ANNUAL REPORT EYP GEORGIA 2012-2013
A Letter from the President
B
eing a President of most vi-
brant youth organization in Georgia was extremely interesting position for me to hold. Scheduled session, HR Committee tasks, coordination with International Office and managing other Committees’ activities were occasionally overwhelming. However, responsible members of the Board made job enjoyable and interesting. As an organization, we remain as committed as ever to our principles and strategy. EYP Georgia’s institutional development entered a new phase and the National Committee Members were more than ever involved in organizational duties. Second half of the year turned to be very busy. All planned sessions were successfully organized and the gap between the sessions was one month or more. It was very positive that with the huge contribution of the session head organizers we managed to organize 3 regional sessions. It is important to mention that all the National Committee Members more or less were involved in the organization of the 74th International Session; however we managed to organize 4 sessions and worked for organizations institutional development. I hope that the next Board will be a successful successor of our work.
GENERAL VISION OF THE BOARD The Board of European Parliament Georgia was strongly dedicated to manage a successful year in the organization. We have worked on creating organizational knowledge and useful data base for sustainable future development of the organization. We truly believed that the structural division of the organization made it possible to better manage with our resources and create a sufficient environment for self-development. All in all we were planning to organize six regional sessions and 74th International Session of EYP in Tbilisi. Together with active involvement of the National Committee we truly believe that EYP Georgia can overcome all the challenges and create one of the most unforgettable International Sessions in the history of EYP!
The Board of European Youth Parliament Georgia has a pleasure in submitting third Annual Report of EYP Georgia. This report presents fairly the information about organization's activities.
Annual Report 2012-2013 PRESIDENT LETTER
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GENERAL VISION OF THE BOARD
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DEVELOPMENT OF THE STRATEGY
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IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STRATEGY
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FACTS & FIGURES
SESSIONS 2012-2013
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ACHIEVEMENTS
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CHALLENGES
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OPPORTUNITIES RECOMMENDATIONS NEW DIRECTIONS
DEVELOPMENT OF THE STRATEGY The new Board of the EYP Georgia has worked out and published an Action Plan on 20th of November. This document contained new development strategy, priorities and NC organization structure. COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS - The committee priorities were strengthening foreign relations with the whole EYP network. The committee focused on cooperation with EYPs abroad and strengthening its international image around Europe. COMMITTEE ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT – The activities of this committee were considered as one of the priorities of the EYP Board, which intended to make EYP activities open to the entire Georgian youth and help regions to get engaged. The committee aimed the promotion of active citizenship, volunteering, and improvement of knowledge of English in the regions. Besides, the committee planned supporting youth initiatives and using the resources efficiently. Our goal was to transform EYP into the most successful youth organization operating in regions. COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES – The committee aimed raising motivation inside the NC by right appraisal. The creation of the feedback and evaluation database was set as a priority and an important tool for objective decision-making. The committee tried to attract active Georgian citizens to the network. The aim of the committee was raising productivity, decreasing absenteeism and raising motivation inside the organization. One of the goals was to motivate more people to cast their ballots for board and senate membership. COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC RELATIONS AND PRESS - The following committee aimed to provide information about the organization and raise public awareness about its main objectives, achievements as well as future plans. PR and Press is the combination of two sectors which could create the real network of enthusiastic and open-minded young people and inspire them to work together in a friendly and warm environment. The main goal was to make successful and productive projects and accept more and more bright people in order to give our youth an opportunity to gain useful skills and make contribution in the future development of the EYP Georgia. FUND RAISING COUNCIL – EYP Georgia has established a Fundraising Council as a separate body within the Board working with donors and different public or business organizations. The council is working on finding new ways for funding and marketing of our activities. Our donors usually have been universities, schools and local governments in the regions. EYP ALUMNI ACADEMIC COUNCIL – aimed to be responsible for increasing EYP Georgia’s academic performance. The team members had to be chosen by the Board by itself and had to gather successful EYP alumni. The Academic Council was intended to help Chairpersons prepare their committee topics, recheck Preparation Kits and Resolution booklets.
STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS Upon the selection of the new Board of EYP Georgia, Committee on Foreign Relations set its priorities to enhance cooperation with other EYP organizations in Europe. Since the election of new Board of EYP Georgia, EYP Armenia and EYP Azerbaijan were on their initial path to full membership into the EYP international community. Head Office of EYP decided to select EYP Georgia as a buddy for these two countries. Mako ( Mariam) Tirkia (BNC Member) was selected as a buddy for EYP Armenia and EYP Azerbaijan. Throughout the year, Mako was in touch with BNC Buddy Group, coordinated by Sandra Stojanovic. Mako supported the newly established initiatives in those South Caucasian countries and was giving their Boards some recommendations in case of necessity.
Georgia is not organizing Batumi International Forum this year since we are involved in organizational issues of the International Session, implementation of South Caucasus EYP Forum will be a great opportunity to engage EYPers from this region. We hope it is just a matter of time and EYP Azerbaijan will implement this initiative.
In April Mako Tirkia as a BNC member and Chair for Committee of Foreign Relations attended the BNC spring meeting, which took place in Berlin, Germany with Mariam Chubabria, President of EYP Georgia. Two to three times a year, Boards of National Committees, presented by one or two NC representatives meet to work on future policies of EYP, amend already existing rules, plan common activities and enhance cooperation Particularly, EYP Armenia conducted an Essay among NCs. competition for Armenian students and In the past, EYP Georgia was presented on Mako Tirkia was appointed as a member of BNC meetings several times by Giorgi Tabainternational judges for the competition. She gari. Current Board decided to send at least helped EYP Armenia to evaluate these essays one member from our NC to attend BNC meetings annually so that we are fully repreand supported free and fair competition. President of EYP Azerbaijan, Tayfun Gudratli, sented at the discussions. Tsotne Chanturia, was in touch with Mako as a buddy. He had member of our NC just attended another an idea to organize South Caucasian EYP Fo- BNC summer meeting in Berlin. Mariam Churum for Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan to babria will be representing EYP Georgia at the next BNC meeting which will take place in enhance cooperation among these three Caucasian EYP organizations. The idea was ac- London next fall. tively discussed among buddy group, but did not come into reality yet. If EYP Azerbaijan and Armenia both were collaborating among each other, then the forum would have been a great success. Due to the fact that EYP BY Mako Tirkia
COMMITTEE ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Board of the National Committee of European Youth Parliament Georgia has reaffirmed its decision about making the regional development one of its priorities. This decision was realized through the creation of the first Regional Committee of EYP Georgia in Batumi. It was established as a Board based body. The committee is composed of EYPers from Batumi and selected through an open call by the Board of EYP Georgia. The committee is composed of six active members: Salome Gogitidze, Giorgi Kartsivadze, Nino Kukhaleishvili, Nini Sanodze, Lika Tsintsadze and Ruslan Tsulukidze. The latter was the head of the committee. The Committee in Batumi was managed by the head of the Regional Development Committee, Akaki Kukhaleishvili.
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The committee held meetings with representatives from business sector in the region as well.
As a result of our activeness the committee managed to organize the First Batumi School Session on “Active Citizenship for Democratic Governance”. The session gathered 65 participants from Batumi and other parts of Georgia. The session became a strong prerequisite for engaging more EYPers in our activities. 7 Participants were awarded a place on the 7th National Selection Conference of EYP Georgia. The successful organization of the forum has raised the reputation of our organization. The session was broadcasted by the local media and the committee got a strong support for organizing three most important sessions (Batumi School Session, Batumi City Session and Batumi International Forum) in the future.
Committee in Batumi had a strong coordination with the Board of EYP Georgia and has As for other activities in the field of the reimplemented the following activities: gional development, Mariam Maisuradze has contributed by organizing the First Telavi Re• Committee organized presentations about gional Session with the help of Telavi MuniciEYP in most of the schools in Batumi. pality Governance and UNFA Georgia. The Ses• Members of the committee held introduc- sion gathered participants from all over Geortory meetings with different representa- gia and was an important activity in terms of tives of local government of Adjara and strengthening the presence of our organizaagreed upon the future possibilities of tion in Kakheti Region. funding our local activities. BY Akaki Kukhaleishvili
COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES The team initially was composed of Ani Meskhidze, Lasha Vashakidze, Irakli Grdzelishvili and Vass Khurtsilava. As the NC grew, Mako Asatiani, Devi Pirtskhalaishvili and Tamri Matiashvili joined the team. Ia Tserodze expressed her willingness to join the team as well. As the team members of the HR committee were not experienced in doing required tasks it was always challenging to yield whole assignments to the team members. However, by practice the Committee tasks were distributed evenly. We created an email for HR team so that all the application or evaluation forms were accessible by every team member. As the task of Human Resource Committee it to raise motivation inside the NC by fair appraisal system, the Board members (Mariam, Salome and Mako) were involved in filling out applications for the SALTO training programs. The YiA projects cover 70% of traveling, visa expenses and are about the areas of “youth work development, capacity-building and recognition�. During the year we signed the partnership agreements with five youth organizations from 4 different countries (Armenia, Poland, Lithuania or in Macedoni). This means that if the projects are successful (receive support from YiA[1] and local sources) 1-2 NC members will be able to participate in 7 day trainings on social issues in one of these states. The Board will decide which active members of the National Committee deserve a place in these trainings, It is important to note that EYP can submit a project for the similar trainings. So we hope that the project alumni will gain sufficient information about the structure of the YiA projects and will be able to submit one application on behalf of EYP Georgia. Mariam Chubabria is the only EYPer from Georgia who attended this training in Macedonia and later my trainers sent me the information. Attending the training will assist us in building partnerships with other NGOs in Europe who will be interested in incorporating EYP in their projects. (After attending YiA training in Macedonia, my trainers have sent me information about the projects planned in Poland and Macedonia.) As one of the vital tasks of HR team in every institution is to plan trainings for competency management, we organized Training on Team Development held by Fulbright Professor Mr. Roger A. Ritvo.
The most important and biggest part of the work of HR Team was to send delegations to the international session of EYP. We published open calls, received applications, selected and informed elected or rejected applicants. Number of delegates selected for attending EYP sessions abroad: ·
1st Ankara Youth Forum (February) – 4 delegates
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7th National Selection Conference of EYP-Ukraine (February)- 3 delegates
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European Week organized by Student for Europe Brussels (March) - 2 delegates
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Leopolis International Forum (August) - 3 delegates
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Kiev Regional Session (April)-8 delegates
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8th Istanbul International Forum (May)- 6 delegates
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Hague 2013 (November)- 8 delegates
We organized a meeting with their Chaperones for Georgian delegates of the International Istanbul Forum, Munich IS and Amsterdam IS. It is important to mention that the committee was responsible for finding and informing the Chaperone about EYP and its events. We assisted the delegations in receiving invitation letters from organizers as well. Important task of EYP Georgia’s HR team was assisting organizers of the local sessions in conducting interviews. Particularly we were responsible for finding suitable people for conducting the interviews. For all the interviews conducted there were always two interviewers in the room in order to avoid long queues. The interviewers were usually using delegates’ evaluation forms for the selection process. Even though we had enlisted “NC recruitment” as a HR responsibility, this task was fulfilled by the Board. However, the NC was giving recommendation to the BNC for the first round of NC recruitment. We conducted a survey for each session filled by delegates and they are stored in our Dropbox folder (EYP Georgia> Session Evaluation Forms). The core data is not analyzed; however the Google doc charts make the results quite visible. The next Board can use this data to improve weak sides of the session. The survey results will be published on our web-page as well. According to the strategy the Board was planning to create a database about the EYP officials, however the HR team was not able to come up with an evaluation form. As we found out such practice is not very much common in other NCs as well. Unfortunately, during the year 7 (active or passive) EYPers left the National Committee due to their other academic or working duties. The leave of experienced NC members was biggest loss for the organization. Due to this there was always a lack of experienced members on the Session Boards. Other than this most of the Committee members were actively involved in the Sessions and organizational work. Most of the sessions were initiated by NC members and the places in the officials teams were usually easy to fill. BY MariamTchubabria
COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC RELATIONS AND PRESS During this one year Salome had a great honor to lead the committee on PR&Press. According to EYP Georgia new Board structure, she created team which was composed by NC members. From the very beginning, there were 5 people in her team: Vakho Tsanava, Erekle Chanchibadze, Sopho Otiashvili, Ani Meskhidze, Nini Danelia and Veriko Devidze. Now there are some changes in the team, Tamri Matiashvili replaced Erekle Chanchibadze. The first important activity organized by PR team and other active members of EYP: Rezo Chanishvili, Tamri Matiashvili (already NC member), Tamuna Chipashvili was the charity event, held on 20th January 2013. Thanks to EYPers and other generous people we managed to gather lots of useful things for the three orphanage houses of ‘Caritas Georgia.’ Due to our members great interest in helping their local community the donation was quite successful. People brought clothes, toys, stationery, books, discs and also money for medicines. Apart from this, EYP Georgia held the negotiations with ‘Rustaveli’ cinema, so children watched movie for free. The second significant event which was organized by Salome as a PR manager , Mariam Chubabria – and Irakli Grdzelishvili by the cooperation with Tbilisi City Hall, was the ‘Éurope Day’ held on 9th May, 2013. There they had their personal camp, from where they had possibility to spread information about EYP Georgia and Tbilisi IS 2013. Moreover, the presented team of EYP had a blackboard for wishes with the motto ‘I Feel European when...’’ ‘For me Europe is...’ where lots of people wrote their wishes and hopes concerning Europe. As for other responsibilities, PR team was responsible for making updates on the official website and FB page, they were writing articles, short news, posting applications, session issues and resolutions, European Youth Polls and the other information. What is more, they were responding the various questions of the people interested in EYP and were providing the desired materials involving necessary information for them. Each team was responsible for the effective work of their committees, but it was also their duty to help the other committees. That is why, they spread the information about ‘European Week in Brussels’ which was organized by EYP Georgia partner organization ‘Students for Europe Brussels’ and hold the correspondence with the organizers concerning the Georgian delegation. As for the TV coverage of our sessions, Salome was personally responsible for this particular issue and 3 sessions – Rustavi City Session, School Session 2013 and 7th NSC were broadcasted under her control by the leading Georgian TV channels. BY Salome Kandelaki
FUNDRAISING COUNCIL EYP team is fundraising for particular sessions year-long. The money raised is only directed to the services purchased for the specific sessions, eventually never accumulating on the organization’s account. Fundraising council was intended to be organized for attracting funds for potentially covering the administrative expenses of the office. The goals of the Council were not fulfilled. However, the Council unsuccessfully applied for COBERM-A joint EU-UNDP initiative for supporting conflict affected communities. As far as, in the period of February 2012 - October 2013 EYP Georgia is in the process of fundraising 140 000 euros for the 74th International Session the major effort of the team is directed to the National Organizing Committee of the Tbilisi IS. Head of the Fundraising Council in March 2013 became one of the IS head organizers - and since then the whole team of the Fundraising Council is engaged in the IS fundraising process.
ALUMNI ACADEMIC COUNCIL The EYP Alumni Council was not formed during the 2012-2013. Alumni of the organization were informed upon the intention of the Board of the NC to participate in the council's work and to contribute with as much time and resource as their voluntary capacity would allow. Due to the fact that the alumni of EYP Georgia are residing outside the country or already representing another NGOs or governmental institutions consolidating their effort around EYP Georgia happened to be impossible.
FACTS & FIGURES : S E S S I O N S 2 0 1 2 - 2 0 1 3 THE 3RD RUSTAVI REGIONAL SESSION Held on 3-5 November, 2012 ; gathered 56 delegates from all over Georgia; The budget of the session was 5000 GEL; The Session was supported and sponsored by Rustavi Youth Center; The session was broadcasted by the local media.
EYP SCHOOL SESSION 2013
Held on March 9- 11, 2013 and gathered 80 delegates, 90% of which were newcomers. Delegates of this session included active students from 10th through 12th grade from Tbilisi high schools.
The Session was hosted by the Agricultural University of Georgia. The budget of the session was 3300 GEL.
The funds were raised from different public and private schools of Tbilisi. The session was broadcasted by IMEDI TV.
THE FIRST BATUMI SCHOOL SESSION Held on April 19 - 21, 2013 Gathered 65 delegates from Batumi and other parts of Georgia. Delegates of this session included active students from 10th through 12th grade from Batumi high schools; The Session was held in Batumi Maritime Academy; The budget of the session was 2300 GEL; The funds were raised from different public and private schools of Batumi. The Session was supported by two local companies: English Language Center INT; Kartsivadze and Company. Broadcasted by Ajara TV and TV25
THE FIRST TELAVI REGIONAL SESSION Held on 18-20 May, 2013 Gathered 80 Participants from all over Georgia and Europe. The Session was organized by the help of the Telavi Municipality Governance and UNFA Georgia. Broadcasted by 1st Public Chanel. The budget of the session was 5000 GEL. The session was broadcasted by the local media and First Public Broadcaster.
THE 7TH NATIONAL SELECTION CONFERENCE Held on 6th to 9th of June 2013. The NSC was hosted by International Black Sea University (IBSU) The session has gathered more than 100 delegates from all over Georgia and Europe. The budget of the session was 3000 GEL. The session was broadcasted by Imedi TV
ACHIEVEMENTS •
Introducing the Action Plan and Structure of the Board;
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Installing internet connection in the office made it convenient place for meetings;
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Implementation of our new board structure and Involving National Committee members in the governing process;
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Representing our organization on BNC meetings and sharing experiences;
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Strengthening EYP Georgia’s leadership positions in the South Caucasus by assisting EYP Armenia and EYP Azerbaijan on their initial path to full membership into the EYP international community;
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Broadcasting all our session on the leading Georgian TV channels;
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Experts from National Centre for Disease Control and Public Health and UN Population Fund were giving a seminar to the respective committees of The School Session 2013 and first Telavi Regional Session
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Organizing 3 sessions outside the capital, Tbilisi School Session and the 7th NSC;
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Participating in the European Week in Brussels;
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Sending 34 selected delegates on the EYP sessions abroad;
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Inviting foreign officials for the 7th National Selection Conference;
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Organizing the charity event on behalf of EYP Georgia;
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Recruitment of 12 new National Committee members;
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Establishing the first EYP Georgia’s committee in Batumi;
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Participating in Éurope Day and making presentations about EYP Georgia and Tbilisi IS 2013;
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Signing partnership agreement with 5 SALTO Youth Projects;
CHALLENGES Challenges constituted lack of the financial resources, marketing and inefficient cooperation with different business and public organizations. The problems were caused by several factors such as: •recent changes in government; •big financial needs for the Tbilisi International Session; •insufficient
campaigns, presentations and introductory meetings with different public and private organizations; We were facing problems in terms of human resources. More specifically, Georgian EYP alumni are not involved in the activities of EYP as they have full time jobs and can’t devote their time to EYP anymore. Unfortunately, planned session similar to the one organized by Students for Europe Brussels - European Week, which was aiming to involve university students and share knowledge on political ideologies, was not implemented.
OPPORTUNITIES As for the opportunities, EYP Georgia has enough potential and prestige to involve more outstanding young people. We can encourage them to become active members of EYP and then select them for the National Committee. This will help the organization with human resources and also raise the financial income. What is more, Tbilisi 74th International Session will raise awareness about EYP among Georgian youth and generally in Georgian society. Therefore it will be easier to attract funds, businessmen and private companies interested in our activities.
RECOMMENDATIONS Studying from our past experience and planning a new strategy is an important tool for future achievements. The structure of the Board and division of tasks among the structural committees should be more specific and institutionalized next year. More NC members should be involved in the work of the committees and committees should impose more responsibilities on their members. Each committee should be focused on the development and have priorities such as: Quality Assurance; New ways of Marketing; (Organization, session and event marketing) Effective engagement of alumni in organizational development; More involvement in the work of BNCs by attending its annual meetings.
NEW DIRECTIONS Strengthening the regional development by keeping and developing Batumi Committee. Working on finding new ways for funding and sponsorships. Keeping the fundraising council and forming a team which will work on projects for donor organizations, while others will work with business organizations and government. Cooperating with different international and regional youth organizations and participating in different youth projects. ( SALTO, EU-CoE youth partnership). If NC members will have an opportunity to attend SALTO training, they should plan applying for YiA programs to host one session in Georgia. Thinking about organizing joint sessions with partner or neighboring countries. (Black Sea Session with the cooperation of Batumi & Trabzon) Local EYP Sessions lack an international atmosphere, which is something EYP stands for. In order to attract attention from experienced EYPers from abroad, we need to plan a session months ahead so that the call for officials is open 2-3 months before the session.
Š EYP Georgia Produced by the Board of EYP Georgia Editor: Mariam Tchubabria and Mako Tirkia Text: Board members Production Coordination: Carlotta Aiello Design: Mariam Tchubabria Power point presentation: Salome Kandelaki Email: info@eyp.org.ge Web-page: eyp.org.ge Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/eypgeorgia?fref=ts Addess: 36 Chavchavadze Ave., Room 328.,0179, Tbilisi, Georgia