Board Semi Annual Report
GAPM200
Tallinn Valladolid
AprilNovember
- 7 May11 November
200
-GP-TVA-BRD-500
Author: XX Board of BEST
Abstract -
Summary (Omer)
The Annual Report of XX International Board describes all the activities of the Board members since they got elected during GA France 2007. The official mandate of the Board started on the 1st of July 2007. From this date to the General Assembly 2008, Board's activities are classified based on seven main goals announced to LBGs after Board Summer Meeting 2007 in Bucharest. Beside those activities, you will also have the chance to check the year planning for BEST, the cooperation with our partners and other student organisations, as well as a short description of the occasions where BEST was represented by its Board members. Several important decisions taken since the start of the Board mandate that are not part of the goals are also mentioned in this report.
If you have any questions or suggestions, you can always send an e-mail to the Board via [email protected].
Overview
The XX Board of BEST
Glossary
Activities of the Board - Goals
A. To have more students of technology benefiting from our services (Adi)
B. To proactively support and follow-up the Full member LBGs (Giulio)
C. To improve the international HR in BEST (Cristina)
D. Improve the decision making process in BEST (Peter)
E. Increase the awareness about our external services to the external world (Omer)
F. To revive the Training System of BEST (Cristina)
G. To increase the academic quality of our courses (Adi)
The activities of the Board - Decisions taken
A. BEST Conference (Cris)
B. TrainShop beKT (Cris)
C. Shaping the tasks of the Ambassador (Omer)
D. Approval of Project Leaders (Cris, add the new ones)
D. Two TRAPs and two bePROUDs (Cris)
Membership changes in the mandate
A. Observer Groups
B. Baby Members
C. Membership list and Nurse Handbook
Year planning 2007/2008
Credits (Omer)
Appendix A - Representation of BEST(jean +omer)
Appendix B -Cooperation with bonding and CFES (jean + omer)
The XX Board of BEST, elected at XXV General Assembly (GA) France on the 20th of April 2007, consists of:
Ömer Hantal, LBG Istanbul - President
Seger Decombel, LBG Ghent - Treasurer
Peter Verwilst, LBG Ghent - Secretary
Adriana Garboan, LBG Bucharest - Vice President for External Services
Ana-Cristina Dumitru, LBG Bucharest - Vice President for Internal Support
Giulio D'Aversa, LBG Rome - Vice President for Local Group Support
The tasks of the Board are (as stated in the Article 14 of the Internal Regulations): taking care of the global coordination and development between all BEST programmes and activities, preparing the topics and the work structure for the GMs, assisting the LBGs.
BAM - Board Autumn Meeting
BAS - BEST Application System
Board - the XX Board of BEST
EduCo - Educational Committee of BEST
EEC - External Events Committee of BEST
ER - External Relations
ITC - Information Technology Committee of BEST
NGO - Non-Governmental Organisation
PM - Presidents Meeting
RM - Regional Meeting
SIM - Short Intensive Meeting
SM - Summer Meeting
TS - TrainShop
WS - WorkShop
SEFI - European Society for Engineering Education
IGIP - International Society for Engineering Education
IFEES - International Federation of Engineering Education Societies
FEANI - European Federation of National Engineering Associations
TiGro - Training Group
TIGro - Training Interested Gro 939w2219j up
TREE - Teaching and Research in Engineering in Europe
CFES - Canadian Federation of Engineering Students
AEGEE - European Students' Forum
During the Board Summer Meeting we tried to identify which are the trends in BEST over the years and also understand if the dynamics inside the LBGs allows and supports such trends. Analysing statistics based on the number of public and internal events in relation to the number of LBGs and the types of external events we realised that BEST grew a lot in the last years but the quantity of services that we provide to students is being constant. We further examined LBG reports, the topics and reports from many discussion groups during past GMs and the proposals submitted in the last years - we realised that there is a significant potential for development in the area of our external services. Therefore we decided to dedicate a considerable part of our efforts for the upcoming year to increasing the quantity of our services meaning, increasing the number of students of technology benefiting of our services. In order to achieve this goal we decided to act on a couple of directions:
BEST already has the rule that prevents a student to attend more than 3 BEST public events, out of which 2 are Summer Courses but there are no restrictions regarding Events on Education, which some students take advantage of at the moment. The issue about the students participating in the BEST events was raised during the Services Evaluation SIM. The concrete action that was taken for achieving this goal was the proposal made in VIP by EEC under the authority of Quantity project, in February 2008 about decreasing the number of BEST events a student can attend from 3 events to 2. BESTies saw it just like a restriction with very few and inconsistent results therefore it was not accepted.
Increase the number of public events
A very straightforward way of reaching more students of technology with our events is simply by organising more of them. A weakness of BEST at the moment is that although we have more LBGs than we had a couple of years ago, the number of public events/number of LBGs and the number of places for students/number of LBGs decreased. In order to overcome this concern, to maintain the sustainability of BEST in Europe among other student NGOs and to ensure the continuity inside the LBGs, a solution that we identified would be to decrease the 8 seasons rule to 6 seasons rule. A proposal was made in this sense in PM Valladolid but it encountered negative response from LBGs therefore it was not approved.
Another way we tried to achieve this goal was by raising the awareness of BESTies (presentations were done in RMs, PM, GA) about the flexibility they have in organising events due to the non optimised out of season events possibility. During the mandate of the XXth Board there were 2 LBGs taking advantage of this feature, LBG Istanbul and LBG Madrid.
Although this goal encloses the mission of BEST and although we invested resources in the Quantity project we couldn't find other solutions for determining LBGs to organise more events due to the limitations and normal life if each LBG therefore we consider the goal accomplished through by its promotion and acknowledgement among BESTies.
Increase the number of participants in our public events
It is commonly known that for the BEST public events LBGs accept 20 students. Unfortunately LBGs usually forget the fact that this number is the lower limit they can accept in their events. Besides this, statistically speaking almost 15% percent of the students that are accepted to the courses do not attend them due to various reasons. An increase of 10% percent (2 participants) in the number of students would ensure a higher rate of success in getting 20 students in our courses. Considering the group dynamics and the increased budget for the course, we believe that 2 more participants in a course wouldn't make a considerable difference, therefore in PM 2007 a proposal will be made to change the number of accepted students for a public event from 20 to 22.
Considering the fact that the quantity of our services is an issue that affects the sustainability of whole BEST a new project was created inside EEC: Quantity. The project includes everything related to the number of LBGs, the number of events, the number of places, the number of applications, the number of participants. The Quantity project is supported with HR by EEC and with promotional means by the Board and has as main activity directions:
Develop further the idea of Flexibility
Promote and raise awareness on the non-optimised, out of season events
Raise the awareness of the extra acceptance option among LBGs
Investigate the possibility of creating a Challenge Club (a voluntarily based club created by the LBGs that can reach and develop an increasing number of students of technology, either by organising more public events, or by accepting more students in their events)
Create a basis for Services Evaluation
Services Evaluation is a follow-up of the Career Support Evaluation when BEST realised we need to keep track of the directions in which our services evolve. In order to ensure BEST moves towards a safe and desired direction we have to have a body inside BEST keeping the history of change and the directions of change. A Short Intensive Meeting was held already in Brussels in order to establish a common understanding on the evaluation type, methods and activity of the working group. An in-depth analysis was done about our services, about the external input that we got over the years and the group itself conveyed its goals towards being a problem solving cycle inside BEST. The working group would evaluate periodically the directions and trends inside BEST and would have the overview on all LBGs, with their problems and their challenges. The group would also be responsible to have the overview over the BEST services and over the local activities in order to be able to provide information, suggestions and ideas for development for the LBGs, next Board and the international management. Next steps to be done:
Recruitment for the working group (RAs, VP for Local Group Support, EEC members, trainers, interested experienced people)
Getting professional external input on how to create a survey for GA 2008
A survey for GA 2008 based on which the evaluation and analysis will be possible
Regional Advisors' Meeting
BEST supports LBGs in many ways, but probably the most effective is through the help of the Regional Advisors. This body in BEST is quite new, this is the third year after the changes in the structure of BEST, and this is why their function is continuously developing.
In order to solve this situation this Board decided to have a meeting for the Regional Advisors in the beginning of their mandate. The event called RAM (25-R-TM) was last summer hosted by LBG Timisoara, and there were present 7 out of 8 Regional Advisors as well as the Vice President for Local Group Support. During the event the Regional Advisors were trained on how to approach LBG problems, what is their function, virtual communication, how to organise a Regional Meeting and last but not least they managed to become a team.
Discussion groups in parallel at PM07
During the last PM all the delegates were divided in 9 groups, and they discuss the same topic; how to support and follow-up full member LBGs. There were many ideas some of them too unrealistic but the outcomes was very nice and people like it very much. Most of the ideas were about support the LBGs also after finish their membership process and giving a nurse even if they are already full member. At the first moment we discuss the possibility to give a nurse to all the LBGs with something called "LBGs Twinning", unfortunately this system was to complicated to create and maintain so we decide to move to another concept that we call "monitoring". This will be not a new status but a sub status under full member, LBGs will not loose any rights but they will get a nurse.
LBG Reports
LBG Reports are the most powerful and fast tool that we have to understand how is going among all the LBGs, that's why this year we work a lot on it. At RMs the regional advisor check the reports with the delegates in this way we reduce all the possible mistakes that were a the previous years. At IPF, the RAs work a lot and they rewrite both LBG report (PM GA), now the survey is shorter and a way more clear. At the last ITC meeting in Ghent, ITC worked to implement the statistics in the survey center, so after it each LBG will be able to go over the future reports and see how and how fast the LBG grow.
Increase the visibility of International Teams in internal events
Looking at the current situation in BEST, the members of International Teams come from the specific regions where the most active people in the teams are from. There are several regions that hardly have any members internationally involved and several LBGs that lack the international awareness and are focused only on local activities. This is the main reason why at the Regional Meetings there were specific places for committee delegates to present their teams and get direct feedback from LBGs on their work.
Most BEST members join International Teams after attending events where they got in touch with these teams and we hope that this change can be fruitful for recruiting new members.
Starting with the training for the Board and Committee coordinators during the Board Summer Meeting, training for the Regional Advisors during their meeting in Timisoara, several other training sessions were organised during the Summer Meetings for the Committees for their members and the events that followed.
Committee members were also encouraged to apply to TRAP (TRAiners' camP) in order to have more trainers specifically for International Teams in order to be able to satisfy their training needs. During IPF TiGro decided to support committees in developing technical trainers - training the experienced members of the team in order for them to be able to deliver training sessions to the committees.
The [email protected] mailing list was revived in the beginning of the mandate and for the HRs of the international teams to be able to share on the practices they use in their teams and feedback each other. The project leaders were also added to the list and also a facilitator was assigned.
An improved design for the International Teams' page in Private Area was implemented in order to give more visibility to the teams and their managers.
This year we decided to focus on two communication channels to spread the information in BEST: the International Newsletter and the BEST Times. The Secretary is in charge of the International Newsletter and sends updates about the International Teams' work and successes.
BEST Times was turned into a lighter newsletter, with a fresh layout and fun news about what is happening in BEST. It is being released every 2 months in parallel with the International Newsletter. In the future NewsTeam is planned to take care of the news on the public website and press releases.
Voting system
In consultation with ITC the Board
decided to move on with the acquiring the new voting system with notepads.
Due to the complexity of the system there should first be gathered more
information concerning the proposed idea with microphones before we can
allocate more resources to it. This decision was made in the ITC
Summer Meeting in August. The needed hardware was acquired and ITC
is worked on the system during PM Valladolid. Though due to
technical difficulties it was impossible to finish the system during this
General Meeting. More inquiries were made after PM and the practical work was continued
during the ITC Meeting Ghent in March. During the General Assembly in Tallinn
we will hopefully be able to use the new system.
If for technical reasons it proves impossible to ever use this system, the Board together with ITC will investigate the possibility to buy a voting system for a reasonable price. This because the reliability of the old system is becoming too low and the number of Full Member LBGs is growing. So we find it important to leave the XXI Board with a trustworthy voting system.
An alternative system that was suggested by Santiago Bravo (LBG Milan) at the end of the mandate of the XIX Board, was not implemented. This because the complexity of the system and because of problem with the graduation project of Santiago of which this new system was a part.
Virtual International Plenary
During the Board Summer Meeting a timeline for the VIP Project was made together with the coordinator of the project, Oana Iamandi (LBG Brasov). By the end of September the first VIP Speaker, Karina Herman (LBG Timisoara), was chosen by the Board. The next steps for the project were presented during the autumn regional meetings and the Presidents' Meeting.
After PM the testing phase of the VIP started with a discussion if the deputy speaker of VIP would be allowed to also be a delegate of VIP or not. After 3 weeks of discussion a proposal not to have an LBG delegate as deputy was made and a voting via the survey centre followed. The proposal was approved with 38 out of 42 votes cast. The Board proceeded by contacting Frans IJpelaan (LBG Brussels) for becoming the first Deputy Speaker of VIP.
The second proposal in VIP, proposed by the quantity working group, was launched at the end of February. It proposed to limit the maximum amount of courses a student can attend, to two. Different then for the first proposal, the discussion started with presenting the actual proposal. In this way the procedure is more like the one in a General Meeting and it is clearer for the LBG delegates what they are actually discussing.
During the General Assembly the work of the VIP will be evaluated. After the evaluation it is up to the next Board to decide if they want to keep investing in this project and to nominate a new Speaker and Deputy speaker. Once the VIP is well established the XXI Board can prepare changes to the Statutes to be voted on GA2009, making the VIP an official decisions making body in BEST.
During ITC Summer Meeting the needed specifications for the e-voting system were discussed. The basic idea for this voting system was presented and discussed during the Presidents' Meeting and IPF. Now the mock-ups of the system are ready, ITC started to implement the e-voting system so it can be used in the later testing phase of the VIP.
Reorganise our External Relations - reshape the purpose of the group and the aim of the project on media and VIPs
For some years now there were several tryouts to establish External Relations in BEST, including a TrainShop on the topic.
During the Board Summer Meeting, while analysing the situation, we realised that the past idea of External Relations had a too professional approach for the current status of BEST. This is why we decided to work further on developing External Relations for BEST but with another approach. Our former External Relations Strategy was based on 3 main directions: Educational Matters, Corporate Relations and Media Relations.
Therefore, we decided to change the purpose of the current External Relations Working Group into establishing contacts with media, VIPs and continuing the relation with NGOs in cooperation with the President and the Ambassador of BEST. EduCo will focus on their contacts with professors, Thematic Networks and institutions, and finTeam on their contacts with companies as it was till now. Before Presidents' Meeting, the ER-Core ML was inactivated and the work of the group will take place only on the main mailing list. We know that BEST is not experienced on media relations, but some LBGs are really doing well with local and national media.
After Board Winter Meeting, as there is almost no activity in the ER mailing list, we decided that the coordination should be taken over by the Board from the project coordinator. The Board tries to focus more on the media by creating press releases and trying to maintain more active press contacts. Those tasks are taken care of by the Secretary, and it is tried to involve NewsTeam as well. We concluded the work to be done for the current mailing list together with the project coordinator Anna Stefanaki.
Work on Visual Identity
At GA 2007 in France the LBGs decided that they want a new Visual Identity by not approving the "proposal to keep the current Graphical Profile of BEST". However, the LBGs didn't approve also the "Proposal to accept the new Graphical Profile of BEST". So, BEST will continue having the current Graphical Profile until LBGs will approve a new visual identity.
In order to get the balance and more participation to the new visual identity design, together with Marian Buhnici (LBG Brasov), the project coordinator of Visual Identity, we came up with an action plan for the project. It included a logo contest, which is open to everybody and a Workshop where participants would work on different visual identity proposals. Afterwards, those proposals would be presented to LBGs on Private Area and rated by them. The visual identity proposal with the highest score was proposed and approved at PM 2007.LBGs will have one year to fully implement the VI, in fact till PM 2008 they have the possibility to use both old and new logo. Very important is also that LBGs decide to add a line in the IRE so from now on use the VI is a duties of any full member LBGs. The last step of the new VI will be at next GA when LBGs will have to vote upon the update version of the brand manual that was made at IPF by Marian Buhnici.
Following the restructuring of the Training Interested Gro 939w2219j up in GA 2007, two new working Groups were formed: one that gathers only trainers - Training Group and the Knowledge Group under the supervision of the Vice-President for Internal Support.
A coordinator for the Knowledge Group was selected, Jakub Krzaczek (LBG Lodz). The Training Group was managed by the Vice-President for Internal Support until PM 2007 when Ligia Martin(LBG Cluj - Napoca) took over as the first coordinator after being approved by LBGs.
The structure and an action plan for the Training Group were defined during the Summer Meeting and evaluated during IPF Lund. The group managed to successfully take care of all the planned training events and became a self-sustainable group.
Looking at BEST through its history, since 1989 we can definitely see that the complementary education program evolved spectacularly. In the beginning we hardly had an academic part for the BEST courses and nowadays we are investigating the possibility to have very advanced and in-depth topics for our courses. But from investigating to actually developing and implementing the ideas we have still some steps to take. Despite a global analysis on BEST and identifying the development opportunities for BEST inside our services, it is very difficult to have an influence on local level as many things related to the academic part are still up to the LBGs to decide. Therefore we came up with some ideas that could help to improve the academic quality of the courses that are up to the LBG members. These ideas will be investigated and developed by several bodies inside BEST with the support and contribution from the Board.
To analyse the evaluations forms of the public events
The idea of analysing the evaluation forms is not new, as it is the best way to evaluate and to find out if the public events met the expectations of students; however it was not worked upon until now. This year the idea was promoted to the rank of project inside EEC and the work will start with the analysis of the Spring Season 2007. The gathered data will be analysed by the people working on the project and inside EEC but will also be forwarded to the Regional Advisors, Service Evaluation Working Group and Board in order to spot the LBGs which might need help, advice or guidance for the next public events.
Regarding the academic part, although through this analysis it might seem we don't get too much information, we have to consider that at the moment we don't have any kind of information so this first step is really great towards having the overview of the learning part in BEST events.
Close cooperation and support for EEC, BEST Teacher Area and Recognition
Another mean that would help us achieve a better quality for our academic services is to encourage and support the effort put by EEC into the Recognition project and BEST Teacher Area. At the moment Course Information Forms for Engineering Competitions and Events on Education are being created in order to certify our events. The evolution of LBGs managing to get a stamp from their university on the Course Information Forms is also being monitored. Promotional support will be given by the Board for these projects as we consider they are a way of improving the BEST services and the academic component in particular.
BEST Conference is a project that started in February 2007 during the International Projects Forum in Skopje after receiving and informal Go from LBGs during the Presidents' Meeting 2006 in Ghent.
During Board Summer Meeting several difficulties were noticed in the development of the project: a small number of submitted papers even after the postponement of the deadlines, a lack of interest from the university executives, a delay in the invitations from the University of Lisbon. The situation could create many problems for the Local Groups who convinced their deans and rectors to attend the conference and for the image of BEST.
After consulting all the parties involved in the project we decided to postpone the event for 1 years and a signed letter by the President was prepared to be sent to all the people that were previously contacted for the BEST Conference. During the EduCo Summer Meeting the decision to cancel the Conference was taken.
We asked a report from local and international organisers. There was a short and brief report from LBG Lisbon on the problems which occurred during the work, however, the final report about the organisational details from the international team managing the BEST Conference is still not submitted.
The TrainShop beKT was planned to be organised by LBG Ljubljana in October 2007. After the call for trainers was made there was only one application that was withdrawn in the end. During the Board Summer Meeting we discussed about the situation with this TrainShop and we decided to cancel the event as there were no experienced trainers available to attend it.
We would like to thank LBG Ljubljana for offering to host the TrainShop and we are sure that they would have done a great job with the event.
In 2005 the decision to merge the CFES and bonding ambassadors' position into a single one was taken. This year we decided to add also AEGEE among the organisations the Ambassador is supposed to maintain contact with, together with the President.
Jean Huvelle from LBG Louvain-la-Neuve was selected as Ambassador until the 30th of June 2008. He will take care of the communication with our current partners, bonding and CFES as well as AEGEE; he will also coordinate and execute the cooperation plans and supervise our common projects. As part of his duties as Ambassador he should also be present at our two General Meetings and be ready to give input on External Relations on relevant mailing lists.
During IPF, there were some new ideas on the creation of an ambassador booklet and also a cooperation strategy. Before the end of the mandate, there will hopefully more progress on this issue.
Since the 1st of July we approved the following BEST members:
Marian Buhnici (LBG Brasov) to take care of the Visual Identity project
Oana Iamandi (LBG Brasov) to take care of the Virtual International Plenary project
Karina Herman (LBG Timisoara) as Virtual International Plenary speaker
Vincent Layec (LBG Vienna) as University project coordinator
Anna Stefanaki (LBG Athens) as External Relations coordinator
Cristina Hernandez (LBG Madrid) as Membership responsible
Ivan Bortot (LBG Rome) as ENAEE contact person
Darko Bogdanovic (LBG Novi Sad) as ERABEE coordinator
Jose Fernandes (LBG Porto) as UNESCO coordinator
Nikola Gajic (LBG Nis) as Annual Report coordinator
Frans IJpelaan (LBG Brussels) as VIP speaker
Andra-Melania Dinescu (LBG Bucharest) as Autumn Season 2008 coordinator
Aleksandra Sajdakowska (LBG Warsaw) as Winter Season 2008 coordinator
As committees no longer have their own Framework, the Board had to approve the people elected for the Regulated fFunctions inside the committees.
During our mandate BEST got to count 77 Local Groups and in order to better support the development of their members we decided together with the Training Group to organise two TRAiners' camPs and two TrainShops on Leadership, bePROUD.
Having only one TRAP per year and 20 new trainers it was not enough to cover the training needs of the LBGs. This is why we tried to have a second TRAP during winter, shorter because it was during the school year, and to have participants attending 2 training sessions on Presentation Skills and Facilitation before the event. The purpose of these preTRAP trainings was not only to train the future
TRAP applicants but also to train more members in general. TRAP X took place in Riga in March and counted 16 new BEST trainers that already started to deliver.
The number of applications for the latest bePROUDs were bigger than we could cover with a single event. The number of the groups increased as well and having good leaders for the Local Groups it's important for their sustainability. There were many groups willing to organise the next edition of bePROUD and we decided to have Barcelona and Sofia as the next organisers for the TrainShop.
During the Board Summer Meeting the Board selected 3 new Observers of BEST. These were the candidate groups:
University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo
National Technical University of Ukraine, Kiev
Technical University of Moldova, Chisinau
University of Messina, Messina
Eastern Mediterranean University of Famagusta
Specialised Institute for Construction Engineering & Industry (ESTP), Paris
Military University of Technology, Warsaw
Based on their good application letters and their motivation we selected the following groups out of the list above
University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo
National Technical University of Ukraine, Kiev
Technical University of Moldova, Chisinau
These groups were each given a Nurse and invited to attend the Presidents' Meeting in Valladolid. The fourth Observer group at that moment, Nis, presented its Action Plan at PM and was accepted by the Full members to become a Baby member of BEST. They plan to run for Full member in GA2009.
Observer Chisinau presented their city and university on PM and is preparing an Action Plan to become Baby member during the General Assembly in Tallinn. Observer groups Sarajevo and Kiev both did not attend the Presidents' Meeting which implies they should automatically loose their Observer status. Though the Nurse of Observer Sarajevo, LBG Zagreb, presented a proposal in PM to overrule the RAE and to keep the Observer status of Sarajevo. This proposal was accepted so Observer Sarajevo is also preparing an Action Plan to become Baby member during the General Assembly in Tallinn.
In January Observer Sarajevo was given the permission to organise a Local Training Event in Sarajevo, inviting BEST members from all over Europe for 3 days of trainings. 20 participants and 2 trainers attended the event which was held in the middle of March. It was the first BEST event organised by Observer Sarajevo.
Due to not attending the Presidents' Meeting, Kiev lost its Observer status. This group can apply again for becoming Observer of BEST the earliest in December 2009.
During the Board Winter Meeting the Board selected again 3 new Observers of BEST. These were the candidate groups:
University of Messina, Messina
Specialised Institute for Construction Engineering & Industry (ESTP), Paris
Military University of Technology, Warsaw
Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul
University of Cambridge, Cambridge
Bogazici University, Istanbul
Anadolu University, Eskisehir
Ege University, Izmir
Based on their good application letters and their motivation we selected the following groups out of the list above
University of Messina, Messina
Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul
University of Cambridge, Cambridge
These groups were each given a Nurse and are invited to attend the General Assembly in Tallinn. Both Messina and Istanbul Yildiz will present an Action Plan to become a Baby member of BEST already on their first General Meeting.
Observer Messina was given the permission by the Board to organise the Alpine Regional Meeting in April 2008. This based on the great motivation of Messina to organise this event and the fact that the region did not find an LBG yet to organise the RM. Messina was also given the permission to use the logo of BEST for the presentations to the university concerning the Regional Meeting.
The first contact with Observer Cambridge after their selection was much more difficult then for the other two new Observers. In January an online meeting with 2 people from Cambridge, the Secretary and Joost Cornelli, president of the Nursing LBG Ghent, was organised. After this meeting the active people in Observer group Cambridge tried to find more people to engage themselves for starting BEST in Cambridge. Though soon it became clear that the very demanding school system in Cambridge, which does not allow students to leave the campus during term, does not allow the establishment of a sustainable LBG in Cambridge. For students of Cambridge it would not be possible to attend the obligatory General Meetings, let alone any other BEST internal events. Therefore the active people in Cambridge judged it is not possible to start an LBG at their university and decided not to attend the General Assembly in Tallinn. Observer Cambridge is relegated to the excluded status and has the theoretical possibility to apply again for the Observer status the soonest in July 2009.
During the Presidents' Meeting in Valladolid Madrid Carlos III is became a Full Member of BEST. This LBG was the last group still in the old membership process, so an invitation by the Board was needed. The group was invited based on their successful Summer Course and the good working group they established in the passed year.
During the General Assembly in Tallinn 3 Baby members (Brussels ULB, Ankara and Graz) will run for the Full membership of BEST. The Nurses of these groups will write a report about how they perceived the nursing process and also the International Board will write a report for every group. Then it is also up to these groups themselves to evaluate the conduction of their Action Plan. This can happen in the presentation for running for Full membership in the plenary of GA.
Under the impulse of Cristina Hernandez (LBG Madrid) the membershipgroups@ mailing list was revived. All current Baby Members, Observers and their Nurses were added to the list and all the list members are encouraged to share their experience. Also the Nurse Handbook was updated so a new version can be uploaded before the start of the GA.
The XX Board planned the following internal events for the BEST season 2007-2008:
XIV Presidents' Meeting Bucharest, November 2008
TrainShop bePROUD VI Sofia, October 2008
TrainShop bePROUD V Barcelona, September 2008
TrainShop beKNOWN 5 Tallinn, 1-8 August
TRAP XI Timisoara, 24
July - 8 August August
2008
Board Training, May 2008
XXVI General Assembly Tallinn, 28 April - 7 May 2008
Corporate Relations Round Table Tallinn, 26 - 30 April 2008
Regional Meetings, March
- April 2008
WorkShop Zaporizhzhya, 24-30 March 2008
TRAP X Riga, 28 February March 2008
International Project Forum
Lund, 20-25 Februarybeginning of March
2008
WorkShop, middle
February 2008
Round Table, January 2008
Board Winter Meeting Kaunas, December 2007
Jamboree Belgrade 2007, 13-16 December 2007
XIII Presidents' Meeting Valladolid, 5-11 November 2007
Regional Meetings, October 2007
International Engineering Competition SIM Brussels 12-14 October 2007
Visual Identity Workshop Timisoara, 5-12 October 2007
Services Evaluation SIM Brussels, 5-8 October 2007
Board Autumn Meeting Ghent, 20-25 September 2007
Regional Advisors' Meeting Timisoara, 2-6 August 2007
Board Summer Meeting Bucharest, 10-22 July 2007
Since the beginning of our mandate, we were working in close cooperation with the International Teams. The work presented in this report couldn't have been done without their real efforts. We want to thank all committee coordinators, project leaders, International Teams' members, events' organisers, Regional Advisors and the Ambassador of BEST for their great contribution.
We would like to specially thank LBG Valladolid and LBG Tallinn for taking the challenges of organising PM 2007 and GA 2008; LBG Athens, LBG Bucharest, LBG Ghent, LBG Kaunas because of organising Board Meetings since GA2007 France and LBG Lund for a fruitful IPF 2008's organisation.
IFISO Spring Meeting 2007 in Brussels
The event was organised by AEGEE Europe, ESN Headquarters and BEST Brussels from 1st to 4th of June 2007 in Brussels. The participating organisations were: ESSA, ESN, ESTIEM, AEGEE, Euravia, EFPSA, EPSA, EMSA, IMSA, IAAS, IPSF, EESTEC, IAPPS, ISHA, BEST and ELSA. The first working day was in the Committee of the Regions of European Union.
Michele Grombeer, the Coordinator of the Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency presented the Youth in Action - support to NGOs (Action 4.1) and the further steps for the grant application.
During this meeting, BEST was presented by Ömer Hantal (LBG Istanbul), Bartek Lipnicki (LBG Gdansk), Salua Daghay (LBG Brussels) and Peter Verwilst (LBG Ghent).
Youth in Action Grant Meeting in Brussels
On the 29th of June 2007 Seger Decombel (LBG Ghent) and Peter Verwilst (LBG Ghent) had a meeting with Bruno Breviglieri from the European Youth Programme in Brussels. They received feedback on the grant application of BEST for 2006-2007. The feedback, sent to finTeam and the Grants Working group, is used to improve the application for 2007-2008.
SEFI Conference Hungary
SEFI IGIP Joint Annual Conference was held in Miskolc, Hungary. BEST was present there with 8 BEST members. As BEST became member of IFEES, we were invited to IFEES Executive Committee Meeting during SEFI IGIP Annual Conference as observers.
The details of these meetings can be found in the Semi Annual Action Report of the Educational Committee. Thanks to the event BEST managed to get more companies for the Round Table in Paris.
TREE Management Committee Meeting Rome
Ömer Hantal (LBG Istanbul) joined the Management Committee Meeting of the Thematic Network TREE, together with the TREE coordinator from BEST.
Board meeting with AEGEE
After Board Autumn Meeting, 4 Board members (Ömer Hantal, Seger Decombel, Adriana Garboan and Giulio D'Aversa) together with Jan Vandenneucker (LBG Brussels), the Regional Advisor of Lowlands Region, and Jean Huvelle (LBG Louvain-la-Neuve), the Ambassador of BEST, visited the AEGEE House and met their Board members. During the meeting information was exchanged on grants and on the cooperation field between the two student organisations.
FEANI Annual Business Meeting in Valencia
FEANI invited BEST for their Annual Meeting in Valencia from 3rd to 5th of October 2007. As the Board of BEST, we decided to delegate that task to a Spanish BEST member, Sara Nunez from LBG Valladolid, as she is the president of her LBG and also a member of EduCo. The meeting went very good and thanks to her, we could invite them to PM's Opening day. Moreover, both organisations got closer to each other via this meeting and we believe that in the near future, BEST will have concrete benefits from this cooperation.
IFEES Summit Istanbul
It was the biggest Summit of IFEES, held in Istanbul, one day before the 6th GCEE of ASEE, in the beginning of October 2007. 6 EduCo members, including Ömer Hantal (LBG Istanbul), Adriana Garboan (LBG Bucharest) and Petros Kaklamanis (LBG Chania) as the coordinator of EduCo, were present. During the meeting, Ömer Hantal got elected in the IFEES Executive Committee.
Meeting with Euractiv
BEST was invited by Euractiv to a special meeting in Brussels with the European Commissioner Orban. From students' side, beside BEST, there were also present ESIB and AEGEE. The meeting was a good networking opportunity for BEST and a new grant field proposal was made to European Commission. If the proposal will be accepted, BEST will have a chance to apply to get refunds for all the Season Courses. Ömer Hantal (LBG Istanbul) and Jean Huvelle (LBG Louvain-la-Neuve) represented BEST during that meeting.
AEGEE Agora 2008 in Eskisehir - Turkey
The ambassador of BEST, Jean Huvelle from LBG Louvain-la-Neuve presented BEST in AEGEE's Agora before Presidents' Meeting 2007. The event was in Eskisehir, Turkey and Jean made a presentation of BEST there and lots of networking among other student organisations.
IFISO Fall Meeting 2007 in Budapest
Adriana Garboan from LBG Bucharest presented BEST in IFISO Fall Meeting. Again IFISO members shared what they are doing and what kind of problems they are dealing currently.
Microsoft Students' Organisation Meeting in Brussels
Peter Verwilst and Giulio D'Aversa presented BEST in a special meeting, organized by Microsoft in Brussels. Basically Microsoft wanted to cooperate with all organisations at the same time and not with all apart. Therefore they brought some student associations together in the hope to find 'synergies' that they could then support. Beside BEST, ESN, ELSA, AEGEE, JADE and AIESEC participated to the meeting.
CFES Congress 2008 in Edmonton - Canada
The ambassador of BEST, Jean Huvelle from LBG Louvain-la-Neuve presented BEST in our partner's main event. There, we had the chance to talk on the current projects. Beside of networking about how to enlarge the possible cooperation between CFES and BEST, Jean made a presentation of BEST to Canadian Students.
SEFI 2nd Deans Conference 2008 in Berlin
From 24th to 26th February 2008, Ömer Hantal from LBG Istanbul presented BEST as invited guest in the SEFI Deans Conference, Berlin. Together with Maria Tzedaki from LBG Athens and an alumni of BEST, Nicolo Wojewoda from LBG Rome, Ömer did a networking among our universities' deans and rectors. Beside the good presentations of Maria and Nicolò about BEST and the Educational Involvement of BEST, Ömer had several meetings with SEFI and IGIP presidents. Then, he participated also to IFEES Executive Committee Meeting in the afternoon of 26 April. For more details about this conference, please read the EduCo Annual Action Report and check the archives of EduCo Mailing List.
A. Cooperation with bonding
bonding has been an Official Partner of BEST since 1997. A 3-Year Cooperation Agreement was approved by BEST at GA 2007 and later on by bonding during their Camp in May 2007.
Communication
The contact persons in BEST are Ömer Hantal (President) and Jean Huvelle (Ambassador) and in bonding Hans-Martin Riegg (Ambassador). Most of the communication is done via e-mail and chat. There are scheduled weekly online meetings.
Representation
BEST and bonding invite each other on their General Meetings in order to present their organisation and to give feedback to each other.
At the bonding Camp in May 2007 BEST was represented by Christoph Lanz (alumni LBG Vienna).
bonding is present with two delegates on the BEST Presidents' Meeting 2007 (Hans-Martin Riegg and Sarah Banasiak).
Participation
Besides the regular participation at each other's courses, there was some internal participation as well. One bonding member was present at TiGro Summer Meeting in Slankamen, Serbia and one BEST member (Anna-Katharina Koensgen from LBG Graz) attended the bonding Train the Trainer course in baumhaus in August 2007.
BEST & bonding courses
No summer courses were organised by bonding this summer
2 bonding members attended a BEST Spring Course
6 bonding members participated in BEST Summer Courses
No bonding members participated in BEST Autumn Courses
International Engineering Competition
The International Engineering Competition (IEC) project is currently under development. A SIM took place in Brussels in October, where two bonding members were present
beREIT
BEST and bonding plan to organise the second edition of beREIT, the joint TrainShop, in early April 2008.
Evaluation & Future
The information flow between the ambassadors is very good and there is a clear consensus of the goals and plans for the next years. There has been a fair participation of bonding members to BEST events and vice versa. New attempts to increase the awareness of the partnership in both organisations have been made as well as ensuring BEST's participation in bonding job fairs.
It seems that we reached a state where there is not much to work on from the learning from each other point of view; however it's a good time to try more challenging projects together. The International Engineering Competition has brought the cooperation to new levels and, given proper development it can ensure its continuity in the future.
B. Cooperation with CFES
At GA Slovakia CFES became Official Partner of BEST. Since then we have been in contact and shared information with each other. On the XXV General Assembly of BEST in France, a 3-Year Cooperation Agreement was approved.
Communication
The contact persons in BEST are Ömer Hantal (President) and Jean Huvelle (Ambassador), in CFES Joel Mertens (International Relations Commissioner).
Most of the communication is done via e-mail and online meetings.
Representation
BEST and CFES invite each other at their General Meetings, in order to present their organisation and to give feedback to each other.
This year there were no BEST representatives at the CFES Presidents' Meeting.
CFES is represented at the Presidents' Meeting in Valladolid by 2 delegates: Joel Mertens and Sara Dolcetti.
BEST received two invitations for the CFES congress in January, the President and the Ambassador will attend it. After the Congress, CFES is organising the International Summit of Engineering Associations in which BEST representatives will also take part.
Competition
The idea of competitions that came to BEST from CFES is developing. This year BEST has organised three competitions during the Summer Season, and 1 during Autumn.
Furthermore, input from CFES was given for Belgian Engineering Competition (beBEC).
Complementary Education courses
2 BEST Summer Courses hosted co-organisers from CFES
3 BEST members were participants at CFES Courses
1 BEST Autumn Course was interested in having a co-organiser from CFES
International Engineering Competition
The International Engineering Competition (IEC) project is currently under development. A SIM took place in Brussels in October, which was attended by two CFES members (Joel Mertens and Bernard Goupil).
Future plans for the cooperation with the partners
The International Engineering Competition is the first main project that gathers all the three organisations together. The SIM organised for the development of the project, enabled all 3 organisations to get a step closer to organising the event.
C. Cooperation with other organisations
AEGEE
BEST is cooperating with AEGEE on several fields. First, BEST has been involved in the grant application process for three events of AEGEE:
Partnership Building activities: the grant was not accepted.
Iceland Study Visit: BEST was contacted but it was too late to take part in the application.
Seminar in France: This Grant was approved, and will take place in December, in Paris. There are three places available for BEST.
Balazs Kerper from LBG Budapest and Tzveta Dimitrova (VP for External Services, XIX Board of BEST) have attended AEGEE Conference on Best Practices in Nis, in May. They made a presentation about Non-formal Education and the Bologna Process.
There has been an informal meeting between the Board of BEST and AEGEE Comité Directeur in AEGEE headquarters in Brussels on the 25th of September.
AEGEE and BEST attended an Education Expert Meeting on the 11th of October, where a proposal was made to create a new EU programme on multicultural citizenship.
BEST was represented at AEGEE Autumn Agora in Eskisehir, Turkey by the BEST Ambassador (Jean Huvelle).
AEGEE is represented at BEST Presidents' Meeting Valladolid by Tinatin Tsertsvadze, Director for European Institutions.
ELSA
ELSA is the European Law Students' Association.
ELSA invited BEST at their Dinner's-party at their International's main office in Brussels on the 12th of October. Ömer Hantal and Jean Huvelle attended the event.
ELSA is present with one representative at BEST Presidents' Meeting Valladolid.
IFISO
One member of the International Board will attend the next IFISO meeting in Budapest from 15th to 19th November.
D. General evaluation
The official partnerships with both CFES and bonding are going well, with the development of the International Engineering Competition project. All three organisations have selected representatives for the Board of Directeurs that will develop the project in details. They are gathered on a mailing list where the communication and splitting of the tasks take place.
The ambassadors mailing lists (bbambassadors@ and bcambassadors@) are being used sporadically, partly because the partnerships are working out steadily and the issues that need to be solved are taken care of by the Ambassador.
The cooperation is focused on maintaining a steady flow of participants and co-organisers to internal and public events and to support each other in matters that might need input from another organisation. The cooperation with both partners has reached an informal level which is good for the communication and information flow.
The 3-Year Cooperation Agreement that was voted at GA France last May with both organisations enables us to develop projects on a longer term, which has a positive impact on the development of International Engineering Competition.
As members of IFISO, the outcomes of this association are low; however the added value is getting in touch with other student NGOs.
The cooperation with AEGEE is now becoming concrete, with the participation of BEST members at AEGEE events, and representation at each other's decision making events.
|
