subject :AEGEE at EPSA annual general meeting
date : 29th October 2002
venue: florence

participants : EPSA members and EPSA's European executive board, that
is pharmacy students from all over Europe particularly from Holland,
Turkey,France, Ireland, Finland, Germany, Italy, SLovenia and Malta:)

Hello Aegee people !
This is my report as regards the EPSA general meeting. I was asked to
attend the meeting as a delegate to represent AEGEE.

EPSA is a European association that involves PHARMACY students.

So what has it got to do with AEGEE?

Well, they are two completely different associations, considering
that  EPSA is directed towards pharmacy students whilst AEGEE is open
to all faculties. However we've got a few objectives in common...that
of European enlargement, European integration,promoting MOBILITY and
contributing towards mobility in a practical way by creating the
opportunity for students to "move"...

EPSA is very interested to know more about AEGEE, about it's
structure, how it works, it's projects etc. They believe that we could
learn from each other,benefit from each other and maybe collaborate
together one day.

So this is what went on.....
I did a 20 minute presentation on AEGEE, what AEGEE stands for, a
brief history, AEGEE's goals and principles, AEGEE's structure,
projects,events,activities on European and local level.

After this presentation, the panel of executive board members had a
number of questions to ask me and after that many members present in
the conference hall had more questions to ask. It lasted more or less
1hr 15 minutes!I never expected so many questions!

So in order to give a brief summary of these questions and answers :

Well, I had to explain the most practical things such as how to become
a member, how to contact one's local antenna, what type of activities
and events are organized and even more complex questions such as
AEGEE's connections with the European Union, it's support from
European institutions, connections with the Socrates project, with
education, it's direct contribution towards mobility etc... So I also
had to explain the working groups and I gave the practical example of
what the visa freedom fighters are trying to achieve  ......but I also
explained some projects in detail, in
particular that of the Summer University...and having taken some
material with me, I passed round some SU booklets and showed some
posters..to help them get a clearer picture of the project.

One of the most interesting questions was when they asked me " How
does AEGEE Europe monitor the individual antennas?how does it motivate
them to work better when needed?how does AEGEE Europe reach them?"
And that's where I explained AEGEE's structure in detail,and I could
use my personal current experience to answer these questions using
practical examples. I spoke of how AEGEE is divided into regions and
how each region has got its' Network commissioner together with it's
team of subcommissioners. I gave the practical example of the Rainbow
region and about how this "team" of people is responsible for its
region and how it can easily monitor it's antennas by actually going
personally to the local antenna in order to motivate it's active
members or teach them the necessary skills. And this obviously acts as
a bridge between AEGEE Europe and the individual antennas. Apparently
EPSA has got difficulties when it regards reaching the individual
local 'branches' of EPSA.

I was also asked about our 'general meetings' and that's when I spoke
of the AGORA and the PM.

I spoke about the European schools and other education
events...because EPSA believes very much in teaching leadership skills
and so I said that we've got events that do something similar...that
teach the necessary skills, that train the members how to be good
organizers and good leaders.

They were also interested in AEGEE on local level so I brought some
examples..AEGEE Firenze and other  antennas such as Valletta, Napoli,
Salerno (since there were people from salerno  and malta present), and
I also mentionned the 'birth' of new antennas that contribute towards
the growth of AEGEE. As regards local activities, I mainly spoke of
AEGEE's active role as regards activities for Erasmus/socrates
students; obviously this depends on each and every antenna.


So that's about it,they've got AEGEE's official website as a point of
reference and point of contact. All the EPSA members present seemed
extremely interested in AEGEE; the president of EPSA Jorrit Neumann
explained that they do not want their association to close itself into
a bubble,but they'd rather open up to other associations, at least to
see how they work.....but I think that today's result was much more
than this. I think that we actually might have gained new members who
will apply for some Summer university or other event and start their
AEGEE story from there, because today was an occasion to promote
AEGEE, so that it would be known even further in Europe, so that it
will grow in number whilst enjoying a great reputation!!

-giselle spiteri miggiani-
subcommissioner rainbow region
secretary visa freedom fighters
secretary aegee firenze
member aegee napoli, aegee valletta


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