International Board Diary March

If the International Board had to say what was the busiest month of the year, it would be a challenge, but March would win (so far) as we had the pleasure of preparing and attending the Annual General Meeting in Granada. But to say that was only the important activity of the month would ignore all the other exciting events and developments that occurred, which we will tell you about here. 

In the first week of the month the entire Board jetted off to Gdansk, Poland for the first CoMeet of 2012 organised jointly by the two sections UG and Politechnika. The event gathered 40 international ESNers who are actively working in the five committees for: Education, Network & Events, Finance, Communication, and IT. This motivating event gave people the chance to meet their colleagues, dream up new projects and initiatives and create working plans and cooperation strategies for inter-committee work.  

After four days on the sunny but rather cold Baltic coastline, the Board returned to the office with their minds set on the AGM. But still the work on the other projects is never done, and thus Katja headed to Vienna for a meeting with the Ride for your Rights! OC. The meeting helped them put in place the practical plans and communication strategy for the project which is just over one month away from starting. Back in  the ESN office it was all hands to the pump as the entire team was working on finalising the AGM documents, sending preparatory materials to Granada, making final travel preparations and working with the OC on a variety of different things such as the Informarket; workshops; STARawards; plenary sessions and so on. Also, the Board had the chance to meet with Pernod Ricard to discuss the future plans for our Responsible Party campaign. After a really successful second year of the project with many Responsible Parties, training and workshops for ESNers, it was a chance to evaluate and prepare the development and growth of the project for the future to reach more students and ESN sections and teach them about responsible behaviour, avoiding excessive drinking and protecting their health whilst on exchange. 

After one week in the office, the exodus for the AGM began with Katja first to leave for Granada to finalise preparations on the 14th March, swiftly followed by the rest of the team to the beautiful city in southern Spain. However, there was no time for sunbathing and sightseeing as before the AGM takes place there is the pre-AGM CNR meeting which is the preparatory meeting for the Board and NRs to discuss key issues related to the network,  and mostly in this case to ensure the smooth-running of the event for the 550 section participants. Three days of intensive work, coupled with a relaxing trip to the Arabic baths ensured that everyone was physically and mentally prepared for the upcoming AGM.

From Thursday (the arrival day) until Monday there were many hours of meetings, presentations, workshops,dinners and some parties to round it off. An exhausting but rewarding experience for everyone involved, and for fear of repeating anything you can read more here! With the end of the AGM comes another meeting surprisingly, the post-AGM CNR, where the Board reconvened with the NRs and the event OC to discuss and evaluate the event and also prepare some recommendations for AGM Maribor 2013 to make the event even bigger and better. 

Finally, as the month drew to a close, the Board caught up on sleep and came back to reality after the AGM, with just a few things remaining, the submission of the Jean Monnet Grant report 2011 and the answer to the JM 2012 Grant application. And we are happy to announce we submitted the report on time.....and the application for the 100.000EUR administrative grant for 2012 was approved!

Thus we will leave you with this fantastic news and hope to have more exciting developments for you in the April edition as well. 

Written by Leo Smith