October International Board diary

Dear ESNers,

Welcome to the first International Board Report from Brussels. This new monthly feature on esn.org will be a chance for you to get to know what the board is doing for ESN in Brussels and around Europe. We hope that you enjoy reading about our work and travel and of course welcome any questions or feedback you have about the report or our work in general.

October is notoriously one of the crazy months in ESN (which ones aren’t we hear you ask?) with many events happening at the local, national and international level and also the board engaged in the coordination of network, communication with external partners and running of our projects like PRIME, SocialErasmus etc. Thus, we have lots to let you know about in this feature…

The month began with the return from CNR Nancy, a productive meeting that saw the approval of ESN Georgia and second sections in ESN Ireland ESN Croatia, demonstrating the growth and popularity of our network.  Also, many interesting sessions were conducted whereby NRs had the opportunity to share ideas about what the network can do for the 25th Anniversary of Erasmus.

A policy of the International Board this year is to stay close to sections and we felt that the best way to do that is to come and meet you face-to-face at your national platforms. Therefore, Damien was attending the Slovakian NP at the start of the month to speak with ESNers, get their feedback and talk to them about the activities of ESN International.  At the same time, Leo returned home to the UK to participate in the UK National Platform, an event which saw the growth of ESN UK to 13 sections, the election of a new NB and really promising ideas for how the UK can get more engaged in ESN activities. We will be trying to coming to more platforms throughout the year, so just let us know if you would like one of the IB to visit your NP as well.

Also, at the same weekend as the UK NP, Josefin and Fabian were representing ESN at the IFISO meeting (Informal Forum of International Student Organisations) in Thessaloniki sharing best practices, attending workshops and small sessions that facilitate cooperate between ESN and the youth associations. ESN was also elected as the next house for the Spring event, so if your section would like to organise this prestigious event, you can apply on www.esn.org.

Next up was the Right for your Rights Conference which took place in October in both Luxembourg and Brussels and it was the final event to celebrate the success of the project and cooperation between Campus Europae and ESN. The event was attended by Katja and Tania from the Board and many other ESNers from all across Europe, and they all participated in the conference, trainings and workshops and even had the chance to visit the European Parliament in Brussels.

One of ESN’s most renowned projects, ExchangeAbility had its final event to celebrate the culmination of the project cooperation between ESN and UNICA. The event was held in Brussels and attended by a number of students with disabilities engaged in the campaign, National Agencies, the board and other important stakeholders. This fantastic and uplifting event saw the presentation of all the videos produced through the project and celebrated the impact of everybody’s work.  Following on from this, Tania attended a National Agencies meeting which was a fantastic opportunity to talk about the implementation of the Erasmus programme, the work of ESN in each country and also how the two bodies can cooperate for the 25th Anniversary of the Erasmus Programme in 2012.

As some of you may know, ESN is supported by grants which allow us to work here in Brussels and also to run our major projects such as PRIME and SocialErasmus. Therefore, we are always trying to learn more about what we can apply for and how we can make better applications in the future. So on 28th November, Virginie, our new secretary (she started to work with us in September) attended a Grant writing and Info day to gather lots of information and gain trainings that will for sure be valuable to our work in the future. Simultaneously, the Regional Platforms began with SWEP Lisbon being the first event for ESNers in the region to attend. Josefin and Leo attended the event with 45 motivated participants coming from Spain, Portugal, France and Italy to attend workshops and trainings and share best practices and information about their work.

And to round of a busy, yet productive October for the board we had a Halloween Party in the ESN House, with a number of ESNers present to join us for this ghoulish fancy dress event….

We are sure that November will be an equally busy month with more RPs on the horizon, but we will be back with the November report in 4 weeks to let you know what the board has been up to.

Greetings from the International Board

Article written by Leo Smith