In AEGEE-Zaragoza you can meet Celia Riveres López, a member who is very active in her local (she is the President), but also on the international level with the Netcom of La Nave (Spanish, French and Portuguese speaking locals), Alejandra Piot. In this interview, she tells us also something about the Renove, an event that takes place every summer in Spain. 

The AEGEEan: Who is Celia in- and outside AEGEE?

Celia: If I’d have to describe myself, I would say I am a very active and positive person who loves enjoying life, travelling and meeting people. You will never see me bored because I am constantly joining new projects and ideas that make my day full. I have been a member of AEGEE-Zaragoza since March 2013 and, ever since, I have been active, attended as many events as possible and helped as much as time has allowed me. Currently, I am AEGEE-Zaragoza’s President but I also have other responsibilities such as being Alejandra’s Subcommie. Outside AEGEE, I am a lovely Design engineer with a great passion for teaching (actually I have a Master’s degree in high school teaching). Currently, I work for a startup in Zaragoza that will soon rock it.

You are the President of your Antenna. How was the experience until now? What did you learn?

Well, I still have many months to go as the president of AEGEE-Zaragoza, but there are some things that are remarkably important from my experience. Overall, the experience is great and I am extremely happy to work with the rest of the board and active members of AEGEE-Zaragoza. We all are the engine to make everything possible. This antenna is insanely active and we always come up with many new and motivating projects. As a hint of what we are preparing, we will organise an amazing Summer University focused on volunteering that will include loads of surprises, new experiences to live and astonishing places to visit. AEGEE-Zaragoza’s craziness is shown by the big and exciting projects we organise and I will just say that we have never organised a European Planning Meeting… May 2019 will be the time? After all these months, what I have learnt is that teamwork is the key to success. It is crucial to keep everybody’s motivation up and very important to value collective work.

You worked a lot for the last Renove. What was the best moment? What was the most difficult thing you have experienced?

To clarify a little bit the question for the reader, Renove is an event that the La Nave Netcommie organises in collaboration with a local after the summer to ease the transition between not-so-new members and new members, gathering around 150 participants. In this case, as the main organiser, the best moment for me was to see everybody playing Crazy 69. It is a sort of quiz that requires interaction with people from the village we stayed and having fun learning about AEGEE. The most difficult thing was saying goodbye to the participants (although we got a good sleep afterwards).

Are you happy with the results and proud of them? Would you change anything when you look back?

Absolutely, organising Renove has been a unique and unforgettable experience. I am definitely proud of the team and the results we achieved. I am really looking forward to new adventures.

Name one good thing and one bad thing about AEGEE.

Naming one good thing, AEGEE opens your mind and equips you with skills that you did not know you would
get through non-formal education. As a negative thing, it may be the over-structure and complexity of AEGEE that prevent especially new members from understanding how they can better contribute to it.

What are your future plans for AEGEE?

I do not have any strictly defined plan, but I would want to continue helping AEGEE-Zaragoza. As a new challenge, I want to help in the implementation of the Equal Rights focus area.

Describe your personality by using the initials of your name.

My initials are CRL that stand for Celia Riveres López, so my personality would be…

C: Curious

R: Responsible

L: Lively

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari

Behind the Commissioners of the Juridical Commission and the Network Commission some AEGEE members make an unknown, but very relevant work: they are the SubCommissioners. The AEGEEan decided to talk with these people who, perhaps, might be the next Commissioners.

Natalia Ivleva

The SubCommies under Network Commissioner Kristina Reshetova (AEGEE-Moskva) are: Natalia Ivleva (AEGEE-Voronezh), Svetlana Merenkova (AEGEE-Voronezh), Anna Ermakova (AEGEE-Moskva), Elena Efremova (AEGEE-Rostov-na-Donu) and Sergey Peshkov (AEGEE-Voronezh).

Natalia was Secretary of AEGEE-Voronezh for two years. Later she joined Vira Kaknych’s (AEGEE-Lviv) SubCommie team and became a member of the Action Agenda Coordination Committee. At Agora Patra (2014) she was elected to the NetCom team. Currently, she is a member of the Youth Mobility Working Group and on the advisory board of AEGEE-Voronezh.

Svetlana Merenkova

Svetlana is currently the President of AEGEE-Voronezh. Before that she was HR for one year, and the main coordinator of the SU in Voronezh in 2015. She has been a SubCommissioner under Tereza Tokmaiyan (AEGEE-Yerevan) as Network Commissioner. Svetlana tells us that she has attended three SUs as a participant and two SUs as an organiser. She has also attended two Agorae as delegate and one as a visitor.

Elena Efremova

Elena has been in AEGEE since January 2015, and, like Svetlana, has been a SubCommissioner under Tereza until last February. She is currently a board member of AEGEE-Rostov-na-Donu as the Incoming responsible and Twin Coordinator. She is also the Summer University Coordination Team supporter in VKontakte, a social network site that is especially popular among Russian-speaking users, as a PR and content manager. Moreover, she has been the ambassador for AEGEEday.  During her time in AEGEE, she has attended one European Planning Meeting (EPM), one Agora, two Network Meetings and many other events. She has been an organiser of Summer Universities in Rostov-na-Donu, Regional Training Courses and Local Training Courses. Elena told us that working as a SubCommissioner gives you the possibility to make something for locals in your network and it is a good opportunity for you to grow as a person and get new experience.

Sergey Peshkov

Sergey has been a board member of AEGEE-Voronezh since 2015, and, last Summer, he also helped organise AEGEE-Voronezh’s SU. Sergey, also says that being a SubCommie of the Network Commission is a great opportunity for self-improvement and a great way to know about the Network in details.

For all these guys motivation and responsibility are the main requirements you need to have to cover an European position. Some NetCom SubCommissioners, like Elena, are already thinking about running for Network Commissioner at Spring Agora Enschede.

This article is part of a series of articles about the Subcommies of AEGEE. Check out our first article in the series, by clicking here. Or check our our second or third article in the series by clicking here or here respectively.

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari

Behind the Commissioners of the Juridical Commission and the Network Commission some AEGEE members make an unknown, but very relevant work: they are the SubCommissioners. The AEGEEan decided to talk with these people who, perhaps, might be the next Commissioners.

The next group of SubSommissioners, that we have interviewed, are those of Aleksandra Mojsova (AEGEE-Skopje): Nika Krnjak (AEGEE-Zagreb), Marina Klanjčić (AEGEE-Zagreb), Andrea Adamović (AEGEE-Beograd), Dimitar Hristov (AEGEE-Sofia), Jovana Trajković (AEGEE-Beograd), and Ksenija Baković (AEGEE-Podgorica).

Nika Krnjak

Nika has been a member for one year, but she has been very active during that time. She has been Human Resources responsible in her local since last December. She helped organise exchanges with AEGEE-Ljubljana and AEGEE-Amsterdam, several language and soft skills workshops, and is currently involved in organising her Summer University and the European Planning Meeting (EPM) Zagreb. She has participated in a Summer University in Pecs, the New Year Eve (NYE) event in Maribor, a Network Meeting in Niš, and at Spring Agora Bergamo. She applied as a SubCommie of the Network Commission, because she has always been eager to help people in any way she can. She is interested in motivating members from locals, informing them about the possibilities of AEGEE and getting to know the local’s accomplishments, issues and concerns, so she could support them and help them in their progress and in achieving their goals.“You have to be very motivated, a team player, open-minded and approachable. It is also very important to have good communication skills and patience, to be good at resolving any problems and to be easily reachable” says Nika.

Marina Klanjčić

Marina has been a member of AEGEE-Zagreb since October 2014, and she was the Vice-President of her Antenna in 2015. She has done everything in AEGEE (HR, PR, FR, IT, LA …), regardless of being charged or obligated to execute these functions. During her first year in AEGEE, she was not able to experience European events due to some obligations to her university, but she participated in the Network Meeting (NWM) Valletta earlier this year and attended Agora Bergamo as a visitor. She is the Main Coordinator for the next EPM in Zagreb in 2017. According to Marina, you need to be motivated to be the SubCommie in the first place, because any title within AEGEE includes putting others before yourself. Secondly, experience in AEGEE, knowledge about its structure and knowledge about the way AEGEE works are helpful. You should be good with people and a good motivator – in one word a good at HR.

Ksenija Baković

Every SubCommie has organised, initiated and implemented numerous events of various themes. They communicate with many AEGEEans, both locally and outside of their network, for all kinds of different events. Furthermore, they have promoted AEGEE to other NGOs, communicated and cooperated with external representatives of different organisations on their events, targeted many young students to help them develop both individually and in teams that are as large as AEGEE itself. We, SubCommissioners, primarily need to have an active communication with our NetCommie, Aleksandra. The team of SubCommies and our assigned locals try to communicate through every available channel, mostly via e-mail or Skype meetings. The communication between ourselves and our locals is essential in order to support, inform and help them. Secondly, we are evaluating the situation in our locals and plan how we can improve and motivate the members of our antennae. The role of SubCommissioners is to help their NetCommie to better manage all the antennae that she is responsible for. We share the improvements of our locals, motivate and advise people for the betterment of our assigned locals.

This article is part of a series of articles about the SubCommies of AEGEE. Check out our first article in the series, by clicking here. Or check our second article in the series by clicking here.

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari

Behind the Commissioners of the Juridical Commission and the Network Commission some AEGEE members make an unknown, but very relevant work: they are the SubCommissioners. The AEGEEan decided to talk with these people who, perhaps, might be the next Commissioners.

In the Network Commission, every Commissioner is assigned to some specific locals, and is aided by a number of SubCommissioners. For example, Melissa Carreres’s (AEGEE-Alicante) team is called “La Tripu”, the crew, and it consists of herself, as a NetCommie, and five SubCommies that help her with her tasks: Marcos Herrero (AEGEE-Oviedo), Julián Ródenas (AEGEE-Valencia), Rodrigo Gutiérrez (AEGEE-Valladolid), Juan Miguel de León (AEGEE-Las Palmas) and Laura Pérez (AEGEE-Leòn).

Marcos Herrero

Marcos has been an AEGEE member for many years, and an active member for most of them. He participated in five Summer Universities, two of which as an organiser; two Agorae, one of which as an organiser, three Network Meetings (NWM), and also many local events.

Juan Miguel has been an AEGEE member for three years, two of them as the President of AEGEE-Las Palmas. Currently, he is an advisor of the antenna and SubCommissioner of AEGEE-Madrid, AEGEE-Porto, AEGEE-Tenerife and AEGEE-Las Palmas. He has participated in three Summer Universities as a participant, and two Summer Universities as the Incoming and Outgoing Responsible, being the Main Organiser of one of them. He has also attended to two Agorae, one Eerupean Planning Meeting, one YVote, and many other events both at European and local level.

Juan Miguel de León

Laura has been a member for one year and a half, she has been in her local board for about a year as the Secretary. All in all she has attended more than twenty events and organised more than ten in the last year. She tells us about the activities they organise as SubCommie of the NetCom that they have a ‘weekly Skype meeting’ with Melissa, and that they Skype with a board representative from each of their antennae at least once a month. Moreover, every day, they are responsible for the mailing lists; sending reminders, open calls, helping the antennae with any doubts or problems they may have.

Juan Miguel adds that, as SubCommissioners, they analyse their own activity and that they give themselves feedback. This way, they can know if they are going in a good direction and what kind of help they are capable of providing. They help Melissa to organise the NWMs and ‘Renove’, a weekend event, during which their assigned locals get together after the ‘SUmmer’.

Laura Pérez

Each member in La Tripu is guaranteed to gain experience, and to get support and ideas from the Network Commission. This experience has been important for junior members, those who relatively recently joined AEGEE. Laura, for instance, tells us that she has improved her communications skills a lot, and that she has started to organise her time better. In addition, she got to know many people from her locals much better and she has had the chance to see and experience different aspects of her duties.

Marcos tells us that being a SuCcommissioner permitted him to learn more about AEGEE from a different perspective and that he learned how to deal with different kind of problems. For the requirements needed to join the NetCom as a SubCommissioner, “I would say you need to have a little extra time to dedicate to your locals, experience so you can help them if something comes up or they have doubts and, the most important, passion for AEGEE and helping others” says Laura. For Marcos and Juan Miguel you should be an active and positive person who can deal with problems with calm and perseverance, and capable of working in a multicultural environment, to be willing to help others and to be objective.

This article is part of a series of articles about the SubCommies of AEGEE. Check out our first article in the series, by clicking here.

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari

Behind the Commissioners of the Juridical Commission and the Network Commission some AEGEE members carry out an unknown but very relevant task: they are the SubCommissioners. The AEGEEan decided to talk with these guys who, perhaps, might be the next Commissioners -although someone has already been elected as a Commissioner at Agora Bergamo-.

In AEGEE you can find the SubCommie Teams in the Juridical Commission and in the Network Commission. The current Subcommissioners of the Juridical Commission (JC) are: Danila Petrovic  (AEGEE-Beograd), Elisa Tabbì (AEGEE-Catania), Lucie Ostrà (AEGEE-Brno), Monika Mojak (AEGEE-Lublin) and Mateusz Szoturma (AEGEE-Kraków). They are Law students from different countries, with different AEGEE backgrounds and different personalities, but all of them are ambitious and the right people in the right place. For this article, Monika and Mateusz were kind enough to answer our questions.
Monika Mojak joined AEGEE in 2013. So far, she has been involved in many projects, first as team member and then as coordinator. The biggest project she helped to organise was the EPM in Lublin in 2014. Then, she became a Board member of AEGEE-Lublin, PR responsible and Vice-President.  Besides this, she has been active on the European level, taking part in some statutory events and other activities organised by AEGEE-Europe: in particular, she was also Subcommissioner of the JC in the previous term (2014-2015).

Mateusz Szoturma

Mateusz Szoturma, probably a future judge but currently a backpacker, addicted to the beauty of the world, was working in AEGEE-Kraków and did many different tasks in many different projects of this antenna. His main field of interest was fundraising and, among other things, he was the coordinator of fundraising for a Summer University in Krakow.

Monika decided to apply as JC Subcommissioner because she wanted to be more involved on the European level, so she thought that the JC would be a perfect place for her. She found it very interesting as she had a chance to develop her skills, to get to know better how the work inside the team looks like and to meet fantastic people. Mateusz thinks the work of the Juridical Commission is the AEGEE area most connected with his “professional” field of interests. He believes it is a very interesting and valuable experience that might bear fruits in the future. Moreover, not only is he able to gain some experience, but he can also do some practical things for AEGEE.

Monika Mojak

About the activities as a JC Subcommissioner, Monika tells us that the Commissioners are trying to involve the Subcommie team in a wide range of activities. This is why she can feel as a real part of the team. The Subcommissioners were organising and supervising the elections of  the Working Groups and Committees, assisting Commissioners during the Agora, checking status of the locals and participating in Skype meetings. As a Subcommissioner, she could share her legal knowledge, experience and passion, and she dedicated time to prepare herself to continue her involvement in the JC as a Commissioner now. According to Mateusz, the main task of the Subcommie Team is to reduce the workload and improve the efficiency of the Juridical Commission. Many different tasks have to be done by the JC, but not all of them demand the kind of mandate that commissioners get by being chosen at the Agoras. In situations like these, the JC can always count on the Subcommissioners. As a SubCommie, for instance, Mateusz had to be responsible to oversee the election procedure for the Editor-in-Chief of The AEGEEan.

Monika achieved a good experience that would help her to work very well as a JC Commissioner, also considering that she improved not only her legal competences, but also some interpersonal skills and her ability to teamwork. Mateusz  has improved his ability to work in an international team and the art of coping with loads of e-mails arriving at the JC mailing list. Monika and Mateusz both think legal knowledge is necessary to get involved in the JC, so, it is no surprise that this Commission is  especially attractive for Law students. Monika is currently a Commissioner of the JC, after the elections at Agora Bergamo, and she thinks about a re-election if she will do well as Commissioner and the Network will be satisfied by her work.

To be continued in our next instalment.

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari.

The Juridical Commission (JC) is on a mission to find four new subcommissioners. The subcommissioners, chosen by Joris Veenhuis (AEGEE-Maastricht), Claudio Gennaro (AEGEE-Cagliari) and Gloria Llopart (AEGEE-Heidelberg), will help the JC performing their tasks.

If you have a legal background and you want to be more active on the European Level, maybe the Juridical Commission is the place for you. The JC issued an open call for subcommies to complete their team. The ideal candidate is a law student with a fluent command of legal English. “The role of subcommie is quite flexible”, Claudio says. “The tasks comprehend overseeing the election of committees or WGs, assisting the commissioners in the revision of the statutes, providing interpretations of the CIA and helping the JC during the Agora”.

The Juridical Commission stand during Agora Patra

The team will consist of four people, but “if we receive very good applications, we will be more than happy to accept a fifth member”, Claudio continues. The application must contain a motivation letter focused on the interest the candidate has to join the Juridical Commission and a brief essay of maximum 300 words about the JC in AEGEE’s organisational structure. “Applying is important, because it enables you to understand what the daily work of the JC is. By that, you can have a more objective view of AEGEE and learn the ways in which the Commission interacts with the Network. In addition, the current members of the JC were all in the same subcommie team. This experience was very useful for us to develop our knowledge, and it is a great way to do teambuilding, too”, Claudio adds.

Joris, Gloria and Claudio, who were elected during Spring Agora Patra, were subcommissioner first (along with Ilona Pukailak from AEGEE-Odessa), so Claudio adivises to apply especially if “you are seriously interested in a future in the Juridical Commission, knowing that (s)he will find a very supportive team and we are more than happy to share with him/her all the hard work and the rewarding moments of JC.

Applications can be submitted until the 20th of June by sending a mail at juridical@aegee.org.

More information can be found here.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia

Board member on the local level, vice-chairperson of AGORAe and EBM, subcommie in the Netcom team, representative of the Dutch locals towards the Dutch Youth Council, always energetic, optimistic and ready to have fun. This is our new member of the month – Paul Smits from AEGEE-Enschede. Let’s see what he had to say to the AEGEEan:

The AEGEEan: Tell me about your experience in AEGEE.

Paul: It started when I came to Enschede to study. I wanted to join an association, meet many people, make a lot of friends and get to see a bit more of the world. AEGEE soon turned out to be a perfect means for achieving those early goals. While I was having lots of fun, AEGEE more and more became part of my life. I became active on the local level, went to my first Network Meeting and after my first year I went to my first Agora as a Delegate for AEGEE-Enschede. Back then in Enschede I organised some trips, a Summer University and a conference and I soon wanted to commit myself to a year on the Board of the loveliest association of Enschede. As External Affairs responsible, I was responsible for all external affairs of AEGEE-Enschede, except for those concerning Europe. After gaining experience in the Board, I moved on to the European level as sub-commissioner of the Network Commission and Vice-Chairperson of the Agora and EBM.

What was it like to be Chair of two statutory events? Was it a lot easier the second time? 

I enjoy preparing and chairing the events with the rest of the Chair Team a lot! There is a lot going on in the months before a statutory event, which I had observed only from the point of view of the organising local in Enschede in 2012. It is a great experience to be in another essential part of the huge group of people involved in organising statutory events. This applies also to actually chairing the Agora and being at the cool side of the Chair table looking at all those lovely AEGEE faces.

The EBM is of course very different from Agorae. There are less people to entertain, less decision-making going on and fewer days than at the Spring Agora. On the other hand, there are more thematics and interesting discussions, which are awesome, but not very much connected to the work of us as the Chair Team. The EBM Valletta therefore was an easy start for us as Chair Team. The Spring Agora Rhein-Neckar was a bit more challenging, but since I am working with some thoroughly experienced members and the local organizers delivered a very well structured event, we were able to have a quite smooth Agora.

What are the different sides of working in the Board team and in the Chair team?

Working as a Board member of AEGEE-Enschede was a full-time job. We had fixed office hours, meetings all the time, and a lot of quality time with each other and our members. Naturally, this is very different from working in the Chair Team, which is more like any other body on the European level, I guess. Skype and Hangout meetings, dividing tasks and executing them on your own, in between the other things in day to day life.

Also after a while in the Board, each week became more and more like every other week. In the Chair Team however, we are working towards a single big goal with various steps along the way there.

Did you enjoy being a subcommie? Do you plan to conquer NetCom soon too?

Being a sub-commissioner was very enjoyable. I had lots of fun with Wieke, Marije and Mathieu in supporting our part of the network. It was a good way to broaden my horizons beyond the borders that surround AEGEE-Enschede for most of its members. In addition, because I was already a sub-commissioner, it was a fitting choice also to apply to be the very first representative of the Dutch AEGEE locals towards the National Youth Council (NJR). In that position, I am trying to achieve mutual benefit for the organisations. In AEGEE, strong Dutch locals can put their strengths to use in new and better ways and weaker locals can improve through cooperation opportunities and new funding options. AEGEE now also has a big say in selecting the Dutch Youth Representatives on European Affairs.

The Network Commission might very well be the coolest (and best-looking?) body of AEGEE.

Now I do not think I will be running for Network Commissioner in the near future. After my year as subcommie and after representing the Dutch locals towards the National Youth Council (NJR), I feel like its maybe not my time anymore to interfere with the Dutch-speaking locals. As long as there are good candidates for this part of the Network, I will be happy to leave the opportunity to discover and experience AEGEE as a Network Commissioner to those others.

What do you do apart from AEGEE? Studies? Work?

I finished my Bachelor thesis on modelling Single Pulse Electrical Stimulation of the brain cortex last week and after summer I will start my Masters in Technical Medicine, which will take me at least three more years. I have an interest in almost everything, so choosing studies and projects is not always easy. Discovering the world, enjoying it in every way and contributing to it as I see fit, that is my job. Studying is a hobby, which I do in my spare time! Who knows what will come on my path next.

AEGEE seems to fill a huge part of your life. Do you have a separate group of non-AEGEE friends that you spend time with? Sometimes getting some AEGEE-free air can be very refreshing.

If it were not for AEGEE, I would be a total hermit. Most of my friends nowadays have some connection with AEGEE in one way or another. Apart from my housemates and some fellow Technical Medicine students, it is all AEGEE for me. I do not consider this a bad thing, at all. Is AEGEE-free air supposed to be refreshing? In my opinion, AEGEEans are diverse and versatile enough to be refreshing in their own right. If I only compare some of my local fraternity friends with some European active AEGEE members, there is already a great variation in people. This is one of the key characteristics of our organisation that makes it so amazing!

Do you have a motto by which you live or strive to live by?

Creativity. Isabel Sodric from AEGEE-Alicante  has it all and this time she is the Member of the Month. “She has always a smile and an endless patience battery” say her friends about her. But let’s go deeper into it and see what she thinks about being the Member of the Month.

The AEGEEan: Tell us more about you. What do you study and what do you do in your free time?

Isabel: I am studying Translation and Interpretation at the University of Alicante. Hopefully I will finish it next year, and then we will see what the future holds for me. In my free time, among some other more common activities, I like playing the ukulele, which is so fun and pretty reachable even for those who had never played any musical instrument before, I encourage everyone to try it!

 The AEGEEan: Tell us more about you. What do you study and what do you do in your free time?

Isabel: I am studying Translation and Interpretation at the University of Alicante. Hopefully I will finish it next year, and then we will see what the future holds for me. In my free time, among some other more common activities, I like playing the ukulele, which is so fun and pretty reachable even for those who had never played any musical instrument before, I encourage everyone to try it!