Hanna Alajõe, member of AEGEE-Tartu, is running for the position of Network Commissioner. She wants to take over the Nordic Stars, the AEGEEan asked her some questions about her candidature.

The AEGEEan: You’re running for the position of Network Commissioner, what is your motivation for this position?

Hanna: The simplest answer would be to say that when I started working as a SubCommie, I just fell in love with this position. I saw how important working with the network is and how motivating that can be. I have been quite active locally and I want to put my experience in use. I am just graduating from psychology, so communicating with people and trying to solve problems is exactly what I like to do. Besides that, I want to invest the free time I will have after finishing school for a good purpose. I know that being a NetCommie is not going to be an easy task, but I am sure the positive parts make up for the difficulties and I am confident this is the position for me.

You’ve been very active in your local, how do you think that can contribute to your position if you get elected?

I think it can contribute in multiple ways. First of all, being in the board has taught me a lot about being a team member and a team leader, that is a general necessity for the work of the Network Commission and for working with the SubCommies. Secondly, during the time I was a board member, AEGEE-Tartu grew a lot in size and is now much stronger than it was a few years ago. This was achieved through the hard work of all the board members and I believe that I can use that experience to help other locals to do the same. I feel like I have a better understanding of possible problems locals can face and that will definitely help me in communicating with the antennae. Lastly, I have been one of the main organizers of a Network Meeting and as organizing Network Meetings is a responsibility of a Network Commissioner, that experience will definitely be useful.

The locals that form the Nordic Stars are very separated from each other and certainly come from very different cultures, what do you think makes them special?

A lot of people may see this as a disadvantage, but it’s exactly the opposite! The Network Meetings, for example, are always very productive, because people from different backgrounds have different ideas that are extremely useful in the brainstorming process. The Nordic Stars feel a great connection to each other and all of them want to stay together distribution-wise. Even our president Paul Smits said after participating in the last Network Meeting of the Nordic Stars in Hamburg, that it was one of the best network meetings he has ever been to. As you may have heard – nordic people need their personal space – maybe that applies to antennae as well and explains why they’re spread apart? [she smiles]

It is mentioned in your program that you would like to strenghten the knowledge about the Action Agenda among the locals, do you have any ideas on how to implement that?

Speaking from my personal experience: when I joined the board, I didn’t even know what the Action Agenda is and what we are supposed to do with it. That’s the first part of the problem, we have to make sure the antennae actually understand and know about it and only then they can start implementing it. That is why proper knowledge transfer is very necessary and having a board manual is very useful. I think when the first part of the problem is solved the second part that is actually contributing to the Action Agenda will follow more easily. ACT has been doing a really good job and has provided us with guidelines and just recently came out with a video about it. I think proper explanations to locals, pushing them even more on this topic and working closely with ACT will show us some results.

The most important work of the Network Commission is to assist the antennae, but there’s also the internal work of the team (communication with other bodies, internal work, etc). How do you think you can contribute to improve this work?

I enjoy working in teams and I am really looking forward to this part of the work as well. Firstly because who wouldn’t want to work together with people who are enthusiastic about the same things as you?! And secondly, I think that the internal work of the Network Commission is also very necessary for the further development of AEGEE. One thing that I would like to work on, is implementing the new human resources strategy. I participated in a workshop about it during the Network Meeting in Sankt-Petersburg and saw how necessary it is for the locals and how much potential it has. There are also many proposals that the current NetCom team prepared, that will probably need some support with putting them in use when accepted.

Last but not least, can you tell us in a sentence why do you think you’re good for this position?

I would be perfect for this position as I am currently a SubCommie and already up to date with some of the locals, I’m very well-organized, get along with people easily, am a great team player and most importantly would love to take on this new challenge of being a NetCommie!

Written by Ruben Navarro, AEGEE-Tarragona

AEGEE-Sankt Peterburg is one of the most northern antennae in the AEGEE Network. However, that is not the most special part about this interesting antenna. Discover the story behind it in this interview with the President of AEGEE-Sankt Peterburg where you get insight details into how they motivate their many members and organise events taking place far away from their own city. 

It is a paradox, but AEGEE-Sankt Peterburg was founded in 1996 – at one of the most difficult periods of modern Russian history.  But the antenna has survived and until now the members have done their best to contribute to the development of the AEGEE community. Dozens of different events were organised during these years, but there is one very special project, and different from all the others, by its scale and ambitions. This is the legendary “Transsiberian Dream” that was invented by AEGEE-Sankt Peterburg. For sure it became the «brand» and now everyone in AEGEE knows about this outstanding project crushing all the borders. The total amount of members have been more or less stable during the latter years. At the moment, the antenna holds 74 members of which about 20 of them are active and some even on the European level of AEGEE. As in many other cases, the amount of members usually increases around the Summer University (SU) application period and in this antenna’s case the number of members rises up to 100.

The AEGEEan interviewed the President of AEGEE-Sankt Peterburg, Yulia Bezhenova, about the upcoming board elections, Winter University and more.

The AEGEEan: You will elect a new board soon, how has it been in the board of your antenna for the past year?

Being in the board is a big challenge and responsibility, but it gives you a lot for the self-development and brings really great feelings when the prospected projects are successfully done. Not all of our board members managed to complete their terms, nevertheless it was one more challenge for the team to face, to stand and to learn. We were a great crew, it was a pleasure to work with such responsible and reliable people, sharing together late evenings by Skype or sitting in the almost closing café, discussing, arguing and strategizing. We would highly recommend everyone to take this responsibility: to be in the board and manage long-term tasks – that’s how you grow.

Would anyone of you like to continue in the board?

The best option for productive work is to combine experience and new ideas. We hope the next board will use best practices from the previous one in implementing fresh concepts. Elections will show…Nevertheless, former board being officially as supervisors or as helpers will support and advise the new one.

Making the promotion video for the Summer University 2013

What local activities do you organise to motivate your members?

We usually organise two local training courses (LTC) during the year. This is an opportunity for us to build the bridge between newbies and experienced members. That’s where knowledge and inspiration transfer takes place. Besides that, we always try to delegate some small tasks while organizing events to the members who just joined or were “warmed up” by SU experience. This is how they become a part of the team and learn to take responsibility. Later, as most of us experienced, they are ready to manage more serious tasks.

It’s also important to bring the European level of AEGEE closer to our members. For this purpose we inform them about opportunities to join some projects. In our upcoming Local Training Course (LTC) there will be a special session led by our members who present Audit Commission and International Politics Working Group (IPWG). Sharing personal experience is much more effective in promoting than just general words.

Are you already thinking about organizing a Summer University next year?

Yes, we will for sure. The white nights of Sankt-Petersburg will open their doors for about 20 lucky participants. We are also open for possible cooperation.

Why did you choose to organize the Winter University?

For the last few years we’ve usually carried out the winter event. It’s definitely worth to visit Russia in winter, it’s so special! We would like to share with participants а magic winter, the beauty of our country. That’s why it’s a pleasure for us to keep up this good tradition and we are inviting everyone to participate in our Russian Winterventure.

Is it difficult to organize an event with AEGEE-Moskva which is far away from your city?

In the country we live in, to travel 600 km from Moscow to St. Petersburg is like going to the next door in a campus!  Seriously, guys from AEGEE-Moskva are our partners and friends for years  so there is no problem to cooperate with them.

Distance is a challenge but not a problem. For instance, we have experience in managing events in cooperation with Sevastopol which is more than 2000 km far away from our city.

The special thing with Winterventure event is that it will be organized only by us, even if the program includes two cities.

Dancing Ball

What is special about the event?

Winterventure will bring our participants to the 18^th century dancing ball, to the gorgeous halls of the Emperor family’s palace and open the treasures of  the Hermitage. The train will take brave travelers from majestic St. Petersburg to dynamic Moscow, which never sleeps. During the adventure, participants will be accompanied by cheerful and careful organizers.

What other things lie in the future plans of AEGEE-Sankt Peterburg?

Every year we organize a SU, winter event and exchange with some other antennae. Every time we try to bring new ideas, that’s why we are ready to set up new contacts, discover new destinations and implement new projects.

On the local level, currently we are working on “Speaking Club” and “Travelers Club”. These projects are also supposed to gather already active members and new ones and by this, to solve such strategic issues like team-building and attracting new members.

One year ago we had already a “speaking club” and now we would like to bring this project back. It will be led by several people who will be in charge of developing different topics and preparing materials for every meeting. Usually it’s performed in a discussion format. Some people are afraid to participate in international events because of lack of foreign language skills. It’s still an issue in Russia. And through this project, we would like to help them to break this barrier. The second project will gather travel-lovers. It will be organized by volunteers among our members and their friends who would like to share their experience of traveling. Also we are planning to invite native representatives, foreign students, to these meetings. The list of possible topics for any country is endless: food, traditions, habits, …This is our plan for the upcoming year. For sure the theme of international communication and traveling will attract and bring quite a lot of new people.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København 

Some of you might have seen promotion of the T-shirt on Facebook or during Autumn Agora Budapest and now you’ll hear the story behind.

First of all, I have to thank the person behind AEGEE-Zaragoza’s “I <3 Jamón” T-Shirt. For me, it’s the most brilliant idea to gain visibility for your antenna which I have seen in AEGEE. Without that shirt I wouldn’t even be thinking of doing something different from the mainstream.

In the beginning of 2012 an idea of a new T-shirt slowly came to our minds in Helsinki. We still had some old dark blue t-shirts with our logo left in our storage. Somehow, it hnd not been that popular among our members lately and we wanted to do something different, something that you can also wear outside of AEGEE events.  We wanted it to be something that Erasmus students would like to buy, as a souvenir from Finland and other AEGEE members would be interested in as well.

In summer 2012 during the Travelling Summer University (TSU) FinEst Design we were in Tallinn and after a nice dinner we were trying to find our way to the party with some participants. I had a map in my hands and I tried to figure out where we are and where we should go. Then some participant yelled, “We are in Helsinki bitch, oh no, we are in Tallinn.” In that moment the idea of this T-shirt came to my mind. I asked the participants if they would be interested in this kind of T-shirt. Their answer was yes and in that moment I promised to do my best to figure out if there were more demand for it.

Luckily, we know well Leander Voets (feature picture) from AEGEE-Amsterdam. He was in our TSU 2011 and we know that he has some pretty good skills in designing T-shirts. So I told him my idea and together, we threw ideas to each other and after that session he made a few different designs. I posted those to our TSU 2012 group and asked what they think about it and the feedback was good. I kept on asking people and still, it looked good for us.

After all the research we talked about this subject with our board and we decided to give it a try. This way we were able to get these T-shirts ready before Autumn Agora Budapest and we would have some visibility there during the event and even more during the European Night.

First thing after our board meeting what I did was a Facebook group for the T-Shirt. This way we would have some idea how many people would be interested in this T-Shirt and how much we should order. Also that page has info how to order a T-shirt.

At the moment the demand is higher than we expected, so we will have to order more T-shirts to keep people happy and smiling with an AEGEE-Helsinki T-shirt.

In the end, I want to say that also behind this T-Shirt, there is an ideology of being against  the idea of every antenna looking similar and being without personality. Every step in that direction will kill people’s abstract thinking and the opportunity to be something great. It would be very boring if we all would be just a grey mass. I hope AEGEE will not go too far in that direction, but only the future will tell us. Best compliment I have heard so far was that this T-shirt gave inspiration for another antenna to design something new. Anything more I couldn’t ask.

Written by Seppo Hälikkä Vice President & PR-Responsible of AEGEE-Helsinki