Each ending is also the start of something new! – Introduction of the partly new partly experienced board

Changes have occurred in the current board of AEGEE-Dresden! After the Local Agora on 12th of January we are happy to introduce our new faces, new positions, interesting projects and great ideas that are going on! The newly elected, as well as the experienced board members have revealed their thoughts about the résumé of the previous semester, pending events and about expectations as well as motivations for the upcoming semester.
What happened so far … It was a warm summer night on June 26 2017 when the 4th board of AEGEE-Dresden was elected. The team consisting of the President Jens, the Secretary Dana, the Treasurer Lukas and the PR-Responsible Antonia started their term, equipped with a lot of motivation, a wealth of ideas and a huge vision in their heads.
Now, just over half a year later, Antonia left for her Erasmus semester in Spain and the board had to position itself new. Thus, Jonas Müller as the Communication Manager undertakes the responsibilities of the former PR-Responsible while Sophia Harlaß, External Affairs, and Shaown Mojumder, Internal Affairs, fill two positions that didn’t exist in the previous constellation. Best conditions for the capacity to concentrate on even more numerous and diverse projects!
But first the three remaining boardies got the chance to reflect upon the first half of their term:

Jens, described the past months close to a rollercoaster ride, with all its ups and downs in which he faced both, burdening situations and a window of opportunities that made it possible for him to push the strategic development of our local, implement new ideas and projects, to grow even more. As crucially important, Jens particularly mentions Dana, Toni & Lukas, who have taught me, allowed me to laugh, and let me see things from perspectives I would not have taken otherwise. He also created plans and objectives for the next semester including to make AEGEE-Dresden more European, to take part in the organization of a Summer University for the second time of our local’s history and to increase our relevance towards local private and public stakeholders. In the aggregate, I want to leave the antenna in the healthiest condition possible. In his point of view the new board will contribute a lot to these ambitions due to the momentum and enthusiasm the new board members have brought in which will make it easier to spread the tasks more evenly and efficiently, giving each member more leeway in exploring and pursuing innovative ideas.

The summary of the first half of the board term by the Secretary, Dana, provides an insight into her experiences and her stock that she identifies as the most intense and amazing time here in Dresden. The great spirit inside the board made it easy for Dana to both contribute actively and develop her project and time management skills. Referring to AEGEE-Dresden she looks back on two hosted European events while our members took part in NWM (Network Meetings), SUPS (Summer University Project Schools) and Erasmus+ projects. But this great level of activity won’t come to an end in the next part of the term: We have again 2 European events in mind, we will visit and host conferences, we have our LTC (Local Training Course) in spring, so absolutely no time to get bored. Just as Jens she strives for solid partnerships with the University and the city institutions which will, hopefully, lead to the strengthening of the antenna. To tackle these challenges Dana recognizes the huge potential of the new boardies for internal and external affairs to build partnerships with different institutions, fundraise and maintain the good communication inside the antenna. Next to the numerous new objectives following the new constellation of the board, there is one thing that Dana wants to stick to: the good and friendly spirit in the board, there is nothing better than feeling comfortable with the people you work with.

Also, Lukas, the current treasurer, completely agrees that we can be quite proud about what we’ve been able to achieve so far. The very solid working foundation can serve as the prerequisite to grow which should be our goal, to learn and to develop opportunities, provided the willingness to draw conclusions, and take appropriate action. Based on this balance he would like to continue what we have been doing so far while pushing in terms of procedural knowledge as well as human resources when it comes to the organisation of both the Summer University and smaller events which should be more strongly allocated to active and aspiring active members in order to widen our circle of capable members and to be able to continue improving the quality of our events and activities. Just as Dana and Jens he wouldn’t like to see a change concerning the working spirit and the human spirit that have a huge influence on the boards working success. Nevertheless, Lukas looks forward to an easier allocation of tasks and higher working power.

But who are the new hopes? Let’s introduce our new boardies!

Starting with Sophia, the medical student who is a member of AEGEE-Dresden since October 2017. She is responsible for external affairs of the antenna as of now, which means to deal with potential partners and organizations and to build or strengthen partnerships as well as to fundraise, and simply being contact person for everyone from outside of our beautiful local antenna. Being a member of the board makes it possible for her to contribute her energy to enable the antenna to grow and to work together smoothly, with a great teamwork and awesome spirit while getting a deeper understanding of the european network. The pleasant side effect of developing soft skills and the personality will surely occur by supporting the organisation of the Summer University, our Local Training Course as well as our new idea of establishing seminars for Erasmus students. And of course, the Buddy Program, the project that made [her] aware of AEGEE in the first place will play an important role in Sophia’s action agenda further on.

Next on the list is the responsible for internal affairs, Shaown. The student of electrical engineering, who became a member to a similar point last year in October, describes his remit in just a few words: Connect and do more. In detail his work will include the assistance of the four working groups within AEGEE, carrying on with maintaining the Instagram account of AEGEE-Dresden, his active involvement in PR and Buddy Program meaning providing innovative ideas to implement PR strategies (…) and to recruit new members. Shaown’s focus will lie on being main organizer of the Local Training Course in spring and on the Summer University as the outgoing responsible. He wants to sharpen [his] soft skills alongside with making new friendships and continue to learn and utilize my skills with my lovely board members at the same time so that our list of accomplishments keeps increasing and make our antenna stronger from within, that is why I am here. You’re asking where he gets the energy from to manage these new responsibilities? Inside AEGEE-Dresden we use a term called Energizer. It is an activity to keep people energetic during workshops or events. AEGEE is kind of an Energizer in my life. Seems fitting!

Last but not least there is Jonas, the new Communication Manager who joined AEGEE only four months ago. The industrial engineer became involved in AEGEE due to the PR Working Group and participating in events like Develop Yourself 4 what really soaked [him] into the antenna and awoke the wish to shape the antennas direction more directly. During his term, Jonas will focus on Public Relations like Facebook and merchandise, recruitment and to strengthen our visual identity with the goal of making AEGEE Dresden and its field of engagement more known on the campus, while assisting in the planning of the various upcoming events such as Europe on Track and the main organisation of the Delegation to Strasbourg for the European Youth Event this June. He also developed ideas for projects about sustainability as well as in the field of pro-European politics. His motivation behind all these ideas? AEGEE is a great opportunity to meet people from all over Europe, having great conversations (…) and laying the foundation for peaceful development and growth (…), to shape the future of a Europe that suits us young people while he considers the ability to pursue own project ideas.

We hope that the term will be as fruitful, productive, amicable and satisfying as the last and are pretty confident that it will push our local further ahead, as the boardies drafted all these projects, motivations and visions! We wish them good luck and are looking forward to the upcoming months!