About one and a half year ago, AEGEE-Budapest went through a structural change, and the previous board wanted to gather as much information as they could to implement this change as smoothly as possible. Their board had eight positions previously, and they wanted to change that. They gathered information about other locals’ boards structure, one of them being AEGEE-Utrecht, a big antenna too, which already had a well functioning board with only five people in it. That’s how the idea of an exchange came up, just like the idea of being twin antennae.

In less than two months, the Autumn Agora in Cagliari takes place and all participants will have the chance to see how AEGEE-Aachen and AEGEE-Warszawa will become twin antennae. To find out more about this German-Polish friendship and the apparent love between their mascots, The AEGEEan spoke to Joanna Pankowska, president of AEGEE-Warszawa.

 It all started as a classic twin antenna love story: AEGEEans from Aachen came to Warszawa for an exchange in May 2013. “Maybe it was the bears, maybe the fact that we were not experienced in doing exchanges. The fact was: it felt like something more than just an exchange”, Joanna tells us. Less than a year later, AEGEE-Warszawa organized a pre-event shortly before the EBM Lublin in February 2014. After a great time with some Aachen people – wearing their famous bear suits, naturally – the two antennae spent even more time together during the EBM itself. It was there, during the last night, that they decided to stay at the gym and chat instead of going to the party. And it was in that night that they came up with the idea to become twin antennae.

So far, AEGEE-Aachen and AEGEE-Warszawa had two exchanges, visiting each of the two cities once – both times having a lot of fun. However, Joanna is sure that the best is yet to come, meaning the next exchange, which is going to take place at the end of September in Aachen. Members from both locals are looking forward to this event, where they will be able to spend time together and get to know each other. Joanna emphasizes that another important fact in the course of the locals’ collaboration will be that they “are trying not to forget about sharing good practices, knowledge transfer and such”. Both locals are quite strong and experienced with organisational duties. It will therefore be interesting to see if they will become even more successful when they can share their knowledge.

Moreover, the twin antennae-to-be have something else in common: they are both proud owners of very beary mascots. While the members of AEGEE-Aachen are rarely seen without a white polar bear costume on them, AEGEE-Warszawa people keep good care of their cute little panda bear called Wanda (the panda). Although this is just a very handy coincidence, one cannot get around the fact that the two bears form a cute couple. The mascots seem to agree and take their relationship to the next level. No one speaks about “becoming twin antennae”, but just about “the wedding”!

One can be curious about what the two locals will come up with to celebrate this moment during Agora Cagliari! All in all, Joanna concludes: “I believe it is just the beginning of our love story”.

Written by Katja Sontag, AEGEE-Aachen

At the Spring Agora in Patra, another three contracts were signed to become twin antennea. From now on, AEGEE-Utrecht and AEGEE-Budapest, AEGEE-Leon and AEGEE-Catania and AEGEE-Napoli and AEGEE-Lviv are heading forward to a great time. But what exactly are twin antennae? And what are the advantages of having a twin local? The AEGEEan spoke to AEGEE-Delft and AEGEE-Passau, who have been twin antennae for about one and a half year now.

Every AEGEE-antenna can become a twin antenna. All you have to do is finding another antenna that wants to collaborate with you. The main aim of a twin antenna is to get closer and create a greater sense of friendship between the antennae, but also to help each other. Of course, this helps improving cooperation and communication within the AEGEE-Network. Being twin antennae creates the possibility to organise common activities, support each other and solve problems together, as forces and experience are combined. It basically means that two locals have a special relation. As AEGEE-Passau tells us: “It means experiencing cultural differences, but also working together, having tons of fun and making new friends.”

For the twin antennae AEGEEan spoke to, the idea of forming a twin local was formed at Agora Skopje. After meeting again at Agora Enschede, they decided to make a contract, which was signed at Agora Budapest. Last spring, their second contract was signed in Patra. It was AEGEE-Passau who was looking for a twin local and they decided to ask Delft. AEGEE-Delft: “The main reason to try a twin local agreement was the feeling that, while it’s amazing to meet new people all the time, a lot of the time you tend not to meet them again. Having a twin local ensures you that you can meet the same amazing people more often!”

So why did they pick each other? First of all, Delft and Passau had an exchange before, which was awesome, so they already knew they could get along with each other very well. But it is working out so well especially because the antennae have a lot in common, but at the same time differ at some points. AEGEE-Delft: “AEGEE-Delft and AEGEE-Passau are both quite active locals, with a nearly equal amount of members. The two cities are comparable in size, yet have a different focus in university. This makes it so that you meet people from a different background, yet you are still connected by being in AEGEE, which is a great thing.”

Having a twin local has many benefits and both AEGEE-Delft and AEGEE-Passau absolutely recommend it to other antennae. AEGEE-Passau: “You always have a place to sleep and you get invited to really cool events.” According to Delft becoming a twin local is a great way to forming a bond with people from other countries, and sometimes people even get romantic together. Besides, you can ensure cool activities for your members. Of course it also has more serious advantages. Twin antennae can learn from each other in different ways, as every local has strong and weak points. AEGEE-Delft: “You get to help each other with knowledge transfer and promotion of each other’s events.” AEGEE-Delft learned a lot about fundraising from Passau, and without AEGEE-Delft, AEGEE-Passau wouldn’t have changed their working structure. AEGEE-Passau: “We changed the working structure of our antenna a bit after we heard about the amazing committee system of Delft. Although there are still voices saying that we could have improved it even more, we are actually quite content with how well it works for us. They definitely gave us the first impulse.”

The AEGEEan also asked about their activities and experiences together. “We have at least one exchange in the semester, but we also try to have skype meetings with the current boards,” says AEGEE-Passau. AEGEE-Delft: “We have a yearly riverboat party and Christmas dinner together, which we usually couple with an exchange.” It was hard for both locals to pick one experience with their twin that was their favorite. AEGEE-Passau: “We just get along together so well and we always have a blast together. Every event with them is a fabulous experience, so it’s hard to tell which one is the best!”

So, it goes without doubt that Delft and Passau really like being twin locals. The AEGEEan asked them if they could mention one thing they find most special about their twin antenna. AEGEE-Delft really admires the overwhelming enthusiasm of AEGEE-Passau’s members. “They always have so many people joining the exchanges, they can always host a great number of people and the parties they organise are super!” In return, the most special thing about AEGEE-Delft according to Passau is that they work hard and are really successful with what they do. “They have so many great local events and we just love all their committees!”

Written by Isa Beukema, AEGEE-Nijmegen

At EBM Izmir, remember The AEGEEan interviewing locals at the AEGEE Fair? First up were AEGEE-Beograd and AEGEE-Istanbul and for the second round Stephanie Müller, our editor-in-chief, interviewed AEGEE-León and AEGEE-Peiraias, as these antennae are twin antennae, they have been for quite a while, and are setting a good example of why the twin antenna program works. This month, one of the four mentioned antennae is the local of the month because they organised two Summer Universities (SU) this summer, whereas one of them stood out from the crowd with its IT theme.

Last time The AEGEEan wrote about AEGEE-Peiraias was when we were preparing for The AEGEEans Choice Awards, trying to find the best flag/mascot stealers. AEGEE-Peiraias had managed to steal the AEGEE-Enschede flag and, in reward, the Spring Agora organisers of 2012 provided the delegates and visitors of AEGEE-Peiraias with 12 comfortable beds. The  lucky sleeping beauties described it as “the most comfortable sleep in a gym they ever had”.

Founded in 1995, this Greek seaside antenna has grown to be a large one, with 100-120 members, of which most are active. This probably indicates why AEGEE-Peiraias took up the challenge that their twin antenna, AEGEE-León, took last year: to organise two Summer Universities within a short period of time. So The AEGEEan asked the local a few questions about this.

How did you manage to organise two Summer Universities?

Organising two SUs was much easier than it sounded! AEGEE-Patra & AEGEE-Peiraias helped a lot the IT SU with fundraising. When it comes to actual organising, there were different people working on each SU!

About the IT SU, one of our members,  Manos Valasis, has recently become the Development Manager of the new Online Membership System of AEGEE. While trying to enroll more people to get involved on all levels (programming, design, testing, etc), he came up with the idea of organising an event in which participants would increase their knowledge, get practice by working on the real systems of AEGEE, and also get involved in the IT life of AEGEE. And all that in the context of a Summer University! George Dimitrakopoulos (AEGEE-Patra, Information Technology Committee Speaker) and Costas Deltouzos (AEGEE-Patra, SUCT IT) were eagerly enrolled and that is how the journey started. Later on, we decided to hold in parallel another training that would introduce AEGEE to participants, and that is the moment where Hara Kogkou (AEGEE-Peiraias, SUCT Manager) and Alma Mozgovaja (AEGEE-Riga, Comité Directeur) joined the team!

In the end, the participants enjoyed the relaxed learning by creating a great atmosphere and were even able to complete several tasks during the Summer University. Now, they are a small nice company of friends developing the Online Membership System. So, all-in-all, it went excellent, we would say!

Certainly, the event was of great added value for AEGEE and for the participants themselves. In fact, we encourage all other locals to take up such an attempt and organise an event with real content themselves! It should definitely be repeated, but this is up to the Information Technology Committee to decide – if there is any local interested in organising it next year, please approach George at itc@aegee.org.

Your mascot was stolen during this SU, proving that you are not the only ones who are good at this popular AEGEE game. What did you have to do to get it back?

First of all, the story about our mascot is really special. It was a gift from a member of AEGEE-Peiraias, who before the EBM in Riga entered a gift shop in Zürich and considered that a dolphin would be a really special gift for our antenna! The name of our mascot is Delfinopoulos, and it consists of two derivatives: Dolphin (Δελφίνι in greek) and -όπουλος (the most common  suffix for surnames in Greece), so Δελφινόπουλος (or Delfinopoulos) was ‘born’ the first day of EBM Riga, February 23rd 2011, making his zodiac sign Pisces. The reason we considered having a dolphin as a mascot was that Peiraias is the biggest port in Greece and the dark blue color which is in the antenna’s logo also, is a symbol of the Greek sea.

We had our mascot stolen many times. The first time was right after its birthday in EBM Riga, where Juan Sordo Barreiro (AEGEE-Oviedo) stole it and we only got it back after we danced the infamous ‘Melon-Sandia’.

It was also stolen from our headquarters in Peiraias, by a member of AEGEE-Tallinn. That time, our task was to act like dolphins at AGORA-Alicante in front of everyone! Another time was in Crete, during our previous Summer University, but as you may know, we had to wait months before our beloved mascot was returned to the local organisers. The last time we lost it was during our Summer University in Kefalonia this summer! Our task was to clean every toilet/shower in the dormitories, even though we believed the mascot was stolen in an unfair manner. Finally, we took Delfinopoulos back, but we are sure that it is going to be stolen again.

Getting back to more serious stuff, what are the future plans of AEGEE-Peiraias?

We are currently applying for a Youth in Action grant for an exchange with AEGEE-Las Palmas, AEGEE-Riga and AEGEE-Yerevan of  which we are waiting to see if we will finally organise our event. We also want to organise a Local Training Course and after the summer we will discuss organising more events!

The AEGEEan is looking forward to hearing about more initiatives of AEGEE-Peiraias and hopes that other antennae will follow their example. Once again, congratulations for being the local of the month!

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

Attention: If you think you know an antenna, which deserves to be honoured as “Local of the Month”, send an email with the locals’ name and the reason for nominating to aegeean@aegee.org.