge training to future entrepreneurs, and surrounding fresh start-ups with the right environment for growth and development. This subtopic looks into existing best practices on education and support of young entrepreneurs around Europe, and discusses possible ways of improvement.

My aim as Policy Officer is to bring the opinion of AEGEE to the policy-makers, while sharing opportunities for learning and action. But for this I need your input of course. So contact me at mathieu.soete@aegee.org to share your ideas and questions, or join the mailing list Sustainability-L to start discussing!

Written by: Mathieu Soete, Policy Officer on Sustainability, for the NetCom Times.

Dutchies and their suits. It is a combination like bread and butter and being in the city of Enschede, you will probably find yourself surrounded by suits, ties, dress-shirts and even the occasional tailcoat. Admired and ridiculed alike, this tradition is more than just another wacky expression of local culture.

The habit of students suiting up for meetings, workshops and even parties, occasions where most normal people prefer the comfort of a T-shirt, stems from the traditions of the “corpora.” Corpora are large student associations which can be found in every Dutch student city of any importance. Nowadays more active than their central European counterparts, they are often compared to the notorious fraternities in the USA.

Outsiders often have a very negative image of the corpora. This is mostly due to the massive alcohol intake of their members, rigid hierarchical structure, harsh initiation rituals and strict adherence to an incomprehensive set of unwritten rules, or “mores.” One might say an idealistic open-minded association such as AEGEE should have nothing to do with all of this.

The corpora, however, did lead the way for a very active student culture in the Netherlands. They created a climate which enabled many locals in the region to flourish. Many antennae have borrowed some of the traditions of the corpora, not for fun, but because they have proven to be effective. Their hierarchical structures, which may seem unreasonably strict, do form a solid basis for any efficiently run students’ association. Many big Dutch locals, such as AEGEE-Utrecht or AEGEE-Enschede, have used ideas from the corpora, introducing local commissions, advisory boards and year clubs, to form a professional and well integrated local.

The actual purpose of wearing your suit everywhere is less clear, though probably it is a left-over from the time when all students wore suits. To this day, in a lot of associations you cannot even enter when you are wearing anything less than a jacket-and-tie (or “jasje-dasje” in Dutch). Many people have criticised this tradition for being elitist and exclusive, but showing off your nice attire is far from the point. In fact, ties and blazers, usually bought in second-hand shops for a couple of Euros, are treated with the greatest disregard and are stained with alcohol, dirt, flour and vomit.

Whatever the actual reason is, it does create a sense of belonging together. In much the same way AEGEE-Istanbul proudly wear their sweaters or AEGEE-Alicante wear their bright yellow shirts, wearing similar clothes is not meant to exclude outsiders but to show pride you take in your local or club and to feel a stronger connection with your association and friends.

In fact, we as AEGEE might have more in common with these unruly, sometimes obnoxious students then we would like to think. Their associations strive to bring people from different studies together, forming a network of friends throughout the city; we do the same on a European scale. And although the Statutes of AEGEE-Europe (CIA) may have a clearer practical use, to most people it is exactly as incomprehensible as the unwritten rules stating who can sit where and who is allowed to wear a coat inside. Besides, if we are really honest with ourselves, our alcohol consumption at European Nights does not differ that much from a regular corps party.

I am not saying at all we should become exactly like the corpora. We have an association full of awesome open-minded people, united by the same ideals and we should not lose this. I am saying, though, that perhaps we should not be so quick to judge other peoples’ customs and should make some effort to try to find out the meaning behind them.  We have more in common than we think and we could learn a lot from each other. And is not this what AEGEE is all about? So why not give these traditions a chance and suit up!

Written by Berend Küpers, AEGEE-Delft

Attention: With the permission of the Network Commission (NetCom) this article is re-published in The AEGEEan, after it was previously published in the NetCom Times.