International Board Diary December

Dear ESNers,

Happy New Year to you all and welcome to the last report of 2011 and the ushering in of what will surely be an exciting year for ESN. We ended the last report on the cusp of CND Siena, the second most important meeting of the year, and it didn’t disappoint. With approximately 100 people attending the event in Tuscany there was a packed agenda of presentations, voting, small sessions and importantly the Eduk8 workshops for all participants. Key decisions included the approval of Ride for your Rights as an ESN project in cooperation with Campus Europae, the approval of the new ESN PPT and letterhead templates, the election of the new committee chairs and also the acceptance of our newest Associate Member, Santiago Exchange Student Network from Chile.

When back in Brussels after a tiring few days for the Board there was the wonderful opportunity to attend the EESC Prize ceremony and to collect the 20.000€ check and trophy that ESN won for its SocialErasmus project. 

Concurrently, Damien and Leo were busy in December working on the development of partnerships and were visiting a potential service provider for the network in London. We hope that in 2012 we can deliver you lots more good news about this to coincide with the planned launch of esncard.org which is now nearing its completion. 

To coincide with the December Board Meeting the Board also had the pleasure to welcome Bea Pérez-Artacho (Head of AGM Granada 2012) to Brussels to discuss about the preparations for the AGM in Granada and start detailing the programme with the event getting ever closer  and registration now open for all participants. In the same week, we also had the Official ESN Office Christmas Party to celebrate the past 6 months of work as a team at a typical Belgian restaurant in Brussels. Furthermore, we attended the Christmas receptions of our friends and partners and from YFJ and ELSA in the same week. And also to get us in the Christmas spirit we received many cards from ESN sections, which we would like to thank you greatly for. 

As the Christmas break loomed there was still much to do in the office, with the follow-up from CND Siena, preparations for January and 2012 in general. Also, the ESN House was visited by the Ride for your Rights OC for a festive planning meeting to prepare the 2012 launch of the project and they also found time to do some repairs to the house and visit the Brussels Christmas market as a reward for their hard work. Furthemore,  some countries were still having NPs, and both Damien and Magda represented ESN International at the Polish NP in Łódź to talk about international projects such as Responsible Party.  

Immediately after Damien and Leo went to meet another upcoming partner of ESN to finalise plans for a late Christmas present that you will all receive when you receive your ESNcards this month.

By this point, the 23rd December was upon us and it was time to close down the laptops for two weeks and enjoy the Christmas holidays and take a well-deserved rest, which we hope you did too. Let’s hope we are all recharged and ready to go for a busy and exciting 2012 for ESN.

Greetings from the International Board

Written by Leo Smith