Three Spanish and two Polish locals compete for the award to the Best Thematic Event of The AEGEEan’s Choice Awards. All of them have cooperated with several projects and organisations in order to bring a thematical taste to their events, which have proven to be a great success. You will hear the final result in Agora Patra – meanwhile, we invite you to get to know the nominees!

To start with, AEGEE-Las Palmas was awarded as the Local of the Month the past November for the YVote2014 Convention on the EU Democratic Gap. The Canarians have shown that, despite being a small antenna, they can bring high-quality events to their city and have a big impact not only in the AEGEE network, but also on their local media. The AEGEEan has interviewed Carmen Martín, main coordinator of the event.

The AEGEEan: Could you tell us briefly what was the event about, and which were the main activities?

Carmen: The event was about the YVote2014 Project in general and specially about “Bridging the EU Democratic Gap”, which means to try to fill in the existent gap between Brussels and peripheral areas as Canary Islands, whose inhabitants don’t feel sometimes really European, because of the distance between our island and the rest of Europe.

You cooperated with the YVote project, how was the collaboration with them?

It was great, actually really fluid, with a lot of Skype meetings in which most of people in charge were present and with an open communication. AEGEE-Las Palmas team did not know all the members of YVote team, but that was not a barrier; we worked easily and efficiently all together.

Which were the biggest challenges of organizing the event, and how did you solve them?

Actually there was only one challenge, and it was related to Youth in Action grant, which arrived to AEGEE-Las Palmas bank account during the event (and we really had to make magic and ask for money to pay what we had to pay in advance). Everything else was really easy; the cooperation inside AEGEE-Las Palmas team and between us and YVote team, the great and motivated participants that we had, the organizational staff related to the hotel and sponsors… I would organize this event again thousands of times!

And which were according to you the best things of organizing this event?

The best things for me were, first of all, my team; they really made everything way easier to me, and we grew up as a team, seeing that everything was possible with open communication, a good mood and people who understand you and appreciate you. Second; our relationship with our University, City Council and other sponsors improved a lot (they could see that we are also able to organize other more ‘serious’ events, rather than just fun Summer Universities). Third: We got a lot of visibility in our city; we were on the news one of the days and in three different radio interviews. Furthermore, we got to know people from other associations and Europe Direct, with whom we made a great net of contacts for future events.

Why do you think you should win the Award to the Best Thematic Event?

Well, I am sure many other antennae organized great thematic events, but from my point of view, I will try to explain why I think AEGEE-Las Palmas should win this Award: Because even if we are a young (five years old!) and small (31 members) antenna, we manage to motivate our members to stay active both at the local and European level, to organize important and serious events as this one and because the event was just perfect from all the points of view: I’ve been told this from organizers’ side, participants’ side and YVote team’s side, so what else could I add? If we all agree on this, I think the rest of the Network should know about it!

On the other hand, AEGEE-Kraków organised last year the AEGEE Model of United Nations, which consists of a simulation of the discussions and procedures taken within the UN, as if they were delegates of their Member States. Katarzyna Michalska, main organizer of the event, explained to The AEGEEan how the MUN was.

Could you tell us briefly what was the event about, and which were the main activities?

AEGEE Model of United Nations was an international United Nations simulation conference during which participants played the role of UN Member States delegates generating a common approach on major issues of international politics. During the three days of meetings, divided into a few sessions, the participants discussed, following the official procedure, the different ways of solving one of the actual international conflicts in order to create a resolution which would be compatible with the ideas of Human Rights and Peaceful Conflict Resolution. As delegates of the UN Members States or Observer States, they did their best to defend the position of the state which were representing. The project consisted of two simulations of United Nations meetings: one on the conflict in Mali and one on the issue of the rights of North African refugees in Europe.

Which were the biggest challenges of organizing the event, and how did you solve them?

First of all, we decided to organize an international event in which we had no experience. It was difficult to create something totally new and unknown for us but, as we love trying new things, we took on this challenge with no fear. Fortunately we managed to find our experts – people experienced in the field of United Nations simulations who were available for any questions and concerns we had during preparation and also conducted our conference making it as professional as other prestigious events this type. Another challenge we had to face was the lack of funding sources. We had limited budget but we were so determined that even until less than week before the project we were struggling to get funds from many sponsors and finally got enough money! Moreover we had some difficulties in finding suitable place for the project but luckily we had a huge support from the university authorities who gave us an opportunity to organize it in one of their institutes.

And which were according to you the best things of organizing this event?

For me one of the best things of organizing this event was the great pleasure of doing it! Working with inspiring people who were truly motivated and dedicated to the project gave me a lot of energy and made me enjoy every single moment of organizing the project as well as the event itself. Beside the amazing team, I’d mention all of our small achievements which contributed to our final success, such as establishing valuable partnerships, getting funds or finally finding out about the surprising number of applications for our event!

Why do you think you should win the Award to the Best Thematic Event?

I can proudly say that thanks to hard work and determination of my team all the goals we set before organizing this event were achieved. We wanted to create a unique interactive learning experience which young people could enjoy and benefit from at the same time. What is worth mentioning, our project distinguishes itself by its up-to-date topic. It aimed at spreading and sharing knowledge about the problems of the modern world and the role of the United Nations in solving them as well as giving the participants opportunity to develop their diplomatic skills of compromise, negotiation, understanding of foreign affairs. Our goal was to encourage to study and discuss the issues of global importance. The positive feedback we got from the satisfied and happy participants eager to take part in the next edition of the project strengthened our belief that our event was a big success that we should be proud of.

AEGEE-Zaragoza is also nominated in this category. This time, by hosting the EuroSD – European Structured Dialogue conference, which gathered several International Youth Organizations in order to draft a joint statement to be sent to the European Commission. It was the first time that this consultation process was taken at a European level, as Beatriz Nasarre, former president of AEGEE-Zaragoza, explains.

Could you tell us briefly what was the event about, and which were the main activities?

The event was a European conference about the Structured Dialogue (It is a process of consultations launched by the European Commission and the European Youth Forum in order to pinpoint the needs and concerns of young people from all over the European Union), that gathered over a dozen International Youth NGOs. Besides writing the recommendations and a joint statement, we organized city tours around the city, and also a press conference where we transmitted that we would like the voice of young people to be heard.

You cooperated with other student organisations and AEGEE-Europe, how was the collaboration with them?

It is always very positive to strengthen the cooperation with other youth associations from outside AEGEE, whether they have a similar profile as us or not. It makes us see the things from another point of view, and it is always very rewarding. The people attending events like this one are always interesting and gratifying to work with!

Which were the biggest challenges of organizing the event, and how did you solve them?

The most difficult thing was to organise everything in a very complicated date, the beginning of July, with lots of previous work to do and during the exams season. The application of the Youth in Action grant was also another issue, also because we had many people around the Summer Universities. But in the end, with hard work we can achieve everything and afterwards we all left to our SU’s, and that was a very well-deserved vacation…

And which were according to you the best things of organizing this event?

Feeling part of such an interesting project, being “the first ones” of organising such an event, and especially feeling proud of the work we did. As always, with lots of works and nerves from the organisers, the feeling when the participants congratulate you because they have really enjoyed the event has left us speechleess. And, of course, proud of being able to wear such an awesome t-shirt designed by our Uncle Joni!

Why do you think you should win the Award to the Best Thematic Event?

Well, first of all because… have you ever seen such an awesome logo and t-shirt!? The event was a whole success and the thematics of the event were really interesting – with this European Structured Dialogue consultation we can really make an impact in the European Commission. Besides, the organisers devoted an important amount of their summertime, so we should definitely win – anyway, thanks to The AEGEEan for nominating us and we wish the best luck to the other nominees!

And finally, AEGEE-Alicante was also nominated for one of the most outstanding pre-events of Spring Agora Zaragoza, the MEDITERRANEANLY! event in cooperation with the Health4Youth Project. The antenna told The AEGEEan about the secrets of their success…

Could you tell us briefly what was the event about, and which were the main activities?

We wanted to show to our participants how beneficial, easy and fun can be having a healthy lifestyle and how to achieve it with some little changes in their day-to-day habits. That’s why we tried to make them used to a Mediterranean diet and to keep a daily routine of exercise.

The main sports activities we organised were a yoga and a zumba class, both early in the morning at the beach with professional trainers, as well as a walk on the sand, and some outdoor games. We also had the chance to hold a first aids workshop and to visit a ecological vegetable garden run by local farmers.

You cooperated with the Health4Youth Project, how was the collaboration with them?

They are very kind, three of their members (Maria Arends, Sygrit Andringa and Elmar Guliyev) came to the pre-event to give a hand with the programme by conducting some very successful workshops, such as the one about the effects of the consumption of alcohol on your body, and the one about the effects of not sleeping properly well.

Which were the biggest challenges of organizing the event, and how did you solve them?

We programmed to spend the last day and night on a camping site hoping that the sun will stay out the whole event (we are in Alicante, it never rains, but when it does, the whole sky falls down!); so just in case we were aware of the weather cast, which unfortunately turned out to show lots of cats and dogs planning to rain that day. We had to reschedule the programme, and that means: not camping and staying in the hostel (luckily for us not booked), cancelling a bbq and the goodbye party in the countryside, and replanned the whole last day at the very last moment just the day before. We contacted an ukulele teacher who improvised an amusing lesson for beginners, then, we went up to visit the Santa Barbara’s castle and in the evening we participate in an international beer pong contest. So it actually went pretty well taking into account that none of this was planned.

The other big challenge was to cook every meal and make it with a huge presence of vegetables. A wide range of tasteful dishes, from couscous to guacamole, including paella and vegan burgers, to name but a few. After the event took place, we collected all the recipes in a cookbook which can be download from here http://goo.gl/mw6wio Readers, feel free to use it and to send us comments afterwards!

And which were according to you the best things of organizing this pre-event?

Maria Teresa: Everything! I love the cooperation between the organisers and with the H4Y team. The organisational capacity that we had. It was my first event as organiser, and I learned a lot about AEGEE, and about my antenna. I’m very proud to have been part of that effort.

Isa: Choosing participants is usually a bit like playing the lottery, and definitely that time we hit the jackpot: we got such a great group of pleasant participants! Moreover this event was also useful for the antenna to activate some new local members and I am personally interested on the main topic of the event, so it was great that we carried it out, and even more, as a pre-event of ZarAgora!

Melissa: I didn’t know anything about AEGEE and I didn’t know anyone, so when I knew about this event, at first, I was attracted by its programme, and then, I had the opportunity to go as helper and I tried to do my best. We showed to all the participants the best things of our Mediterranean lifestyle in a great atmosphere and everything went perfect! For me, it was an incredible experience and the perfect chance to know and realize how amazing AEGEE is. After this, I felt in love with the AEGEE spirit and now I can’t imagine my life without it!

 Why do you think you should win the Award to the Best Thematic Event?

Even if it was a small one (in days and in number of participants), it was one of those events in which once it’s over you can feel that, despite of the unexpected changes, everything went well. After the last dinner, still sitting on the table, some participants started to thank us spontaneously for the atmosphere, the organisation and the activities of the event, they said that they really felt like they were at home. Once they went back home, they kept sending us lovely messages and Elmar (AEGEE-Bakı and Fundraiser of the H4Y Project) even made a cute video http://youtu.be/im9xOYW5eM8! They made us feel that this event was not only a H4Y event, but also an event about friendship, fellowship, teamwork, solidarity, and lots of AEGEE love.

 AEGEE-Poznan was also nominated, in cooperation with the Eastern Partnership Project, by their I’m for East! Festival. The AEGEEan has contacted them in order to know more about their event – so stay stuned in order to hear their responses! And remember, you still have a few time to vote: it is YOUR choice!

Written by Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona/Leuven

]]> ../../../2014/04/10/the-stories-behind-the-the-aegeeans-choice-awards-best-video-nominees/ Thu, 10 Apr 2014 14:50:03 +0000 ../../../?p=22206 Two Summer Universities, two New Years Event and one Youth Rights video are amongst the nominees for The AEGEEan’s Choice Awards “Best Video” category. The AEGEEan interviewed three of the nominees about the process of creating the movies and discovered how a precious AEGEE flag was almost destroyed in the process. The AEGEEan talked with Ksenia Lupanova about the nominated… Read more →

It is time for The AEGEEan’s Choice Awards again! From the 10th of March until the 31st you can let us know who your favourites are in categories like Best Video, Most Active Working Group, Most Impressive Roll Call and Most Original Mascot. For this last category, The AEGEEan has found five nominees, namely: Orestios Mesemvrios (AEGEE-Kastoria), Gorm Jr. (AEGEE-København), Morcillote (AEGEE-Burgos), Zvezdun Grigor’evich (AEGEE-Moskva) and the AEGEE-Aachen bear. In this article we will tell you all you need to know about these mascots and why they should win according to their home locals.

Orestios Mesemvrios  (AEGEE-Kastoria)

AEGEEan: What was your (and your mascot’s) reaction when you heard you were nominated?

AEGEE-Kastoria: We are very happy and proud for our little beaver, Orestios. We are so excited because of the nomination and the fact that The AEGEEan team nominated him made us grateful for our choice.

Orestios: I’m very proud to represent this gorgeous antenna, and your nomination made me very happy for the fact that AEGEE-Kastoria found me that summer evening in Nesebar. They love me and now, with this nomination, I see that more people love me and I’m sure that my cuteness will encourage you to vote for me.

AEGEEan: When and why was this mascot picked to represent your local?

AEGEE-Kastoria: Our host city is named Kastoria. The most common explanation of the name is “The city of beavers”, so we thought that a beaver would be our perfect mascot. From the moment we were founded, May 2012, we thought that we should have a beaver for our mascot. We searched in a lot of different cities of Greece, but we couldn’t find Orestios there. Then in the summer of 2013 one of our members travelled to Nesebar, Bulgaria, and found him at a souvenir store.

Orestios: Also I have to mention that my name comes from the local tradition. Orestiada is the name of the big, wonderful lake of Kastoria, so they named me Orestios after the lake and Mesemvrios because the city Nesebar, Bulgaria, is the ancient Greek city Mesemvrios.

AEGEEan: In which ways does this mascot represent your local?

AEGEE-Kastoria: Except for the fact that he’s directly connected with our city, he’s always with us in our events, local Agorae, board meetings and social meeting. He’s very lovely too, just like our antenna. He has everything that our antenna has: he is cute, wonderful, active and lovely wherever he goes.

AEGEEan: Why should your mascot win the Most Original Mascot award?

AEGEE-Kastoria: Because he is a beaver in the city of beavers! If he doesn’t win, who else could?

Orestios: I have to win, because I live in Kastoria and I am a beaver. You have to vote for me, because I am cute and AEGEE-Kastoria is great!

You can find Orestios Mesemvrios on Facebook here.

Gorm Jr. (AEGEE-København)

AEGEEan: What was your (and your mascot’s) reaction when you heard you were nominated?

AEGEE-København: Really pleased to see Gorm from our small antenna  nominated for The AEGEEans Choice Awards. We are busy working on the upcoming Network Meeting København, so in the middle of many tasks and a huge pile of things on the to-do-list it was great to receive this news, it put a huge smile on our faces. And, of course, Gorm was very happy too.

AEGEEan: When and why was this mascot picked to represent your local?

AEGEE-København: Gorm Jr. actually has his birthday around the same time of the Network Meeting København. On the 17th of March he will turn four years old, as he was bought back in 2010 during one of the weekly meetings in the student house by the president, back then Eszter Virag and Madli Pindmaa. The goal was to have something typically Danish to represent our antenna and Gorm looks very Danish in his cute uniform. Gorm is also a very traditional Danish name for a king, and he also has some Viking looks. Once he was bought he lived with Eszter for a few months and when she left the city he moved into the apartment of Nino Burini, who was the next president of AEGEE-København, and later on Patricia Anthony (former President of AEGEE-København) had him in her apartment with Vice-President Mathilde Nielsen. He started travelling already as a baby and he was captured for the first time in April, during the “Mamma Mia… Here we go to Scandinavia” event in 2010.

AEGEEan: In which ways does this mascot represent your local?

AEGEE-København: He has the colours of Denmark and he is cute as many other mascots are as well. He wears a traditional king’s guard outfit and is also very royal himself with the name Gorm. In Copenhagen you can see a lot of castles and experience Denmark in many ways, so I suppose that what really shines through in him is the values of Copenhagen and our antenna.

AEGEEan: Why should your mascot win the Most Original Mascot award?

AEGEE-København: Gorm should win this amazing award, since he is the Great Original Right Mascot for this award. His name almost spells out the category and he is indeed original as a lots of thought has been put into him. He has travelled a lot, but still not enough, so it would be great for him to have a fantastic memory from Agora Patra to celebrate in Copenhagen, just in time for another triumph: the Eurovision Song Contest being celebrated in the Danish capital, just a few days after the big statutory event in Greece.

You can find Gorm Jr. on Facebook here.

Morcillote (AEGEE-Burgos)

AEGEEan: What was your (and your mascot’s) reaction when you heard you were nominated?

AEGEE-Burgos: OINK… OINK… Haha, just kidding! He was crazy and started running and jumping around! So, he suited up and he went partying to celebrate together. It was an unforgettable night. Just being nominated was worth it! He is delighted about all this, and he only wants one thing: TO WIN!

AEGEEan: When and why was this mascot picked to represent your local?

AEGEE-Burgos: It’s a really funny story.. Just after creating AEGEE-Burgos we were looking for a mascot who could be the ambassador of our antenna. One day we were walking around the city when we saw a pig trying to escape from some crazy people. REALLY! They were trying to capture Morcillote to eat him. Can you believe it?! So, we helped him to hide and we were able to save him. Morcillote was so grateful that he decided to stay with us forever (except when AEGEE-Zaragoza, Madrid, León, Barcelona and Santander stole him. That was how he started to travel all around Europe and meet other mascots).

AEGEEan: In which ways does this mascot represent your local?

AEGEE-Burgos: The pig is the example of our city’s gourmet culture. I’m sure many of you know jamón, chorizo, lomo, and of course Burgos morcilla. Deliciousssss, so there can’t be any better Burgos ambassador in AEGEE world than the wonderful Morcillote!

AEGEEan: Why should your mascot win the Most Original Mascot award?

AEGEE-Burgos: Do we really have to answer this question? We have a thousand reasons why Morcillote should be the most original mascot. Just take a look at the pictures! Morcillote represents the AEGEE Spirit. Every year we celebrate his birthday like he is a big rockstar and people from all over AEGEE attend. Morcillote, only you know how to organize a great party! Besides, everyone who has pressed his soft little belly and listened to his sweet OINK, OINK won’t have any doubt as to why Morcillote is the most original mascot. Morcillote, we love you!

You can find Morcillote on Facebook here.

Zvezdun Grigor’evich (AEGEE-Moskva)

AEGEEan: What was your (and your mascot’s) reaction when you heard you were nominated?

AEGEE-Moskva: Proud of our boy! He seemed like he was in shock, but he is acting too good.

AEGEEan: When and why was this mascot picked to represent your local?

AEGEE-Moskva: For a long time AEGEE-Moskva had no mascot. In 2013 we were discussing possible PR-actions to promote our antenna on Agora’s, Network Meetings (NWM) and the EBM. The story of his appearance is interesting, because it wasn’t simply from store shelf to AEGEE-antenna. In March 2013 I (Ksenia Lupanova) bought my first AEGEE-Moskva t-shirt. This t-shirt saw both Agoras in 2012, a great Summer University in Greece and went to Baikal Lake with the Transsiberian Dream vol. 4. It survived a lot of flights, European Nights, paintings, AEGEE-Moskva’s crazy 21th birthday party and the NWM in Mosvka. Unfortunately this t-shirt was broken by the sloppy owner, but it definitely had absorbed AEGEE spirit and the energy of great memories and events, so I suggested to make a handmade mascot from this t-shirt, because there can’t be any better material, so I sewed him. It was April 1st 2013 and we sent him directly to Agora Rhein-Neckar, where we had a lot of fights about the name so finally we decided that it would appear naturally after the Agora. And then we got it: Zvezdun Grigor’evich. It’s quite hard to explain the process of the name-appearing, because it came from Russian language and slang. Zvezdun stands for the short name of Starguy in Russian and his second name, Grigor’evich, is the name of my godfather and one of the founding members of AEGEE-Moskva: Grigoriy Frolov.

AEGEEan: In which ways does this mascot represent your local?

AEGEE-Moskva: Well, Zvezdun is very representative of AEGEE-Moskva’s identity and image. As you can see in our promotional materials, he appears almost everywhere! His star shape reminds us of Moscow’s Kremlin stars and the star in the AEGEE-logo. Red has been the colour of AEGEE-Moskva since it’s founding in 1991. In our new t-shirt he is hiding inside the star of the letter A, and in the Transsiberian Dream logo he starred in an unexpected devil role. He was also starred in AEGEE-Mosvka’s flashmob, shooting in our 2014 calendar and was with us in a lot of events already. Unfortunately he was stolen during Agora Zaragoza by superfast AEGEE-León, but he succesfully came back to us during New Years’s Event Noviy God po-russki.

AEGEEan: Why should your mascot win the Most Original Mascot award?

AEGEE-Moskva: Because he already got a lot of fans, is well-known in the Network and represents the spirit of AEGEE-Moskva: a bit wild, creative and full of AEGEE-spirit. He is a real gentleman and, as all Russians, never gives up!

You can find Zvezdun Grigor’evich on Facebook here.

AEGEE-Aachen bear

AEGEEan: What was your (and your mascot’s) reaction when you heard you were nominated?

AEGEE-Aachen: AEGEE-Aachen bear was like: “Oh my god, am I nominated for this awesome award?! I didn’t even know it existed, but I absolutely want to win it!” And so were we.

AEGEEan: When and why was this mascot picked to represent your local?

Legends say that when we organized the Agora Aachen in 2008 we needed a mascot. For some reason it became a brown bear, but as everybody wanted to dress up like the bear, we needed more costumes. And well, the polar bears were just cheaper ;).

AEGEEan: In which ways does this mascot represent your local?

AEGEE-Aachen: We are strong, unique, independent and everybody loves us. Totally like polar bears.

AEGEEan: Why should your mascot win the Most Original Mascot award?

AEGEE-Aachen: In Agora Rhein-Neckar we didn’t take enough care of our lovely bears, so they got stolen. The condition to get it back was to wake up the people at Agora Zaragoza one morning. Usually all the people hate waking up and the people who wake them up, but in this case all the participants woke up because of five polar bears going around, hugging and petting them one by one. When we win, the bear says we will do it again!

You can find AEGEE-Aachen bear on Facebook here.

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

The AEGEEan’s Choice Awards is returning for the third time in connection with Agora Patra and lucky number three is the overall theme for the exciting times that all will end in a magnificent award ceremony at the big statutory event taking place in Greece later this year. Honouring 10 antennae for being outstanding in different matters.

The team behind The AEGEEan magazine is very excited to carry on the project for another year, as Anna Gumbau, the editor-in-chief, suggests: “It has been a popular tradition of ours for the last two years, and the third edition will definitely reassure The AEGEEan’s Choice Awards as a tradition in our Spring Agorae”. Starting today, January 9th, and during the next three weeks it is possible for you to submit candidates you have for the ten different categories. Some of them are the same as the former two years but at the same time The AEGEEan team has added three exciting categories:

• First of all The AEGEEan believe it is necessary to honour the locals that make a grand effort through different actions in order to recruit new members. That is why “The most effective recruiting action” has been added to the list of categories.

• Together with “The most inspiring local activity”, The AEGEEan aims to give recognition not only to the things happening on European Level but also on Local level.

• Adding to that it is also considered essential to add “The most outstanding AEGEE moment” to the awards honouring the different actions that have taken place in the former year and it is therefore the third new category added to the list.

After the three weeks of suggestions of nominations, ten juries (with three members each) will gather and select the final nominations for the different categories. The AEGEEan will ensure to include many different active AEGEE members! “The AEGEEan, and the Network as a whole, have eye-witnessed many memorable moments and outstanding actions by our members”, Anna adds, “so I am pretty sure that the choice will be difficult!”. These next three weeks will also be used to arrange the juries making sure that plenty of thought is put into which antennae and members will be nominated among the final nominations. Hopefully The AEGEEan will get correspondence from members of the Network Commission, Action Agenda Coordination Committee, Public Relations Committee, Comité Directeur and more, and that all will help because of their broad knowledge about events and moments happening in AEGEE.

The ten categories are:

• Most impressive roll call: honouring the locals that make an effort to bring smiles on the faces of the statutory events participants. Only roll calls that took place at EBM Valletta, Agora Rhein-Neckar and Agora Zaragoza can be nominated.
• Most active Working Group: The Working Groups carry out many interesting activities and at The AEGEEans Choice Awards the members of AEGEE choose the one that has been most active in 2013.
• Best team achievement: Together Everyone Achieves More and there are many things that a team can do. This awards honors the best team achievement of 2013!
• Most successful thematic event: The Action Agenda and Strategic Plan are highly important for AEGEE and at The AEGEEans Choice Awards the best of the best are honored for prioritizing the thematics of AEGEE.
• Best Video: There are many creative and gifted AEGEE members that use hours and hours into making video promotion for AEGEE and the best one of 2013 will be named at Agora Patra.
• Most creative merchandise: Cups, t-shirts, stickers, hats and more are all different types of merchandise that carry the AEGEE logo somehow and at The AEGEEans Choice Awards the most creative of 2013 will be honoured.
• Most original mascot: Almost all antennae have a mascot and many European Level bodies have one as well but which antenna, Working Group or Project Team has put the most thought into the choice of theirs?
• Most outstanding AEGEE moment: One of the new categories as previously mentioned aimed to point out which moment was the biggest and most important of AEGEE during the year of 2013.
• Most effective recruitment action: Another new category, this one honoring the antennae that are successful in terms of using different actions to get new members to contribute to the growth of AEGEE.
• Most inspiring local activity: Antennae organise things that are not European events but that does not give them any less significance. This award has been added to highlight the actions antennae do on a local level and give inspiration to the rest of the organisation.

Afterwards The AEGEEan will of course bring you all the stories behind the nominations! During the time span of three weeks the journalists of The AEGEEan will be granting you with all the information you need in order to make sure you can cast the vote for whoever you believe deserves it the most! The final voting will take place online on The AEGEEan’s website from March 10th until March 31st! As always the results will be announced at spring Agora, this time during Agora Patra!

Let’s get it started! You can nominate your candidates here!

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

Recently AEGEE-Europe published a video about taking a look back at 2012 and in The AEGEEan would like to do the same. Last year’s The AEGEEans Choice Awards was a success and will be repeated in Spring Agora Rhein-Neckar. However, we do not have any nominations yet…

Last year was the first time this initiative was organised and it was clear to us that changes were needed to improve the idea. Just like last year, there will be five nominations for each category. However, nominations for each category will be selected in a different way. A competent jury will be chosen for each of the seven categories (with exception of the cutest mascot category that already has five nominees, found through our Facebook page). These juries will consist of experienced AEGEE members who work with topics related to our categories on a daily basis and their expertise should ensure there is a fair evaluation of the nominees (and the outcome is not affected by which antenna has most friends and/or members on Facebook).

Having said that, it will still be The AEGEEans’ Choice Awards, meaning that in the end the members of the Network help us find the winners of each category. There are two ways in which you, as a member, can have an impact. First of all, it is possible to send suggestions for nominations for the different categories through contacting the magazine. Secondly, whenever the juries have voted and decided upon the final nominees for the different categories the lines will be open for voting. Voting will take place between EBM Valletta and Spring Agora Rhein-Neckar so that the awards can be handed out during the Spring Agora.

Some categories have been kept, others have been changed or removed. These are the categories of the 2013 elections:

Categories

Cutest Mascot (nominees already found)

Most Impressive Roll Call

Most Active Working Group

Best Team Achievement

Most Successful Thematic Event

Best Video

Best Merchandise

We’ve added the “best video” category and we would like to show our appreciation for creativity through this category. Videos can be submitted to the e-mail address of the magazine and the videos with most views will become the five nominees for the best video category.

Last year, three Spanish antennae returned from Enschede with three different awards. AEGEE-Zaragoza won the Best Merchandise category, AEGEE-Madrid won the Best Roll Call and AEGEE-Alicante won Best Event. These categories have not been deleted but changed. As The AEGEEan would like to have a more thematic focus, we would like to honor the “Most Successful Thematic Event” this time.

Remaining on the European level The AEGEEan will once again focus on the wide range of teams that are involved actively in AEGEE. This is done through the two categories: “Most Active Working Group” and “Best Team Achievement”.

Remember that all ideas for nominations that you may have can only be nominated if they took place between the first of January in 2012 and the last day of 2012 in December. And please vote for your favorites when the time has come to vote.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

AEGEE-Zaragoza is going strong. Last time when The AEGEEan focused on this Spanish antenna was just a few months ago, when they were nominated for the best merchandise and the best flag-stealer. Since then the Network saw at the Agora Enschede that AEGEE-Zaragoza won both awards, and Pablo Ruiz, AEGEE-Zaragoza’s Public Relations (PR) Responsible entered earlier this year the board of the Youth Council of their region on behalf of the antenna. Furthermore, AEGEE-Zaragoza has been working on not one, but two new T-Shirts, and they got a new mascot.

The AEGEEan talked with Pablo Ruiz, AEGEE-Zaragoza’s PR Responsible, about what they have been working on during the last months.

The AEGEEan: For how long have you tried to enter the board of the Consejo de la Juventud de España of Aragón (Spanish Youth Council of Aragon)?

Pablo: Actually, it was something which came to us surprisingly. The Consejo de la Juventud de España (CJA) in our region, Aragon (Consejo de la Juventud de Aragon) has been suffering the consequences of this brutal crisis in Spain in the shape of budget cuts, no sponsors, and no incomes etc. with the result of several boards followed each other at dizzy pace.

Trying to save the CJA from disappearance, a few members agreed to create an “emergency board” without political tendencies to be accepted by all the associations. That is the moment when they thought about AEGEE, because we have those ideas in our basis, so we were the right ones.

How long did it take? Did you face any difficulties? 

As I said before, it was not a problem to become a part of it; the difficulties started after our inclusion. After several years learning how everything works in AEGEE, a new universe of terms, words, acronyms and abbreviations was in front of us: a new “Sect”. We are again newbies here, real rookies, but this is a great chance to make more contacts with other youth associations to create new synergies and to be in touch with the regional government.

For people who do not know that much about CJE and how it works in Spain can you then explain a bit what is it and what does it mean now that AEGEE-Zaragoza has the vice-presidency?

The CJE means exactly Spanish Youth Council (Consejo de la Juventud de España). This is a platform (you can consider it as a lobby) where all the youth associations, as AEGEE, for example, have a space for them. Its aim and objectives are the promotion of active participation of the young people in the economic, social and cultural development of the country, quite related to our purpose in AEGEE, isn’t it?

I am, on behalf of AEGEE-Zaragoza, in the role of vice-president in the CJE in Aragón, our region. So this is a great chance for our antenna to be more in touch with the administration and other associations, having the choice to create some synergies through this position.

Are there any other exciting projects that AEGEE-Zaragoza is working on these days?

Right now, we have just finished the incredibly hard task of reaching a satisfactory ending for our Summer University, a project I am sure most of the participants will mark as a “10” event, but that is the past already. For the future, we have started to think about a Local Training Course (LTC) for the new rookies, a Welcome Week for the Erasmus students and, above all, a quite important event about the structured dialogue in the European Union (EU), a meeting where youth is the main topic treated from the point of view of the European institutions.

Last time we published an article about your antenna it was about the “I Jamon” t-shirt, since then you won The AEGEEan award for the most popular merchandise, what does this mean to you?

One of the biggest honours an antenna could have! We are tremendously proud of this award. It is so exciting when you have seen this t-shirt travelling to the Niagara Falls or to the Mongolian Steppe, and these examples are real!

Long live the Jamón t-shirt! The time for the new design has come!

And you specifically won the best flag-stealer award, however not many people know what you did to deserve it together with Sergio Cristobal. What did you do?

I think the point of this award lies in the simplicity, elegance and beauty of the theft: my partner in crime, Sergio Cristobal, and me… we just asked for the flag of AEGEE-Ogre to its owner (and she cannot put forward that she is not an experienced member) to contemplate it. Of course, after that she did not see it anymore…

The last but not the least, we’ve heard that you are working on a new “motto” for AEGEE-Zaragoza. Can you reveal any new details on it? What will be it, how will it look, when will you “release” the next AEGEE-Zaragoza merchandise?

I am not allowed to reveal ALL the details of the new campaign. I can tell you that we have already a new t-shirt released for the whole “audience” in July, where the motto is “Zárágózá, the longest city name in the world” (And sorry, but you will need an inhabitant of our city to explain you why in – person).

However, if you know just a little bit about our antenna, for sure you would also know that we could not stop in such a “polite” motto. At this moment, we are working on a second one, only for real AEGEEans, connected with our “new” traditions. Furthermore, I can add that our new-born mascot will be related with this topic as well. If we are lucky, both of them (our mascot and the second t-shirt design) will be presented at the Autumn Agora Budapest.

Could that theme be related with the Anti-Cobra “movement” that AEGEE-Zaragoza started? A theme that has grown in popularity already, especially in Spain, but as Pablo Ruiz says it is a theme quite difficult to explain if you have not seen it. Hopefully, the Network will be greeted with more exciting news like this from AEGEE-Zaragoza as well as other antennae in Budapest.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

Why vote for the Visa Freedom Working Group (VFWG) to win the AEGEEan Choice Award 2012 rewarding the most efficient Working Group of 2011? When the VFWG was taking what seemed to be its last breath last year, Jana Pokorna (AEGEE-Istanbul/AEGEE-Praha) and the rest of the motivated VFWG members picked it up and put it back on its wheels.

The VFWG had to face the rough facts last year that they were, at the time of Agora Alicante, only fulfilling two out of the ten Working Group criteria. However, Projects Director Thomas Leszke believed in the fresh new board, elected just a week prior to the Agora, and the working group kept going, proving that they still had someone rooting for them.

Spreading information about the VFWG to the Network

Even though not being as visible as other Working Groups last year this does not mean that the VFWG was not working very hard. They were picking themselves up and improving the Working Group from the inside, creating a clear structure of the team and the group. The board that had been elected just before Agora Alicante had done a great job but despite this the Working Group had re-election just before Agora Skopje. They continued improving the PR of the Working Group, working hard on the design and especially on the content of their website. Furthermore, they launched a campaign providing as much as possible visa information for all locals, organising events or having representatives in events.

VFWG collaboration with the rest of the Network

Even though they still had to find their way and place in AEGEE the VFWG did make many things happen in 2011. Many projects started; some of them already finished, some of them are still ongoing and some were postponed. The list is long, but some of the activities include a workshop in the Agora Skopje about visa obstacles of young volunteers and “send a postcard to your embassy” project in cooperation with the Network Commission and Russian and Ukrainian antennae. The idea was for the SU participants to send a postcard from the country that they visited to the embassy in their country, a nice initiative but in the end unfortunately no postcards were sent.  However, they were also working on the info campaign, they attended events such as Agorae striving to be as visible as possible while offering plenty of info and help. As for the second part of the year the VFWG focused on providing information for the the Summer Universities booklet, and developed new projects. Since the Agora Skopje they have also been developing the internal structure in all aspects (IT, PR, HR, KT, task distribution, mailing lists etc.) with Guillermo García Tabarés, Human Resource Responsible in the Comite Directeur, and other Working Groups boards.

Hardworking Head Captain in Charge

So in the end what made the VFWG so special last year? Well, first of all they have one motivated and dedicated speaker in Jana Pokorna who is one of the active AEGEE members. She was the Agora Fair Manager at the Agora Skopje, she was content coordinator of the EBM Izmir and she has been the Speaker of the VFWG for almost a year. She describes it as her baby and says “The whole VFWG is special and will be forever, the more I am here, the more I wanna do” about it. However, Jana was not the only one improving the VFWG last year. Together the whole team went back on track faster than one could have wished for ending the year with fulfilling nine of ten WG criteria at the Agora Skopje. They revived the WG and they also helped getting the WG reform approved by the Agora Skopje which improved the system of WGs in AEGEE and which is something that the VFWG keeps working on in 2012.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

Curious about what the Youth Unemployment (YuE) Project did in 2011? Curious about why YuE should win the AEGEEans Choice Award 2012 rewarding the best project in AEGEE in 2011? You will most likely find your answers right here.

What is the Youth Unemployment Project dealing with?

When thinking about graduation, what pops up in your mind? The answer may be things like: freedom, adulthood, life – but maybe also some feelings of uncertainty and worries about how to find job and get employed. According to the polls, employment is one of the main issues which worry people, and in particular young people who may find the competition in the job market very challenging. Indeed, the Youth Unemployment Project (YuE) aims at empowering young Europeans in order to give them the tools to be successful in their professional life. In short, the goal is to take action to tackle unemployment. The project actions gather young people who can share their experiences, try to find common solutions to this problem, and create a European network of active young entrepreneurs in order to build a real sense of friendship and brotherhood among the whole Europe.

The highlights of 2011 for YuE

The highlights of the last year for the project were two successful actions: the Employment Action Day (EAD) and the European School of Entrepreneurship (ESE). The Employment Action Day is a one to three-day European initiative hosted by several locals. It aims at promoting a better recognition of non-formal education and voluntary work as working experience fruitful for young people. Among cities which hosted the project in 2011 were Sofia, Tirana, Gdansk, Istanbul, Tbilisi, Moscow, Lublin, Barcelona, Yerevan, Skopje, Izmir and Riga. It is the proof that all over Europe young people want to strengthen their knowledge in those areas in order to have better chance later on.
The European School of Entrepreneurship was a fresh event bringing together enthusiastic AEGEEans, businessmen, university professors and young entrepreneurs from all over Europe. The event, organised in collaboration between the YuE team and AEGEE-Catania, has gathered twenty participants together for a week for an effective training course. It provided the participants with a complete insight into the implementation of business ideas and on the procedures of establishing their own enterprise. These people with brilliant ideas efficiently promoted the project’s goals: young people taking their future in their own hands.

What makes YuE special?
Within the framework of such an important project for young Europeans, team spirit is a key word. Our team is indeed built up with people coming from every path of life aiming to make the best of this project. They try as much as possible to keep a constant contact between all the members, realising the AEGEE spirit via the Internet.

As for 2012 we are now in the process of planning a live meeting of the team members. Successful events of last year will also take place this year: Employment Action Days are being organised around Europe and the European School of Entrepreneurship II is currently in the process of finding a hosting local.

Written by Iina Lietzén, PR responsible at the YuE and Kristel Jurado, Secretary at the YuE.

”You give me 10,000 days night of thunder but I will give them all back to you” – These are the words of a song by the Danish band Alphabeat and these exact words can well describe the dedication that AEGEE-Peiraias girl Hara Kogkou gives to the SUCT, if you replace the word thunder with summer.

The AEGEEan caught up with Hara Kogkou of the Summer University Coordination Team (SUCT) to get the answers why their project team should win the best project award 2012 (the award that rewards the best project team of 2011).

A brand new website

One of the biggest challenges for the SUCT was bulding a new web system going from 0 to 100 percent. However, they made it come true and Raúl Avilés Poblador (the SUCT IT responsible of 2011) is the one to take the credits because due to his hard work the SUCT managed to have a functional system ready to host a big project such as the Summer University (SU). AEGEE was using a proprietary software system for the SU system until 2009. This is a system that you have to pay for but since there were no one paying for it the Comite Directeur has chosen to shut it down. This led to Raül receiving the task of creating an open source SU web system, which he successfully has done, and today the current SU website is running as a continuity of the previous one with improvements and changes.

Receiving patronage

In April 2011 the SUCT got the answer we had longed for when it was revealed that the Summer Universiy Project was going to be under the patronage of the Commissioner of Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou.

Ensuring quality

What Hara is especially proud of in connection with the SUCT’s work is their hard battle for increasing the quality of this project. For one the SUCT enforced every Summer University to have a theme throughout the duration of each event which was quite challenging but proved to be efficient when they saw the creations of Summer Universities with themes such as non-formal education, theatre, sports and much more.

Second of all the members of the SUCT used an impressive duration of two days to read and comment all the Summer University descriptions and programmes uploaded by the organisers in order to organise a Summer University. This way the SUCT had checked every Summer University and contacted the organisers for necessary changes before publishing them online and in the booklet

All this was part of setting the deadlines for the whole year in the beginning of a term which was another challenge as well, but the team managed to stick to them. What they really wished for was to have the SUCT always being on time and have everything ready according to the deadlines. They of course expected the same from the Network, and in the end it worked out just as planned.

Inspirational Summer University Project School 2011

The SUPS took place in Krakow organised by AEGEE-Krakow, the AEGEE-Academy and the SUCT under the YiA support! Hara says about the event: “It was a very successful event from all sides: local organisers, leaded by Magda Maciejuk, did a great job and were offering us more than we expected! The participants were actually totally involved in the trainings and they were never complaining about the full daily programme.” Actually the participants enjoyed taking part so much that they returned and became active members of their antennae. Three of them participated in the ES2 in Castello, another is in the core team of organisers of the Agora Budapest, and others are the SU Coordinators and board members! The last but not the least, this event also motivated two participants from an Italian organisation to become AEGEE members. From the trainers point of view it was a very inspiring training having such participants that encouraged them to always want to offer more.

The term of this efficient SUCT 2011 ended in the Autumn Agora Skopje where the new team took over, but Hara assures that the current SUCT has continued the same path and are striving to be even better through a combination of using past experience and creative ideas of the new members.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

Thanks to Hara Kogkou for contribution of pictures!

AEGEE-Zaragoza is one of the most famous antennae in the AEGEE Network. This fame derives partly because of the highly efficient branding campaign that they have done over the past couple of years with their “I love Jamon” t-shirts and stickers.

 The original idea was originated by the masterminds of AEGEE-Zaragoza. Jonathan del Castillo Gil from AEGEE-Zaragoza took the responsibility of designing the different ideas that came up and in the end the “I love Jamón” was chosen. This slogan is a tribute to the famous “I love NY” t-shirt but they replaced NY with Jamón, bringing the theme closer to the great love for pig meat in Spain. “Aragón and the jamón is like Romeo and Juliet, an inseperable love,” Jonathan explains the thoughts behind the t-shirt.

In Zaragoza the phrase “I love Jamon” is furthermore well used in Zaragoza and the rest of Spain because it derives from a song by a group named Berzas, using the melody of “I love Rock N Roll” by Joan Jett. For some this may ring a bell because AEGEE-Zaragoza used this song in the EBM Izmir and Agora Skopje as part of their roll-call, a roll-call which was not nominated for the best roll-call award for The AEGEEans Choice Awards 2012. However, what did get nominated is the AEGEE-Zaragoza “I love Jamón” t-shirt which finished the Facebook poll in leading position with 76 votes (Nr. 2, the AEGEE passport, received 48 votes).

AEGEE-Zaragoza selling their t-shirts at Agora Alicante

I love jamón in every corner of Europe

Now this legendary t-shirt has been around for quite some time. The first edition was produced for their Summer University in 2009 “The Transiberian Jamón Express.” However, calculating how many t-shirts have been sold throughout the years is not an easy task. For one AEGEE-Zaragoza is very generous and always gave the t-shirt to all their participants in the Summer Universities that they organised. Another reason is that it has always been the responsibility of the different boards of AEGEE-Zaragoza and having had several boards pass in this “I love jamón” period makes it even more difficult making a calculation. However, pictures of different nationalities wearing this t-shirt with pride in all different corners of Europe proves that it is a high number, a number which Jonathan estimates to be around 1000 (in which about 100 have been given away as a gift.)

I love Jamón sticker

Developing the branding

Now RyanAir makes it quite difficult to transport 100 t-shirts to be sold at different AEGEE events so AEGEE-Zaragoza had to come up with something to promote their new “theme”. This resulted in the “Yo amo el jamón, y el pan untadico con tomate” sticker which as well can be found in different corners of Europe such as on the computer in which this article is being written right now, in Denmark. Several people have the idea that the t-shirt and stickers are a tribute to “Pantumaca”, which is bread with tomato from Cataluña, but actually the t-shirt is a tribute to the pig and moreover to a certain type of meat from Aragaon (Jamón de Teruel).

The future of AEGEE-Zaragoza branding

Back in December 2011 AEGEE-Zaragoza produced its last round of “I love Jamón t-shirts. This decision was made because times are changing. There are many new and super active people involved with the antenna and they have gotten the responsibility of coming up with an idea for a new t-shirt that will represent their march in the antenna. “We adore the “I love jamón” t-shirt and we always wear it with pride because we believe that we can be innovative with a new slogan, and triumph once again,” says Jonathan.

Top secret slogan

AEGEE-Zaragoza is on the verge of deciding which slogan will be the future of their antenna. They have various candidates but also feel the pressure of coming up with something extraordinary after the Jamón success. According to Jonathan it goes as far as the CD having anxiety about the next t-shirt, “Alfredo Sellitti calls us just about every day”. The whole world is waiting and AEGEE-Zaragoza has actually received orders on the new t-shirt even before knowing how it will look like. “AEGEE members are very crazy and they know that only crazy ideas derive from AEGEE-Zaragoza,” Jonathan continues talking about the project.

One of these crazy ideas could be “anti-cobra” which is a greeting technique out of the extraordinary created by AEGEE-Zaragoza member Samuel García Calleja. However Jonathan does not confirm nor denies that this will be the base of the new slogan. He tells The AEGEEan that it could be complicated using this technique for a t-shirt when it takes so many years reaching the expert level that master Samuel has.

What he can confirm is that the t-shirt is on its way. He says that the t-shirt should most likely be in Brussels during the upcoming week (for approval) and AEGEE-Zaragoza intent to bring it to Agora Enschede. However, the limitations that the cheap RyanAir flights bring make it difficult to bringing enough t-shirts for everyone. The only thing they can promise to the Network is that they will not disappoint.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København