A way to our common future! Final version of the programme of Igor JuriĹĄiÄ?, candidate for HI President.
igor.jurisic@youth-hostel.si
Igor JuriĹĄiÄ?, candidate for HI President
Who am I and what skills, references and competences I have for the HI Presidency It is my personal opinion that competences, references and skills are overlapping in many key areas of my past and current work. The aforementioned opinion is the reason I have decided to present them grouped in my past or current achievements and duties in different sectors, as well as not to specify leadership skills separately, but rather to include them in the group as leadership positions on a local, national and international level.
Formal education: Graduated tourism on the Faculty of Economics and business in 1998 Age: 43 Languages spoken: Slovene, English, German, Croatian, Serbian. Communicating also in at least 5 other languages.
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For more information please contact me on igor.jurisic@youth-hostel.si or call me on +386 41 738 094.
Igor Jurišič, candidate for HI President
Competences, references and skills in youth hostelling: - Vice president of Hostelling International since 2012 (and Board member since 2006) - President of HI Slovenia since 2002 - Member of Richard Schirmann committee since 2006 - Member of Central and Eastern European Task group from 2002 to 2006 Other competences, references and skills in youth tourism: - Co-author of National tourism strategy of Republic of Slovenia (in part about youth tourism) - Member of the expert group for the preparation of the European Union’s strategy on social tourism - Lecturing on postgraduate programme “Management in marketing in tourism” at MIB in Trieste, Italy - Lecturing on High school of tourism in Maribor, Slovenia (still active) - Licensed tour manager (still active) -Member of tourism committee at Association of Municipalities and Towns of Slovenia (still active) - First trained trainer for Corporate Social Responsibility in Tourism in Slovenia Competences, references and skills in youth sector: - President of Central European Student Network (CSN) - Member of Members Commission of AEGEE Europe (Association des États Généraux des Étudiants de l’Europe) - Vice rector for Student affairs at the University of Maribor - President of Student organization of University of Maribor - President of committee for youth at Association of Municipalities and Towns of Slovenia (still active) - President of Supervisory board of the Slovenian National Youth Council Other competences, references and skills - Presiding over local municipality council (still active) - President of European Greens in Slovenia (still active) - President of two small size NGOs (still active)
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Draft programme
Introduction to the draft programme “A way to our common future” by Igor Jurišič, candidate for HI President Since I have joined HI 15 years ago (in 1999), the organisation has made many important steps towards the future, but has kept the rules and regulations it had before. The first among the most prominent achievements I would like to mention is the introduction of the IBN online reservation, which made HI a pioneer in online reservations. We have latter moved to the MSP in order to become user-friendlier and to clearly communicate the benefits our members can receive. Next there is the HI-Quality programme we have developed as well as development and launch of the HI 360. Not to forget the “Big Blog Exchange” and all the recognitions it received on the highest international levels. Naturally, besides our common achievements there were also many achievements by National Associations (NA), which are too numerous for such a short introduction. At the same time our network has grown, offering further opportunities for our members and other young travellers. The network itself is extremely diverse, bringing together small and large National Associations, some with a solid financial income and those who are struggling to represent and defend the HI mission and philosophy in a very hostile and competitive environment. Some of our associations have all their hostels bookable online and some only a handful. There are also different positions about the usage of the HI brand, due to various reasons. Also some documents and rules of HI are relatively old and some need to be synchronised with other activities. Even if MSP has replaced the welcome stamps almost a decade ago, we still use the same minimal standards and still calculate membership fee by the same formula. With this in mind I gave my HI programme for after the 50th conference the title:
EVALUATION.CONSOLIDATION.GROWTH These words in that order mean, that we should see where we are now and also what the differences within our network are. Identify the challenges we are facing and also review and revise (if needed) all the rules we have, to better suit the contemporary need. After such an evaluation we need to do all we can to consolidate the network and refresh our rules. We will still remain big or small, new or old, but we should agree and consolidate the basics. The final part of the title is growth. To plan major steps in the future, consolidation is something we need to do first, however there should be a number of possibilities to grow immediately. We will have to take advantage of those opportunities to grow in smaller segments or with pilot projects that will help us a lot in the overall growth strategy. What I mean when I say growth, is not only the growth of a network, but also a growth in our appearance, promotion, PR, web-marketing, HI360 revenue and much more. I can’t go into all the details, but let me share with you some ideas from different fields. Despite careful consideration of the needs of most associations in the network I acknowledge and understand that this programme can’t be perfect without comments and reflections form the respected NA’s and that’s why I will be happy to answer your questions and listen to your reflections and remarks to prepare a final
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For more information please contact me on igor.jurisic@youth-hostel.si or call me on +386 41 738 094.
Draft programme version of the programme I plan to present at the end of May, so more than 2 months before the 50th International conference as promised in my announcement in August 2013. In my draft programme and vision I would like to share with you some views and proposals for achieving a simple but crucial goal:
To preserve and consolidate the leading position in youth accommodation market.
Stable development and smart growth What HI office could and should do for NAs? In the last years I’ve often heard we have HI and NAs. In my view NAs are HI and the HI office is there to satisfy the needs of NAs and represent the whole network as well as all regions and NAs; from those highly developed to those who have recently joined or have found themselves in an unpleasant environment. Parallel to the activities it is currently providing to all, the HI office should recognise differences and based on that tailor activities for different kind of associations. If we only focus on the average and prepare activities based on that we will help only a select few of NAs, which are by chance close to the average. For others such activities would be marginal on one side and too ambitious on the other side. Only with tailor made activities that acknowledge and adapt to the different levels of development, different sizes or with different traditions and positions within the respected country that the NA is operating, will we be able to ensure sustainable stability and growth of HI network. For the small and weak associations or those who have recently joined HI family, the HI office and NAs should prepare an action plan that includes some basic support (like marketing, training‌) with achievable goals to enable them quality work and stabile development. On the other hand, we have a lot of big and well developed associations, who have bigger and more ambitious needs. The HI office has to recognise, that these associations contribute the most to HI and it should listen carefully to their needs and act to fulfil their ambitions. Therefore the HI office has to work towards providing them with activities and services that will preserve their leading position in the youth travel market. With a tailored approach to different associations as described above, we will not only preserve our position in the market but also enable sustainable growth for the HI network.
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Draft programme Sharing of resources and solidarity What NAs could do for HI?
We are all part of the same network and there are always opportunities where we can support someone, but also cases when we need support from others. In most of the cases solidarity doesn’t mean direct financial or material support, but rather a support with advice, experience, templates, existing products or know-how. From that point it’s crucial that we all have better knowledge about all associations, projects and activities. As a network we should not develop everything from scratch in every single NA, but rather evaluate which resources could be shared amongst NAs. Furthermore the HI office also needs experts in different areas. In some cases we need a person to be located in the HI office, but in many cases we could evaluate what we have as a network and use internal resources instead of hiring new employees. There are several highly professional experts in marketing, IT, media and other areas within the network. Outsourcing some tasks to NAs would be more cost effective for the HI office than hiring new employees and the results would be more predictable, as we see the results in NAs. This type of cooperation could also be a new source of revenue for NAs.
HI 360 should be a generator of HI activities In the last few years we have sacrificed a lot of activities and services to support the development of the HI360 platform. Indeed we needed a better web-platform to promote our activities and finally sell overnights in a highly competitive market. NAs might appreciate, that we had to pay our share and downgrade our expectations from the HI office while HI360 was in development, but now that it is complete the HI360 platform should become a generator of HI activities. If HI360 will only cover itself and not generate new opportunities and possibilities as well as activities we have downsized in recent years, than we haven’t achieved our goal. Therefore we should evaluate activities/services we have put in hibernation during the development period and find a consensus on what we should reanimate first, re-establish in the near future and define new activities/services that meet the needs of a changed environment. To maximize usage of HI360, there should also be an incentive for those who will use it properly and create higher revenues. One of the concrete measures could be the rising of commissions on one side and decreasing of membership fees proportionally to the created revenue. Such measure might decrease membership fee of the best users of HI360 down to 0. Consequently HI360 will generate more revenue for HI activities, get better position on search engines, which in turn will lead to a bigger market share.
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For more information please contact me on igor.jurisic@youth-hostel.si or call me on +386 41 738 094.
Draft programme What services/activities should we (re)establish for the NAs My vision of future HI, is based on transparency, co-operation and communication. That’s why we should (re)establish expert and regional groups and activities. I believe we are obliged to work in the best interest of the HI and as mentioned many times, NAs are HI and the HI office should work in the best interest of NAs. In my opinion that’s the only way to provide stability and growth. With groups I do not necessarily mean costly face to face meetings, but also smart usage of technology. There are many areas in which we should increase communication and consultation of experts in NAs, but most importantly we should do it for marketing & social media, values & philosophy, IT and youth activities.
Growth of the HI network and franchise hostels Growth can contribute to the network only if it’s sustainable, well monitored and supported. Without our help and support in the field it is hard to believe that associations eligible for Associate Organisation would appear from nothing. Franchising separate hostels on key destination could be a good start, but without monitoring, support and good communication it won’t be a good long term solution. Providing all tasks from the HI office could be inadequate, very expensive or both. Without good and consistent field support there is a relatively small chance for a new association to be created and sustainable and reliable member association should be a long term solution for promotion of HI values, mission and finally growth of individual membership in the respected country. Therefore HI should provide a quality field service in the countries where we would like to start and develop the HI network and again it would be more efficient, for HI, to use resources we already have in the region. With a constant communication between the HI office, regional structures and NAs, needs and potentials should be identified and a regional structure or NA in the region should be stimulated to start a process, look for potential partners and franchise hostels on behalf of HI. Until a new association is endorsed by HI, regional structures or a neighbouring NA should monitor and support the development of hostels and the hostel network. Such an approach will not only enable regions or NAs to enable our members to use HI facilities in the countries without HI member association, but also ensure the fulfilment of standards, working with the brand guidelines and development of mission based activities.
Global partnerships HI is a global organisation working in both, youth and tourism sector. From that point of view we need to focus on global partnerships and co-operation in both fields. We need to be visible on student and youth activities on the regional and global level. We also need to co-operate with cross boarder and international associations and companies in tourism, to add other tourism product to the real hostel experience (as flights, activities, car rental...). That’s why we need to stimulate our regional groups to start a co-operation with youth and student regional organisations as EUFED did with EYCA recently.
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Hostelling International Slovenia Gosposvetska cesta 86 2000 Maribor tel: +386 (0)2 234 21 37 fax: +386 (0)2 234 21 36 info@youth-hostel.si www.youth-hostel.si www.globetrotter.si