Questions & Answers from Board Panel Meeting of EYP Ukraine on April 27, 2016
Mykhailo Komarov : What is, in your opinion, biggest achievement of EYP Ukraine this year? Simply working from distance and the implementation of a 3/4 day Regional concept.
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Mykhailo Komarov: What is, in your opinion, biggest failure of EYP – Ukraine this year? The high expectations that we have put on ourselves. We expect a lot and get frustrated when we don’t achieve what we wanted to achieve.
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Mykhailo Komarov: Why it was decided that all branding stuff for regionals has to be done by PR department, not by organisers? The decision was made to provide the high quality of the printing materials or at least keep everything on the same level of quality. Since it was the new project, so we had to create completely new brand, we were aiming to keep it structured. And currently I’m happy to say that all of the materials were gathered together in a structured way on the Drive, so that in the next year, they will be distributed way faster and there will be no need to spend that much time on creating it once again. So, in the next year the process of distributing and developing branding materials thanks to this will be way more organized.
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Michael Rozhkov: We have EYP Family fb group and Official members fb group. These two groups only help to broad the gap between generations. Yet were created to narrow it. In EYP family we have old members/alumni and in official members - newcomers. I suggest to delete EYP family (analyze all the posts there and see if there is anything important left) and have all the official members in one group - Official members. All the alumni like Vasyl Myroshnychenko, Katya Vynogradova, Roksolana Pidlasa etc should be suggested to prolong their membership otherwise they are not currently interested in the development of the organisation. Or we can add them there by default ONLY if they want. We should defo unify all the channels we have and cut them to the minimum. Do you support this or not? what steps (if any) are you going to take in this direction? Sherbaz Ahmed: I do agree that Official members group is aimed to narrow gap between generations. There was a decision , which was made by the Board, concerning Family group to leave Family group without any coordination. This channel might confuse people but I also think that there should be a place for alumni to network and it can be Family group. Another question is those people who are in Family group. There are some newcomers who are not Alumni. What I would suggest is to add all those who are no longer active to this group. But it is up to Alumni because the decision which was made by the Board is to leave the coordination of the group.
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Michael Rozhkov: Alumni Fund - how do we use it? Do we use it overall? As we were busy with Regional Session we did not have time to launch it. Although, the information about Alumni Fund will be shortly sent to all interested Alumni to contribute mostly to 16th Anniversary of EYP Ukraine.
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Michael Rozhkov: Year Plan will be a part of an Annual report ‘15 yet it’s not introduced to the official members on Facebook. Is there any chance we can create events on FB and then announce the dates so then people can make their participation possible. The Year Plan is on the official website however, yes as things have changed now, it can be updated. However, dates do change often, at the moment we had to delay announcement of some events because of Sponsor requirements. What we will do is soon announce the dates on the EYP Members Platform, and provide a short update via email. However, we really don’t like doing events, but we might consider it for the NSC.
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Mykhailo Komarov: Will everyone have a chance to apply to the NSC, or you will take only people selected at regionals? Everyone will have a chance. We will also do an open call for delegates.
Mykhailo Komarov: Why didn’t you use an open call for jury members at regionals? As it was a new concept for the Regionals and it helped having the Board presence, it made sense for Board 16 to be there. It also was a great opportunity to connect with Board 15. There will be an open call at Nationals.
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Anonymous: Is there going to be any session in Ukraine this fall? Yes. Unfortunately due to BASES funding we had to scrap the idea of a Bases University Forum. Thus next week we are going to launch an open call for initiatives to take place in November/December.
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Michael Rozhkov: EYP-Ukraine or EYP Ukraine (dash)? None of the NCs have it. Why do we need this? Do we need this? EYP-UA or EYP UA. Most of the NCs are currently not using dash anymore, so we would prefer to stick to the “EYP Ukraine” since now, but don’t necessarily delete the dash in all of the old documents, just on the web-site and official pages in the social networks. We will slowly move into complete EYP UA integration.
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Michael Rozhkov: Regional Sessions were a great effort of the entire board. Is it hard to manage such a big project? Does EYP-UA have enough capacity? Have you already collected feedback from the participants for further evaluation? Will you introduce the feedback to EYP UA official members? We are in process of collecting feedback from delegates and officials and we will introduce it.
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Oleksandr Ustymenko: Any news from the 10th NSC ? I know the board meetings are made for this question but it would be great to have some fresh info. Indeed. As we mentioned at the Panel, the NSC announcement had been delayed due to cooperation with our sponsors. The dates have preliminary been set now to the 9th-14th August, with it being confirmed by our key partner on Wednesday 4th May. We hope to start announcing all relevant details from Wednesday onwards.
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Oleksandr Ustymenko: I find it rather sad that the last post on our facebook page is dated April 10th. A month has passed, things worth remembering like Chornobyl anniversary have happened.. and EYP has nothing to say about it. What are you planning to do to enhance external communications and EYP culture in general?
Recently we used to have some struggles with coverage in the social networks, but we are currently working on it. PR-Department is developing the strategic plans for external communication in social networks and the website that as soon as it will be ready will be shared with Alumni and Board Buddy Group for the update and to hear your opinion and maybe even get some advice.
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Anya Suprunenko: Question to Sherby. During the debates you said the following: “In April I will be back in Ukraine for research. Also I plan to come back to Ukraine once a month to deal with any presidential issues. I plan to have Weekly Updates (departmental) and Bi-Monthly Board Meetings. I really don’t see this as too much of a problem” → Is it a reality now? Do you have biweekly skypes? Are you back to Ukraine now? So unfortunately plans have changed. I have been offered a job with the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Brussels, and will be moving there in July. We do have updates, which have moved into Syncro week, which is every 3rd week of the Month. And our Board Meetings generally happen bi-monthly as long as nothing gets in the way. As you could see from Sasha’s presentation, to date we have had already 7-8 meetings. We have managed to operate strategically and relatively successfully with me being abroad, and there is a lot we have learnt from the experience to focus on now and ensure it keeps working. Thus, still in my opinion it is not a major problem to be away.
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Anonymous: I don’t get much information about the Regional Sessions from the main (EYP - Ukraine) Facebook page (except for a short image report about Cherkassy). I know you’re quite busy with post-session work. I think it’s a shame if these amazing events are not put forward properly. But will you do something more to communicate the session’s outcome? Maybe just an email with greetings about the end of the events will do. No worries, this is going to be covered in the next couple of days in the social networks as well as on the web-site. Please, stay tuned!
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Anonymous: BTW, great idea with the debates with the board. Was wondering, why not to call it General Assembly, and instead of focusing exclusively on the board, also to bring in some other members-related issues? It is a very good question. We did not have time to prepare proper General Assembly with all the reports from delegations that have gone abroad. The decision of making Board Panel Meeting was done a few weeks before the actual meeting. All Board Members could come on these dates, and we needed to strategically move into reporting/Board debates, in order to address questions that we have had. . We will most likely hold Spring GA in May which will be oriented to more audience.
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Valeria Andrienko: Will be any travel grants available in near future? Indeed. Only recently have we got further information from the International Office about this. We have a specific amount available this year, where we have to prioritise 5 events: (Both BNC meetings, Summer and Autumn IS, and Summer Academy). The President and VP on IA, will be discussing in the next 2 weeks how to best distribute and make available travel grants this year.
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Valeria Andrienko: What about the 1-st Summer Academy EYP-Ukraine in Carpathians? It was mentioned in the plan for the 2016-th. Will it be held? The 1st Summer Academy, is now rebranded as EYP-UA Training Camp. It will no longer take place in the Carpathians but by request of the office in Berlin, closer to Kyiv, which is “Derevnya Rybaka� in Sucholochiye village, 45km outside of Kyiv. It will now take place from the 25th-30th August and has 65% of the Budget secured.
Thank you for your questions!