2015 - Pushing Limits, Breaking Records

board members: Marja Pentikäinen (president), Laura Uusitalo (vice-president), Jenni Röynä (vice-president), Tim Backhaus, Iina Lappalainen, Iida Lyly, Viktor Salenius

In 2015, EYP Finland’s goal was to be more professional, visible and versatile. As a result, a record number of events were held, including the National Session in Turku, four Regional Sessions in Kauniainen, Kangasala, Kuopio and Kaarina, an extensive school tour together with Regional Committees, 23 parliamentary simulations in schools, Head Organisers’, Journalists’ and Chairs’ Trainings, and the first-ever Development Days (Järjestöpäivät). In addition, several other events were organised together with the Regional Committees, including Summer Days, Alumni Weekend and Annual Ball. EYP Finland was also active in several projects related to the Finnish Parliament elections, and participated in Suomi Areena in cooperation with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. All in all, we were represented in over 30 external events. However, the biggest push and event of the year was Tampere 2015 – 79th International Session of the European Youth Parliament.

As in 2014, we were able to hire a part-time Project Manager. Despite this, the biggest challenge of the year were resources. It became clear that EYP Finland could not grow or even stay in its current state without more funding and employees. To address the issue, in addition to active fundraising, we moved to a more affordable office in Lauttasaari, kept ongoing discussions with the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the board and other active members even raked a farm to raise more funds for the end of the year. The goal was to ensure that in 2016 we would have the financial resources to hire a Secretary General. Another goal was to ensure that EYP stays as a nice hobby which would not take too much resources from its volunteers.

As usual, we were also active internationally, with members attending sessions abroad as delegates and officials over 120 times. EYP Finland also had representatives in EYP Summer Academy and Training for EYP Trainers (T4ET). In the autumn meeting, our official name and rules were updated: the name changed from “EYP-Finland ry” to “European Youth Parliament Finland – EYP Finland ry”.