After my CD year the emphasis has been put back again to my university career, regardless of this I still wanted to attend a few AEGEE-events, and at the end I was asked to be a trainer in 2 Network meetings. Ioannina was the first one.
The Network Meeting was held between 2nd to 5th November, one hour away from Ioannina at a cottage in the hills next to the Albanian border, which was rented only for the event. There were 23 participants in total from 5 Greek and 9 other locals, I was the only representative of AEGEE-Budapest. The main topic of the Network Meeting was to get to know AEGEE better and to focus on the local events as most of the participants were less experienced. I had my session after the What’s AEGEE and AEGEE-history session which was about SWOT and sharing best practices: every local had to make a “dating profile” based on their strengths and weaknesses, and they were paired with another local to work together on their opportunities/threats. At the end the “couples” presented their “dating plans” in front of each other and the other teams could ask questions or comments. Apart from the sharing best practices session we had several other ones such as presenting the best local events, getting to know what branded activities are and making a pilot event for the Network (these will be collected from all Autumn Network Meetings and CD will choose the best which will be implemented in the Network, getting to know the basics of Fundraising and Event management, and we had an Open Space Technology session as well where we discussed 3 topics in each slot from organising the Agora in Istanbul to how to organise the best SU. Apart from the European Night we also celebrated the 5th anniversary of AEGEE-Ioannina, Spyros being approved as Honorary Member of AEGEE-Ioannina, and a traditional dinner and Tsipuro tasting in the village.
To summarise, I think the Network Meeting was good, local organisers did an excellent job, the trainers were good, though some of the participants were a bit inactive at the sessions. I would recommend for everyone to go and attend a Network Meeting to develop themselves, to get to know AEGEE better in European Bodies, and to meet new cultures!
Written by Tekla Hajdu, member of AEGEE-Budapest