2016 - Welcoming the Secretary General

board members: Laura Uusitalo (president), Iida Lyly (vice-president), Juuli Salonen (vice-president), Lotta Moisala (today: Moisala-Julkunen), Philippa Rytkönen, Alma Vänttinen, Teemu Weckström

Year 2016 was the second year of the strategy to develop EYP Finland to be more professionally run, to have more varied activities and to be more well-known. Many years of hard work towards professionalisation culminated as we were finally able to hire a full-time Secretary General. This would give EYP Finland new opportunities to develop and lighten the heavy workload of the volunteers. We also hired a project coordinator and had the financial statements officially audited for the first time. Even though we had more funding, the financial situation was still quite tight, which meant that we paid a lot of attention to fundraising applications.

One of the main goals for our activities was to reach more young people from all parts of Finland and different backgrounds. We organised the National Session in Lahti, four Regional Sessions in Lempäälä, Naantali, Järvenpää and Kempele, a school tour, 75 parliamentary simulations in schools, Head Organisers’, Journalists’ and Chairs’ Trainings, Members’

Weekend, Development Days, Summer Days, Annual Ball and an Alumni event. Some of the events were organised together with our five Regional Committees who also organised several local events. We tried to keep participation fees low so that as many young people as possible were able to attend the events.

Our members represented EYP Finland internationally in sessions abroad over 130 times. Board members attended the EYP Summer Academy and Board of National Committees meetings in Berlin, and the Training for EYP Trainers in Aghveran, Armenia. We also coordinated the trip of all Finnish participants to the European Youth Event in Strasbourg.

We worked to make EYP Finland more well-known by increasing cooperation with third and public sector organisations. We represented EYP Finland in several national events such as Suomi Areena, Linnaseminaari, RuutiExpo youth event and an EU Stage panel discussion with members of the European Parliament. Also, we developed our communications further and started preparing an Outreach and Inclusion strategy.