Agora Catania is starting in a few days and as always, the AEGEEan will try to help you better understand the Proposals which will be discussed during the Prytania. These following ones are all proposed by the Comitè Directeur. 

EPM topic selection at Spring Agora

Proposed by Loes Rutten on behalf of the CD. This proposal aims at anticipating the selection of the topic for EPM to Spring Agora, in order to have a better correspondence of the timeframe with the preparatory work of the hosting local. Moreover, the announcement of hosting local of EPM would be made at the previous EPM, so that this factor could be taken into consideration for the topic selection. The proposed emendments to the Working Formats of Agora and EPM replace the expression “Autumn Agora” with the expression “Spring Agora” (in the Agora WF) and “the preceding Spring Agora” (in the EPM WF).

On resignation of members from elected European Bodies

Proposed by Fabrizio Bellicano on behalf of the CD. This proposal’s intention is to limit the possibility for members to apply for an elective position before they finish their duties, in case they where already elected for a different elective position at a previous Agora. The proposed changes to the WF of the Agora add that members who hold an Agora-elected position cannot run for a different elective position at the following Agora, except when the end of the previous term and the beginning of the following one do not collide. The same rationale would apply to resignations, unless announced three months in advance before Agora.

Vote of Confidence and Comité Directeur

Proposed by María Ballesteros Melero on behalf of the CD. This proposal is based on the fact that a vote of confidence against the CD is automatic in case the interim Action Agenda fulfillment is not approved by Agora, but the CD doesn’t -and shouldn’t- have control over the Action Agenda fulfillment. It is proposed to link the vote of confidence to the lack of approval by Agora for binding documents for CD such as their Activity Plan or interim Activity Report. This last provision would be added to article 21, (1) of the Statutes of AEGEE-Europe, while at article 3, (3) of the Strategic Plan and Action Agenda, point 5 (“Disapproval of the interim evaluation leads to a vote of confidence for the Comité Directeur”) would be removed.

You can find all the proposals here.

Written by Federica Soro, AEGEE-Cagliari

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