ROTTERDAM 2022 22 National Conference of EYP The Netherlands nd
CALL FOR EXTENDED LEADERSHIP VISION & QUESTIONS
Dear reader, We, the Leadership of Rotterdam 2022, are extremely excited to open the Call for Extended Leadership! We are looking for three Vice-Presidents and two Editorial Assistants to join us. The session is going to take place from the 11th until the 14th of February 2022 (10th until 14th for officials) and will welcome over 100 Dutch and international delegates. The call will be open until the 19th of September and all applications should be submitted through the Members Platform. The selection panel will discuss each application individually and all applicants will be notified personally of the selection result. Warm hugs, Job, Dana, Sophie, Jarne, Anouck and Erdem
THEME
In February 2022, it will be thirty years since the European Union was founded. The Maastricht Treaty was signed, which meant the next step in the progress of European integration and cooperation. The founding of the EU has been decisive for the development of Europe as a continent, and its culture and economy. Now, it is time to rethink what the EU has done and should do in the future. This is why our session’s theme is ‘30 Years and Counting: On the Past and Future of the European Union.’ The goal is to dive into the deeper fundamental questions surrounding the EU, both within and outside of it, now that we have come to such a symbolic anniversary. What has the EU meant for Europe, and what should change in the next thirty years? Rotterdam is an intuitive location to think about such fundamental questions, given how much the city has changed because of the increased interdependence within the EU, for instance with the increase of international citizens and trade.
The t h e m e consists of three core themes: the EU at a global level, a future-proof EU economy, and EU citizenship. The first one concerns the role that the EU can play at a global level with issues such as climate policy and the protection of democracy. The future-proof economy considers the sustainable design of the EU’s economy, from fiscal policy to the differences between regions within the EU. The last theme focuses on European integration, including topics like press freedom, the battle against disinformation and security and defence policy. It is vital for the leadership to actively integrate the theme throughout the session. This might be a challenge, as there is not just one specific question that surrounds this theme. Instead, there is a whole set of issues that can and will need to be addressed. That calls for a leadership that is academically well grounded, and able to make the theme visible in an integral fashion. We encourage creative approaches to implement this theme.
VISION FOR EXTENDED LEADERSHIP
The key elements that bring us together as Rotterdam 2022 team leaders and EYP the Netherlands representatives are the value we give to having a flat leadership structure, cooperation between the different teams, interactive academic output and, as mentioned in the previous section, a powerful integration of the theme throughout the session. In line with the idea of having a flat structure within the leadership, we are already forming a team which designs all of the session elements together. We are working towards putting forward a common vision before other officials join us in order to set a path with meaningful goals and a lot of growth along the way. To achieve these goals, we are looking for Vice Presidents and Editorial Assistants who can embrace this way of thinking, understand our vision, and enrich it with their talents and ideas. The extended leadership members joining us will have the chance to contribute to the ongoing vision development process. Naturally, we think the path to having an officials’ team that manages to work together is initially to have a leadership that succeeds in working together. For this reason, our greatest expectation from applicants will be a good understanding of the initial vision and the expectations of the leadership as well as their own perspective to make Rotterdam 2022 a memorable EYP session.
DIGITAL PRE-SESSION TRAINING
Our recent experiences tell us that a digital pre-session training can help build a team that functions well and in which members get familiar with each other before the session. As the leadership, we believe that EYP can develop further by bringing positive experiences from digital sessions to physical sessions. We see great benefit in preserving such practices during the transition period to physical sessions. Our initial plan is to analyse the needs of the officials’ team and prepare a tailor-made training programme for them right after their selection. Each official will be expected to attend 16 to 20 hours of modules spread over two or three months until the session. In order to create an exceptional personal development experience
for all, we would like to make certain team-specific modules (optional) open to all officials of the session, regardless of their teams or role. Lastly, having done most of the training digitally, we are planning to spare more time for physical general teambuilding activities to allow for the bonding of the officials’ team in a shorter session such as Rotterdam 2022.
INTERACTIVE ACADEMIC PREPARATION
One of the top priorities of all team leaders in Rotterdam 2022 is to prepare an interactive, remarkable and attractive academic preparation and even reflect on how to present the Committee Work output in an innovative and meaningful way. It should be underlined here that we are in favor of producing a usual resolution booklet and preserving the format of a written academic preparation kit. Our thinking is also to develop additional innovative materials with the close collaboration of the Academic and Media team. Vice Presidents and Editorial Assistants joining us will have a great chance to improve this process and put their ideas to use.
WORKSHOPS
This one-hour session element will consist of a pair or trio of officials organising a workshop on any subject they want, with a maximum of one member from each team. Officials will be allowed almost endless creativity in choosing their workshop topics. For example, topics may range from creative writing, portrait photography or a dance genre to extremely vague topics such as being happy with little things in life. In the end, it depends on the skills or interests they share. We see the EYP as a place with people from various backgrounds and, through this session element, we wish to bring into the open the passion of our officials.
VICE-PRESIDENTS As a Vice-President, you will be able to contribute to shaping the final vision of Rotterdam 2022 before the officials’ team is complete. Therefore, we expect you to have a personal vision for both the EYP and this session. You are also expected to have a personal interest or background in EU affairs and be able to contribute to the implementation of the session theme. Preference will be given to applicants who have previous experience in leadership positions and, accordingly, have proven themselves in leadership skills, understanding group dynamics and planning and running training modules. Vice-Presidents will not only monitor the personal development of chairpersons but also be given opportunities to develop as team leaders. Therefore, a sense of awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses will be looked for in all candidates, next to their sense of responsibility, planning skills and motivation for Rotterdam 2022.
EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS
More than an editor and two editorial assistants, I am envisioning to work as one cohesive editorial team, where we can build the media team step by step together. Media teams, despite being probably the team granted the most freedom and flexibility in EYP, often struggle to be innovative and create meaningful content. Therefore, we will use Rotterdam 2022 as a play field for our ideas and thoughts while making sure the Media team is striving and satisfied with the experience. You will be expected to take initiatives and strongly contribute to the management of the media team by helping develop and inspire media team members. Concretely, you will be in charge of a few Media team members which will demand coordination, planning skills and project management. I am looking for two individuals willing to go beyond the usual media output, who are proactive and excited about creating impact during Rotterdam 2022.
QUESTIONS FOR VICE-PRESIDENTS
1. What makes you a good fit for this role and what skills do you want to develop further during Rotterdam 2022? 2. What is one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned in the EYP? How would you apply that in this role? 3. What is one thing that you most recently nerded out about? Record a one-minute video about it.
QUESTIONS FOR EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Please answer at least one of the questions in a different format of your choice (other than a block of text). Feel free to use the medium of your choice.
1. What is one thing you want to gain from attending Rotterdam 2022? 2. How do you see the cooperation within the editorial team? In your opinion, what is the role and purpose of the editorial assistants? 3. What is one initiative you would like to implement at Rotterdam 2022 (regardless of any logistic difficulty). This can be a project or related to the media team management. A random example would be to host a radio show every day for the delegates. This is the moment to explain to us your most crazy EYP dreams!
QUESTIONS FOR ALL APPLICANTS 4. How can different officials’ teams collaborate on important tasks such as delivering an interactive academic preparation kit or integrating the session theme? Do you have any ideas? 5. Please provide your email address and telephone number to allow us to reach you after the selection process. Feel free to use this space for anything you would like to add from missing sessions on your Members’ Platform profile to recommendations of songs or any humour material.
HOW TO APPLY
Apply through the Members Platform. The calls for extended leadership are open from September 6 until September 19 23:59 (CEST). In case of any questions, feel free to reach out to Erdem at erdem.topcu@eypturkey.org and Anouck at anouck.guillot@eyp.be.
COVID-19
Though the current Covid situation in the Netherlands gives hope, it remains unclear what the regulations will be around the dates of the session. Please be aware that because of this, a physical session cannot be guaranteed. We will work in close cooperation with the NC Board to give a green-light for the session. Any tickets booked before that point will not be reimbursed.
CONTACT
For any questions or concerns, please send an email to nationals@eyp.nl. Stay updated about the conference by following the Facebook page and checking out the website.