The Netcom Times
Agora Budapest
31nd of October 2012
READY AND SET FOR THEMATICS
Mohammed preparing dinner for the EuroArab family. By Agnija Kazuša, Two years ago I heard an Iraqi cameraman sharing his work experience at war. In the conclusion, he said simple, yet sincere and notable words. „Europeans&Arabs, let’s build bridges, listen to each other’s music, eat each other’s food.” While this is not an article about German composer Beethoven, Egyptian singer Amr Diab, Italian pasta or Lebanese bread, at some extent it is. EuroArab team is currently mixing the ingredients of both cultures to build bold and sustainable bridges between young Arabs and Europeans.
Fed by experiences from the previous Euro-Arab activities (Case Study Trip to Europe in 2010, Case Study Trip to Alexandria in 2011, Case Study Trip to Krakow in 2012) the project has built up a vigorous Euro-Arab spine with team members from both regions and especially after the Concept Development Meeting in Brussels (July, 2012) successfully gone through the planning phase and exactly at Agora Budapest is on the threshold of implementation phase lasting till Fall Agora 2014. The planned two year journey has
just begun with the first stop already in November (16th to 18th) at the Network meeting in Krakow. We are going to halt there for a while as the Case Study Trip on democracy (December 11th to 18th) is coming next with participants from Europe and Egypt. As the 2013 arrives, a lot more activities are on our menu (cultural diversity events, summer school, trainings, case study trips, and our presence in AEGEE statutory events) at the same time encouraging other AEGEE locals to organize local events with EuroArab perspective. Learning from
each other, sharing, exchanging; this is how we imagine the upcoming two years and definitely not „teaching something to someone”, because while this is not a project about music or food, at some extent it is as we can share everything starting from our perspectives on democracy, youth work and global chages to common dinner at the end of the day.
Budapest Words from the Speaker
Dear Network, For those of you who have no idea what they are holding, this is the NetCom Times; a magazine that the Network Commission brings out every statutory event. We are the commission that works closest to the locals, supporting boards in the organization of events and passing ideas and information from the European level to the local. And here we are - in Agora Budapest. Maybe it’s your first one, maybe one of many; it may even be your last. Have you thought what it would be like? Has someone else tried to describe it to you? Either way, I am sure being here feels different than anything you have heard about it before. Because it’s simply impossible to describe the spirit of Agora with its atmosphere people. I don’t know if you have ever tried to pass a sentence along a line of people by whispering it in their ears, but that is what Agora feels like for me. Something always seems to get lost in the middle, in the space between two people… This problem of communicating experience, the inability to put into words what you have felt, how to convince others of what you feel is right, or what you believe they should know and understand as well; this can be incredibly frustrating! But that is why we try to do it together, we join in European bodies with people that know what it is like, and when we all tell our own piece, we will be a step closer to finishing the puzzle. But that is why we try to do it together: we join the European bodies with other likeminded people and when each of us contributes with his or her piece, eventually we will be a step closer to finishing the puzzle. So, go and enjoy the experience while it lasts, and even though it will be hard, keep sharing your stories. From story to story a new inspiration might blossom! Europeanly yours, Wieke van der Kroef
Twin Antenna Fairytale
Agora Istanbul-signed the contract
EBM Riga Sand&Snow party
by Patricia Juhl Anthony, The twin antenna agreement between AEGEE-Riga and AEGEE-Las Palmas might be coming to an end, but the special bond between the two locals will never go away. It all began back in January 2010, when current president of AEGEE-Europe Luis Alvarado Martinez went to Riga together with fellow AEGEE-Las Palmas member Sara Rebollo to participate in the European School 1. Step by step, word by word, and after some mutually attended events; the two locals came to the idea of how a closer cooperation would create several advantages for the two antennae. It is hard to imagine, but back in 2010 AEGEE-Las Palmas was just a “baby” antenna and it was clear that the relatively experienced local AEGEE-Riga could help the Spanish antenna with advises, ideas and support at any time. There was no doubt that the more than 5000 km. between the two antennae was a challenge, however, it was rather a motivational factor than an obstacle and did not stop the two locals to pave the way for a twin antenna agreement which eventually was signed at Autumn Agora 2010 in Istanbul. One big family It might be the mixture of a local from the North with a local from the South, but there is no doubt that AEGEE-Riga and AEGEE-Las Palmas have after two years of being twin antennae connected in such great way that they consider themselves to be one big family who even have a common song. They have been collaborating on various occasions. First, Alma Mozgovaja (former secretary general of AEGEE-Europe) went to European School 1 in Las Palmas (December 2010) as a trainer, then EBM Riga 2011 gathered 18 sunny, smiling, cheerful helpers from Las Palmas, and finally the two antennae implemented the Youth in Action exchange project in December 2011 in Las Palmas. In between all these events the locals have been supporting each other and celebrating the success of their members. They have also actively communicated with each other on a common mailing lists as well as Facebook where they have shared many ideas and thoughts. When asked how it has been, Diana Ondza from AEGEE-Riga replies “Honestly, we are proud of what we have done during those two years. Together we have shared so many unforgettable moments, made friendships, cared, loved, supported, cried and laughed… just like a real family.” All good things come to an end! When being so happy with each other, one would think that the obvious choice is to renew the agreement but this is not the case with AEGEE-Riga and AEGEE-Las Palmas. In AEGEE-Riga’s perspective it is a “mission accomplished” since AEGEE-Las Palmas have grown up which is something not only AEGEE-Riga has been the witness of but also the whole Network since AEGEE-Las Palmas today is a big local with agreements with European Voluntary Service, actively involved in making events with the Action Agenda Coordination Team and not to mention being the home antenna for the current Audit Commission president Esperanza Rodríguez Medina and AEGEE-Europe president Luis Alvarado Martinez. Diana says “From the perspective of AEGEE-Riga our twins are already mature and professional to work independently and we have proved to the Network the real twin antennae cooperation. Nevertheless, we will keep this friendship in our hearts forever and hearing “Hey, soul sister” will always recall the amazing times that we had together.
It’s a long way till the top if you want to rock.. AEGEE: NCM Katowice
by Matteo Scarpa, Network Commission since its creation has been considered as “The link”. Everything starts from locals goes to the top and comes back passing through netcommies’ hands. But what makes special a body of AEGEE like Network Commission is the fact that shared responsibilities never means everyone for himself. Team work is dogma here and everything begins from knowing each other, creating trust in the team, sharing ideas, giving advices and never letting anyone being lonely in any remote place of the Network. That’s what NetCom Meetings are for. That’s what NetCom Meeting Katowice held in the second week end of June meant for Netcom newly born team. Just one month after Agora Enschede and first face-to-face meeting at the University of Enschede time came to meet for a full intensive 3-4 days meeting and get into depth of the present and future Netcom work. Marek (Vice-Speaker) and A-Katowice carefully organized all the logistics and the beautiful nature surrounding our lodging place in the middle of the forest of the small village of Dabrowa Gornica welcomed all the netcommies arriving at different time (some already there days before). Then just time to organize bungalow(ve :D) rooms and was time for meetings and hard work. Enlightened by the big grilling session about the purpose of AEGEE, our Internal Director Juri Kirpu officially opened the NetCom Meeting. Then we moved to Antennae criteria and first part of the modifications thought for a next proposal to present at the Agora Budapest. Following day, after a quite night with a great dinner prepared together, started off with Network Meetings and Regional Training Courses topic moving to Events Committee and events guidelines. During afternoon we passed to the improvements with financial reports, treasurers work and cooperation with Audit Commission and later on talking about standards of the NetCom. Communication with locals and their problems, promotion of the NetCom, Focus Areas and Eastern rims of the Network, projects of the NetCom, Cooperation with Academy, NetCom website and PR tools, LTCs awaited the next day followed by a great Netcom Night within the Eurocamping with barbecue, music and dances to finish a really hardworking day and chill out having fun all together. On Sunday morning we gathered to discuss second the part of the proposal for modification of the Antennae criteria, we evaluated all spring NWMs and discussed the future ones. After lunch Milica prepared a brilliant session of teambuilding the group enjoyed very much and got to know better and better each others. Then we finished with the amendments to the Working Format and our budget updates, then was just time for dinner and bungalow party! Monday morning we had to pack and after just a small round session for the few brief topics left and cleaning up the bungalows we had to take the bus to go to Katowice and from there leave to the airport. Some of us stayed one more day, kindly hosted by Marek but then time for saying goodbyes and get back home. It’s always hard to leave, saying goodbyes after having spent such beautiful days together, working hard, having fun, discussing, growing as a team! Even though a bit of melancholic feeling in the end the sensation was just that of a new born Team that could work really well together; who came in and who stayed found just by looking in their eyes right away the connection needed to have a fruitful term and the big crying session (feedback session) at the end of the NetCom Meeting perfectly showed together the fierceness and truth of the souls of the amazing people forming the Network Commission for the term Enschede-Budapest 2012. With still have a long way to go, proudly and relentlessly going on everyday with AEGEE in their hands, Netcommies never stops. If “future depends on what you do today” (M.Ghandi) Network Commission after NetCom Meeting Katowice for sure can look brightly at what comes next.
News from the Network
by Patricia Juhl Anthony, Lack of motivation and trouble of getting new members are unfortunately common challenges in AEGEE locals all over the Network, especially in the Northern locals whose geographic area has been the focus of the NetCom for some time during 2012. Solving this “PR” issue has been the focus on local level as well as on European level among antennae in the North and publishing articles for The AEGEEan is a good promotional tool not only for internal but also external use. AEGEE-Ogre has contributed with a travel guide, and thereby trying to encourage AEGEE people to come visit, and AEGEEHelsinki was praised for their creativity when nominated for “most creative title
PRomoting AEGEE in the North
for an event” for The AEGEEans Choice Awards, and praised for their organisational skills when Mediation Commission member Ermanno Napolitano expressed his gratitude for the quality of their Summer University (SU) organized this year with fellow Nordic local AEGEETallinn, a SU that the whole Network can read since AEGEE-Helsinki published their SU Story, taking part in a project made by The AEGEEan editor Patricia Anthony. A project aiming to promote events, locals and the SU project all at the same time. Next year A E G E E København is going to be the antenna organising a SU with AEGEE-Helsinki aiming to bring back the Scandinavian theme in the SU Project! This project
has made AEGEEKøbenhavn work on their online external communication, leading to updating the website of their antenna, aiming to provide information for potential sponsors and “educating” local members about AEGEE. Fu r t h e r m o r e , A E G E E København has been working on the Facebook presence of the antenna well-knowing that AEGEE members spend hours on updating AEGEE pages, groups and profiles with news but these days the line between updating and spamming is very thin. The Public R e l a t i o n s Committee (PRC) published the Communication Guidelines earlier this year, and these days the PRC is continuing that work, now focusing on AEGEE’s Facebook presence
AEGEE-København made the switch, removing the spam from the internal group of AEGEE-København members while keeping the Facebook page as a distribution channel for information to the rest of the Network. Another efficient tool to distribute news is blogging and the Nordic Stars (antennae who has Karolina Mazetyte as Network Commissioner) saw the creation of the Nordic Stars blog in beginning of October (2012), a blog aiming to distribute news about events, open calls, local events, letters from the members and more making it an interesting blog not only for the antennae of Karolina but also to the rest of the Network who has the possibility to receive useful information about the North and rest of AEGEE. The increased focus on PR and HR is rather new, but one thing is sure; the possibility of getting more news from the AEGEE world in the North is these days both easier and improved, so stay tuned for more exciting news!
Upcoming NWMs
Place
Date
NetCom
Padova
11.15-11.18
Matteo
Kraków
11.16-11.18
Marek
Ogre
11.22-11.25
Karolina
Oviedo
11.23-11.25
Leuven
11.23-11.26
Wieke
Tbilisi
11.30-12.02
Tika
Cooperation that leads to Win-Win by Ana Dragić and Antonija Parat, Network Commission encourages cooperation between locals in various ways. One of these ways is through two projects that you may have heard of: Twin Antenna and Mentorship System. We believe that AEGEE is a network of friends and through these projects we aim not only to strengthen these friendships, but also the internal structure of the Network itself.
Find your Twin Antenna!
The first project, Twin Antenna, was created with the aim of connecting different parts of the Network by establishing direct contacts between locals. So far, twelve pairs of locals have participated in this project. Through launching a survey two months ago, we learned about their experiences. What we gathered is that there are many advantages of this project. Besides the obvious ones such as meeting new friends, traveling and having fun, it can offer you the chance to learn more about a different culture and perhaps language, share experiences and learn from each other, organize events together, and to help, support, and promote each other. However, this commitment requires a lot of effort so make sure you’re willing to dedicate yourself to it. Trust us, it will be worthwhile! How to do it? Find a suitable Twin, contact your Network Commissioner, who will help you to make a contract, and at the following statutory event you will sign it, and begin this exciting adventure!
Connect with a local!
The intention of our second project, Mentorship System, is to connect experienced and strong locals with the less experienced ones. This connection should function as a support platform and help weaker locals gain knowledge necessary for managing a local and boost their motivation through trainings and common activities. Obviously, mentee locals benefit from this project, but it’s definitely a win-win situation. Namely, mentor locals get the chance to get inspired through guiding their mentees, to learn by helping them overcome challenges, and to spread the contagious AEGEE spirit! A good way to implement this is for the mentor to assign one or more people who would be directly responsible for their mentee, so that they know exactly whom to contact. How to do it? It’s very simple! There is no official contract for this project, so if you found a potential mentor/ mentee or if you’re looking for one, just approach your Network Commissioner and they will help you. If you’re interested, don’t be shy! Join this initiative and build lasting bonds with another local. Remember, good cooperation is the key to enjoying the benefits of being in AEGEE to the fullest!
Meeting in Brussels September 2012
HRWG: Who cares? by Maria Arend At the fifth of May 2012 it was official: the Human Rights Working Group was re-established, and a group of people with great spirit started thinking about what we can do, forming a board, and the dream of organising an event. After a little brainstorming we knew what it would be: a pre-event to Agora-Budapest, which would be some sort of seminar with workshops on different human rights topics, a living library, interesting lectures, and of course preparing the participants for Agora. At the moment I am writing this, the event has not yet taken place, but with all the preparations I can say that we are really looking forward to it. During Skype meetings and correspondence on the list, some topics came up, about which we started writing some articles. We all agree that it is nice and useful to talk about these topics, but sharing information about it is the most important. We want to make people aware about what is happening in our very own ‘happy’ continent, which we as AEGEEans all love and appreciate. There is a lot going on. In a lot of countries we see a lot of people getting hurt by others, because those ‘others’ are xenophobes, homophobes, or just do not care enough about minorities that live in their cities, their countries, their continent. We want to keep on talking and informing you about this. We want to start organising real discussions on various topics. Besides this, we want to keep on organising events, such as seminars and conferences, which you can join, and inform you about this kind of events partner organisations organise. We, all the AEGEEans together, should realise how much we love Europe, we should care about what happens to it, and be the good example of how people are supposed to treat each other, how laws are supposed to treat the people, and what that means to us. Let’s show the world we care!
AEGEE-Ogre visiting AEGEE-Kaunas
Netcom Statistics by Tika (Tina) Kukhianidze, Some love to say that one has to be a masochist to candidate for Netcom, others think that it’s all about traveling and spamming. Maybe both statements are true at the certain extent. Being a network commissioner implies to look after 18 (in average) locals, care and share everything with other 11 netcomies , and take the responsibility for the whole network. Every netcommie has his/her own approach how to handle this mission. Unfortunately the most of the work that is done is impossible to measure, though we still decided to make a small research and reflect our everyday work in numbers.
The New Friendship by AEGEE-Ogre, When we, five girls of AEGEE-Ogre antenna, woke up early that rainy morning on October 6 to travel to Kaunas, we did not have a lot of expectations or thoughts on how it would really go. The only idea was to explore if we and our new neighbors from AEGEE-Kaunas would be compatible to try to organize TSU next summer. What we did not expect was to find new friends! It turned out that, although, Kaunas is a very new antenna, people in there are very well organized, responsible, fun and, what is most important, already possess AEGEE spirit. After the first few hours, we were sure we would not only want to organize TSU next summer together but make a long lasting friendship between us. Over and all, our two day meeting with them went very well - we explored the local Kaunas student life, tried to learn words from each other’s languages, let the ideas flow between us and now we are sure, that just four hour drive distance from Ogre, we have great neighbors and friends. I am sure that this is just the beginning!
Average e-mails sent per 388 month Received e-mails from locals 41 per month E-mail checked per day
Editorial Board
10 times
Average hours spent on the 25.6 hours
Pubisher: Network Commision
Netcom work
Editor in Chief&Layout: Karolina Mazetyte
Time spent on traveling per 98 hours
Editors: Patricia Juhl Anthony, Agnija Kazuša,
term
Matteo Scarpa, Maria Arend, Wieke van der Kroef,
Distance covered per term
7561 km
Ana Dragic, Tika (Tina) Kukhianidze, Antonija Parat