The elections of the International Board 2008/2009 took place at the end of March 2008 at the AGM in Besançon (France). Out of five positions, only three were filled – Matthias Fenner from Switzerland (ESN Winterthur) was elected as President, Marketa Tokova from the Czech Republic (ESN VSE Prague) as Vice-President and Magdalena Wawrzonkowska from Poland (ESN Torun) as the Board member in charge of External Relations. There was no candidate for the Web Project Administrator and the only candidate for the position of Treasurer was not elected.
was promoted by ESN – was cancelled at the last moment. The cancellation meant hundreds of stranded passengers, ESN sections facing a financial loss, and the possibility of losing a good reputation. At the post-AGM CNR meeting, due to high levels of pressure, Matthias Fenner decided to resign from the position of President to allow for a more reasonable and sensible discussion. Immediately, a Care team was created to follow the can-cellation, support the Board, ESN sections and members, collect information and evaluate possible threats for ESN.
Fortunately, due to the transition period which lasted until the CNR meeting in Warsaw (at the end of May), there was time to deal with this situation. New candidates were found, and eventually, Piotr Cylke from Poland (ESN EYE Lodz) was elected as WPA and Erdeniz Unvan from Turkey (ESN Anadolu) as Treasurer. The Board year could start!
Despite quite difficult times for ESN, the Board, with the support of the Care team, managed the situation that slowly but steadily began to calm down. Many steps and measures were taken to limit damages of the cancellation, restore ESN’s reputation and prevent danger in future (such as consultation of lawyers, offers of mediation or communication with stranded and disappointed partic-ipants). Fortunately, none of the sections were impacted financially, though in some cases, they faced problems with their partners.
However, it was not until the beginning of August that the whole Board finally got together in Brussels. Dussia and Piotr needed to finish their studies, Erdeniz was fighting with the Turkish visa system, so it was only Matthias, Marketa and Melinda Horvath – ESN Secretary until December 2008 from Hungary (ESN Budapest BME) - who were in Brussels after the handover. To complete the team – Jorgen Talkop from Estonia (ESN Tallinn) joined the Board as the EVS. Last but not least, from January 2009, Ana Silva from Portugal (ESN Porto) replaced Melinda as the new Secretary. The Board worked and travelled relentlessly – keeping its members and sections in mind. One of the most important projects was the network-wide consultation on the mission, vision and values of ESN – the results of which were presented and approved at the AGM in Utrecht in 2009. The new vision of ESN since then is the “enrichment of society through international students.” In 2009, ESN was going to celebrate its 20th year of exis-tence and thus the preparations for the 20th anniversary were also on a daily task list – including the fundraising campaign Give20 for which ESN cooperated with Unicef, the Postcard campaign and ESNtrain. It is almost impossible to mention all the activities, success stories or less extensive duties – as every day brought a new challenge and new way of working. However, here are some successes, to name but a few: the first successful grant application under the Jean Monnet programme amounting to EUR 95,000, Bulgaria as a new ESN country, participatory status of the Council of Europe and creation of a new liaison office for the Council of Europe, successful grant applications for the BEST summer school and for the Postcard campaign, an ESN representative elected to the Advisory council of the Council of Europe (Dominika Skotkova from Slovakia), introduction of calls with NRs, the first recruitment weekend for possible Board candidates, website screening and an increase in the usage of Satellite among ESN sections, and the development of the PRIME questionnaire. The days were not always sunny, though, and the Board also had to deal with less pleasant situations such as the expulsion of Cyprus in August 2008 and internal problems in ESN Sarajevo. Ironically, probably the most difficult period came during and after the AGM in Utrecht when ESNtrain – which
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The Board (including Matthias Fenner who after the res-ignation was appointed as Designated Representative to help and support his colleagues from the Board, as well as the whole network thanks to his rich and long experience in ESN) continued to work until 15 July 2009 when the transition period finished and their successors were elected in March at the AGM. Meetings and events of 2008/2009: September 2008: National Presidents’ meeting in Prague Puzzle conference in Brussels CNR meeting in Rimini October 2008: SWEP in Milan SEEP in Sarajevo November 2008: CEP in Budapest NEP in Tartu WEP in Dusseldorf December 2008: CND meeting in Gdansk (including a surprise event where Dalai Lama was present) January 2009: Recruitment weekend in Brussels February 2009: CNR meeting in Skopje March 2009: Pre and post AGM CNR meetings in Utrecht AGM in Utrecht May 2009: CNR meeting in Porto