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. Banja Luka was the second one.
The Network Meeting was held between 9th to 12th November in Banja Luka, the only AEGEE-local in Bosnia. There were 20 participants in total from 5 Balkan and 3 other locals, I was the only representative of AEGEE-Budapest. The main topic of the Network Meeting was to connect the Baldria area, and Marina, the NetCom also collected the needs of the participants before the event, so we had a lot of sessions according to these needs such as FR, PR, etc.. Because of my University obligations I had to skip the whole Thursday, so I arrived on Friday evening to the location which was in the middle of the city. On Saturday we had several parallel session slots, so in the morning participants could choose between Local management and Event management, followed by a joint PR and Recruitment session. After lunch we had parallel sessions again with Teamwork and Leadership, I was holding the Leadership session. In this session, attendees could familiarise with Lewin’s 3 leadership styles (Autocratic, Democratic, Laissez-Faire), then they could get to know which one they are dominant in by filling in a survey. We also checked in which situation should these styles be used, which was represented after in a situational game. At the end we shared our views and experiences on the leadership used in AEGEE. The last session was the Project hub session where participants identified what would they change in AEGEE, focusing on the format of Network Meetings; later participants brought an example for what would they change in their cities. The day way closed with the European Night where we could try out several Balkan specialties. Sunday’s main session was the Open Space Technology where several projects were discussed such as Agora, EPM and historical and political situation of Balkan countries.
To summarise, I think the Network Meeting was good, local organisers did an excellent job (especially with the accommodation where there were separate curtains for every bed), the trainers were good, and the participants were contributing to 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