Incredible things always happen during an Agora. The AEGEEan checked old material and asked some old members for interesting stories about this issue, a funny way to approach the upcoming Spring Agora Bergamo and read some legends of the past. 

The Agora can be something legendary for those who have never been there, since they probably heard many stories before departure. For those who already experienced it at least once, it is something incredible: a thousand of people from all over Europe, a huge common commitment, great discussions, fabulous encounters, moments of sharing and great parties. For the people organising it, it is something very different. More than one year ago, I had the honour of being an organiser of Autumn Agora Cagliari. If you ask me to say what it looks like, I would probably say tiring, challenging and agitating. If you ask me why, the answer is easy: anything can happen, even if you planned it in detail.

For every organiser there is always a precise moment when s/he realises that the event started, in my case was the following episode:

On the 28^th of October 2014, a sponsor gave us two cars and a big van. They were quite big and none of us had used a van before. We drove them to pick up CD members at the airport and, after greeting them, we put the luggage inside the last one. Once ready to drive it, an alarm rang showing that the trunk was open, we closed it many times without any result and then we thought it was a van problem. Of course the reality was very different, because as soon as we had entered the highway we heard dozens of horns around us: two bags of our former president Paul Smits broke out in the street forcing uncountable cars to make extraordinary riggings and we had to walk in the middle of the street to take them back.

Anything can happen

After that moment, many stories I heard about disasters during previous Agorae came to my mind. Maybe you do not know but a lot of weird things happened during our statutory events in the past. Not all the things regarded only organisers or were bad, some of there were actually very positive. But of course at that moment I started thinking about the worst possible scenarios.

To start: one of the things to know about the Agora is that it didn’t always look like it does today, at the first ones there were not that many participants. During Agora Salerno 1989, about two or three hundred participants were present and local organisers picked them up at the train station by car! It was the very same Agora during which the Berlin wall fell down and a participant said: “We did not know about the fall of the Wall. There were no mobiles, no one saw the news. I read about it on Monday after the Agora”.

In 1994, Agora Montpellier started at a plenary hall but finished on the market square of the French city. Why? According to our source “the freshly re-elected President of AEGEE-Europe, Dorian Selz, did not accept the election result, because he got only 52% of the votes. Before a new candidate could be voted, all the members of the Agora had to leave the building since it was closing time. So they gathered in front of the building and elected the successor, Christina Thorsson, there”. Still, it was not the worst result ever for a presidential candidate. In 1998 Stefan Seidel from AEGEE-Augsburg was elected with a poor 38%. At first he did not want to accept it and said: “I will go home now”. But people convinced him to stay in office. A bad mistake since at the next Agora his CD got a vote of confidence and lost it.

The first day of the Agora in Athina in November 2002 was overshadowed by a blackout. Suddenly the plenary hall went dark. In this case, the reaction was amazing since organisers lightened a couple of hundreds of small candles and gave the Juridical Commission president, Yuriy Tokarsky, a flashlight which he held on the Agora booklet so that President Tomak Helbin could present the CD report. It was accepted with an overwhelming majority. The organisers of autumn Agora Zaragoza in 2003 had bad luck. They could not get the promised location and had to move the Agora to an old fair instead. The participants were sleeping inside that giant hall, when one of them turned on a switch, which he mistook for a light switch.

It was the switch for the ventilation and a dead bird, which had ended its life near the ventilator, fell down – right on the sleeping bag of a Dutch participant. The history had a revival in the last years when AEGEE-Zaragoza was chosen as host of the Autumn Agora 2013, some people in fact wondered if participants were going to stay in the same place again: it was not, the event was hosted in a brand new structure used for Expo Zaragoza 2008 and the organisation was simply amazing!

An incredible year: 2006!

If there is a year champion for incredible statutory events, that’s definitely 2006, since in both the Agorae which took place an incredible fact occured. At Agora Warsawa 2006, about twenty couples which found a lonely corner in a garage to spend some nice time with the respective partner: they got registered by a surveillance camera and watched live stream by the guards.

As this history can be familiar to the readers, not so known is the case of Agora Napoli 2006: in the late afternoon of the 1st of November the water boiler plant of the Fair broke down. It was the All Saint’s day, national holiday in Italy, and the same is the 2^nd of November (All Souls’ day). Organisers desperately tried to find a plumber but it resulted in an impossible mission! One of them said: “The only solution to find a plumber in Napoli on the 2^nd of November is to look for him at a cemetery”. The situation was not fixed and participants started a huge protest because of cold water in the showers.

Recent years

Lately there have not been such big cases if we exclude huge delays in the agenda, a vote of confidence, some locals which left the plenary for protest, a broken motorbike in Agora Patra 2014 or participants who had to move their luggage because of handball match (they were already informed about it). These can be considered as funny or sad thing things which happened. Except for two cases.

Most of us probably remember the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland, which stopped the flight traffic from the 14^th till 23^rd of April of the same year. I guess you can imagine what happened: Agora Leiden was taking place from the 15^th till 18^th of the very same month: the perfect moment to destroy the travel plans of hundreds of AEGEEans, especially for their route back home, and create difficulties for organisers who had to take care of them.

If we also consider the CD members as organisers, since AEGEE-Europe is a partner organiser of the Agora, we cannot forget Agora Struga 2011 organised by AEGEE-Skopje. Because of an argue between the CD and local organisers, who increased the event fee one month before the event, for the last days of the event, the organisers disappeared leaving the CD and some other improvised helper managing the whole organisation – starting from the wake up till the welcome pack preparations!

The good God of AEGEE resides in Athina

It is possible that some organisers of Agora Bergamo or Autumn Agora Chisinau are getting scared while reading this article. In that case we should also remind them that AEGEE has a good God ready to solve every situation…and probably he is a member of AEGEE-Athina. Somehow the Greek local managed to solve not just a difficult situation but even two!

In the far 1992, this local organised an Agora which not took place in Athens but in Kōs, a Dodecanese island in front of the Turkish coast. You may wonder why they wanted to host the event there and the answer is quite easy: Agora was taking place in Spring, in Greece the weather is always nice so let’s gather all the participants in Athens to make a nice boat trip all together! While the organisation was running perfectly, only four days before the event an organiser switched on the TV and saw the sailor’s Labour Union president declaring started an unlimited duration strike because of high taxes. A panic attack caught the Greek organisers which started thinking about all the participants meandering around the Pireaus port and possible solutions to avoid it. One of them, was to meet the same president of the Union Labour – which they did but without results. The second solution, which now can sound very funny but probably in those moments was not, was to get an appointment with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and ask him to talk with the minister for the Defence to get a military vessel and transport all the participants to Kōs. Through some contact they succeeded to get the appointment.

At 11 am, two days before the Agora. The minister is taking part in a high level meeting with the Greek PM and the president of the Republic. Organisers are in front of the office ready to meet him, but at 11.05 they see everyone leaving the building and packing their things. They wonder why and they ask one of the officials “Is he coming?” – “No he is not coming at all, he just resigned 5 minutes ago because of disagreements on foreign policies”.

In case you wonder how participants reached the location, the story says that the greek minister of Finances (of course pure coincidence) accepted the requests of the labour union the day right before the boat departure. That’s how Agora Kōs could take place.

In case you do not believe to this story, you can download the 10th AEGEE anniversary booklet and read about it there (p. 92).

To end

Dear future Agora organisers, as you could see, also in the darkest situations there is always light and space for hope, and the people of AEGEE-Athina can confirm it for sure!

It has not been an isolated case since we also heard that while spring Agora in Barcelona 1999 was taking place overshadowed by the Nato air strikes against Serbia (with lots of people arriving late, because of many flights cancelled or rerouted), among the participants was Jasna Bogdanovic, President of AEGEE-Novi Sad. She took the opportunity to leave the country and was hosted by the President of AEGEE-Barcelona. They fell in love and got married.

So we wish you good luck and may the good God of AEGEE be with you!

Written by Mattia Abis, AEGEE-Cagliari

Less than one year after the closing ceremony of Autumn Agora-Zaragoza took place in Palacio de Congresos in the capital of Aragón, another important AEGEE event is approaching in Zaragoza. Combining the expertise of “oldies” together with the motivation of the “newbies” AEGEE-Zaragoza is taking up the challenge of hosting the Autumn Network Meeting (NWM) Zaragoza 2014.

As announced recently, Carmen Maria has become the NetCom assistant of the area of “La Nave” (antennae in France, Portugal, Spain and also the one in Brussels) and one of her first tasks is helping with the coordination of the Autumn NWM that will take place in Zaragoza, most probably this November (dates not confirmed yet).

Many times, after hosting a large statutory event, antenna experience the activity level dropping, since this is usually the time when the older generation decides to leave AEGEE.

The AEGEEan: Why did you decide to apply to host the Autumn NWM?  

Carlos: We felt that after organizing ZarAGORA the new and passive members became active and, as it usually happens after events in the association, AEGEE-Zaragoza grew in terms of not only more active members but of course also experience in hosting events.

Concretely, some of the new members of AEGEE-Zaragoza couldn’t go to the Spring NWM Alicante 2014 for different reasons, so after being informed by Pablo Ruiz about the application period for the NWM, some of them proposed to apply for the autumn NWM, and the “oldies” of AEGEE-Zaragoza encouraged them to complete this new objective: prepare the application. After that, the first goal was to get selected to host the NWM. The second is to make the NWM the best network meeting ever thanks to the volunteers who have already started with the organization of the event.

So that’s why it is an interesting new challenge for AEGEE-Zaragoza to be the host of the Autumn Network Meeting 2014, working closely with the Network Commission. We truly appreciate the opportunity given by the NetCom to realize our idea of the NWM and to work once again together for another great event.

The AEGEEan: How will it help that you have Pablo Ruiz who is a subcommie of “La Tripulación” (The team with the Network Commissioner of “La Nave” and his/her subcommissioners ed.) and a member of AEGEE-Zaragoza?

Carlos: He’s actually one of the most important people in AEGEE-Zaragoza, working hard for AEGEE from several levels. He’s a real AEGEEan and as such, he is helping the new members all the time. After Pablo, who knew of our intentions, told us to apply for the NWM, he came to us and he said “I can’t believe that you want to do it”, so I think that he couldn’t believe how active AEGEE-Zaragoza wants to be.

Fortunately has been helping us, as if he were an organizer, from the beginning.We know that if we have some problem, we can just take the telephone and call him. While we were working on the application and also after we knew the results, he told us that he will be there if we need help, or to solve any problem.

Also, as we are from the same antenna it is quite easy, we can meet on the street, or in the bar, at the university. Also, speaking Spanish helps us avoid some misunderstandings, and the speed of his answers is very important.

The AEGEEan: What are your plans for the NWM?

Carlos: First of all, to organize the best NWM in history. With AEGEE-Zaragoza you never know what to expect, we learned to work in secret… just kidding. We have some objectives that we have to accomplish.

First, we want to create an entertaining program, that would be complete and go beyond the typical expectations of a NWM. We want the people to think that coming to the NWM will be worth it and will solve their doubts. It’s about coming to a NWM where the speakers feel comfortable and can explain everything with confidence, and where every attendee learns about our Network and where they can have their doubts dissolved, a place where you can surely feel AEGEE spirit.

The main thing is that the NWM has to be useful and an ideal formative event, where doing a workshop is easy and where people have all necessary equipment. We want to look for a quality place, with adequate temperature, with good lighting and where people want to learn easily. The antennae will be our guests and we want the best for our guests.

We will prepare a very interactive social program in which teambuilding will be the main focus point. With it, we would like to encourage the rest of the antennae to be more and more participative in organizing European events. To sum up, we want everybody to think that it was the best NWM in AEGEE’s history.

The AEGEEan: Does it help that you have recently organized the Agora, a Local Training Course and Maños?

Carlos: Undoubtedly yes. Maybe hosting the Agora contributed with more energy. After it, many people got really involved and some of our new members dared to travel, managing weekly activities and bringing us incredible energy or just participating and making our meetings more colorful.

About the  Local Training Course, it was in nature. We were in a town called Borja, the Ecce Homo (the famous painting “restored” by an amateur painter ed.) place, and the workshops were interesting and funny at the same time. Furthermore, we managed to do a lot of activities in 24 hours and took advantage of our time without stopping at any moment and the people liked it, so they became more and more active afterwards.

The AEGEEan: Who will be part of the organization team?

Carlos: Really we have a great and well connected group. We belong to the same generation, and we work actually in many activities and programs together. Almost every week, we are together in our reunions or in private meeting having a picnic, or coffees, studying, etc. Another good point about it is that we come from different fields of professional life, such as future lawyers, nurses, doctors, programmers, engineers… so we can share our knowledge to do a better job.

Our structured work is really simple: we are in contact all the time and we take all the decisions together. Thereby, the whole group is responsible of our actions, and we are trying to do the best for the event. Even if some special task needs a lot of time, such as looking for the best accommodation for participants, we are together just as one body, one voice.

Silvia Sierra is the main coordinator and the actual secretary of our antenna. But she’s not alone, she has the best team she could ever have: Carlos Embid – PR, Sara Urdaniz – social program responsible, Juan Valles – incoming responsible, Alejandra Pérez – logistics responsible, Raúl Lapeña – meals responsible, Ava Rasekh – treasurer, and Ander Guerrero – Fundraising.

The AEGEEan: You organize many events in your antenna, how do you make it all possible?

Carlos: The point that we have to highlight is the organisation. We explain each week in our reunion how every activity or travel is going, we do weekly evaluations. There are also individual decisions taken by the leader, which are respected and he/she is the go-to-person with solutions to potential problems.

This year we worked very hard, and the system is really good.  We don’t have any secrets just work, communication, consensus and decision.

The AEGEEan: You also recently won two The AEGEEans Choice Awards. One of them was once again for Best Merchandise. Are you working or will you work on any new merchandise for the NWM?

Carlos: Actually, we stopped some programs because of the exams, but we plan some possible programs, and maybe we will totally modify our merchandise or we will just do a few changes. We have not chosen anything. I can’t tell you more about it at the moment, but I will keep you informed. However, I think that in the next meeting we will make a decision, and we hope that it will have the success of the Agora merchandise.

What about the proposals’ process? Do you know the final result, but not what happened in between? Is what was obtained exactly what the proposers wanted to? If you wondered about at least one of these things, then keep reading the interview.

1. Change of the Visitors’ selection procedure

What actually changes with your proposal in the visitors’ selection process? How will this  influence next Agora selection?

Mattia Abis: The original proposal was a drastic change for the visitors’ selection procedure: we were trying to use the same procedure that locals are using for delegates’ selection. It means a voting at local Agora to create a ranking list of them which the Chair Team could use after. As everybody can imagine, this proposal created a huge debate and it has been modified.

What were the amendments? And are you satisfied with the result?

Mattia: Three amendments were presented: one by Mathijs Waegemakers (AEGEE-Enschede), which we rejected, a second one was made by Maurits Mink (AEGEE-Maastricht) which we accepted.  The third one, presented by Mário Branco (AEGEE-Paris), we rejected as well, but after a voting on the amendment the Prytanium wanted to keep it, however as we did not agree with the amendment we rejected it for a second time. The amendment was put to a vote in the plenary which approved it. So the final proposal was as follows: the selection is made by the Comité Directeur (CD) and Chair Team, while taking into account the ranking made by the local board.

The Proposal has been approved with 81% of votes in favour. Beyond what happend to our original proposal, I can say that we are satisfied: it was the first time we were presenting a proposal during a Prytania and it was wonderful to see how many people were involved in the discussion and that we contributed to improve our Association.

2. Nationality Quota for the Mediation Commission

When did you reach the decision of making this proposal and why?

Fabian Brüggemann: The decision to hand in the proposal concerning the nationality quota for the Mediation Commission was reached after the candidature presentations, realizing that we have 3 people sharing the same (Dutch) nationality. Talking to the representative of the Juridical Commission (JC) being present at the Agora we were told that they would probably be strict with interpreting the CIA. This would have meant that only two out of the three Dutch candidates – the ones with the most votes – would become members of the Mediation Commission. Having been president of the Mediation Commission for one year and a half, I know quite well that it is important to have different opinions and point of views in the Mediation Commission. So it is better to have 4 members (plus the JC President) than only three – which would have been the case if the CIA would have been applied strictly.

On the other hand, even if the JC would have said that one of the members was allowed to use his second (German) nationality, there could have been a case where – theoretically – the Mediation Commission takes a decision, after which an antenna suffering from that decision might say “but the way the Mediation Commission is composed is not according to the CIA! So your decision is not valid.” We wrote the proposal in order to prevent both of these possible problems.

You might say this is a lot “what if” and all this is very theoretical – and I do agree with that, but since we had the chance to avoid the above mentioned situations, we decided to go for it. So concretely the Network achieved more clarity and less uncertainty. Again, this is all very theoretical, but we decided to stick to our own rules and not just say “uh, we just do it the easy way”.

3. Decreasing the number of financial presentations & Change of the term of the internal financial year

What is the aim of the first proposal?

Anna Gots: The aim of the proposal was basically to ease both the life of Financial Director of AEGEE-Europe and of Agora members by lessening the amount of financial presentations at the Agora to the amount absolutely necessary to give a full overview of the finances of AEGEE-Europe.

And are you satisfied with the result? Were there any amendments?

Anna: There were no ammendments to the proposal suggested. I assume that’s because the proposal was developed much in advance and in cooperation with another experienced member: Tom Simons (AEGEE-Enschede). In fact, initially it was his idea that was successfully realised by this proposal.

Before your second proposal the internal financial year ended the 31st of July like your CD term. How  will things change after this proposal?

Anna: To be precise, last year the CD term officially ended on 31st of August, providing a shift of one month between the end of the internal financial year and the CD year. Since in Agora Budapest the term of CD was changed in a way that it should end on 31st of July, the aforementioned shift was lost, leaving the Financial Director not many chances to close internal financial year while still being in the office. So this proposal just fixed this discrepancy, returning things to normal.

Is it the result  you expected? Were there any amendments?

Anna: Indeed, it’s the result I’ve been aiming at. There was only one amendment suggested by the former Secretary General – Alma Mozgovaja – still during the process of online consultation, which I incorporated in the final version of the proposal. The amendment concerned the amount of days Financial Director can stay in the office after the end of his/her term. Namely the fact that it shouldn’t be more than seven days.

4. Removing the Main Fields of Action

Why did you decide to present this proposal? How did you come up with it?

Ana Potocnik: During the Identity meeting, where we were drafting the new Identity document with the Identity team and CD, we realized, that the Main Fields of Action do not reflect the reality of our organisation. They are not concrete and they do not describe what we do in AEGEE, some aspects of our work (especially that of the EnWG, HRWG, Health for Youth, and Youth UnEmployment) were not covered. Moreover in the survey we launched before Agora Budapest, more than 70% of our members stated that they believe AEGEE does not contribute to two of the Main Fields of Action (Higher Education and Peace and Stability). We (the Identity team) believed that the structure of the new Identity document -which was ratified by Agora Zaragoza, presents all aspects of AEGEE. This makes the Main Fields of Action an unnecessary element of the Identity. The Identity document that we have now consist of: VISION – what AEGEE dreams about, what do we want our future to look like, MISSION – how does AEGEE contribute to this future, MEANS – what exactly do we do and what are the tools to achieve the Mission, STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES – which values do we stand for.

Were there any amendments? And are you satisfied with the result?

Ana: Yes, we and the CD are satisfied. There was only one amendment, suggested by JC. Our team missed the fact that the Main Fields of Action are also mentioned in another part of the CIA. They suggested to avoid confusion and nonsense in the Statutes by changing this part as well. Besides that there was nothing, about which I was quite surprised. The proposal was accepted easier than I expected.

5. An updated AEGEE identity

How will members and Antennae benefit from this ?

Maria Arends: With this updated Identity, it is much clearer what AEGEE is actually about. That makes it easier to explain it to members and future members, as well as externals. Even though it might not be phrases you know by heart, from this you can remember and, more importantly, understand the scope of the association, which makes it much easier to share.

Are you satisfied with the result?

Maria: Personally yes, I am very happy with it. The reason why I wanted to join the Identity Meeting and later the team, is that I felt AEGEE’s structure was chaotic and hard to explain -even if you are an active member. That’s why I think it is much better now: now I know what to tell people!

For further information: https://www.zeus.aegee.org/statutoryvote/jc/view_public.php?proposal_id=54

Written by Cosmina Bisboaca , AEGEE-Torino

“Against. – Against. – Against. – …” At the Agora Zaragoza, the Focus Area named “Peacebuilding” received a clear negative vote. Does that mean that AEGEE is not interested in this topic, or do we believe we don’t have the capacity to work on it? Or is there a different explanation? – A short inquiry into one of our favourite misconceptions.

Peace in Europe is a normality for most of us. This doesn’t mean that we do not have conflicts, but at there have been only a few occasions in the last 68 years where Europeans have taken up arms to settle disputes. For a reason that you will come to understand in the course of this article, I am not going to mention any regions here as ‘examples of armed conflicts in Europe’. But most of us have probably have heard about some of the conflicts that have taken place in Europe recently.

In AEGEE, the way we speak about these conflicts sometimes reminds me of the way my grandma used to speak about her quarreling grandchildren. “C’mon kiddos, don’t be bad, if you stop fighting and just forget about your argument you will get some of my cherry cake!” You may remember that when you were a kid, you weren’t particularly fond of such interventions (even if you were fond of cake), simply because your quarrel was your own business, and you felt that you weren’t being taken seriously.

Now an armed conflict is a bit different from children quarreling. This seems like a redundant statement, but I believe we need to realise that we are not talking about a boy who destroyed his brother’s Lego castle. Forgiving and forgetting becomes difficult when your father was killed, your sister raped, your house burnt and your society filled with thoughts of hatred and revenge. Trauma is still there, even when the last survivors of the war are dying of old age. Peacebuilding after war is something that takes generations.

We have quite a number of Locals in our network that are located in areas which have been affected by armed conflicts over the past decades. For me it was interesting to observe that nearly all of the locals from these areas (with only two exceptions) voted against Peacebuilding as a Focus Area. It made me wonder about why this Focus Area was proposed in the first place – had anyone ever approached these Locals for their opinion? I have been asking the delegates who voted in the plenary to comment on their decision and I will to let two of them speak for themselves.

In the words of Mert Can Yılmaz (AEGEE-Ankara):

•  “Our argument was that we have already chosen four big topics. Each of them has several aims. […] And we think that working in detail is better than achieving aims superficially.”
  
• “On the other hand, we thought peacebuilding […] is a little difficult issue in Eastern Europe.”
• “As AEGEE-Ankara, we’d like to work on peacebuilding. Besides, we have already been working on it. As an example, we did the Turkish-Greek Civic Dialogue Project. And the AEGEE-Ankara Turkish-Armenian Working Group has done a project and sereval events. We are looking for more.“

Silvija Perić (AEGEE-Zagreb) adds:

• “I’m not saying we’re against the “Peacebuilding”, but we thought it wouldn’t work out as a Focus Area since people feel annoyed when others give advice or try to help with dealing with situations they can’t possibly understand.”
• “I love mediation, but you have to know when you can use it and when is best to wait patiently until there is space for compromise and work. We should do peacebuilding, but as careful observers who are not here to judge, give advice nor trying to ‘make things better’. We should be the ones who will go there to help them with what they need, to listen, to be friends with them and in the end, just be there for them, understanding that sometimes being there next to them in silence tells and helps more than words.”

Who could have said it better?

I still believe that AEGEE has a huge potential for peacebuilding. But it is not our task to settle territorial disputes or find a political balance in a conflict of interest. We are not in a position to mediate or give advice, and we should not try. What we are good at -and what is needed, goes along Silvija’s last lines: creating friendship, understanding and solidarity, just by bringing people together and so we realise that we share the same interests, worries, and love for life. And if the situation allows it -with some intelligent facilitation, it may be even possible to “talk about it”. But that should not be our main objective.

As AEGEE-Ankara’s example shows, we have achieved important things in the past. We have a unique capacity to build bridges where others can’t. Now we have decided not to have a Focus Area about it, but that doesn’t mean we must be idle. Maybe it is even better not to have a Focus Area, because that might have created wrong (result-oriented) expectations.

Peacebuilding, in this broader understanding, should be our daily ambition, in every event we organise. Our societies are full of small conflicts and misunderstandings, prejudices and stereotypes, ignorance and mistrust that we can help resolving. And by doing so, we probably make a greater contribution to our Europe without borders than we will ever realise.

Written by Thomas Leszke, AEGEE-Köln

October was a month of preparations… for the ZarAgora. So expect to read many stories of endless meetings, preparing powerpoints, discussing Progress Meetings. But not only, since we also participated in several events around the network and did other interesting things. Join us on the trip about what we did while preparing for ZarAgora.

LUIS ALVARADO MARTÍNEZ – President

October started with some meetings at the European Parliament, interviewing some of the leaders of the EU Political Groups about their priorities for the upcoming European Parliament Elections 2014, which will be included in the Voting Guide of Y Vote 2014. After this, I flew to Greece as CD representative in NWM Thessaloniki were I could really see how motivated and willing our members are. With lots of structured work they will soon become very strong.

Directly after the NWM, I went to my home town in Las Palmas, but this time for a Y Vote 2014 Convention on Bridging the EU democratic gap which was a total success. Happy and active participants, many decision makers and personalities present, and mentions in the media showing our work.

After that I was back to Brussels for the kick off meeting with partners of our EVA (Erasmus Voting Assessment) new project, researching to see if participating on ERASMUS has an influence in participating in the European Parliament elections. A few days later I went again to the European Parliament with Kathrin for the second ceremony where AEGEE was awarded the Charlemagne Youth Prize for its project Europe on Track, prize received from the hands of President Martin Schulz.

After some more days in Brussels preparing everything for the Agora, I had to fly to Madrid to participate as speaker at a Conference called “Foro Ético”, and then I went directly to Strasbourg as I was selected to become member of the Ad Hoc Task Force on Youth Rights of the European Youth Forum (YFJ) and to set the agenda of the Forum on the topic, for the next years, especially related to the Council of Europe and the United Nations.

Directly after that, I went back to Spain for the Agora, where I had the pleasure of meeting all of you once again and making a very big step in the history of the organisation. I’m proud of the results of Agora Zaragoza 2013 and thank you all for the big effort. See you all around Europe.

LUCILLE RIEUX – Secretary General

October has been a really busy month. It started off with attending our partners’ event on the Recognition of Youth Workers, a project where AEGEE is partner and with which Madalena, our employee is working. I was in Krakow for 3 days following the development of the project.

I spent the beginning of the month, establishing the work with internal bodies with which I will be working this year, such as the Policy Officers, the Events Committee (notably working on transforming the Events Committee into a Quality Assurance Committee), and the Academy, since I am newly CD appointed member there.

In the middle of October, I had a very busy week attending external events, like the EUCIS-LLL board meeting, as well as the Education and Training Forum from the European Commission, where new features and insights on the Erasmus+ programme have been presented.

In the second part of the month, I focused my work on the preparation of the Agora, notably working on the strategies that we have presented at the Agora, such as the Policy Strategy of AEGEE-Europe (to engage and structure the work of AEGEE in policy), the Secretariat Strategy (with the views to develop a plan in order to have paid staff working in AEGEE), but also the Non Formal Education Internal Strategy (aiming at increasing AEGEE’s quality in Non Formal Education, as well as creating an internal tool for recognition). Along the way, I have also worked on Y Vote 2014 project, contributing by writing an article on the need for real European Elections in 2014 and supporting the team in other tasks. I have of course dealt with general Secretary General activities, like managing the head office, taking minutes during our weekly CD meetings etc.

Finally, the month ended up in Zaragoza, where I was very happy to meet again active volunteers and friends from accross the continent, and which was also the chance for me and the rest of my team to get some feedback, to share the current initiatives and projects we are working on, and get some inspiration from the network!

ANNA GOTS – Financial Director

As Pavel mentioned wittily, “Agora” month was extremely busy for me but extremely productive at the same time.

Of course 70% of my time this month was dedicated to Agora preparations, namely:
– calculation of the membership fees and dissamination of the information to the locals;
– preparation of Agora booklets together with Pavel and Madalena;
– constant and intensive, especially this month, communication with both the Chair team and local organizers;
– negotiation on the contract for Agora Patra;
– preparation of the financial documents (reports and budgets);
– and on the very last days – preparation of the registration desk, presentations and non-disclosure agreements for newly elected members.

Moreover I was catching up with some of my points in our Activity Plan; firstly when working together with Mediation Commission and Pavel on Data Privacy Policy, secondly while finalising the purchase of the new bookkeeping software for the head office – UNIT4 from Multivers and lastly by contributing to advocacy actions of European Youth Forum (YFJ) on Visa Directive by sending a request for implementation of further amendments to all MEPs of LIBE (Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs) committee.

Besides all that I was contributing to our external projects by preparing financial guidelines for the EVA project,
and finding replacement for the EduCoach project in the person of Anna Pykhtina and Sergiy Lahtadir from AEGEE-Kyiv.

KATHRIN RENNER – Vice President and External Relations Director

October was, as to be expected, a full and stressful month of Agora preparations. After coming back from a weekend in Passau, I was dealing with the printing companies of the Key to Europe and the merchandising, being in touch with local organizers, the Study “Fairies” (Anna, Olga, Dasha and Mada), and the universities and partners for the Study and AEGEE Fair. At the same time, together with Luis and Anna, I was preparing the kick-off meeting of the EVA project, which happened on the 14th of October in the AEGEE house.

I had the chance to attend the presentation of Europe on Track in the CULT Committee of the European Parliament and shake the hand of Martin Schulz, once again celebrating our success with the project and the award Charlemagne Youth Prize.

Another big point this month was the selection of the new Liaison Officers and the new Pool of Representative. Out of a total of more than 40 applications, we selected 17 representatives and 6 new Liaison Officers. For this, with many of them, I had separate interviews, to get to know them better and make sure that they have the qualifications needed to represent AEGEE externally.

The rest of the time was spent in CD meetings to prepare Agora, finalizing the Identity Process to present at the Agora, creating presentations and arranging all the little details of the Agora.

BEÁTA MATUSZKA – Network and Human Resources Director

October was an extremely active month and not only because of the Agora, but beside many tasks, I also spent two-third of the month on the road. We had the very first Network Meetings of this autumn, so in the beginning of the month I was preparing training outlines, I was consulting with the trainers and NetCommies on program and on the knowledge that we wanted to pass to the participants. I was a Comité Directeur representative in Network Meeting in Foggia.

After the Network Meeting, I was representing AEGEE at the meeting of IFISO (Informal Forum of International Student Organisation) in Lisbon, Portugal which is a forum for best practice sharing and a perfect place to work on future common projects. We had the possibility to discuss the knowledge management, the alumni network, the online training and fundraising strategies in the different organisations.

After this meeting I had a full week to catch up with the craziness of the Agora: I was finalising the Network Status update, I was in daily contact with many locals and basically in hourly contact with the NetCommies, I was preparing the European level meeting which has been organised for 34 participants which is a platform created for the European level bodies in order to share best practice, discuss issues on the European level in order the strengthen not only these bodies and the European level, but also the whole association.

Besides, I also finished the final draft of Human Resources Cycle manual which has been presented at the Progress Meeting at the Agora. With Pavel, we were working on the Network development strategy and on the relation of the locals and AEGEE-Europe with Kathrin, these topics were also presented at the Progress meeting on the Network.

PAVEL ZBORNIK – European Institutions and Communications Director

Agora month, also known as October, started for me with the long time needed ITC meeting in Thessaloniki, which was parallel event to NWM. Outcomes of this meeting will be soon transformed in a long term IT strategy for AEGEE which includes new Online Membership System.

Right after ITC meeting, I started to inform the network about Visual Identity, as the tool for logo generation was developed at this time, and also provide the Network with templates for PR materials.

In parallel I was working on YouthRights.NOW Campaign which was launched last month, and coordinated implementation of new translation and on-line promotional campaign. And also helped Anna to design Agora booklets, to have a fresher design than in the past and in line with the Visual Identity.

Third week, before I left for Vienna for Youth Barcamp to discuss Online Active participation of youth, I was working on Communication Strategy which should be presented for feedback next month, which includes definition (and at some point re-definition) of information flows in our organisation.

Last week of the month was full of Agora preparations, preparing presentation and the three Progress Meetings which I was responsible for.

MIGUEL GALLARDO – Projects Director

I spent most of October in Brussels, which allowed me to focus on the elections of the Working Groups, a very demanding task; but a very rewarding also when you see the new WG teams to start planning their year, with new initiatives and ideas developing into learning experiences and opportunities to change the world.

We hosted in Brussels a team meeting of the EuroArab team, bringing together European members of the team with also one member of the team from Tunisia. It was a very enriching experience to see the different ways of working, and watching live how understanding was built through discussion. I am sure the project will bring many good news soon to our association.

In Brussels, I had the opportunity to represent AEGEE at the meeting of an innovative project to create a new system to rank universities according to a selection of criteria made by the person, and not predetermined. The project, supported by the European Commission, has AEGEE as one of the partners to provide them with a Student’s point of view to test the system.

On the travel side, I had the opportunity to attend the Y Vote convention in Las Palmas, where I took partly charge of communication with the media, and also worked as trainer in some sessions. The event was a great opportunity to see old friends from that local, and to meet with some new members as well, and we discussed recommendations to bridge the democratic gap in the EU institutions.

Finally, after some days of intense Agora preparations, with endless meetings and presentation preparations, I took one day off to travel to Alicante. My local was organizing a Pre-event “Mediterraneanly”, together with the Health4Youth project and I took the opportunity to visit them, also my friends and family, before going to the ZarAgora.

MADALENA SOUSA – Research and Administrative Officer

October came with new experiences for me regarding work development in different fields.

It started with the 3rd partners meeting of the project “Certification of the Qualifications of the Youth Workers in NGOs” in Krakow. This meeting aimed to update the partners on the work developed, to discuss the methodology of the certification tool that will be created, to present our part of the Pan-European Database. As we are one of the partners responsible to bring together expertise and the advocacy process, we also presented to them the idea of creating a Pool of Experts. More than a database with information, we want to increase the impact of this project creating the “space” of discussion and team work in the field of advocacy for a better recognition of Youth Workers. Therefore we believe that this Pool of Experts composed with experienced people and experts on the field will be the sustainable base for a more constructive work and knowledge-base. The partners welcomed this idea and appreciated that this could be managed through the contacts within the database.

Another new challenge presented there by AEGEE, was the 2nd visibility event that we will organize on the 5th of December at the European Parliament aiming to present the project and its tools, to share the European priorities for Youth Work – Recognition and certification of Skills and Competences , discuss the challenges in the youth field in this context, what is the strategic pathway for recognition on policy level, actions for the future and also to gather relevant stakeholders working in the same field for a stronger discussion and debate reinforcing the purpose, efficiency and collaboration within the database.

Apart from this meeting and its follow-up, I was also representing AEGEE at the International Education Forum on Sustainable Development organized by the EU-China Friendship Association that took place under the World Green Design Forum. This event aimed to create the space to present the political agenda and share best practices on Education and Sustainable development under the cooperation between EU and China. This event brought some new information on possible cooperation links and new ideas for the work in Education promoted by AEGEE-Europe.

Another new challenge was participating in the partners Meeting of the EVA Project. I was invited by the Board to follow the meeting to be aware of the project, our responsibilities and its dynamic in the sense of collaborating on it further on.

Besides the normal work I develop in Education, I was attending the Agora for the first time. It was an amazing experience that gave me the opportunity to better understand the dynamic of the organization, meet the members and follow the discussions in some of the sessions and at the plenary. This was the purpose that AEGEE-Europe invited me to go and also to give support in some sessions. I must say that was a very important role to my future work in AEGEE.

PS: Thanks to Jorge Sanchez (AEGEE-Alicante) for taking the header picture of Comité Directeur in Agora Zaragoza Opening Day.

How do you feel about being an antenna already?
We are really proud of it, because we have been working very hard to be upgraded. It was our dream when we started and now it has become true. But this is only the beginning.

What local activities do you organize to motivate members?

Normally we arrange social meetings in bars, go for tapas and wine, have endless dinners where we discuss about our next steps… On the other hand, we also enjoy hiking, cycling and going on weekend trips, an amazing opportunity to make knowledge transfer with a less intense planning than a Local Training Course (LTC).

This summer you organised your first Summer University, how did it go?
At first we had to do a huge effort because we did not have all the contacts we needed in Valladolid. Eventually, and after a lot of lodging problems, we found very interesting contacts and they were nice enough to organize quite a good TSU, according to the evaluations.

Will you organize a Summer University (SU) next year as well?

We are not sure. It depends on how many active members we can count on during the Summer period in Valladolid. Nevertheless, we have such good memories from our last SU that we will try our best to organize it again.

You also organized a Y Vote 2014 event, why did you choose to do so?

At that moment our motivation was growing and several of our most active members were really interested in the topic of the next Parliament Elections, so we decided this was the best opportunity for our antenna to show that we could also organize an event focused on a serious topic for youth and really contribute to the important projects being developed within our association. With regard to the topic, AEGEE-Valladolid liked the focus and the objectives of Y Vote 2014 project, therefore we supported it very strongly. We consider that, in these hard times for Europe, it is important that the voice of youth is heard by the European leaders, especially the EU parliament members, so we can help improve the future of Europe.

How did the event go?
Undertaking this project was a true challenge for such a young antenna and we are really happy about the results. The organization was tough, due to the lack of active members in our antenna, but we were happy to see how all our members came together to help out during those days. The event was a success especially thanks to our highly-motivated participants and all agreed on the relevant lessons learnt through the interesting program developed by the Y Vote 2014 team and the logistics and cultural activities we provided. More importantly, thanks to this project AEGEE-Valladolid gained greater recognition within our City Hall, our university and quite a few local and regional institutions and we are convinced this will come in handy during future events.

What lies in the future plans of AEGEE-Valladolid? What will you be working on in 2014?
We are thinking about organizing a language tandem in the city to be in contact with Erasmus students, attract new members and activate the ones we already have.

Moreover, as AEGEE didn’t exist in Valladolid, the antenna is establishing contacts with all kind of bodies and entities (University, associations, City Hall…) so it’s very complicated in the beginning. That’s why our biggest milestone is getting the full recognition from the University of Valladolid and we will continue working very hard on it. This recognition will make it possible to reach a significant step for us in Valladolid, so we will be able to access a huge amount of students and an important support to organise events and to establish alliances.

It is great to see a new antenna working on so many projects, contributing to the Network in a great manner and at the same time managing to grow. 

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

In Agora Zaragoza we saw changes to the Network Commission. Emotional goodbyes had to be said to Claudio Armandi, Bartek Sudorowski, Pilar Lop, Inez Wenta, and Andra Toma. At the same time the ZarAgora gave a warm welcome to Arsenis Tselengidis, Pauline Létard, Holger Schmidt, Mateusz Dokurno and Mattia Abis. In this NetCom telegram you will get to hear about what Bartek, Inez, Vira, Dominique, Patricia, Pauline and Claudio did the months prior to the big event in Zaragoza, while working for the Network Commission. 

Bartek

Bartek Sudorowski

Recently I have been struggling with an unpleasant event in my family life. This was the main reason that I decided o detach from any other activities for a short period of time. However, that does not mean that I did not work. I am working on preparation for Autumn Network Meeting together with my fellow Network Commissioner Inez Wenta and AEGEE-Poznań. I am also keeping in touch with the coordinators of EBM in Lublin. I have a fresh update of progress on the preparation of the project. From 6th to 12th September I was co-organizing the Academic Campus Swinoujscie 2013, the event where freshmen students can adapt to students’ life. I was promoting AEGEE and I was giving trainings on PR, HR, and public speaking. I also have changed the team of AEGEE.pl website and am working on finalizing the work. Moreover I’m working on the expansion of the Network, but this case is so fresh that I don’t want to say anything more about it untill it will happen.

Claudio

Claudio Armandi

I cannot write my last NetCom Telegram without getting a bit emotional. It’s been a great year that will leave me with a lot of wonderful memories. They normally say “Netcommie once, Netcommie forever”. I will feel always a bit responsible and protective towards my beloved locals, even if I am sure they will be in safe hands for the upcoming years.

In August, most of my locals were busy with their Summer Universities and they sometimes needed just small advise. Two of my Contacts were busy preparing their statutes for the big moment in which they signed the Convention d’Adhésion in Zaragoza.

September has been quite hectic. There were many candidates from my locals, and I was in touch with all of them. Furthermore, many locals needed a bit of assistance for Agora-related bureaucracy. In this month I also selected participants for my last Network Meeting in Foggia and defined the program.

September was also the month of my final and biggest achievement. Italian locals finally submitted an official request to join their national Youth Forum. It was the only point in my plans that I hadn’t fulfilled yet. Now I can say I did my homework!

Dominique

Dominique Lenssen

Now Summer has ended and everything is getting back to normal. Well, ‘normal’…. With the Agora coming closer and closer, my work as a NetCommie was as busy as always! Staying in touch with locals to remind them about all the deadlines, answering questions, checking the status of locals together with Beata Matuszka and so on.

Where August was for my locals all about gaining new members during their introduction weeks, September was the month in which the boards of most of my locals changed. This meant getting to know the new board members! A perfect opportunity to do this are ‘constitution drinks’, where board members come to a local to congratulate the new board. I have been to these meetings of AEGEE-Enschede, AEGEE-Delft and AEGEE-Leiden, which was a perfect opportunity to meet many new boards at the same time.

Also the preparations for the NWM are going well. In my last Activity Report you could read that the NWM would take place in Nijmegen, but due to logistical reasons this has been moved to Utrecht. The theme for NWM Utrecht is ‘Key to your AEGEE future’, so apply now if you want to learn everything about the future of AEGEE, the development of your local and so much more in the beautiful city of Utrecht.

Inez

Inez Wenta

The Summer ended, but… the whole new academic year started! As you know there’re many new boards starting their work, so also many hours of knowledge transfer! It’s great to see all the motivation and passion for AEGEE and I hope everyone will succeed in their amazing plans.

Also preparation for the NWM Poznań “Share your secret. AEGEE Know-How.” started to be really intensive. Together with Bartek and the coordinator Justyna Zielska from AEGEE-Poznań, we want to create an unforgettable experiance for you all. I hope that this will be the opportunity to meet, discuss and create new ideas for people all over the Network!   Almost 200 AEGEEans in one place? And it’s not EBM? It’s possible! Just come to Poznań!

I’m very happy to say that I see the Network evolving and exploring new grounds – amazing projects are coming up! We’re trying to make some more steps. Even if Summer ended and we’re again working and studying, in the new academic year we gain a fresh start, great ideas and an amazing amount of positive energy! How can you not love AEGEE?

Vira

Vira Kakhnych

It has been a stressful month due to Agora preparations and organizing a Network Meeting. Trying to keep in constant contact with a variety of AEGEEans (considering a huge time difference) was very challenging. A big huge ‘thank you’ to my subcommissioners and the excellent team of Rostov-na-Donu for their efficiency in collaboration and great ideas. Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to attend this Agora, but I have heard it was awesome.

I would also like to take this opportunity and welcome the new colleagues in Network Commission! Guys, I wish you all the best for this term! Welcome to our family!

Patricia

Patricia Anthony

Before the Agora I was finishing up my internship in Valladolid (Spain) and at the same time I had to deal with personal health matters. Luckily I have an amazing team helping with preparation of the upcoming Network Meeting in Tartu. Maria Arends and Sergio Oliveros have been working hard on preparing the program for it and I am sure that it will be great and I am beyond jealous that I cannot go, as taking part in NWMs is one of my favorite things in AEGEE. Instead I keep trying to find ways to help the antennae from home with improving and before the Agora I tried in every possible way to ensure that the delegates came prepared to Spain, and indeed they came to Zaragoza full of knowledge about the event.

Pauline together with fellow Network Commissioner Mattia Abis – Picture courtesy of Golden Times

Pauline Létard

October was a month quite busy for me because I have been preparing the Agora in three ways. First as a delegate of AEGEE-Toulouse, I read all the candidatures, proposals and activity reports and talked about it with my antenna and some friends of mine. Then as subcommie, I worked together with Pilar and the Tripulación 5.1 to make sure all the delegates of our area were getting all the information needed for the Agora through the Facebook group we created. Guillermo Macia Diaz, from AEGEE-Alicante, summed up the proposals in Spanish. Based on his work, we wrote a guide for delegates in English: a sum up of the proposals and a voting guide “how to choose the best candidate”. I contacted all the bodies whose members would be elected at the Agora in order to give to the delegate an idea of what is the “ideal candidate” for the positions concerned. Thirdly I was also preparing the Agora as candidate for Netcom. For this reason this Agora was really special for me, a new step in my AEGEE life, the Agora during which I became Netcommie!

Written by the Network Commission

Two weeks before the official opening of the Autumn Agora 2013 I had already started counting the days and looking forward to the moment of flying to Spain; waiting for the moment to see Barcelona again; waiting for something unique without knowing at the same time what to expect. Approximately one week after the official closing ceremony of Zaragoza, I am still trying to find the proper words to describe one of -in my opinion- the best events I have attended. I am taking and changing a quote I read somewhere, possibly in an article by our member of the Comité Directeur, Kathrin Renner (sorry, but you inspired me!) : “I was not there to visit places, but to meet unique people; to get unique experiences”.

On November 3rd I was in the airport waiting for my flight to get back to Greece; fully tired and far from sleepless, but with a wide smile. In that moment I realized that every AEGEE event finishes the same way: leading you to check the intranet for the next ones; motivating you more and more as an AEGEEan; getting you even more addicted!

ZarAgora! I can so easily recall my first thoughts when I entered the Palacio de Congresos. I had convinced myself I would focus on the registration and inmediately afterwards, before anything else, I would search for a good spot I could fit my sleeping bag. Some seconds after, a turnover come!! I was overwhelmed by many tight hugs, “champing at the bit” laughs and “up-to-the- ears” smiles! My luggage was abandoned and I was surrounded by people I count as friends for good! People I had meet at Summer Universities, Youth in Action programmes, previous Agorae or other AEGEE events. People who show strongly the spirit of any AEGEE relationship: “time passes so fast but it is like nothing has changed at all”.

ZarAgora! An Agora which was dressed up with the perspectives of “one of the best Agorae” and after these five days I have to admit it by myself… ZarAgora was rocking! An Agora with the privilege of our sleeping area to be a few breaths away from the auditorium; an Agora with red-hoodied organizers and helpers, with surprisingly interesting plenaries and interactive workshops, with crazy non-stop parties; an Agora with an -all the time full- info desk, with comfortable seats for sleeping AEGEEan, with a fancy and flashy photographer (Jorge Sánchez Hernández); an Agora with these five T-shirts “unique in the whole world” as the advertisement was (BRAVO Lucía Molina for the photoshooting!)… An Agora with A STORM OF DELIGHTFULLY-TASTING CHOCOLATES!

Counting this one as my third Agora, I can recognize that every time the cubit is getting higher and higher. This time, though, I am more than thankful to this Agora. I am speaking on behalf of my local, because my antenna is officially upgraded! But I am also speaking personally, for the moments I experienced a couple of days before, during and after ZarAgora! I end up that being an AEGEEan means to make life better than movies are and are not afraid to think out of the box! The last thing I just can do is to thank this strong team with these endless positive energetic people who give breath to ZarAgora!

See you around Europe

P.S.: don’t forget… Spring is coming! Be prepared for Spring Agora Patra 2014!

Written by Evi Topali, AEGEE-Ioannina