The GB has defined that a sufficient regional balance is reached if the overall team has: 1. A maximum of two officials in the same team from the same country 2. A maximum of three officials in the same team from the same group of countries 3. A minimum of one official in the team from each group of countries The first guideline was followed, but the silent member recorded deviations from the given guidelines on the two latter points. However, it needs to be stressed that all of them reflect the pool of applicants, which was given priority. 1. The Central West and the North West groups will be represented with four officials. Given the very strong applications and given that individuals in both groups will assume leadership positions, the deviation was deemed acceptable. 2. No applicant was selected from the East and Central East group. The panel did unfortunately not find these applicants strong enough for the roles applied for, in the tough competition of places. According to training policy, two members of the board should be members of the EYP Pool of Trainers. Among the seven applicants to fill the role of vice-president, two applicants were on the Pool of Trainers. After long discussions, the panel opted to select only one of them, and feels that the training competence of the board will also be fulfilled with the current formation. The panel wants to highlight that when selecting editors for the session, all applicants were treated equally, and no preference was given to the selected couple as a result of their previous selection to the Riga team. The decision was solely based on the selection criteria and applications. In the end, the vision for the session media team presented by the selected couple convinced the panel.
Remarks from the panel The panel was delighted to see so many alumni present themselves for selection, and was faced with a very difficult choice. Due to the exceptionally high number of candidates, the selection was extremely competitive, and many candidates who would be top choices in other selection could not be invited to Barcelona. The panel would once again like to express its gratitude to all the applicants and assure that every application was discussed and considered. Feedback has been offered to every unsuccessful applicant and naturally the panel would like to encourage everyone to apply for the next session. For any questions, comments or doubts do not hesitate to get in touch with the author of the report by writing to k.simberg@eyp.org On behalf of the Selection Panel as the silent member, Krista Simberg
Berlin, 14th of April 2014