AN IMPOSTER AT THE NORDIC RECOM

When I began my Local Group presentation at the Nordic Regional Coordination Meeting (ReCoM), I decided to start with a bit of humour. “Just for everybody’s notice,” I announced, “I want to point out that neither Berlin nor Milan is part of the Nordics.” The crowd looked at me with ironic surprise, and I continued by highlighting the differences in structure between my home LG and my current Erasmus LG, and how these differences can be fundamentally different to the situation of LGs in Finnish guilds or Swedish chapters/sections. But how did I even get into the situation of representing two definitively non-Nordic Local Groups at the Nordic ReCoM?

It all started with an invite from a dear friend to join a Sitsit in Lappeenranta in February. With my exams ending the day before, and a cheap flight directly to the city from Bergamo, I saw it as a sign and quickly booked my tickets without thinking much about what I would do in the days following. A couple of days later, during my usual portal scouting, I saw an event pop up on the portal that quickly sparked my interest: the Nordic-ReCoM in Helsinki. I thought to myself, “that does sound interesting,” and quickly messaged the responsible Regional Coordinator (RC) to see if I could join the event. After ensuring that the Nordic delegates had a spot, he allowed me to join, and I was soon very much looking forward to participating in the discussions and seeing some more friends I had met at prior events.

I had initially worried that my experience outside of the Nordics would not be that relevant. However, the opposite turned out to be true. Bringing in some external input allowed for insightful benchmarking, and my prior experience attending ESTIEM events allowed me to share what I learned with the other participants.” In the end, the event turned out to be just as great as I had hoped, with fun evening activities like karaoke night and another Finish/Swedish mixed Sitsit rounding out the experience. Latest after also getting the chance to participate in the annual cruise of Finnish IEM students Tutanic, I truly felt like part of the Nordic “team”.

To my fellow ESTIEM enthusiasts, I recommend taking advantage of the opportunity to join ReCoMs, even if you don’t initially belong to the target group. To our dear RCs, I hope this article can encourage you to consider having one or two spots open for people outside of the region at your next ReCoM!

33rd Board of ESTIEM