We asked the Audit Commission to tell us about the reform they are carrying out. Its President Luca Bisighini focuses on what could be improved and explains why he decided to present his candidature for this demanding European position, also talking us through his choice of the Subcommissioners. His future plans involve fostering clear communication and bringing finance back among the hot topics in AEGEE.

The AEGEEan: What is the Audit Commission?

Audit Commission: Well, I do not want to copy and paste what the CIA already says, so I will provide a personal answer. We are one (together with CIRC, FATF and the Financial Director of AEGEE-Europe) of the European Bodies dealing with Finances in AEGEE. We are entitled to check Financial Reports of Locals and AEGEE-Europe, to present our Activity Reports, and blablabla. But we can do more: we can help locals. We can provide locals with education, lessons of management and, in general, help!

What ideas do you have for improving the Audit Commission?

Lots of ideas: from communication (more channels and ways to communicate with us), to organisation (a NetCom-alike one), to promotion (massive), to education (necessary to have it widespread), to enhancing the quality of the data we have and we will have (through feedback and contacts), and to raising awareness on delicate topics (financial/legal regulation, quality of financial formal education, etc).

How do you think you could improve the communication between the Audit Commission and the Locals?

We implemented the team of SubCommissioners, probably the biggest one so far, to establish direct contact with the locals (even in their own languages), in order to allow them to be in a real forum for discussing about the problems they might have, we want to be there anytime they need us. The locals have been and always will be friends of the AC. It is good that we provide them a friendly reminder, with Cats and Cash.

Can you tell us something in advance about the Working Plan for the upcoming year?

I do not like giving spoilers just a few days before its official publication on the Members’ Portal. But you will be impressed.

Why did you create a new Communication Channel (Facebook Group for treasurers)?

As far as I know, Finances were the biggest Pandora Vase nobody wanted to open for years, despite every antenna had to and must deal with it.

Most of the projects/Interest Groups/Commissions and Committees and Working Groups had their own public space of discussion, mainly on Facebook. It is the easiest and the most widespread tool among the AEGEEans. Several people had the idea to open such groups in the past as well. Some of those groups were kind of active, but then abandoned.

Now, the Audit Commission has its own official group for the years to come, where everyone is entitled to express their own thoughts about our work, to hopefully enhance the overall level of AEGEE-Europe’s financial communications and discussions. It was more than necessary.

In AEGEE we use it very often, but for our readers who do not know: what is the Podio system and how do you think it will ease your work in the AC?

Podio is a web platform/app, mostly used in AEGEE by the Comité Directeur, Network Commission and
many other projects or committees. It combines a calendar, tasks, apps and much more. It is a good management tool. It is a very user-friendly working app like many others, nothing much difficult. We will use it mainly for the AC Financial Report of the 2016/17 Term. For sure, it will ease a lot the way of submitting the Financial Reports.

Tell us something about the new Subcommissioners. Which criteria have been chosen to select them?

They are 21, and all of them (Amy, Anna, Astrid, Avram, Blažo, Bruna, Ceyda, Cheyma, Dennis, Javid, Lavderim, Liis, Mareike, Maria, Marijana, Michele, Nils, Oğuzhan, Olivera, Teresa, Victoria) are special and great in their own way. I am proud of them and I think that despite the distances and our differences, we are an awesome team. They are enthusiastic of being part of this team and they expressed great points and ideas until now. I am deeply sure we will all do a remarkable job this year.

About criteria, I accepted most of them, they expressed enthusiasm and willingness to be part of this team. I also took a look at the non-formal education experiences, the AEGEE experience, the internship/jobs they had, volunteering and NGOs experience, other types of management tasks they had in the past and much more. Luckily, all of them have some kind of economic background to be exploited and the willingness to learn and make me learn, too. Unfortunately, for some antennae there were more than just one candidate, reason why I needed to discard some candidates and choose just one member. Of course, I chose the most experienced one with regards to AEGEE experience.

Which criteria have been followed to assign the Subcommies to each Local?

Mostly, spoken languages and geographical areas to cover, together with some previous experiences as well. Dividing the network was not that easy, and remember that SubCommies in Audit cannot take care of their own antenna: a transparency enhancement policy the Audit will respect according to CIA rules.

Why did you decide to apply as Commissioner and then President of the Audit Commission?

Actually, one great friend from AEGEE-Cagliari talked to me during the visit at Chernobyl, after Agora Kyiv, and I was convinced. It was my first Agora ever and despite the fact that the position was still being open, I did not want to show up when nobody knew about me. I was one of the usual fifty per cent newbies at the Agora, knowing nothing, despite my fellow delegate from AEGEE-Brescia was a guy named Gunnar Erth. Maybe you heard about him.

I was not aware about all the rules and first, I wanted to prove something to AEGEE, as a policy of trust. I also told this to Carina Van Hoof in Agora Bergamo, when she asked.

Moreover, I was finishing my second Erasmus+ in Turkey, I needed to write my thesis, I thought about applying to Autumn Agora Chisinau and I did not know about the opening calls for Bergamo. Then, there was a chance to run in Bergamo and I jumped in, with no fears.
Just a few days before the Agora, I graduated in my MBA in International Business and Trade, so I had the chance to spend my time in a space I could give my best.

Then, in Bergamo, I was asked whether I would have run for the Audit Commission in Chisinau, if I had been elected. I promised to do it. Well, I was elected, and a few months later, on the 23rd of August, ahead of time (the applications for Agora Chisinau had just started on the 22nd of August), I decided to run again. I hoped to be with somebody. Well, nobody showed up, so here we are.

Why do you think that there are only a few people showing interest in the activities of the AC?

Maybe for a very long time nobody tried to promote the Audit as one of the greatest commissions in AEGEE. Instead, we are restoring its allure, its prestige, not just doing the hard work and presenting the outcomes as everybody does. To me, it does not sound strategic at all to gather enthusiasm towards it, and everything but a long run successful thing.

For most of the people I know, the Audit Commission was something complicated, too far, enough of having heard questions like “What is Audit?” during an Agora from Delegates. Oh god.

That is why I decided to simplify it, and use one idea coming from the former president Mateusz Muszalski: using #CatsAndCash. Just a lot more. Dzieki Mateusz! Indeed, the most successful commission is the Network one, because they probably carry on the biggest tasks, but we also have lots of tasks and hard work to deal with that most of the people are not even aware of.

With the Juridical Commission, we are the oldest Commission, since we were both founded during the Autumn Agora Sevilla in November 1987.  Yes, two Commissions born during the Franck Biancheri’s presidency era, something that should sound prestigious and remarkable to all AEGEEans. The Network Commission (NC) might be just in its 20s, while the JC and the AC will turn 30 in 2017. We are the older siblings of NC and MedCom.

In general, the interest towards the AC comes if you are able to deliver the messages in a clear and easy way, and if you are willing enough to stay close to the locals like some great Commissioners do and were able to do in the past. Finances were a ‘no’ topic or a topic for the voiceless in AEGEE? Well, we will be the voice of the voiceless. We need to bring back the interest and the discussions towards finances in a vibrant way. And then, maybe, the interest in the AC will arise till new and undiscovered peaks. I am sure we will get there.

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.