We already gave you some tips on how to be a good visitor, but how should you be a good delegate (according to us)? The Agora is a magnificent creature, but it is also very complicated to follow every single thing that happens, especially if you are a newbie. But also experienced members has some troubles from time to time. It can be long, it can be boring, but it is also an engaging opportunity to share your knowledge and to learn new things. 

Prepare yourself before the Agora. JC, CD, CT, AR, KT, SP, AA, FR, FP, MedCom, NetCom… Should we continue? Those are just some of the acronyms we use and you will hear them a lot. But also proposals, CIA, candidates… The content of an Agora can be overwhelming. Especially if there isn’t a proper preparation beforehand. Two weeks before the Agora, the Secretary General sends out booklets in which you can find all sort of information you might need. The Chair Team is also sending delegates a quiz, which you can take to test your knowledge, or an Agora for Dummies booklet. You should also organise an Agora preparation with your local, where you can study the items on the agenda and share your thoughts on what will be discussed and what will be voted.

Plenaries, prytannia and attendance. Delegates represent a local during the Agora and they are required to be present at plenaries and prytannia. If you ask, ‘what are those’, you either are at your first Agora or you never attended either of them. Plenaries are the moments when all the members of the Agora gather together, for instance, the opening plenary, the candidatures, the ratification of projects and other. Prytannia are smaller gatherings, normally used to discuss proposals or papers, which will be voted on. Delegates should be there all the time because in those moments, we discuss the present abd future of our organisation. And because your time will be counted as participation during the Agora. Be careful to scan your badge every morning before entering the plenary and state your local at the beginning of each prytanium. But most of all, make sure to be there because you want to, not because you have to.

Ask questions (to oldies). If you are at your first Agora or if you are the sole delegate of your local, and you don’t understand something, just look around and approach some more experienced members. Normally you can recognize them, because they speak a language you don’t understand or they clearly declare to have attended 10+ Agorae. They will be more than willing to listen to all your questions and to explain to you all the procedures that are obscure to you. Don’t be afraid if you don’t know them! We are AEGEEans, we simply talk to everyone.

Ask questions (on stage). If you have some doubts, another thing that can actually be very handy for you is to ask your questions straight at the source. If you like numbers and there are some figures that don’t match, or if you read a candidature and you are not entirely sure on how that thing will be implemented, take the chance to go on stage and ask a question (or more). Maybe your doubts are shared by other delegates and the discussion can be benefit by everyone. And if you are telling yourself “My English is not the best”, don’t worry! A native English speaker in AEGEE is very rare and we, generally, all speak European English, with different accents and vocabulary. As long as you can make a sentence with a subject, a verb and an object, everybody will be able to understand you.

Don’t sleep. Lack of sleep is the most common disease during the Agora and it is physiological. We sleep around three hours per night and our brains are constantly bombarded with new information in a language that is not our mother tongue. That’s why we often enable the automatic pilot and fall in the sweet arms of Morpheus. The truth is that it is not pleasant to present something you worked towards for months in front of hundreds of “sleeping beauties”. Therefore you can drink zillion of liters of coffee, energy drinks or be a rebel: skip some parties. You will find yourself rested and ready to rock.

Vote properly. Delegates have the honour to vote and give direction to the Network. Delegates should represent the will of their locals, but also they should have the future of the organisation in mind. When voting for candidates, you should focus less on the appearance, and rather on their experience and their program. When voting for a proposal, try to understand whether the entire Network can benefit from its outcome. Voting is harder than it seems, because it is not enough to just fill in a ballot or to click on ‘in favour’. Follow your conscience.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

Agora Bergamo is approaching day by day and you’d better prepare yourself both physically and mentally for it, because it’s about to become real in less than a week! Beside the necessary things you need to take with you undoubtedly, we want to help you with a few cool tips which you have to take into account once you are there in order to survive! So, take notes because you will need them! Especially if you are a newbie at your first Agora! 

#1 Tip: Drink A LOT of Coffee!

Every oldie in AEGEE knows that at each Agora, during morning plenaries, half of the people in the room are sleeping, or are half asleep because of last night’s party, of course. Whether it’s on the floor, on the chairs, on someone’s lap, it’s the same scenery. The “Sleeping AEGEEans” Facebook page is full after each statutory events with weird sleeping faces on weird positions or even places. Yeah, we have seen a lot of creativity among those people! So, as you can already imagine, the most essential thing to do at an Agora is drink COFFEE and A LOT OF IT! There are lots of intensive activities which require your attention and full cooperation sometimes. So drink a cup or ten or you might lose a lot of insightful information or the key moments of this event!

#2 Tip: Take an External Battery everywhere with you!

That’s right. You will need it to charge your phone during the event, so as be able to use it during boring times or if you need to check some important issues. If you don’t own an external battery, you can also buy one from the Summer University Coordination Team (SUCT) who are selling them during the Agora! Dibs!

#Tip 3: Take Vitamin C every morning! 

It’s well known the fact that if you take vitamin C after a long night of party and alcohol, it kills off the hangover. It couldn’t be more true! Vitamin C is an antioxidant. Alcohol depresses your immune system, leaving you wide open to colds and other viruses. As alcohol metabolizes and our body detoxifies itself, a substantial number of free radicals are released into our body. Vitamin C’s antioxidant qualities help fight free radicals in our body and generally alleviates headaches. So, you can say it’s also a good way to prevent getting the flu or other illness. It’s a win-win!

#Tip 4: Take earlier showers in the morning or later during night! 

It’s not a surprise that during every Agora there is a queue of people starting from the gym and all the way to the bathrooms. People in their towels wait in line for their limited time to use the showers. It’s crazy. It’s messy. It’s hot. It’s Agora’s most often problem, not enough showers, not enough time. However, it has been said since “ancient times” that you would have a better chance at taking a normal shower, if you wake up in the morning earlier than the others, or during the night when everyone is at the party or even sleeping.

#Tip 5: Don’t come late to the European Night!

Yes, we have arrived to the most important tip of an AEGEE event. European Night! It’s always great when people bring a little bit of taste from their own culture and nation during a nice small event organised in AEGEE. However, when it comes to an Agora, it’s the mother of all European Nights in one place! With large quantities of alcohol and all kinds of sweets, you cannot be late for this party! No, sir! Everyone knows that the best drinks finish first and fast! Come late and you will also miss the chance to enjoy your time with others at the same time and it will be sad for you when everyone is really enjoying themselves and you are still sipping some weird drink from Finland.

We gave you some tips, now you figure out the rest! See you at Agora Bergamo!

Written by Gabriela Geană, AEGEE-București

Our reporter did some undercover research during yesterday’s Prytania and Plenaries. While secretly looking around, I found four things that many participants do while being under the falsely optimistic expression that nobody notices.

1. Sleeping
The most obvious one which we – at one point or another – all have done: taking naps during sessions. Some are more openly doing this by actually laying down on the floor in the back of the plenary hall, others just accidently fall asleep and wake up when the speaker raises his or her voice. You can recognize the latter group by a guilty look on their face, shifting around on their chair to prevent it from happening again, or desperately clinging on to a disgusting cup of machine coffee with too much sugar.

2. Picking your nose
Just one thing to say about this, no matter how subtle you think you are doing this: we actually see it!

3. Stickering
Always a fun activity: secretly placing stickers on the backs of the people in front of you. Your mission has succeeded if they actually walk around all day with another sticker of a Local on their back. Obviously, the more people you sticker, the better. Let the games begin!

4. Drinking
Here we have two groups again. First of all we have the “I have nothing to hide” group that casually drinks a half liter can of beer on the back rows. Secondly there is the “I am totally innocent” group that pours some whiskey in their coffee to get through heavy hangover mornings. You can recognize the latter by the intensely happy faces they have after finishing their coffee (and as we all know, that is not due to the great machine coffee taste).

Last word of advice: next time when you do one of these things, firstly check if The AEGEEan team is close by, you might actually end up with a picture in the magazine…
Written by Maartje Natrop, AEGEE-Utrecht