ESN 1997-1998 in
The mandate from 1996 – 1997 is one of the years we have the least information about. The AGM VIII was held from the 26th February to the 2nd March 1997 in Gent, Belgium. The slogan: “More than talking!?” In the Executive Board we had the President Dimitris Parthenis from Greece, the Vice-President Susanne Kärki from ESN TYY Turku / Finland, Treasurer Alessandra Stilo from ESN Roma ASE, and the Secretary was Ulrike Rainer from Austria. According to the Final Report at the AGM Graz, the Network had more than 85 sections in more than 15 countries at the time. A board meeting was held in Graz / Austria at 18th to 19th of February 1998, and in the year 1997 there was also a celebration for the 10th Anniversary of the Erasmus Programme in Brussels. One important milestone happened during this mandate, with the first Nordic Network Meeting (NNM) taking place in Arhus, Denmark. Later it became known as the North European Platform (NEP), and so it became the first Regional Platform within ESN. In 1997 – 1998 there was made contact to collaborate with Central European Student Organisations like SIEN and CSN. Not much known about this maybe interesting chapter of the expanding of the network except that you can find nothing of them in the Internet and only some notes of a workshop at AGM Graz: “Go East – Easter Expansion other Networks (…) Firstly, the CSN and SIEN were shortly presented, especially the CSN as Michael Unger, its chairman, was present at the discussion. CSN (The Central European Student Network) was formed in December of 1997 in Ljubljana and has had its second meeting near Graz preceding the AGM of ESN. By now it has seven member countries: Austria, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. Its aim is to create local sections in the CE countries in the way they are created in the ESN and help them integrate into the ESN as well together with the Erasmus program, but due to the special needs and bonds between these countries the CSN is here to stay even after all of its members become the members of ESN. SIEN (The Student International Exchange Network) is more culturally oriented and is directed towards organisation of short cultural exchanges between countries. The questions regarding these organisations were: should
the ESN solely collaborate with them or should it expand the network into their areas as well, and specifically for the CSN there was some discussion about the relation between the two. The last question that arose regarding this issue was how to integrate other countries that are and will not be members of CSN.”
ESN in 1998-1999 The AGM IX was held in Graz / Austria from the 19th to the 20th of February, with the slogan: „From Network to Net… Working“ The Executive Board now has two new positions called “regular board member”, who take on extra tasks such as managing the webpage, newsletter and other various things. The board in this mandate consisted of: President Elke Resch from Austria, Vice-President Sami Sakari Kontola from ESN JYY Jyväskylä / Finland, Treasurer David Sempels from HEC Liège / Belgium, the Secretary Niels Dam from Denmark, and the Regular board members were Mikaela Thelander from Sweden and Hector Fouce Rodriguez from Spain. In comparing the section list from 1998-1999 with the list from 1996, we find that the UK is back again, but Ireland has once again left the network. The observing country Romania has vanished, but as the first full member from the Balkans, Slovenia now joins the network. The contact with Poland appears to have been lost in 1997 too, as it is noted as a new country according to this list. In total you can find 82 sections in 17 countries: Austria (6), Belgium (4), Denmark (2), Finland (8), France (1), Germany (2), Greece (1), Italy (19), Norway (3), Poland (1), Portugal (6), Slovenia (1), Spain (7), Sweden (9), Switzerland (2), The Netherlands (9) and the UK (1). There were seven internal Meetings of ESN: Board Meeting in Graz / Austria, 23 - 24 February 1998 Utrecht / the Netherlands, April 1998 Executive Board Meeting in Ljubljana / Slovenia, 29 June – 01 July 1998 EBM and BM in Lisbon / Portugal, 23 – 28 September 1998 Athens / Greece, 13 - 15 November 1998 Madrid / Spain, January 1999 Liège / Belgium, February 1999 ESN take part at some External Meetings: East East Conference in Keszthely / Hungary CSN Summer University in Keszthely / Hungary European Council of Student Affairs in Leuven / BelHB 2014 | 13