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 ============================================================================= RAINBOW-L is a regional discussion list of AEGEE. 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