The Netcom TimesAgora Enschede 2nd of May 2012 Enschede

LOOKING BEHIND THE SCENES OF NETCOM

Dear Network,Everything in life is

changing and AEGEE is not an exception. It was six months ago when the new Netcom team started its work and at this agora you can clearly see the results: 17 Network Meetings or-ganised, lots of locals revived and a big number of new Contacts established. And this is just the visible part of our work!

During this period the Netcom also managed to further develop its already well-known projects of Twin Antennae and Mentorship Cooperation. We also made a brand new website (aegee.org/netcom). Among others you can find there the latest information about Netcom, calendar of birthdays of our locals, information about our projects and much more.

With this edition of Netcom Times you receive not only an exclusive chance to visit by yourself all parts of our Network with articles about various events, but also get acquainted with new Contacts and be the first to know important news from our big Network.

In the next days of this agora a new CD will be elected, more Contacts will be accepted to our big family and of course new Network Commissioners will be elected by you. Life keeps on going, AEGEE is being de-veloped, Netcom teams are changing, but what surely re-mains is that Netcom always keeps working for you and together with you.

Europeanly yours,Olga Iatsyna

Words from the Speaker

by Koen Berghuis Some people in AEGEE

think Netcom is a waste of money and all we do is trav-eling around doing noth-ing. So let’s take a look be-hind the scenes of the work we are really doing!

In January I arrived in Kaunas, Lithuania (don’t worry Mickey Turati, I paid for the ticket myself) to team up with my subcommie Karolina Mazetyte to embark on a small tour of my north-ern locals. As Netcom has chosen Scandinavia as one of its current focus areas, we have been working on devel-oping the greater Northern area including the Baltics.

It’s not that we just go to

one of the locals out there to give them random support. In order to really achieve something, you have to do a lot of research before you actually start. For example, also in the United Kingdom previous Netcommies have done a lot of work research-ing what was lacking for AEGEE on the Islands and laying out the groundwork so that Beata as our current Netcommie there can build on those experiences and re-ally achieve something amaz-ing. It’s not that the NWM in London came out of the blue.

We started like this as well in the north, spending hours emailing and skyping trying to find out why locals

like Turku were dying, why members of many locals are not motivated to be active, why they have problems con-vincing people to do volun-tary work. At our first stop in Helsinki, we could therefore already discuss in more de-tails what should be done in order to strengthen this area. During talks with the board even plans were discussed to revive AEGEE in Sweden.

A lovely ferry ride later and the next day we were in Tallinn. There, we mainly discussed how we could structure the NWM that would take place there two months later, in order to have a true impact on the area.

And in between all these

stops you still spend hours in your inbox, replying on requests ranging from find-ing a trainer for a LTC or helping a local getting their SU approved. We have liter-ally thousands of tasks like this aiding the network. And unlike organising a NWM, these tasks are not visible to the network.

After a year in Netcom, I can only respect my col-leagues of voluntarily spend-ing so much time, effort and even their own money work-ing on developing their area even when not everyone sees the results. But if you know, you can only thank the peo-ple who served in Netcom the last year. I surely do.

Tallinn, with its lovely old town, was one of the many stops on the Netcom trip, that included visits to Helsinki and Tartu as well.

by Koen BerghuisOn a boring Sunday

while watching a documen-tary about climate change, I came up with the idea to cal-culate how much I contrib-uted to this phenomenon. As we in AEGEE are all avid travelers, keen to explore other countries and meet our friends all over Europe again, I started to calculate how polluting all my flights I ever took actually are. After some calculations, I found out I have flown more than 200,000 km already in my life, which is roughly the same as traveling halfway to the moon. In terms of CO2 emission, it’s the same as the average South African per-son emits in five years on all activities.

Seeing the need for change but not wanting to give up my travel habit, I started to think about other ways to travel. Apart for worries about the future of polar bears, there are some other good reasons to con-sider other means of travel.

Maybe the biggest rea-son of taking a train or em-bark on a road trip instead of wasting time in boring ter-minals which are the same all over the world anyway, is the sense of adventure. You don’t know what will happen on your journey,

each travel you have differ-ent experiences or might meet interesting new people in the train. Such journeys are also more comfortable. Sitting in a car or having the possibility to stretch your legs or drink a beer in the restaurant car of a train, for sure beats leaving a Ryanair plane completely crippled because of the quality of the seats and lack of leg space.

Do you prefer a window seat in a plane? Why not just take ground transport to really absorb the beautiful scenery Europe has to of-fer. Our continent does have some of the most amaz-ing roads and railways that will beat any view from any plane. And doesn’t sound the prospect of taking an overnight ferry, a train like the Trans Siberian Express or an epic road trip more ro-mantic and awe-inspiring than asking someone to go on a 6-hour flight with a budget airliner with you?

And the costs? Even train journeys can be very cheap if booked in advance or when using interrail, and traveling with a group in car or bus can beat any cheap flight. So next time, think about it again and skip the planes, even if it’s for only once you are already making a change!

EU Integration for Eastern Partnership Countries:

Close or Closed?by Shushan Khachatryan

Which are Eastern Partnership Countries? Perhaps this would be your first question while read-ing the headline of this ar-ticle. Eastern Partnership Countries are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The name “Eastern Partnership” is connected with the open coopera-tion programme between the European Union (EU) and six countries which started in 2009 in Prague at the Eastern Partnership Summit. The core objec-tives of the cooperation are to form a political associa-tion, establish and develop a free trade area and abol-ish existing visa regimes.

AEGEE with its Eastern Partnership Project which started in 2011 went even deeper by targeting youth in these countries working on ensuring equal oppor-tunities. The main direc-tions that AEGEE prioritise are Mobility in Education, Conflict Resolution

and Active Citizenship.So Eastern Partnership

Programme suggests a to-tally different level of co-operation and a big prog-ress is already visible. But generally speaking, the most important question is still open. Where is the cooperation between EU and Eastern Partnership Countries leading to? Do these countries have EU Integration perspective?

The Eastern Partnership itself does not contain the EU accession condition but meanwhile it is not excluded. EU officials al-ways mention a “more for more” principle in their speeches which means the more the countries’ will is to undertake reforms the more Brussels will support the further integration pro-cesses. The reforms include Political Dialogue, Trade and Economy, Freedom, Security and Justice, Energy and Transport, Education, people to people contact etc.

In order to measure the EU integration level

and the progress on under-taking reforms of Eastern Partnership Countries an EU Integration index was recently introduced. The index showed that Moldova and Ukraine are in a leading position in the success of undertaking reforms, while Belarus and Azerbaijan are in the last places because of the political situation in those countries. There were even discussions to remove Belarus from the initiative.

So weather the coop-eration leads to EU integra-tion or not, we as AEGEE should make a case for the inclusion of students from Eastern Europe – especially since they are already part of our Network. AEGEE has always played a vanguard role in the field of European integration, and we believe that by adding a serious youth perspective to the Eastern Partnership initia-tive of the European Union, we can make a unique con-tribution to building a com-mon European society!

The scenery on the Beograd to Bar train line is maybe the best you can get in Europe, and includes crossing the second tallest railway

bridge in the world.

Five Reasons Why You Should Travel Green

The participants of HRES in Kyiv.

Human Resources Adventure in Kyivby Kateryna Kozhemiakina

In April, AEGEE-Kyiv hosted the Human Resources European School (HRES), a 7-day interna-tional training course initi-ated by the HR Working Group of the AEGEE-Academy. The aim of the course was to empower youth NGO members who

are involved in the field of Human Resources to de-velop, implement and man-age HR strategies in their organizations.

More than hundred ap-plications were received, but only 22 the most motivated members of AEGEE were selected to take part in the course. Four experienced

trainers from different NGOs were delivering sessions on recruitment, motivation, HR strategies, personality types, conflict management and other top-ics. The HRES organizing team consisted of more than 40 people and their work was highly appreciated.

Participants said the event was an once-in-a-life-time experience and every effort was being taken to make everyone feel as com-fortable as possible. Many people instantly became HR experts and hopefully will take back all their newly learned skills to their home locals.

Suit Up With the Dutchies!by Berend Küpers

Dutchies and their suits. It’s a combination like bread and butter and be-ing in the city of Enschede you will probably find your-self surrounded by suits, ties, dress-shirts and even the occasional tailcoat. Admired and ridiculed alike, this tradition is more than just another wacky expression of local culture.

The habit of students suiting up for meetings, workshops and even parties, occasions where most nor-mal people prefer the com-fort of a t-shirt, stems from the traditions of the “cor-pora.” Corpora are large stu-dent associations which can be found in every Dutch stu-dent city of any importance. Nowadays more active than their central European counterparts, they are often compared to the notori-ous fraternities in the USA.

Outsiders often have a very negative image of the corpora. This is mostly due to the massive alcohol intake of their members, rigid hierarchical structure, harsh initiation rituals and strict adherence to an in-comprehensive set of un-written rules, or “mores.” One might say an idealistic open-minded association as AEGEE should have noth-

ing to do with all of this.The corpora, however,

did lead the way for a very active student culture in the Netherlands. They created a climate which enabled many locals in the region to flour-ish. Many antennae have borrowed some of the tradi-tions of the corpora, not for fun, but because they have proven to be effective. Their hierarchical structures, which may seem unreason-ably strict, do form a solid basis for any efficiently run students’ association. Many big Dutch locals, such as AEGEE-Utrecht or AEGEE-Enschede, have used ideas from the corpora, intro-ducing local commissions, advisory boards and year clubs, to form a professional and well integrated local.

The actual purpose of wearing your suit every-where is less clear, though probably it is a left-over from the time all students wore suits. To this day, in a lot of associations you can’t enter when you’re wearing anything less than a jacket-and-tie (or “jasje-dasje” in Dutch). Many people have criticised this tradition for being elitist and exclu-sive, but showing off your nice attire is far from the point. In fact, the ties and blazers, usually bought at

AEGEE-Delft all suited up for their traditional constitutional drink.a second-hand shop for a couple of Euros, are treated with the greatest disregard and are stained with alco-hol, dirt, flour and vomit.

Whatever the actual reason is, it does create a sense of belonging togeth-er. In much the same way AEGEE-Istanbul proudly wears their sweaters or AEGEE-Alicante wears their bright yellow shirts, wearing similar clothes is not meant to exclude out-siders but to show pride for your local or club and to feel a stronger connection with your association and friends.

In fact we as AEGEE might have more in com-mon with these unruly,

sometimes obnoxious stu-dents then we would like to think. Their associations strive to bring people from different studies together, forming a network of friends throughout the city; we do the same on a European scale. And although the CIA may have a clearer practical use, to most people it is ex-actly as incomprehensible as the unwritten rules stating who can sit where and who is allowed to wear a coat inside. Besides, if we are re-ally honest with ourselves, our alcohol consump-tion at a European Night doesn’t differ that much from a regular corps party.

I’m not saying at all

we should become exactly like the corpora. We have an association full of awe-some open-minded people, united by the same ide-als and we should not lose this. I am saying, though, that perhaps we should not be so quick to judge other peoples’ customs and make some effort to try to find out the meaning behind them. We have more in common than we think and we could learn a lot from each other. And isn’t this what AEGEE is all about? So why not give these tradi-tions a chance and suit up!

by Lucille RieuxIf there is a place in the

network where the new RTC concept is having a big impact, it’s France. For the second time a RTC for French speaking anten-nae was held, this time in Paris. It proved once more that French antennae are here, willing to contribute to the construction and development of AEGEE.

As you might now, France is well-known to be

one of the weakest parts of our network, but you would be surprised to know ev-erything going on in this part of the network. For instance, only a few weeks ago AEGEE-Toulouse or-ganised an exchange with AEGEE-Utrecht, granted by the Youth In Action program, on the topic on Euroscepticism. And very soon, AEGEE-Lyon will also host a Youth in Action event on Youth UnEmployment,

where they will discuss how voluntary work can be a way to get skills and com-petencies that actually em-power young people when looking for a job. In some ways, these antennae are proving that even with little resources it is possible to ac-tively contribute to AEGEE.

And they also proved it during this RTC. The days were mainly dedicated to train French members, but also to share experi-

ences, ideas and problems. A RTC is one of the best ways to realise that you are not alone and isolated in your local with all your problems, but that there are actually other members willing to help you, to sup-port you, and to share with you inspiration and ideas. Events like this definitely help to create some invisible link among the participants, starting to think as a group rather than as individuals.

At RTC’s, You Are Not Alone!Traditionsby Koen Berghuis

Whatever you think about suits, there is one other Dutch tradition every-one visiting the agora should take part in. Each year, on the fourth of May at eight in the evening, the whole country comes to a stand-still to observe two minutes of silence to commemorate fallen soldiers and civilians since the outbreak of the Second World War. We ex-pect every AEGEE member to do the same this time!

News from the NetworkKaunas on its Way to the AEGEE WorldBy Justina Kariniauskaite The new contact

Kaunas was officialy born in December 2011, but the idea to bring AEGEE back to Kaunas goes already back one year earlier. At that time, the president and founder of contact Kaunas, Karolina Mazetyte was studying in Hungary. When she found out about AEGEE, she im-mediately fell in love with it and became involved in AEGEE-Szombathely-Kőszeg, eventually leading that antenna as president.

When Karolina left Hungary to return to Lithuania, she knew that AEGEE needs to be in Kaunas again, as AEGEE can be a perfect place for young and motivated youth in the city to realize their ideas and do something

good for the society. Right now we already

have around 20 members and have organized our first local event in Kaunas, called “Cultural crossroad: dif-ferencies and similarities.” Slowly, AEGEE is making a name in Kaunas. Sometimes we are disappointed when things are not going so smooth, sometimes we are happy when things are going better than expected, but we enjoy every single moment being in the AEGEE family. We are learning from LTC’s from experienced AEGEE members who give us ad-vice, and we learn from each other everyday. We already became more than a group of AEGEE members in Kaunas; a family, loving and caring, sometimes arguing, but always supporting each

other in any situation.We already have many

ideas for future events in Kaunas. In the following month we will organize green workshops for the lo-cal community about the need for recycling, as well as we will organise another film review and discussion.

Plans for the longer term includes organising a political party fair for the Parliament Elections. The aim of the event is to pro-vide knowledge about the programs of the political parties and ask questions to attending politicians and to promote the ideals of AEGEE to them. We are all happy that contact Kaunas will make the step this agora to upgrade to contact an-tenna. For sure you will hear more from us in the future!

The rugged, volcanic island of Lanzarote is new in our network.

AEGEE Welcomes Two New Spanish Additions to its NetworkBy Miguel Gallardo Albajar

Sevilla will be upgraded to contact antenna this ag-ora. Sevilla, located in the south west of Spain, is the capital of Andalucia and gathers the “arte” and cul-ture of the region and frames it in an amazing collection of palaces and big parks. And let’s not forget the river Guadalquivir and some of the famous monuments like the Torre del Oro, la Giralda and the “Archivo de Indias”, a huge building hosting all the documentation of the commerce with America in times of the Spanish transat-lantic empire.

The antenna has been founded by oldies from Valencia and Las Palmas who have moved to Sevilla. Soon after, they found a group of local young people willing to grasp the AEGEE Spirit and together start the conquest of Europe in the Summer University this year.

Lanzarote is the third is-land of the Canary archipel-ago that joins the AEGEE family. This new contact antenna has the full support of the university and has al-ready active members taking good care of growing stron-ger. The island landscape is really surprising as it reflects the natural history. Born from volcanic activity, the land has a dark tone that is lighted up with white houses with colourful windows. In the south of the island, a still active volcano provides you with a man-on-the-moon experience and later you can get lost in one of the small villages inland or rest on one of the beaches.

The roughness of the landscape does not reflect on the people of Lanzarote; they are sweet and gentle. Just like netcommie Luis Alvarado, who is a “cone-jero” (translated as Rabbit-man, as this is how they call people from Lanzarote).AEGEE-Kaunas members during one of their social activities.

By Marijana Roščić Anyone who ever es-

tablished a new local knows that it isn’t easy work. There are lots of things you are supposed to do if you want to become part of our big AEGEE family. But rees-tablishing a local is even harder. You are supposed

to revive something that is dead, you are dealing with even more procedures (at least at the city council) and trying to find a new kind of confidence with your for-mer partners. But in the end the result is always the same; happiness because you fi-nally managed to be part of

AEGEE network again. Here we will present

you the story about rees-tablishing a local which was deleted from our net-work in 2002 (founded 1995) – Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The per-son who took the respon-sibility to do all this hard

work is Aldin Joldić. Two years ago he participated at NWM Sarajevo and found out he could get the job done. Since then he has been dealing with the long process of getting a support letter from University. But Aldin never gave up, which proves how big is his wish

to have AEGEE back again in Tuzla. Now he needs to gather more players for his new team and there is still a lot more work to do. I wish the new contact in Tuzla will overcome everything so in the end they can become one more Star at the map of AEGEE.

Overcoming Difficulties to Reestablish a Contact in Bosnia

The Real Magic of Cooperation in AEGEEBy Beata Matuszka

One of the most an-ticipated Network Meetings among around 18 of this term was the one which was organised by the British locals and other AEGEE members from all over Europe: NWM London. Why London? Why now? Let’s find out how the magic happened during these fruit-ful months.

Everything started in November 2011 when I as Network Commissioner of AEGEE-Abertawe, AEGEE-Durham and AEGEE-Sheffield, travelled to the United Kingdom to support the locals through days of meetings and train-ings and creating strategies.

After those active weeks we started to think about what we can do for the British locals to be in the spotlight and the answer was clear: we should organise a Network Meeting. But where? We decided to take the most popular city, the real cultur-al melting pot, the capital: London. We had the prob-lem of not having a local in London which definitely made the whole process much more difficult. But that wasn’t the only unique aspect of this NWM. The three locals cooperated per-fectly. In the end, everyone could learn a lot from each other and the final coopera-tion results.

I have to say, the par-

ticipants were also great. All people really actively partic-ipated in the sessions; they shared all their thoughts, concerns, best practices and experiences of being a board member or member of either a small or big local. And what can I say about the trainers? I need to admit, I’m speechless and so are the participants. As experts in their fields they managed to motivate all the people. Everyone could bring useful ideas back home.

The NWM in London was one of the best week-ends of my Netcom term. I would like to thank all the participants, organisers and trainers to make this amaz-ing event happen.

Let’s Develop Yourself!By Marek Pezda

“NWM Torún - Let’s do it! Develop Yourself!” was one from the biggest Network Meetings in the history of AEGEE. The event gathered almost 200 participants, including 16 trainers. These amazing numbers show how strong this part of our network is. A lot of people joined the workshops and discussions, and I was really happy to see almost everyone paying at-tention and getting involved

in the sessions. It was a real pleasure

for me to work with this amazing team of organisers who delivered such a qual-ity event. Delicious food, huge gym, awesome city game, nice social program, professional sessions and a lot of AEGEE spirit: they managed to deal with ev-erything. I came back full of positive energy from this event, ready to focus on the next tasks for me as Network Commissioner.

Lots of AEGEE members actively discussing at NWM Torún.

Reviving AEGEE-ValladolidBy Sergio Gómez OliverosValladolid, located

in the middle of northern Spain, is the capital of the region Castillá y León. Founded by Conde Ansúrez and his wife in the eleventh century, it gained impor-tance throughout the years as the capital of Spain from 1601 to 1606 and the place where Miguel de Cervantes and many Catholic Kings lived. Nowadays the city is known as the place where the most authentic and pur-est form of Spanish is being spoken.

But let’s talk about more relevant matters such

as the history of AEGEE in Valladolid. AEGEE-Valladolid was a very strong antenna that hosted the Agora in 1996. With Pedro Paniza in 2006 the antenna even delivered AEGEE-Europe’s presi-dent. Unfortunately, due to some problems AEGEE-Valladolid disappeared a few years later. But just a short time ago, AEGEE was revived again in Valladolid. The spirit of the past is still there, new ideas are being developed and we’re all looking forward to show to the whole of Europe our strength again.

By Peppe GianniIn these times of uncer-

tainty and recession, being young and talented is often not enough to find yourself a good job. Becoming an en-trepreneur could be the only valid alternative to have the chance to follow your pas-sions and create your de-sired “dream job”. With the motto “your idea is your business”, the European School of Entrepreneurship 2011 (ESE) was organized by AEGEE-Catania, in col-laboration with Youth un-Employment Project and Youth Hub Catania Student Incubator.

A wonderful team of trainers provided twenty participants from different student networks the nec-essary technical knowledge and soft skills to set up their

own enterprise. At the same time, University Professors and local entrepreneurs gave their contribution to the event by giving participants the chance to meet face-to-face with successful people in an informal context.

At the end of the event participants were enthusi-astic because they felt they had gained a lot, asking organizers for a follow-up event with the same people to continue to learn and work on their ideas.

I really hope that ESE would be considered as a best practice for profession-al events and that in the near future AEGEE will be able to increase the number of events centered on personal empowerment of profes-sional skills of all the mem-bers of the network.

Your Idea, Your Business! Charity WorkBy Stefana Milošević

In March, AEGEE-Beograd and AEGEE-Nis visited a school for children with special needs. As a gift we brought them toys and clothes our participants have been collecting all year. The smiles of these children were priceless to us.

After visiting this school in Nis, we started an Easter project in Beograd with the intention to make the Easter holidays for children with cancer more special. Together with the children, we painted Easter eggs and made collages. Our team managed to get more than 1000 smiles.

We are really proud of the results of these actions and we hope it will inspire other locals in our network to do the same.

“What are youTH Saying?” - Touring French Cities with AEGEEBy Lucille Rieux

”Speak Up - Bouge Ton Europe” is a project start-ed by members from the French locals. They noticed that a lot of young people do not realise they have the possibility to express their opinion. The project is

aiming at increasing youth participation and European awareness by gathering young European people and together visiting differ-ent French cities in order to encourage young people to contribute.

During the whole tour,

participants coming from different AEGEE locals will organise workshops on youth participation, share their stories and experi-ences, hit the streets ask-ing young people for their opinion and work with high school students in order to

promote volunteering. It’s also a great opportunity to give AEGEE a higher visibil-ity. Twenty-five years ago, AEGEE was on the front page of the main French newspaper. With this proj-ect we think that it is pos-sible to get that kind of at-

tention again as AEGEE can give a unique impact on the lives of young Europeans.

A small team is working hard on this amazing project that just received Youth in Action support. They will for sure keep you up to date on the next steps.

Editorial Board

East or West, Maslenitsa in Belarus is BestAEGEE-Minsk and AEGEE-Grodno recently came back into the European spotlights by organising an event in a country that is surviving not the best times in terms of international cooperation at this mo-ment. Netcom Times’ Olga Iatsyna talks to both locals how they made this great achievement possible.

Olga: You made an in-ternational event in such a country as Belarus! What are your feelings about this?

AEGEE-Minsk: We feel fantastic! We’ve managed

to organise an event after a long period of silence of our antennae. For us it was a matter of prestige as we have more complicated and challenging conditions for project management but at

the same time it’s a more interesting and exciting experience.

AEGEE-Grodno: It is not the easiest time for our country, but we did our best and we do hope we have

succeeded in it. We were rewarded with positive feedback from our great participants. It was a rela-tively small event but we did feel a lot of satisfaction.

Olga: Was it difficult to organise the Maslenitsa event? Did anybody help or support you in this?

AEGEE-Minsk: The most difficult thing was the stereotype that it is ex-tremely cold in Belarus in February. It’s quite strange that most people still be-lieve we are situated some-where between Russia and the North Pole, full of bears with balalaikas, while it takes only five hours by car from Warsaw to get to Minsk.

AEGEE-Grodno: As our AEGEE-team is not very numerous, everyone was supposed to do a great deal of work. During our event preparation, Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno carried out strong support in organising issues. As we are not officially registered yet, we got the support through the organisation “Youth-in-club”, the members of which are actually the members of AEGEE-Grodno. The organisation of the event in Belarus requires from us to be quick-witted, creative and even sometimes tough.

Olga: Did you meet any obstacles from the gov-ernment while organising the event in your cities?

AEGEE-Grodno: No, actually we didn’t face any obstacles from the govern-

ment. As our event was pretty small-scale, it was not broadly promoted. The invitations for acquir-ing visas were sent with our private addresses.

AEGEE-Minsk: And all Belarusian AEGEEans are law-abiding citizens!

Olga: What kind of ac-tivities did you organise?

AEGEE-Minsk: The participants had a unique chance to taste the most delicious winter holiday by eating pancakes, drink-ing our national drink “Krambambulya”, danc-ing chorovod, singing na-tional song Kupalinka and jumping over the burn-ing sculpture of Winter.

AEGEE-Grodno: In Grodno, we also organ-ised such activities as a cooking workshop, the knights’ performance, a fire show, the tradition-al tea-time party and of course going to the sauna.

Olga: Do you have any plans for other activi-ties in the nearest future?

AEGEE-Grodno: We have some plans and ideas to arrange new events. Belarus has such a huge po-tential with its culture, his-tory, nature, and certainly the people. So Europe, wait for more news from Belarus!

AEGEE-Minsk: Now we want to concentrate more on local activities as we strongly need to give a rebirth to the life in our an-tenna. But don’t hesitate to visit us one day in Belarus!

Participants of the Maslenitsa event at Soviet Pioneers theme party.

Mickey Turati: Analyzing Network Meetings

Editor in Chief & Layout:Koen Berghuis

Editors:Olga Iatsyna, Lucille

Rieux, Mickey Turati, Sergio Gómez Oliveros, Beata Matuszka, Peppe

Gianni, Stefana Milošević, Marek Pezda, Marijana Roščić, Berend Küpers, Miguel Gallardo Albajar, Kateryna Kozhemiakina, Shushan Khachatryan, Justina Kariniauskaite.

Netcom’s biggest fan and biggest critic is back in this edition of Netcom Times! This time, Mickey is taking a closer look at Network Meetings!

“In the last 12 months about 30 Network Meetings took place in Europe. The distribution of those events is very wide, from Portugal to Georgia, from the British Islands to sunny Sicily. This article is not a reminder for those antenna who haven’t sent any board member to a NWM, but yes, it’s an incentive: look around, if there are about 30 Network Meetings every year, sta-tistically there’s 1,1 NWM every two weeks so being busy is not an excuse not to participate.

Most of these events are organized for about 25 participants; this is the number that comes more often, followed by a NWM for 30 people. It’s impor-tant to remark that the big-

gest Network Meetings are always organized in Poland (for 150 up to 200 participants).

Why is there such a big difference in terms of numbers from the Polish Network Meetings and the rest of the AEGEE Network? It’s a matter of identity, these events are considered very integrating and the cooperation among antennae in central Europe (seen also in Hamburg) is strong. The structure of a Polish NWM is so wide that there are parallel sessions running at the same time, focused on newbies, local level but also with space for projects and European level experienced people. A huge minus is that the number of non-Polish participants is about 10% of the total num-ber of participants, which is quite strange, considering the high quality of the lo-gistics and the programme. And be sure, you can still

meet Maciej Gad around, and me!

If we look at the geo-graphical distribution of Network Meetings, we see immediately that with 30 events and with AEGEE being present in about 40 countries, clearly some countries haven’t hosted such internal events. Plus, in many countries two Network Meetings took place. AEGEE isn’t much present in the North, while the events in København, Riga and Tallinn make a belt around Scandinavia. Another issue is what happens in the southern Balkans, nothing really took place south of Zadar.

Online in the upcom-ing weeks, an extension to this article will be pub-lished, adding information about the costs for AEGEE-Europe for each meeting, and a cost/benefit analysis of them all if the Gots are good!”