“This is not in Visual Identity!” – probably a sentence you’ve heard either from PRC, a member of your local or even someone else. And hearing this makes you frustrated. “What? Why do I need to use VI? What is this!?” Say no more our friend! Here you can find eight obvious reasons why using Visual Identity is cool and the most awesome thing you can do!

Reason no. 1 | You Can Create Materials Much Faster.

Locals can simply go to the Members Portal, download some template/element, customise it to their own needs and everything is done in no more than 15-30 minutes.

Reason no. 2 | Design Artist or Not, using Visual Identity Can Make You Look Like A Pro.

You don’t have to be an expert in Photoshop, Illustrator or other programmes related to design. You can make your own VI puzzle just by using the Design Elements and following the Visual Identity Manual.

Reason no. 3 | You Contribute to AEGEE’s Identity.

By using the Visual Identity, you strengthen AEGEE’s identity both internally and externally: you and your local play an important role in building its identity. It’s like the code from a website or app; if just one line in the coding is incorrect, it cannot work properly.

Reason no. 4 | Your Mind is The Limit.

Visual Identity doesn’t limit your creativity. “No, ma’am!” It can be creatively adapted to your own ideas. People who are saying the contrary might have not really worked with it yet. So don’t believe the rumours, just give it a chance and you will see what we are talking about. 

Reason no. 5 | You are More “Ready, Set, Go” to Promote Yourself.

Other international youth NGOs and especially famous companies, also have a Visual Identity and follow their own specific manuals. When you see a Coca-Cola poster,
(think of the typical one with no bottle displayed at all) you know it belongs to them, even before noticing the logo. You can check out the visual identity of every big company and you will see that we are not just saying that to impress you.

Reason no. 6 | Cool Locals Who Use The VI are An Endless Source of Inspiration.

The more the locals who use the VI, the more the approaches are different, showing the diversity inside a common path. You can bring your own cool approach to the table and maybe you can inspire others to follow your example, why not? After
all, we can all learn from each other and form an awesome community. Plus, you will help improve the “design templates archive”, to make Reasons no. 1 and no. 2 even more awesome.

Reason no. 7 | You Look More Professional towards University and External Companies.

When your local is going to fundraising meetings, sending e-mails or delivering presentations using the VI, you are using the power of a network of 13,000 members to support your project. Then, you are not just representing your local, but the whole AEGEE network is there helping you out.

Reason no. 8 | You Save Yourself from PRC Setting You in “red” in the VI Check.

Once you adapt your antenna to the VI, you will mostly forget about PRC chasing after you for having an identity that makes you look like a completely different NGO, and most importantly, the red mark will be magically turned in a lovely emerald green. So, quit the rebellion and start using the VI. You can save a lot of time, energy and resources, but also, you can learn a lot from it, whether you are experienced in design or not!

If you need more information or have any doubts, simply contact us at prc@aegee.org.

From PRC with love! #PRChard

Written by Mayri Tiido and Gerardo Garcia Diaz, vice-speaker and speaker, Public Relations Committee

Members of AEGEE… these legendary creatures with their own rituals that they might be as a sect (minus the mystic leader). We are aware that we use a different language full of abbreviations: CT, KT, PT, PM, CM, NWM, EPM, JC, CD etc., but we also repeat some sentences, to us or to strangers. Here are six things that we always say. And if you’ve never said or heard them, either you are not in AEGEE or last time you were in an AEGEE event was when dinosaurs walked the earth.

“A_ _ _ _ _e”. If you correctly guess that the word is Awesome… Congratulations! You are in AEGEE. This local is awesome, this event is awesome, this person is awesome, this Agora is awesome, this sticker is awesome. Let’s be honest, an AEGEEan’s favourite word is ‘awesome’; we use it pretty much to define everything. But we also know that deep inside, everytime someone is pronouncing that word, you actually want to stab kittens. We feel your pain! Here is the list of synonyms that can be used instead of ‘awesome’: amazing, astonishing, marvelous, eye-opening, fabulous, portentous, prodigious, stunning, stupendous, sublime, surprising, wonderful.

“I’m going to graduate soon”. Everytime you pronounce this sentence, a TV-like laugh track plays in the background. As much as we love our organisation, it’s a fact that sometimes it takes away a lot of our time. Time that we could easily use to study. Despite the fact that all the skills we aquired by being active in several projects and in our local are priceless, the job market is more in love with a degree. The members who were able to dedicate up to eight hours to AEGEE, working in order to maintain themselves in another city and to graduate on time, should give workshops and share their secrets! Very much appreciated. Pretty please. 

“I want to give back what the organisation has given me”. This is the standard phrase that all the candidates use in their applications or their presentations. Never noticed it? Impossible. Try the take-a-shot-game with the sentence during the Agora and you will see the entire Chair Team floating in a lovely pink cloud with unicorns and daisies all around. No one doubts that you’ve grown a lot within the organisation and you are running because of the well being of the Network (and not because of your career). But then, do you really need to mention that in every application? Posterity will judge.

“I hate the visual identity”. It’s time for your coming out. You’ve just finished printing like a trillion of stickers and you do immensely love the graphic of the upcoming event in bright fuxia and blue tiffany with the name of your local in a sunny yellow. Now you have to change everything because a common visual identity was introduced ONLY three years ago. Actually the Visual Identity is pretty awesome (see point 1) and you can play a lot with it (Agora’s stickers anyone?!). Plus, don’t let the poor PRC check all the logos and said disconsolately: “A lot of locals are not respecting it”. Join the dark side, use VI!

“I have a motion/objection”. Yes, we do agree that it’s something you’d rather hear than say, but it HAD to be on our list, because we pronounce these words with fear, even whispering them… hopefully with nobody listening. Typical scenario: It’s almost 9 o’clock in the evening, the person sitting near you has acquired the same shape of a chicken thigh (or celery, if you are a vegetarian or vegan) and you really want to take a bite to suppress your hunger. And in that very moment someone is stepping on stage objecting something or presenting a motion. Even if you really appreciate how democracy is shaping, in that very moment you feel like back in high school when someone was reminding the teacher to assign homework after the bell rang. It’s all about the timing. 

“This will be my last event!” After four or five years in the association, it’s physiological that members slowly leave to explore the beauty of life after AEGEE. When an AEGEEan decides it’s time to go, s/he usually organises a press conference where s/he solemnly declares “After 15 years of honourable service as the president of this local, I’m passing the baton to the young former secretary who has been in AEGEE only for nine years”. Let’s be clear, leaving the association is anything but easy. After all, we have a good example that we can be “old”, but still kicking during events, namely Honorary member of AEGEE-Europe Gunnar Erth. We cannot disclose his age because his file is still secreted in the Vatican archives, but – as the picture suggests – he was the one who introduced Franck Biancheri to François Mitterand. Long story short? See you somewhere in Europe in your next last event.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

Matthijs Dirks finished his term as president of AEGEE-Nijmegen not too long ago. The AEGEEan talked to him to find out more about his efforts in changing promotional material according to the visual identity, the life as a full-time board member and his future plans.

The AEGEEan: Matthijs, please introduce yourself, your hobbies and studies to our readers.

Matthijs: Hi dear readers of The AEGEEan, I’m Matthijs. I’m in my third year of membership with AEGEE-Nijmegen (And in my first year of membership with AEGEE-Eindhoven). Some of you may know me from my partake in organising two Summer Universities or the Network Meeting (NWM) in Nijmegen or Eindhoven, or maybe from an Agora or the Night of the Seven Antennae.

For those who don’t know me: I’m a third year Linguistics student, and I’ve tried to make myself valuable as President of the XXIXth board of AEGEE-Nijmegen. I’m currently 22, and my favourite colour is blue. My hobbies include, but are not limited to, making video animations (especially teaching students how to do that), fooling around with Photoshop, and enjoying a beer with the good people I have surrounded myself with over the past few years.

What was your first reaction when you heard that you were elected as Member of the Month?

I was, at that point, at the formal party ‘Show Your Colour’ organised by AEGEE-Leiden, where I’ve had a beer (or two). So I may have overreacted by shouting – a bit – that “it couldn’t be true because I feel like I don’t deserve it. I don’t feel like I did something special for AEGEE-Europe or AEGEE-Nijmegen”. Anyhow, of course I take great pride in receiving this title – and I can take a compliment when I get it. It’s an honour to be Member of the Month and I hereby would like to thank my parents for their support in this race, and my friends for never having stopped believing in me – even last January, when my biggest rival ever (Svenja) got the title.

You have been a board member of a Dutch local for one year. There are always some rumours going around saying that being a Dutch board member means working a full time job. Can you tell us about your experience?

It’s certainly true that you can devote a lot of your time at being a board member of a Dutch local, but you can do that everywhere. I mean – if you’d want – everyone can work for 40 hours a week on projects for their locals. That doesn’t make it a Dutch thing, though in a lot of countries it’s very uncommon to do so.

In the Netherlands it actually is very common. Student associations are a real big part of studying here. When you get into the uni, the question is ‘which association shall I join’, because you know for sure that you will join one. The universities recognise the benefits of a board year, so they highly recommend a position in a board of something you love. Also student associations have been around for a long time in our student life, in Nijmegen for example there are associations that are almost a 100 years old.
I guess the support of the university, and the fact that a gap year is socially accepted, make it easy to devote all of your time on your board year. So in my experience I have had weeks where I’d easily work for 60 hours on AEGEE-Nijmegen. But there are also weeks that are more quiet, and then a good 30 hours would be sufficient.

What was your favourite task in general while being a board member?

That would surely be the part where you’re socially obligated to talk to everyone. Of course you don’t HAVE to like everyone, but I wanted all our members to like AEGEE-Nijmegen. I got to know a lot of people whom I’d maybe never had spoken to otherwise. I’ve now befriended them, and it’s hard to imagine an activity with AEGEE-Nijmegen where I don’t feel like coming home.

One of your main achievement was to re-design all the promotional material and bring it in accordance with the visual identity. What exactly did you have to do? Was it a difficult task?

Luckily, the XXVIIIth board of AEGEE-Nijmegen tried to convince our members to change the visual identity before us. I have a passion for design and I liked playing around with the design programmes, so I didn’t mind making a few rough sketches. After the local Agora approved the change I got in close contact with the Public Relations Committee (PRC), and with their suggestions the logo was complete. Everybody is used to it now. It was not a very difficult task. It was just slightly annoying that I had to convince the members and change the logo several times after so some resistance was met. Luckily, I wasn’t alone, and I had a great team of board members with me to go on and change the logo accordingly.

Imagine someone asked you why the visual identity is so important and worth working on so intensively. What would you answer?

It’s surely worth it. As I said it’s slightly annoying that you have to change your design over and over. But following the PRC’s instructions is certainly worth it, they’re genuinely knowledgeable about visual design and they wouldn’t ask you for impossible stuff. It takes some time, but not more than a couple of hours – so it’s not the end of the world.

And what was your most valuable AEGEE-moment?

I guess that moment would be the last few seconds of my term as a board member because it was an amazing year. In that year I grew very close to Isa, Bob, Bart and Kim – whom I was in the board with. On the last local Agora of our term I kind of recapped the year. A few seconds before I said the words of dechargé, I swapped my presidential AEGEE hammer for a hammer that I received from my dad (he’s been president of some associations too) and I had a piece of family history in my hand. While looking my beloved board members in the eyes thinking about what we’ve gone through and looking my successors in their eyes. I said the words, and dropped the hammer. Therewith we were free of duty and everything was over. After a year of hard work, a lot of fun and a spending a lot of time on trying to improve AEGEE-Nijmegen the time was over. It was both sad, because I knew I’d miss it, and happy because it’s a weight off your shoulders. It’s a moment I’ll cherish forever.

Are you striving for any other positions in the network? Maybe even on European level?

I don’t really know where I want to go. I’ve missed a lot of lectures last year – and my parents weren’t too happy about that. So I’ll make them proud this year by catching up on my linguistics skills. With that being said, I’m still an active member locally, and I’ll be giving a training on the NWM Delft. I’ll take it slower than last year at least. Maybe one day I’ll join the PRC or the Key to Europe to exploit my knowledge of design. Maybe I’ll join a Training for Trainers (T4T) one day. So I don’t know – probably see you somewhere in Europe!

Written by Katja Sontag, AEGEE-Aachen

“So you have just arrived home from your last AEGEE event where that guy was telling you about a European level body in AEGEE he was secretary of and was convincing you to join the team based on the common interests you share. Sounds good but maybe you want to learn a little more about this body, so let us turn to Google for a second. Well, this page has AEGEE on it and the name of the body but the last post is from 2012. Are they doing anything then? And if they do, where can you find the information? Ah, giving up, maybe it is not a good idea to join after all…”

Have you ever been surprised by the amount of pages related to AEGEE, or how many of them are outdated or simply abandoned, or how many different appearances these pages have – as if they did not belong to the same organisation?

We have good news for you: all the information you need about AEGEE is in one place now, always updated and following our new Visual Identity: the Members Portal has been launched!

And let’s see the 5 (top) reasons why you should visit the Portal:

1. AEGEE History Line: With AEGEE celebrating its 30th anniversary next year, there is a lot to read about the past to get inspired by the great achievements and to recruit new AEGEE-enthusiasts for your local by telling the true story of how awesome AEGEE is. But forget about a never-ending PDF file: check out the interactive AEGEE history timeline!

2. Get Involved!: You are already a hyperactive member of your local but feel like you would like to challenge yourself a little more by joining one of the Projects or Working Groups? The Get Involved! section contains all updates from all European level bodies in AEGEE from their latest activities to the application process for new team members, presenting a clearly structured system of Committees, Commissions and Working Groups. “We need you!”

3. Downloadable Materials: Under Resources you can find various guidelines that will help you understand AEGEE better, the Strategic Plan to help others understand AEGEE’s work better, and you can also download PR materials for promoting AEGEE in your city! (Compulsory advertisement here: in case you are interested in developing further materials, please contact the Public Relations Committee at prc@aegee.org!)

4. Offers for members: Check out the list of our partners and the various discounts they offer for AEGEE members. Also – do you know what ASRF stands for? It is way of benefitting or contributing to our shared interest of overcoming financial obstacles that would permit some of our members from fully experiencing AEGEE – this is all I can tell here!

5. Events: Being directly connected to Intranet, the Members Portal offers an always updated page about the next AEGEE events that are going to take place. Furthermore, the PRC and the Quality Assurance Committee are working on another platform to have a clear overview of AEGEE events, open calls and finding a way to help the locals with the promotion of their events. Stay tuned!

Convinced? With the endless amount of concentrated information on this page, you should bookmark aegee.org/portal in your browser right now!

And if you would like to submit your suggestions for improving the Members Portal, please fill in the following form!

Last but not least, we would all like to thank Pavel Zbornik – Communications and European Institutions Director of AEGEE-Europe who has dedicated an endless amount of his time creating the Portal and making our lives easier. Thank you, Pavel!

 Written by Réka Salamon, AEGEE-Debrecen/Aachen

Have you ever wondered why it is so difficult to explain to anyone what AEGEE is about?

Starting with the facts and figures is easy (40 countries, 200 antennae etc.), but making an impression with fancy words like “interdisciplinary” will not have the same effect in all cases.

”And what are you guys doing exactly?” – This is a tough one. From organising cultural exchanges and Summer Universities to striving for a peaceful Europe without borders, from making new friends around the continent to promoting active citizenship, by trying to grasp the impact that the European youth`s opinion could have on the future of Europe.

“How come I haven´t heard about you before?” – Valid point. According to many, the answer is simple: we are still lacking something that many other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have already perfected and have been benefiting from for a while, and that is a clear image/representation and being established as an attractive brand. This is why the development of a powerful Visual Identity for AEGEE will be the next step on the rough way to success. Are you ready for it?

“Oh, not this again…” – Some of you might say, but stay with us for a moment. Never underestimate the psychological impact of a well-known logo or a familiar shape. Marketing specialists have already mastered the art of guiding our attention span, through carefully planned stimuli, a distinctive set of colours or an eye-catching logo. Brand recognition is one of the key elements in today`s fast-moving society, where our perception scale is narrowing down, but our WiFi-dependency is growing incessantly.

Do you see what is happening here? There are a set of already established images in our minds, influencing us on a daily basis. Since we cannot turn the tide, we might as well take advantage of it – and conclude all the hard work that has been done so far to make our AEGEE more attractive and more distinguished from other NGOs. We do not have to look far to get some inspiration and stay motivated in the progress.

AEGEE`s Visual Identity is not only the corporate image for externals, but also the feeling of belonging for members; a membership to be proud of. There is no one-line answer to the question “Who are we?”, but there is a way to work around the subject, trigger curiosity, build up interest, encourage involvement and just like that, your local has a new member, congratulations!

Some of us are here for the parties and some of us are here to make the world a better place; the opposing sides might never be on the same page, but that does not mean we cannot be unanimous in our love for AEGEE and unified in our representation for its promoting.

Written by Réka Salamon, AEGEE-Debrecen