This spring a total of 13 Network Meetings are going to take place in different corners of Europe. From western islands to southern ones, from northern cities to central and eastern European towns these Network Meetings will bring AEGEE members from neighbouring areas closer together and provide a platform for strong regional cooperation and knowledge transfer.

A Network Meeting (or NWM in short) is a gathering of board members primarily from all the locals in the area of competence of a specific member (or assistant) of the Network Commission (Netcommie in short), open to all members of the network. Every Netcommie has the responsibility of organizing at least one NWM per year, and since Agora Istanbul, attending a NWM has become a new Antenna Criterion. The Network Commission is an internal organ that takes care of the network as a whole, with its 11 members, each in charge of a number of locals closest to their place of residence, offering support and assistance to their respective AEGEE locals.

The NWM has an internal administrative focus, and deals with issues such as best practices, cooperation between locals and connection to the European Level. Very important topics to be discussed are the statutory events, Agora and EBM. The NWM can be either preparatory for the Agora/EBM, discussing proposals, candidatures, common interests, current and future projects as well as a follow-up, putting together the ways to best implement the changes or direction recently adopted and decide upon the locals’ contribution to the European Level relevant issues (such as the Focus Areas, the Strategic Plan – current and future – Flagship Topic, Flagship Project etc.)

This spring’s Network Meetings are taking place in: Kyiv, Warszawa, Tübingen, Sibiu, Bratislava, Schiermonnikoog, Abertawe, Lyon, Magusa, Novi-Sad, Catania, København and Granada.

The program of each Network Meeting has to be approved by the person in charge of Network in the Comité Directeur (usually referred to as Network Director). According to the needs of the locals as decided upon by the Netcommie and the Network Director specific trainings can be included in the program of a NWM, in cooperation or with the support of the Academy – Human Resources Working Group.

The main topics of the NWMs include:

  • Planning (NWM Sibiu, NWM Magusa)
  • PR (NWM Catania, NWM Tübingen)
  • Quality of events (NWM Novi Sad)
  • Volunteering (NWM Warszawa)
  • Aim of AEGEE(NWM Granada)
  • Motivation (NWM København)
  • Local management and sustainability (NWM Kyiv, NWM Abertawe, NWM Lyon, NWM Bratislava)
  • Fundraising and sponsoring (NWM Schiermonnikoog)

During every NWM, a member of the Comité Directeur is present, in order to support the program as a trainer and as an active participant in discussions and debates. The decision regarding which member goes to which NWM is made by the CD according to the program that has already been decided upon and the competences of each member of the Comité Directeur.

The NWMs take place every half year (give or take a few weeks) and are usually divided between spring and autumn NWMs. It’s common that no consecutive NWM takes place in the same local and the decision who hosts the NWM is up to the Netcommie responsible for the area in question.

This spring round of NWM has already started, with 8 NWMs taking place before the Agora in Alicante, and 5 more taking place soon after. They have already been published on the intranet and are visible in the Calendar of Events section since before European Boards’ Meeting in Riga in February and applications are still open for some of them.