CONTENTS
A LETTER FROM THE MEDIA TEAM MY FIRST EYP EXPERIENCE POSTER THE FUTURE OF EUROPE PICTURE WALL EYP‘S SILTENT HEROES
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
CAROLINE WIDMER (CH) JANNIS BETSCHKI (AT) CESARE DE LA PIERRE (IT) ROBIN HIETZ (AT)
6 10
4
12
8 14
ANJA MARTINOVIC (RS) SOPHIE PERRY (IE)
KARL OBERNOSTERER (AT)
T
wo days ago, you arrived at the session, excited for a weekend of playing politicians and
discussing current problems with your peers. If you’ve heard about EYP from your friends,
you may have guessed what was going to happen, but we hope you didn’t get exactly what you were expecting. As you have experienced in the last three days, EYP is not just academics. It’s more than that – in fact, the things you did when the session started were more or less the opposite. You felt ridiculous playing, and passing the orange was one of the most awkward things you’ve done in your life. And that’s the point. Now, your three days of a completely new and different life that you have enjoyed have come to an end. You may feel sad or depressed because it’s over and you have to resettle and go back to real life and daily routines. It’s difficult, right? It’s called P.E.D. (Post-EYP Depression), and it’s a fixed component of this experience as well. But with that, you are only going to be better EYPers who’ll attend lots of session, travel Europe and, what is most important, meet amazing friends who, from our experience, will last for a long time, even a lifetime. So we want to share some advice with you. The Officials have been working hard to get you out of your comfort zone in order to get the best out of you. It’s not just about stupid games either: It’s about speaking up in Committee Work, it’s about making that speech you’re nervous about. It’s about doing things you didn’t know you wanted to do before you did them. Our advice, now, is to step out of your comfort zone on your own. Take as many opportunities as you can, be open minded, test your limits and be ridiculous. We, the Media Team, have been entrusted with the role of the spectator. It’s sort of a great job: Sitting around, watching you, taking pictures and videos of your best and your worst moments. With this issue, we have tried to preserve some of these moments to take home as a reminder of what you can do when you take a deep breath and just do it.
MY FIRST EYP EXPERIENCE My first Session was the National Selection Conference in Graz in 2014. I had never before realised it was possible to form such good bonds with so many people and I had never realised having fun could be so productive. My first chair was Lena – the current President of EYP Austria - and she was such a fun person and a brilliant chair. She was always there if you needed anything which is something I have found characteristic of most EYPers. My first time going abroad I went to a Forum in Albania. It was crazy to say the least and I got to experience a whole new culture. I met so many fun and interesting people in such a short space of time and it is definitely an experience I will never forget. Jannis Betschki (AT)
I have always had a fear of calling people on the phone without being prepared beforehand, I would always have to have to write down exactly what I wanted to say on a piece of paper before making the call. But when I was Head Organising for the first time I had to make a call to organise a guest speaker for the session. I was hoping to get Edith Cresson to be the speaker as she was the only female President France has ever had and I thought she would be a great role model for the delegates. I had decided on a specific time to call her but I hadn’t yet prepared what I wanted to say to her when, out of the blue, she called me. I was so nervous that I could hardly think of what to say but in the end it went really well. Now, because I have been forced to by EYP, I am able to make phone calls now without being terrified of not saying the right thing. Marie Frostin (FR)
My first time at EYP I was a delegate at an EYP Day in Villach . I never wanted to do EYP but I was forced to by my sister. My sister was really involved in EYP – She was head organising the EYP Day and she’s now the President of EYP Austria - but I never had any interest in politics or languages so I never intended to do EYP like my sister did. But she made me go and I am now so glad that she did. This is the eighth EYP session I have been at now and I hope to go to a lot more in the future. If I hadn’t gone to that first Session I may never have gotten involved in EYP and this Session would be happening at a different time, in a different place, with a whole different set of people. Finja Strehmann (AT)
My first time editing was at the 8th NSC in Novi Sad, Serbia. My Co-Editor was Britta who I had only met five months before hand but we just got on so well that we had been looking for a session to edit together ever since. We only came up with the concept of the theme on the bus on the way to Serbia but it is something that I am really really proud of. The theme for the first day – Teambuliding - was sight because it was everybody’s first time seeing each other so we produced an issue on the first day. The second day – Committee Work – had the theme of sound because the delegates would all be listening to each other’s ideas so we produced a video with loads of different sounds in the background. And the last day‘s theme– GA – was feeling. So we made committee booklets for each committee. Samuel Hönle (AT)
by Sophie Perry (IE)
The Future of Europe This phrase. You are going to hear it all the time in EYP. Mainly by old people: Politicians invited to the session, session patrons, the Headmistress. Everyone seems to believe that you are the future of Europe. Or do they? Are they being genuine? And what is more important – do you believe them? There seems to be a strange sort of dissociation between EYP and real politics. Surely there are EYPers that get into politics later on, but if you look at what we do at Sessions, wouldn’t you expect that almost every participant would like to be a politician? And if we accept that that’s not the case – can EYP still make a difference? Are we the „Future of Europe“? Attending EYP Sessions we are all developing ourselves, whether being delegates or officials. The way we grow as persons and get knowledge is completely different compared to an education we get in schools in the period of more than 12 years. EYP can definitely make a difference, not just regarding politics and diplomacy that we are all trying to bring to the highest level, but also the difference in each of us. For the better. It is not all about the topic you wrote a resolution about, or the English you spoke trying to debate in the best way you can. The most important part that we “extract” from the whole experience is actually behaviour. You may think now that it did not change you, but just wait! EYP teaches us to be people, human beings that differ from other beings because of the emotions and awareness of the environment, that most of the older people forgot to be, or they have never been. The simplest example is overcoming all the differences between each other after less than 15 minutes of playing coin game during Teambuilding. We learn how to be patient, honest, straightforward, brave, self-confident, but what is most important to understand others. We, EYPers, are „The Future“. We have that potential to make this world better, and not only in political perspective. Being engineers, teachers or economists is the same as having a role at 4 days Session. You work on something, and give your best while collaborating with others, proudly producing, in the end, your masterpiece.
Imagine you’re “The Future” It’s feeling strange, but try No apathetic people Though some are kinda shy Imagine all the coffee They bought for just one day Imagine there’s no parties It sort of hard to do Nothing you’re told to vote for A nice committee, too Imagine all the friendships Made in those few days You may say I’m a dreamer Now I’m not the only one We’re happy that you joined us We’ll be proud to see what you’ll become Imagine awkward Merkel I wonder if you can Passing on the orange To some poor Athens man Imagine politicians Playing stupid games You may say I’m a dreamer Now I’m not the only one We’re happy that you joined us We’ll be proud to see what you’ll become by Anja Martinovic (RS) and Robin Hietz (AT)
Organising is sort of an obscure activity if you’re not involved in it yourself. When I was a Delegate for the first time, the borders between the different Officials’ Teams seemed kind of washy: It was all just a big group of slightly older, slightly more serious-looking people, and even after the two Head Organisers had held their speech at Closing Ceremony, I didn’t really have a clue what they had actually been doing at the session. It’s understandable, though – I had barely ever seen them! And although you will understand their role better in time: In all honesty, you’ve got to do it to get it.
So why is it they act so stressed out all the time?
Fast forward to Day 0 – a team has
been assembled, funding has been secured, Delegates are registered and you’ve even got a place to sleep! Now comes the interesting part: Taking care of tens, if not hundreds, of youngsters, getting them where they should be, trying to keep them from starving - while never losing the smile on your face.
Organising, even for an event as small as a Regional Session, starts months before the Session takes place. What takes those guys so long? For one, there’s fundraising – obviously, thirty Euros is not going to cover board and lodging for three days. So the first and possibly hardest task the team faces is to find partners interested in supporting the European Youth Parliament’s activities. Funding is not the only thing you need to sort out far in advance though: Finding Session venues and forming Officials’ Teams are only the most obvious other examples. So a big part of the Organisers’ job is communicating with the big bad world - that is everything outside EYP – and as one will quickly find out, this world takes a long time to answer emails and to pick up the phone. It’s a pain.
So why do you do it?
You do it for the happy faces. You do it for seeing first-timers from your Session becoming Officials and proudly saying “This one’s mine”. And you do it for doing better next time. Many an EYPer who has organised before may know the feeling when their initial visions start to fade away and the only thing left is them trying to somehow keep things running. There is so much that can get in the way, because in the end, organising is about working with people. That is both its curse and, ultimately, its redemption.
EYP‘s silent Heroes
At my first session I didn’t know much about what the Organisers
did except runninwg around and being busy. I could never have realised how important their job is and how much work goes into planning and organising a session. So I wanted to tell them how much we appreciate everything they have done to have us here at the session and to have everything run so seamlessly. I find it amazing that the Organisers can be so busy but also be so lovely and accommodating and do anything you ask of them without hesitation.
During the rare coffee breaks I interviewed some Delegates about what they think the Organisers job is and this is what they thought:
“The Coffee Breaks are amazing! There is sooooooooo much food and drink.” “One of the best things of the Coffee Break is the “bio” cold hot chocolate” “The Organisers are very well organised” “The best thing about the Organisers is that most of the time you don’t even notice that they are there, because they are just working behind the scenes. Most of the time if something does go wrong the Organisers are able to fix it so well that nobody ever notices it.” “If I don’t have to think about what I am going to eat, then everything is fine. At this Session everything is wonderful.”
As you see, the Delegates are really pleased with the Session. They are really glad to be part of such an amazing experience. Additionally, the Officials and the more experienced Delegates are totally surprised because of the good tasting food. All in all, you have organised an unforgettable Regional Session in Carinthia 2016.
by Robin Hietz (AT) und Karl Obernosterer (AT)
Sponsors of the Regional Session Carinthia
Das Europäische Jugendparlament Österreich ist eine Organisation des BEJ/JEF, BEJ/JEF wird unterstützt vom Bundesministerium für Familie und Jugend und dem Bundesministerium für Bildung und Frauen sowie der Stadt Wien (MA 13).
www.eypaustria.org info@eypaustria.org