The Netcom Times AGORA Leiden
15th of April 2010
Do we need another level?
European sub-level
by Eszter Virág Rab European centre vs. national level vs. regions vs. … The question of having some kind of a sub-level under the European one rises from time to time. It wasn’t different neither during the EBM. We tried to examine the topic from different point of views and try to find possible solutions when it came to working with a changed structure in AEGEE. First of all a short summary of the reasons why regions were abolished in 2006 during Agora Napoli: some of the areas became less developed than the others, the locals’ distribution
between NetCommies were not fair as some of them had lot more problematic antennae. With no fixed regions AEGEE wanted to optimise NetCom’s work towards the crisis areas. As a second reason, the phenomena of regionalism could be mentioned as in some areas the regional identities became stronger, which is against the main idea of AEGEE as we want to have borderless Europe. Finally, sometimes for NetCommies it was hard to reach their locals in the end of their regions, because they were simply too far and expensive to travel. As the participants at
the WS agreed on being against the renewal of such structures, they started to come up with ideas in different fields. Both smaller and bigger changes were advised starting from grouping till the renewal of the Network Commission. A few ideas to be mentioned from the discussions: having the current structure but with informal cooperation between locals from the same country (distinguishing between national level and national cooperation- for example by appointing FR SubCommies who always keep an eye on the grants offered by the government). As a second, bit
bigger change could be the enlargement of the Network Commission (as it had its pros and contras the idea was finally dropped during the WS). Instead of having more NetCommies, it was also advised to get people involved informally as helpers (PR SubCommies/FR SubCommies/website coordinators/etc.). Creating a new commission for the possible division of the current NetCom tasks might also make the work even more effective (to have two bodies, who work independently and cooperate). Creating single positions according to single tasks could be another solution. Even though the most popular idea came at the end of the discussion, summarizing the main points and advantages of the previous ones: having one Speaker (coordinating the work of the NetCom) and approximately 5-6 NetCommies who are all elected by the Agora and act like managers of their helpers’ team. They would have regional helpers/ SubCommies who would be elected by the locals they’ll be partly responsible for. All in all, as the main outcome of the WS, we can mention the idea of having more SubCommies who will be elected by the locals. No matter if the NetCommies change, they could keep their positions as SubCommies. The discussion can still continue, hopefully not in a never ending way. J If you have any further suggestions regarding making the work of the NetCom more effective, you know how to reach us. ;-)
Leiden
Words from speaker
Dear Network,
welcome to the Agora, and welcome to our second edition of the NetCom Times in just six weeks! Currently, AEGEE is re-organising itself, we are updating our structures and filling them with new life. At this Agora, you won’t only see many proposals to change the CIA, but also a great lot of candidates running for different positions. Especially the Network Commission is enjoying great popularity with no less than nine candidates to choose from! I am sure you are going to have a lot of fun with them - during their presentations of course, but most of all during the Agora Treasure Hunt, where you will all have the opportunity to meet these great young people in private... ;-) One of the things that make AEGEE unique is the fact that we have no national level. But this is not an unproblematic arrangement - sometimes it can be seen as a structural deficiency that just makes our work more difficult. For instance, it creates the need for a separate strategy to enhance cooperation between locals on a regional level. Every generation in AEGEE has to discover and discuss the benefits and flaws of the “AEGEE system” anew. You are very much invited to start this discovery with us! Apart from our focus on this particular aspect of AEGEE, you can read a lot of articles here about different aspects of AEGEE. It is all about information, illustration and explanation. And sometimes even about plain bullshit. Yours, Thomas Leszke Speaker of the Network Commission
The unwanted regional level by Gunnar Erth Is there AEGEE-Poland? Or AEGEE-Germany? Try to google them and you will get interesting results. When you go on www.aegee.pl you will get a page with all Polish antennae, including a very nice map of Poland, where to find these locals. A few years ago, this website caused a lot of protest from many AEGEE members who are strictly against any reference to national states in AEGEE. If you click on www. aegee.de, you will also get a very interesting page: Stefan Recksiegel, one of the 14 honorary members of AEGEE-Europe, created this page in order to prevent others from registering a national AEGEE Internet domain in Germany. On this page he stresses that AEGEE does not have a national level, only local branches and a European level. There are more examples. Many people are very sceptical towards the
Nedertop meeting, the regular gathering of representatives from all Dutch AEGEE antennae. If you ask participants of these national meetings (that existed and will exist also in other countries), they will tell you that in no way are in favour of a national level. They simply want to discuss issues that are relevant for antennae of the same countries, such as fundraising issues or the representation of AEGEE in national youth councils. And yet, in all the years of AEGEE’s existence, many people were against these meeting because they were seen as a first step towards a national level. In the midst of these discussion between purists and pragmatists the Network Commission was born. Although this body was merely created in order to support the network with the help of people in their neighbourhood, it was seen a threat by many
people when the Network Commission idea was proposed at the Agora in Athens in November 1996. It would not create a national level, but a regional level, critics said. Nevertheless, due to the fact that the network was growing and the CD members, who previously were spread all over Europe, moved to Brussels a few months earlier, a big majority of delegates saw the need to create this body. The members of the Network Commissions had always been fierce advocates against the national level idea. However, they totally underestimated the need of the AEGEE members for symbols and closeness – especially in Southern Europe. So it happened that after a couple of years nearly all regions had names. The MISC region – the acronym was made from the first letters of Malta, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia – was soon renamed into the Rainbow region, the
members of the Southwest region soon were wearing T-shirts with the name of their region. The identification of the antennae with their area grew, the borders between the regions were becoming invisible walls – it happened that an antennae at the border of a region sent its members usually only to the Regional Meeting of their area, even if it was much further away than the Regional Meeting of the adjacent region. For many years it was discussed what could be done. The regional level had become reality, the Network Commissioners chose their successors from within their own region, although the founders of the NetCom never had in mind that the borders should be fixed. And it took years, long discussions and several Agora workshops to reverse it and to abolish the regions. Personally, I think that the reform was a bit too
radical. The word “region” became a taboo in AEGEE, the Regional Meeting were renamed in Network Meetings and the Network Commissioners were not supposed to reveal for which antennae they are in charge. The change was very radical. Yes, it was definitely necessary to reshuffle the AEGEE map. Yes, the identification of antennae with their region had become so string that something had to be done. However, it might have been better just to redesign the network map every two or three years, because the old system had advantages too: the overview on the network development was better, Network Commissioner was better known in his region and there was a strong commitment of antennae within a region to help each other and to cooperate.
by Thomas Leszke I love AEGEE for many reasons. But there is one thing in particular that makes me believe in the great future of our association: the fact that AEGEE has no national level. Our organisation was founded in 1985 as a forum for young Europeans to work together for their vision of Europe. What was the core element of this vision? It was a vision of anti-nationalism. In this vision, all European countries shared the responsibility for the future of our continent, without pursuing their own selfish interests at the expense of their neighbours. But it was difficult, and it is still difficult. Because everyone of us HAS a nationality, and most of us are proud of it. Don’t we all love our own culture, our language, our sleeping
times and our football team? And are we not ready to do everything to improve the situation of our “patria”, our country? The name “AEGEE” (in its French meaning) is a very political name. “EtatsGénéraux” stands for independence from any authority. In the historic context, this authority was the French King. In our context, this authority is not a person, but an established structure: we declare ourselves independent from the slavery of national thinking. Because we are Europeans, and we do not consider the interests of any European country to be superior to the interests of Europe as a whole. We want a European future, a future of open-mindedness and solidarity, not a future of national narrow-mindedness and egoism!
This is why AEGEE has no national level: because without “AEGEE-Germany” or “AEGEE-Bulgaria”, we automatically stop acting as “Germans” or “Bulgarians”. We start thinking in wider terms. For example, I hear AEGEE people say “I am from Western Europe” or “I am from the Balkans”. Having no national level helps us to create a feeling of belonging together, because there is only one level above our local level: the European level. It helps us creating a common identity as Europeans. And this is exactly the aim of AEGEE - this is what we want to feel inside, and what we want to represent to the outside. We do not only want a European future, no: we ARE the European future!
by Anita Kalmane Have you noticed that you never see NetCommies in the last party of Agora or they arrive very late? Ever wondered why? The answer is one – they are working even during the parties! The last party of each Agora is a special one. It is also the celebration of the newly elected positions. For NetCom it is something more – it is also hard work, because the first thing the newly elected NetCommies need to do to start their main duties is to decide for which locals each of them is going to be responsible for. As this the task which is not possible to be done before (because you do not know which NetCommies will get elected and which will not), it is being done straight after the elections. Imagine almost 10 peo-
ple (as not all of them are always in Agora) sitting around map of Europe and dividing it between themselves! Amazing view, I tell ya! Take a pen, bunch of people and map of Europe. You will see that it is not an easy task, because sometimes you have a remote area where nobody is living nearby, but sometimes there are three NetCommies living next to each other. Plus all NetCommies should have more or less the same amount of locals in a reachable distance to them so NetCom trips would be possible. So if you do not see any NetCommies during the parties in this Agora, then know – they are hiding somewhere, working hard for all of you!
To Hell with the National level!
Dividing Europe
Nordic lights “AEGEE is a spaceship” on cooperation
by Óscar Ronda Prieto If you read something like Spanish and portuguesse people are differents, ok, it´s true. AEGEE under Pirinees is one big family. As you can see in the map, the Iberian Penynsula is very big, and we have AEGEE locals in 17 cities. For contact each one we haven’t to wait to some NWM, or some LTC. Some years ago yes, but now, this is possible, and with internet and mobiles we found the solution. After had 3 spanish presidents in AEGEE-Europe, Spain and Portugal were living some years in the dark. Virginia Pañeda, like the Christian king, Pelayo, some years ago, started the reconquist! 3 years ago, Virginia and her tripulation team created something like “AEGEE is a spaceship, and with this ship you can jump into Europe”. In that moment, the revolution became in our countries. One yahoogroup “sube a la nave” (jump into
the ship) was the first step. In this list, the tripulation team sent mails with different news, manuals, informal meetings, parties, and the active members of each antenna were joining the group. During the NWMs, they were promoting the group and each time, more and more people jumped and continue jumping. Now, each one can send info about projects, mailings, discussions about Agora´s parties, or free places for some Erasmus trip from one local to other local. The last one, for example, Barcelona was preparing one trip to France with Erasmus. They had free places, and they offered it in this list. If somebody was interested can joined. Simply this! With Oscar like Netcom, and his tripulation team 2.0 we have been continuing in this way of action, making friends in each local, inviting to each one to our summer universities and events… Leon is preparing SUPS? People from
Oviedo, Madrid… are going there for visit and enjoy with them. Oviedo is preparing one ES2? People from Leon, Santander, Coruña are there too!!! We usually meet the people like OscarLeon, ChemaOviedo, Miguel-Alicante, FerSantander, Vicente-Valencia, Sara-Coruña… With Facebook the world changed. Events, groups, fans… with each idea, we are creating one of this. The situation actually is very nice. Alicante will prepare the Spring Agora 2011, and they received a lot of offers from different members of spanish and portuguesse antennas in order to collaborate with the organization. People is finally jumping to Europe and taking part in European projects and working groups, and it´s easy find one mail on Monday telling, “this weekend, party in Madrid, or León, or Valencia... We will sleep in my home, so, come”. As I told you, yes, Spain and Portugal, are different!!
Neighbourly help!
by Alex Sieber Facing my new tasks as a Sub-Commissioner by the end of last year I started off with figuring out the biggest problems, the six antennae in my region have.It became evident very quickly that most of them were struggling with low and mostly decreasing numbers of members. Furthermore they’re mostly not able to promote their antenna properly due to a lack of motivated members. Thus the idea to gather motivated people from the whole region, travelling from antenna
to antenna and promoting AEGEE with a huge group arose. The benefits of such a cooperation are obviously on the one hand causing a sensation by the size of the group, and thus setting ourselves apart from other student organizations. On the other hand it enforces the regional cooperation and gives the participating members the possibility to get to know more members within the region. To encourage regional cooperation and regional knowledge exchange even more, AEGEE-Mannheim
kindly offered to organize a regional gathering by the end of April. In case that this idea turns out to be a success, a regional gathering on a regular basis might be introduced. After having passed the different stages of planning like online conferences and E-Mail correspondences, the actual common promotion will take place during the week after the Agora. How effective the whole cooperation actually was, will be published soon, so stay tuned...
by Kairi Püss Are Nordic people cold and selfish, reserved and thinking more for the individual benefits than the warm and fruitful cooperation? My five years experience has shown that even though we tend to keep distant sometimes, by joining forces and having friendly joint events and projects we create even bigger impact and also fairytales. The example I would like to bring bases on the good cooperation between AEGEE-Tallinn and AEGEE-Helsinki - two Nordic capitals which have had good a contact for already at least 10 years now and after some break in between are together for the 2nd year again* organising the most popular AEGEE project - Summer University. This year the third partner in the SU project is AEGEETartu and a year ago the trio was created by having AEGEE-Turku/ Abo also involved and giving their input and inspiration to the success of theTSU FinEst Fairytale. Last year the organising team from all the involved antennae – Tallinn, Helsinki, Turku/ Abo visited all the TSU locations during the project preparation meetings which started already almost 10 months before the actual event itself got the kick off in the second
half of July. These meetings strengthened the cooperation, common understanding, helped to agree on the communication before, during and after the event and of course – helped to create a good teamspririt among the organisers! Another example about good cooperation. For already some semesters AEGEE-Tallinn has also invited the neighbouring locals to join their Local Training Course (LTC). In this way the locals which don’t always have the capacity, knowledge how to involve trainers, to define the content for the training, to find the finances to have its own LTC or would just like to join the international training course AEGEE-Tallinn is holding, have a chance to take part from the training which is mostly beneficial for gaining or shaping the event management knowledge and skills. Last LTC in Tallinn took place in the beginning of December and involved besides the local members also members of AEGEE-Tartu, AEGEE-Sankt Peterburg and AEGEE-Helsinki. Next LTC aiming to again involve the neighbouring locals and to strengthen the cooperation and to plant even more magnificent project-plants together is coming up already on 15-16 May! Neighbours, see you here again!
Breaking News
- A-Beograd, A-Zagreb, A-Skopje are joined by A-Madrid and A-Poznan in the “Employ Yourself ” exchange - first ever Youth in Action project to bring together students from Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia - AEGEE-Leon will organize one WDEE with halloween party!
La dolce vita
by Alfredo Selitti Ah, “Dolce Vita” …normally these two words remind us Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni in the Trevi Fountain…but what does really mean Dolce Vita for Italians? And how does it fit with AEGEE? Well, Dolce Vita is a kind of mood that Italians have: life has to be taken easy. So, you can live Dolce Vita taking a look at the organizers of an events waking up participants in hurry, a bit late, because they had to take coffee before of everything. Yes, coffee is one the most important elements of Dolce Vita: doesn’t matter if you wake up at 7 a.m. or at 16, without a coffee you would never say “good morning”. And you can see people “half sleeping” walking in the streets, and understand who took a coffee and who didn’t: these last ones are just going to their bar. The general vision of Italians say that it’s a population in delay, always in hurry, hyper active and always tired: these are all consequences of Dolce Vita. Yes, there’s nothing better to relax with a drink or a beer to let the stress leave the body. And the stress is always present, so why shouldn’t be allowed at 10 in the morning? It’s because of too much stress that foreign people feel Italians in stress: the truth is that there is too much stress to afford, and fighting against the stress it’s kind of difficult challenge. If you want to understand what’s Dolce Vita, you
should visit an Italian local during an event (better during a Summer University): you’ll find all the characters proper of the Dolce Vita there, in front of your eyes. Wake up in the morning: some organizers have to wake up participants, you can see their dark faces because they were just starting “tasting” their dream. The other wait for mama taking bed a coffee, as usual: it’s only after at least half an hour, opening the eyes, somebody remember that mama wouldn’t come to the camping to bring coffee, so you’d see this particular scene, like for films of Dario Argento: a column of zombies walking with dark faces, wide eyes, unable to speak even in Italian, looking for the closest bar to take a coffee. half an hour later than participant you will find all organizers ready for the day or it’s what you think! Yes, because the coffee effect last just two/three hours. Later you will hear “30 minutes free time!”, the strictest time to go to the bar, relax, take a coffee, smoke a cigarette, think at what to do, and then restart the day. After some hours it’s lunch time, and the rules have to be attended: a fast lunch takes at least two hours, because eating is one of the most wonderful things that exist, and need its spiritual preparation, its tasting time, its comments on it and of course the comparison with some other foreign dishes to show how much better Italian cooking is. Dolce Vita is to be lived
In the night…so now it’s clearer why Italians need to much coffees! Imagine, now, being NetCommie for Italians local: to get in contact with each local you have to know strictly this timetable, or your contacts will be unuseful: imagine to contact the president of a local during the coffee break. You’ll get half answer, mostly “yes” or “yes, yes”…the truth is that he’s just tasting his coffee, and doesn’t take care about what are you talking about! For this reason it’s absolutely forbidden to get in touch with people for lunch time: it’s sacred moment also for atheists, it’s culinary religion and must be respected. There’s a list of places when a NetCommie can’t get in contact with the locals responsible: during breakfast, at University (also the bar counts), at canteen, in the bar, for coffee break (doesn’t matter where), for dinner, during the aperitif, when there’s the football match with friends (for boys), during the trips, during the make-up time (for girls), during the exam period (because of too much stress), during holidays (because, of course, holidays are sacred), during night (because it’s time to party or sleep), during the afternoon (when not busy with something else it’s time for sleeping nap), during conversation on Facebook (it’s time for networking, not for working)… well, it’s quite hard to work!
- In 2009 we celebrated the weeding of Cesar Benedet (A-Oviedo) with Ana Alonso (A-Santander)... with this, we´re putting in practise the YNY best option for find new members! - AEGEE-Lund and AEGEE-København will make people experience Scandinavian wildness and sing Mamma mia! - Do you often feel you’re worth nothing? TSU organised by Helsinki, Turku and Tallinn will guide you to a better life! - 152 people in NWM Leon, and 90 in NWM Valencia, totally 282 people could attend to the last 2 NWMs in Spain and Portugal! - AEGEE-Budapest went Beyond Traditions and discussed the Love of all kinds. - Who got it all: AEGEE-Sibiu organizes events for the WDEE, YNY and EDL projects and is involved in exchanges and 3 SUs. You’ll end up there anyhow. - AEGEE-Debrecen is ready to rock the Network after having their first international event in the end of March. - If you like Big City Life, there is one SU for you! - Get your Bachelor’s degree in only two weeks! Join the SU of München, Augsburg and Passau! - Discover the Silesian region with AEGEE-Katowice, they’ll show you things, you have never seen before! - The President of AEGEE-Sheffield will be a candidate in the British Parliament elections, and the whole Antenna is supporting his campaign. - AEGEE-Eindhoven started planning a European event about sexual behaviour of highly mobile young Europeans today. It will probably take place in October and everyone is invited to participate and share his/her practical experience. - Celebrate AEGEE’s birthday and white nights in SanktPeterburg! As a bonus you have also a chance to travel through time! - Unofficial information from an unnamed source sleeping in a dark red sleeping bag on EBM@Krakow tells us that a proposal to move the CD house to Belgrade or Zagreb might see the light of day in Agora Leiden. With that, the CD house will probably change its name to DVD Plaza. If we find out more we will let you know... - After signing CdA with Abertawe you will be able to take a bath in Bath and soon probably also try to catch Crocodile Dundee and visit the (informally) oldest city in the UK - Colchester. - Rumours claim that Switzerland from AEGEE dessert will transform into the real NWM Bomb next autumn, so prepare your best watches for the occasion! - At the NWM Darmstadt you will be able to become an astronaut! - AEGEE Strasbourg will soon have again Parliament tours, we will go skiing in Grenoble and hitchhiking from Paris to Bruxelles we will be able to stay over in Lille soon.
Upcoming Network Meetings Place Ogre Zielona Góra Trieste Antalya Ryazan Utrecht Durham Darmstadt
Date 29.04. - 02.05. 30.04. - 02.05. 30.04. - 02.05. 06.05. - 09.05. 07.05. - 09.05. 07.05. - 09.05. 10.06. - 13.06. 18.06. - 20.06.
Netcommie Kairi Marika Alfredo Tural Olga Thomas Thomas & Nati Michael
Group picture of the Network Commission
NWM: Just another event?
by Michael Makowiecki Network Meetings: probably most of us have a slight clue what they are about. People from more or less one area come to visit one Antenna, attend some workshops, discuss issues and go party together. Ah right, a Netcommie is organising it. But is this already everything that can be said about Network Meetings? If you’ll ask your Netcommie, he/she will probably say that NWMs exist to “gather, train and solve”, but of course this is just a slogan, a slogan that might give you a better clue about the true face of a Network Meeting. But let’s go one by one. Gather: it brings people together! Throught this AEGEEans can meet each other, remain in touch and enjoy their time together, it is a great oportunity to see your friends and yes it leads to networking as well! Searching for a new partner for a project, exchange or another initiative? This is a good chance to find it! Train: a NWM is also about workshops
and trainings! Gathering AEGEE people together is always more than just talking and partying. We want to develop ourselves and increase our impact on the association. There are a lot of people around that would like to share their knowledge and experience. Use the chance and get to know more about current AEGEE projects or learn some tricks on how to improve the work in your Antenna like in problematic fields like Public Relations or Human Resources. Solve: gathering a lot of people together creates always a great oportunity to exchange experience and help each other solving problems! It is a chance to get to know people from nearby Antennae and ask them for advice or get to know better your Netcommie. Use this chance! And if you are an organiser, don’t loose the chance to make it as international as possible! Because internationality this is the big strenght and advantage of AEGEE!
Let’s play pirates! Treasure Hunt!
As we mentioned already on the mailing lists the Network Commission proudly presents the new game! The rules are simple: follow the hints of Capitain Netcom and win amazing prizes! To become a winner you will need to go through 4 tasks, difficult and demanding a brave heart and a pure soul. At each of the check points you will receive a gift, remember to collect all of them as it is a proof that you fulfilled all the steps. The prize is huge, waiting for one boy and one girl, The winners will get the
AEGEE Óscar Prize on the special ceremony during the final plenary and will be honoured to go for a dinner with Handsome Thomas or Charming Nati. They will be also nominated as the AEGEE Member of the Week! Get yourself into this fascinating race for AEGEE fame! FIRST TASK: seduce a NetCom candidate! As you know, we have 9 charming candidates for the Network Commission, you can find them in the Candidates Booklet. Your task is to approach them dur-
ing the party on Thursday or Friday and involve them in a conversation. This conversation can be about their candidature for example, but in fact the topic doesn’t matter - what matters is that you manage to “seduce” the candidate to leave the party with you and go for a private walk! So: go to the party, find your favourite NetCom candidate, and go for a walk together. If you are successful, the candidate will show you the next task. GO FOR IT! :-)
Netcom-Kairi crossword!
and r we ice! s n a pr e l h a i!) r d t speci i a n i F y K a b n d e wi sor o p (s
Across
Down
3. one of the patrons of AEGEE (also former president of Czech Republic) 4. a training event for members already involved in or planning to enter European bodies 9. the most popular project in AEGEE 10. one of the six university cities which has had AEGEE since the beginning of the association 11. the statutory meeting which will be organised by AEGEE-Riga in 2011 12. A working group providing a forum for students and other young adults interested in international politics 13. one of the four pillars of AEGEE 14. what does the abbreviation CD stand for? 15. a programme which started in 1987 in Paris and had a great impact by AEGEE for its initiation
1. the most active commission of AEGEE 2. an event which aims at gathering (cooperation), training (learning experience) and solving (locals’ problems) 5. next Agora will be taking place in ... 6. one of AEGEE’s project which also won European Charlemagne Youth Prize in 2009 7. one of the significant European platforms where AEGEE is a member of 8. AEGEE’s flagship project 2010-2011 If you were able to solve the whole crossword, find Kairi at somewhere at this AGORA! If you are fast enough, you can win a particular price coming from her heart!
Editorial Publisher Network Commission
Editor in Chief & Layout Michael Makowiecki Editors Thomas Leszke, Natalia Hubert, Alfredo Selitti, Anita Kalmane, Kairi Püss, Eszter Virág Rab, Óscar Ronda Prieto, Alexander Sieber, Gunnar Erth, Miljan Radunovic, Michael Makowiecki E-Mail netcom@aegee.org