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.

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.

During Spring Agora Bergamo, we will also vote to elect five members of the Network Commission and one of the candidates is Aleksandra Mojsova from AEGEE-Skopje. She is currently a SubCommissioner for Jovana Trajkovic and Assistant Coordinator of the Youth Activism and Youth Policies Programme of YouthCan. Now the 23-year-old Macedonian feels ready to cover a position on the European level.

The AEGEEan: Do you think becoming a member of the Network Commission can get you more experience in AEGEE?

Aleksandra: Most definitely. However, my basic motivation does not come from gaining more experience. I simply feel like I have been very close to the matter, and after all the knowledge I have accumulated, this is the field in which I can leave a mark and help the network to develop further. Of course, this is not necessarily the only way to get more experience. I believe that there are more experienced AEGEEans that not only did not apply for this, nor for any other position, and this did not happen because they are less competent or capable, but simply because they have a different idea and have their own authentic way of applying and transferring their knowledge or expressing themselves. However, personally I feel that I caught the vibe of our network, its passion and motivation, that are driven by the AEGEE spirit that got me at once.

Besides, having the recent problem of the lack of NetCom candidates, provokes a sense of responsibility in me. The good work of the previous AEGEEans, who invested so much of their time for the network, should not be simply let go of, it must be continued – the show must go on.

What were your tasks as Jovana’s SubCommissioner?

First thing about a Network Commissioner is availability for your respected antennae. Reliability and having your locals know that they can always rely on you with any difficulties that may arise is simply a must. Subsequently, a SubCommissioner must be reliable at any time for the assigned locals he or she is responsible for. Therefore, my tasks as a SubCommissioner are primarily to push my locals for the monthly activity reports, inform them on a regular basis about upcoming events, answer to any questions they have and encourage them to apply for events or to join different European Bodies, co-organising Network Meetings (NWM) in the process of choosing participants and content development, helping with organising extra activities such as ‘Stafeta’ as well as helping my NetCommie in promoting events in the online group for the active members of our locals. Finally, I have socialized with my locals and I became good friends with them so much so that I became a member of one of the locals I was responsible for, AEGEE-Niš. I have always seen my task as a pleasure and not as a job to be done. In that sense, I really managed to identify the challenges they might be facing and offer my support in working them out.

Can you explain to us what “Stafeta” is?

The name ‘Stafeta’ comes from a Yugoslavian huge event, roughly meaning a marathon. ‘Stafeta’, however, does not have anything to do with running. ‘Stafeta’ is a mixture of Network Meeting and training course, mainly for newbies, where participants actually share best practises but also acquire some knowledge. The idea behind it was to have the Balkan version of ‘Renove’. This was firstly implemented by our previous Network Commissioner Ana Potocnik, mainly because of her idea to integrate Balkan locals, getting them closer to each other, namely, the newbies with the older, experienced members, but also for Balkan youngsters to get to meet each other. Although twenty years ago we were living in the same united country, now we hardly know our similarities or differences.

However, the event is open for everyone who would like to know more and therefore meet the Balkans, because with the ‘Stafeta’ we cover subjects that can be of everybody’s interest. This year, though, the ‘Stafeta’ had a more intercultural accent, so it was more or less like an exchange. ‘Stafeta’ is an event that adapts the needs of our locals, and I support it very much.

Why do you say several locals get highly demotivated every once in a while? What would you do to avoid it?

Unfortunately, we had to downgrade some locals due to the lack of criteria fulfillment. This was not easy for us, for our NetCommie, its SubCom team or the Network Commission in general. This can however happen for various reasons: financial problems of the local, lack of human resources, or lack of information and motivation. Often it happens that the main reason behind extincted antennae is that experienced members simply did not take care of having motivated successors, or any successors at all, which leaves the local in shaky hands, or no hands. Primarily, I would set an equal distribution of tasks between my SubCommissioners, in order to ensure that every local gets the attention it needs. I would support and centralize the struggling locals during my mandate. I would give priority to communicating richly with the members of the less strong locals first, set expectations and mutual goals, ask and give feedback, speak with every board member separately, advise them on what could be done towards a certain problem they are facing, and help them to organise creative events that would motivate the students and create a bigger visibility at the same time. Different strategies might bring different solutions for different locals. But once they learn, feel or even sense the AEGEE spirit, they shall become way more driven to keep standing, keep going, keep growing.  I could supervise, support and guide them in the process, which is not easy nor promising to necessarily bring a success, which would make the effort all the more rewarding if we manage to do so.

What are you going to transmit to locals with online trainings?

Online trainings are certainly going to be voluntary and only for those willing to participate. I am very much aware of the pros and cons of an online trainings. This is not the ideal solution compared to a live-trainings, but putting a warmer accent on it, might help for sure. I would like to cover various subjects, depending on the local needs and what we have to offer. It might be a perfect possibility to connect locals to European Bodies, Working Groups, Projects, Interest Groups, or Committees. It should be useful and also funny, nonetheless if it is a one-time or a series of training sessions would remain to be decided. Board trainings come first, however. Every newly elected board will get their online training at the beginning of their term from an experienced Board member (a part of my SubCom team) that has been in the board for at least two years. Afterwards, assigned locals will be able to choose a subject they would like to get training for, choosing from a not too long, but sufficient list of trainings available, which they will be able to choose every once in a while, say, every season, depending on their weaknesses. My SWOT (strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats) analysis of the Balkan area locals, show that more or less, we all have similar, if not the same problems, which certainly helps the situation.
The purpose of the training is to focus on strengths over weaknesses, moreover, to turn the weaknesses into strengths. And put the accent not only on knowledge exchange and constructive dialogue between Board members, but also for non Board members, as they make a great deal of each local. “Whole is when it has it All” is my motto for providing a bigger engagement of non Board members for their merits that could only encourage and motivate them in helping their local Boards, which would lead to developing of the antennae, having self-development as a rewarding outcome. However, this could be applied not only between members of locals, but also between a local and an European Body. I would not set a number of required trainings, though, it will all be dependent based on an antenna’s needs.

Which kind of events do you have in mind in order to increase visibility of the locals?

Encourage them to apply for statutory events. If however, I get to understand that this is not very feasible for the next year, I would still encourage them to apply for thematic conferences, European Schools, and training courses. I would like to see at least two Regional Training Courses (RTC) during my term, which would be enough for all interested members to attend. I can say from my one experience, that this will only motivate and encourage them to go forward, depending on the trainers of course, but also on the topics covered with the given RTC. It will include the Academy, cooperation with all the projects and Working Groups in AEGEE.

Which “best practises” do you want to share?

From People to People. From AEGEEans to AEGEEans. This is something that is an ongoing thing in AEGEE, especially at the Network Meetings. There are some quite strong locals in the Balkan network, which can offer their experience. The current NetCom team already is taking care of this, namely they have started with Sharing Best Practices Skype meetings, the first one focusing on Human Resources, on recruitment strategies specifically.

Can you tell us the benefits of Twinning Antennae?

Well, as cheesy as it might sound – “the more, the merrier” and “united, we are stronger” I find it as a rather valid saying. In cooperation with another antenna, it is maybe more demanding, and more challenging to organise an(y) event, but it is more powerful and rewarding. Events, especially those that can contribute to the Strategic Plan as part of the Antenna Criteria, sound amazing by having the parallel impact in two cities, countries or even continents. Twinning Antennae help the locals to cooperate, achieve greater deals together by helping each other. It also increases the feeling of belonging – which is a natural human inclination. Furthermore, it helps to create and develop personal connections that might help the social well-being of the members individually as well as of the locals as a whole. But first and foremost, it is the santa-ice-breaker of stereotypes. Not to mention that you can learn about one’s local’s culture for a whole wonderful year followed by memories, or long-lasting connections.

Do you feel really ready to cover the position as a Commissioner?

After being a SubCommie for more than a year, I feel naturally inclined to take a bigger step forward towards a more responsible and engaging experience. I have met the last three Network Commissioners of my area. I had the chance to get a deeper knowledge not only from our current NetCommie, Jovana Trajkovic, but also from Ana Potocnik and others from the current Network Commission. Helping locals to understand their responsibilities and helping them in achieving those and even more, will help both them and myself to fully grasp our roles, and be ready for bigger achievements in the future.

Questions from readers:

How much time per day would you dedicate for the internal tasks of the Network Commission?

As much as needed. I have learned how to deal with my priorities a long time ago, and AEGEE has been at the top for quite some time now.

Given the fact that there are no fixed regions, which locals do you want to work with?

Well Balkan locals is something that naturally comes to my mind when I think of becoming a NetCommie. Of course, it might be easier in terms of having no language barriers and sharing the same Balkan spirit. Moreover, as a current SubCommie, I would like to be here to continue with Jovana’s work. I do prefer to work with Jovana’s locals, as I know them the best, I have all the required information and SWOT analysis for each and every one of them. However as I consider myself to be of a flexible nature, therefore I am sure that I can also be a very decent NetCommie even with another region. Since all of us AEGEEans are striving for a borderless Europe, I would not strictly keep my borders in only one region, in case I must.

Your program is very local oriented, but how about the work within the Network Commission? How do you think you can contribute?

I must say that though it is apparently not very clear in my candidature, both our locals and internal work of the Network Commission are of equal importance for me. As I very much support the NWM Reform, and I can so far only see the pros of its implementation, I would continue with the collaboration with European bodies in order to make sure that we support a comprehensive overview in the Sharing Best Practices continuous process. Furthermore, I would choose to focus on the NetCom newsletter or collaboration with European Bodies with the current NetCom team, and from June, per se, the new term, we will set our new plan for our term, so I would be happy to work it out with my fellow Network Commissioners.

What do you think is the thing you, as a Network Commissioner should work more with the locals in order to improve their lives?

Allow me to quote John Donne and say that “No man is an island”. This goes for me as a NetCommie, NetCom as a body, or any other body within AEGEE. In that respect, I would say that for sure I am not going to come out as a life saviour, a ‘never seen before NetCom’. It is mutual work and understanding that I would initiate. But, what I can devotedly offer is simply communication. Rich communication. With the locals, but also the locals between themselves. Communication prevents the possible misunderstanding between any personal or professional contacts. Once I get in contact with the members of my locals, I can be very supportive and act very motivating both for my closest and wider circles. Continuous mutual feedback, setting expectations, evaluating and re-evaluating, sharing and exchanging ideas, thoughts, encouraging and appreciating.

You didn’t mention Local Training Courses (LTC), despite the fact that it recently became a criterion. How would you ensure that locals will organise one?

One thing I am sure of, if I get to become the successor of Jovana Trajkovic, is that our locals have always organised LTCs. They have seen it as a criteria even before it officially become one at AgorAsturias.

As it is the best recruitment tool there is, I will make sure that all of my locals will have this information in mind, especially if they have any recruitment issues. We can work together both with the SubCom team and my locals for a PR strategy, that I believe would ensure a bigger turnout from the LTCs.

What do you think about the Network Meeting Reform? Do you think a standardized NWM will bring more pros or cons?

It is the best thing that could have happened lately. As much as I seem spontaneous at times, and act accordingly, when is up to my work, I prefer to have everything planned in advance and follow a certain structure, meaning that the NWM Reform might be also one of the many reasons that influenced my decision to run for a NetCommie.

You didn’t mention the Action Agenda (AA) or Strategic Plan (SP) in your program. How do you think the AA and the Strategic Plan can be more present in the activities of locals?

It might have not been very clear from my candidature, but I do not like changing it now, as the space for improvement should be shown, not written. Thе Strategic Plan, and the Action Agenda, is what I, we, and AEGEE consider an imperative. Though my experience (through working with different locals) shows that locals are free to do what they want, it will be much more relishing if, as a starting point, a common ground for all of us, antennae, contact antennae, or European Bodies, was found and we plan and share accordingly to the SP and AA, all-together looking at the same horizon, moving in the same direction. As I would not like to sound demanding, I would give each local the ability to choose their interest area of action.

You can read her full candidature here.

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari.

Refugees and migration are two very hot topics right now. The interest in the topic led the Comitè Directeur to create a mailing list and a Facebook group dedicated to migration, and right after Autumn Agora Kyiv an open call for a Policy Officer on migration was issued. Luca Bisighini, from AEGEE-Brescia, was selected and he has already started working on his policy paper. Moreover he is Lisa Gregis’ SubCommissioner working on Human Resources and IT.
The AEGEEan: Please describe yourself

Luca: A little disclaimer, in every AEGEE event I’m attending I’m trying to be partially funny and partially serious. Definitely I won’t miss this chance to still do it at my best.

My name is Luca, I am a 26 years old specimen from Brescia, Italy, representing AEGEE-Brescia. I am an MBA student in International Business graduating in April. I lived in three countries outside Italy (Canada, Poland and Turkey), I am a long lasting traveller (over 40 countries visited), I am proud to have friends from more than a 100 countries and definitely I am an unconventional music enthusiast like very few on the planet and a “culturaholic”.

What is your experience in AEGEE?

I have been in AEGEE for almost two years, enough to do two Summer Universities, an Agora, a Network Meeting and participate in two events (one currently on in Amsterdam). Last year I was the Social Media Manager of AEGEE-Brescia, while this year I am the IT Responsible and I decided to do something more for the whole Network by joining the great SubCommissioner team of the Rainbow led by the extraordinary Lisa Gregis (AEGEE-Bergamo) and apply to later become Policy Officer on Migration.

You are the Policy Officer on Migration. What does your job consist of?

I am the individual in charge of making the Policy Paper on Migration that will be presented to be ratified (hopefully) at Spring Agora Bergamo. It consist of making a lot of researches on the current situation of migration, no matter if it is based on paper studies or just getting news. It also means getting a specific background on several policies and frameworks, knowing different opinions arising from the whole Network, while making them aware to a  certain extents on the “AEGEE Migration in Europe” Facebook group or in the Migration-L list.

You recently launched a survey about migration. How many replied? Can you give us some preliminary insights?

I launched it on January 9th after getting some important hints from the European Planning Meeting Content Managers, from Svenja, Pablo and Anna from the CD, The Chair Team, from Jorge (Policy Officer on Civic Education), from Nils and especially from Selin Sivis, former AEGEE-Ankara member and PhD student on Migration at MiReKoç in Istanbul.

Results were beyond expectations: 219 replies from 88 antennae in 30 countries, almost 2% of all the AEGEEans. Those results got me six days of cluster analysis to read all the 36 x 219 answers (I don’t want to know what number it may result from that multiplication). These numbers mean a lot: despite the length of the survey, a lot of people were eager to contribute to this new field of expertise AEGEE wanted to focus on in order to create a solid opinion on such a delicate topic and contributing to my Policy work as well. For other insights, I will soon be at the AEGEE Fair to present the results to all of you. I hope you’ll come there in Leiden on Saturday 27th, from 1 PM until 3 PM, to discuss, debate, ask questions and so on!

Why do you think it’s important to speak about migration in AEGEE?

It’s important to discuss about it, due to a wide series of reasons. I’ll try to summarize them all into a general concept. Nowadays in Europe there’s a lot of debate about which can be the most effective measures to implement for refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants. In most cases, the national public opinion had many conflicting opinions, thoughts and took some actions about these issues. At European level, the whole emergency for quite a while was underestimated and this underestimation led to poor results, lack of coordination and socio-political tensions in both domestic and multilateral paneuropean scenarios.

AEGEE needs to discuss a lot about migration as an international association of students which strives for a border-less, diverse and democratic Europe, where freedom and human rights are essential elements of a European society and which is built upon the foundations of respect, tolerance and solidarity. I think these words, taken from the Statement of Principles approved in Agora Zaragoza 2013, are perfectly fitting with this topic and it’s time for us to take position about it and not just do nothing and stay silent while these events are happening.

What do you expect from the discussion in Leiden?

I expect two things for two separate kind of people:

– For the people who are not aware with this whole crisis, to be sufficiently informed in a very precise way, about what is going on in Europe: raising awareness is always the first step for everyone in order to later take actions.

– For the people who are currently aware, to cooperate and contribute with their expertise in order to be as much as possible useful in creating a fruitful, detailed debate on the topic.

Anyway I just wish to all of them four great days of democratic debate full of great opinion exchange.

You are also a SubCommissioner for NetCom Lisa Gregis. What are your tasks?

It’s a very cool thing to cooperate with the Rainbow Watchers [my SubCom colleagues, N.a.] to help 22 antennae in both Italy and Malta. It allowed me to help great people and to get closer to certain antennae’s problems in order to solve them. My tasks are HR and IT for the whole 22 locals, and supervising AEGEE-Milano and AEGEE-Brescia when needed. And of course, report everything to Lisa and help the other Watchers when needed.

What are your plans in AEGEE for the upcoming months?

As a Policy Officer I will make the Policy Paper on Migration for AEGEE-Europe. It will be great to cooperate on this important step for our association, then i will probably participate as Policy Officer on one event in Turin, Italy, organised by UNITED named “Moving Stories: Narratives of Migration Crossing Europe”. Then I will continue working as SubCom…I want to rejuvenate AEGEE. About HR I will see, I have few ideas in mind, but still have to discuss with Lisa and the team.

Regarding the plans in my local, there are still some IT/Social Media things to deal with, Incoming for the upcoming local SU, and to participate at Spring Agora Bergamo as a Delegate. You’ll see me on the stage also for the Policy Paper and maybe for some other applications. I have a lot of ideas in my mind and my contribution to this association I think will get bigger.
Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

Our Member of the Month award this past July went to Erika Bettin (AEGEE-Venezia), for her outstanding lead of publications such as the Key to Europe 2013/14 and The AEGEEan, and initiatives such as the Election Observation Project. However, there were other nominees in this past month that have done a great job and deserve their story featured in The AEGEEan.

Today we are introducing you to Marta Martínez Moro, current President of AEGEE-Santander. She has been an AEGEE member since July 2012, and since then, she has been unstoppable at the local level. In fact, she was nominated by several La Nave (Spanish-, Portuguese- and French-speaking locals) because “AEGEE-Santander experienced a difficult situation the past few years. Due to some irregularities in the past, they had some debts that needed to be settled up […] and Marta was a key for their success due to her high motivation, perseverance and hard work. For two years, she is being devoted to the antenna (working in all fields -economical, management, administration, human resources) making its recuperation possible and helping to achieve a good financial situation“.

Anna: First of all, please introduce yourself!

Marta: My name is Marta Martinez Moro, I have a degree in Physics at the University of Cantabria and nowadays I am doing an internship in the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (UIMP) Information Technology department. Helping people with their request about wifi and computer problems are some of the task I have been bestowed with. In a few months, I will move to Madrid where I will study a Master of Nanophysics.

I joined AEGEE in June 2012 and since then I have been working as Human Resources Responsible motivating people who recently joined to participate in local and European levels. Last year I was elected President of AEGEE-Santander.

How did you find out about AEGEE?

In June 2012, one friend of mine, who was actually a member of AEGEE-Santander, told me about the 5th Anniversary of the local, an event where I could have the opportunity to meet people. It was a fantastic experience. A month later I participated as a helper in the AEGEE-Santander SU and in September I was able to be the Human Resources Responsible of my antenna. I took up the Social Drinks every week again, updated the webside (with the help from Bruno), the Facebook members group and page (we are one of the most liked pages), etc., in order to motivate our members and give them all the necessary information.

You are very much involved and motivated in the local level. What keeps your motivation up?

My motivation comes from the feedback I frequently receive from all the participants of these events. People telling you that you have changed their lives and because so, they would like to get more involved in our projects or activities, is the key to keep you going. Motivating our members is the main object and what we try to keep doing every single day because that is the key which makes AEGEE still successful.