Yearly Report 2011-2012 Overview of Activities by the Board of EYP the Netherlands
Dear EYP NL Alumni, Hereby you receive the Yearly Report of the Board of EYP the Netherlands for 2011-2012. In this document we sum up the things we have worked on during the year. The report is structured according to different fields in which we have been active. If you have any questions, please get in touch with us through board@eyp.nl. Activities Weekends 3rd Alumni Weekend In March 2011, we started the year with the 3rd Alumni Weekend. This was the first time that we organised a weekend that was mainly aimed at socialising, in contrast to the original weekend in September that is focused on Chairs Training. Around 40 alumni gathered in Austerlitz, among them many alumni who had just joined the organisation after the 11th National Selection Conference. This is where the year started for the board. 4th Alumni Weekend From 2 – 4 September 2011 we organised the 4th Alumni Weekend in Vierhouten. The entire weekend was dedicated to training. There was a team of six trainers who were in charge: Anar Kucera (CZ), Schima Labitsch (AT), Wim van Doorn, Mark Brakel, Leonie Goettsch and Zahra Runderkamp. They are all part of the Pool of Trainers of the EYP Academy. Alumni were divided into two groups (‘beginner’ and ‘advanced’) to adapt the training to the level of experience of the participants. The training modules were focused on chairing a committee and skills related to that. In total, the 46 participants received just over 10 hours of training. The evaluation that took place at the end of the weekend shows that 93% of the participants has more confidence in their own ability as a chairperson. The general impression of the weekend was very good, on a scale from 1 (bad) to 7 (great) the weekend scored an average of 6.4! Sessions Amsterdam Prelims The first Preliminary Rounds of the year were organized in Amsterdam by Florentine Oberman. The session was held at the Ignatius Gymnasium and gathered a total of 10 delegations, divided over two days. The session was presided by Eoin Rogers from Ireland. Futher international participation included Jamie Brown from the UK on the jury, and Lydia Drews as the German VP. Ede Prelims In December, we gathered for the second Preliminary Rounds, this time in Ede, at Marnix College. Luca Wartna had taken over the role of Head Organiser just two months before the session and managed to provide an excellent experience to her delegates. A total of 9 delegations participated in this session, which was presided by Stefan Vandenhende from Belgium. He was joined by VP Valeria Cherednichenko from Ukraine, while Federico Fasol (Italy) was the international member of the jury. Nieuwegein Prelims The last Preliminary Rounds were organised by Tim Keegstra and was held at the Cals College in Nieuwegein. This was a lastminute change from the original venue, University College Utrecht, European Youth Parliament The Netherlands | http://www.eyp.nl | info@eyp.nl
which decided to charge us more than reasonable for an event like this. In total, 9 delegations again took part in the conference, even though the timing of the session was inconvenient at the end of the Christmas holidays. The session was presided by Jon Vrushi from Albania and included Sophie Hall as the international VP, representing Switzerland, and Laura Hibberd as British jury member. Other Activities This year, the Alumni Committee consisted of Luca Wartna, Tim Keegstra, Julie van der Post, Milan Petit and Boris Polm, under the leadership of Alumni Coordinator Zahra Runderkamp. The group was given the opportunity to come up with their own initiatives for social activities. The committee organised, amongst others, a canoeing trip, lasergaming, and several social evenings. Weekly Update Through the Weekly Update, we update our alumni and international EYPers who live in the Netherlands. Next to all the calls for sessions and other EYP events, we have added several updates to keep alumni even more informed. Firstly, we have added the ‘Update from the Board’, in which we occasionally give an overview of what the board has discussed in its meetings and what we are working on. Additionally, the Amsterdam International Session team writes short updates about the progress of the session organization. We hope that this initiative helps to inform and involve everyone with the developments that take place in EYP NL. Schools Participation Dit jaar hebben we een nieuwe commissie ingevoerd, de scholenwerf-commissie. Waar de scholenwerving vorig jaar door de head organisers van de sessies gedaan werd, zou die dit jaar gedaan worden door de head organisers en de andere leden van de commissie. Elk commissie lid kreeg een eigen provincie waarin zij (nieuwe) scholen moesten contacten en proberen over te halen. Dit lukte met wisselend effect, in principe deden er veel 'nieuwe' scholen mee, maar helaas sloegen veel 'oude' scholen een jaartje over omdat ze niet genoeg mensen enthousiast konden maken. Individual Selection For the first time, the board decided to implement the selection of individual delegates at the National Selection Conference. While school delegations were selected during the Preliminary Rounds to take part in the NSC, the selection of delegations for the International Sessions took place on an individual basis. In February, we will thus form a delegation of students from different schools. This change was based on the opinion of jury panels during the last several years that selecting a school delegation had a negative effect on the overall quality. The exceptional delegates are usually spread over different schools, and over the last few years those individually strong delegates who would not be in a selected delegation would often leave the organization. Also, there was a very consistent pattern of ‘strong’ school being selected, which demotivates those schools that were not selected, and might cause them to leave the organisation. Individual selection will hopefully solve these issues to some extent. We will still send school delegations to international forums to allow students from the same school to have the unique experience of being together at a conference in a foreign country. International Participation During the year, we sent delegations to the International Sessions in Athens, Grenoble and Zagreb. Additionally, Dutch delegations were present at the Iberian Forum, Istanbul Youth Forum, the International Forum of EYP Sweden, Regensburg Forum, Leipzig Forum and the Lake Constance Youth Summit on Climate Change. In total, we sent around 60 people to international conferences. In addition, many of our alumni were actively involved on the international level as session officials.
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Media At the start of the year, EYP NL switched to a new website. Both the design and the basic structure were changed: we introduced a slightly adapted version of the templates also used by EYP UK and EYP Turkey, making the design smoother and the management more user-friendly. The structure was changed in a way that we introduced two separate sites: the Dutch and the English one. The Dutch website is aimed at teachers, sponsors and other external parties in the Netherlands. We provide them with all relevant information about what we do as an organization and how to participate. The English website is focused on alumni, both inside and outside the Netherlands. With this website we focus on informing alumni about selection procedures, we publish stories from sessions and publish news about alumni events. EYP has also joined the social media revolution by starting a presence on Twitter, creating a new Facebook page, and setting up a Flickr account for pictures. We regularly update these pages to inform alumni and external parties. On all these platforms we have increased our activities: we regularly post things on Facebook, while selection reports and stories from sessions have been regularly published on the website. Sponsorships and Partners During the year, we saw a significant growth in our sponsorship income. We set up a partnership with Windesheim Honours College, we received money for a public relations action by Dong Energy, UTZ Certified supported the Preliminary Rounds, and Spui25 sponsored the Nationals. This ensured that from a financial perspective, 2011-2012 was a very successful year for the organisation. Part of the money was spend to increase the quality of sessions, but the majority has been saved as a buffer for more difficult times. In addition, we started a partnership with Anglia Network and the English for Kids Foundation, through which we hope to attract new schools to EYP NL. EYP at Schools Schools are the backbone of our activities, without them we would not be able to attract students to our activities. Next to the promotional activities detailed in another part of this report, we continued to provide schools with preparatory workshops to introduce new schools to the concept of EYP. Also, we introduced the possibility of doing a Maatschappelijke Stage at EYP NL, the obligatory civil service internship that has been introduced at high schools. Teachers can request instruction manuals for themselves and their pupils with which they can use their participation in the Preliminary Rounds as a 30 hour internship. Next year, we hope that EYP NL can expand its activities with schools even further. Suggestions have been made to organise EYP conferences within schools (EYP@School conferences), or to start an essay writing or resolution making programme to motivate students to participate in EYP. Alumni Development During the year, the board attempted to further streamline the possibilities for alumni to develop themselves within EYP NL. From delegates to officials at the Prelims and the Nationals, they can develop themselves in committees, as Head Organisers and eventually as board members. As part of this strategy, we put a strong focus on training in September. Next to the School Acquisition and the Academic Committee, alumni worked on topics and overviews in the Academic Committee. The eventual goal is to offer something to alumni from all generations, and this is something the board will have to continue working on each year. Amsterdam 2012 Throughout the year a team under the leadership of Mark Brakel worked on the realisation of Amsterdam 2012: the first International Session of EYP the Netherlands. The team managed to secure a majority of the necessary funding during the year 2011 and will continue its efforts into the next year, when the biggest event in our history will take place.
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Thank you all for a great year!
Boaz, Zahra, Wim, Laurens, Leonie The Board of EYP the Netherlands in 2011-2012
European Youth Parliament The Netherlands | http://www.eyp.nl | info@eyp.nl