Call for Chairs and Media Team Members for Warsaw 2016 – Power Shifts Academic Forum

Exactly one year on from the 1st Power Shifts Forum in Lyon, Warsaw will gather 140 students and young professionals from all over Europe. For 8 days they will discuss and develop previous conversations relating to the past, present and future of European energy. We are currently looking for 8 Chairs, 2 Editorial Assistants (One responsible for videos, one for communications) and 8 Media Team Members to join the forum.

THE PROJECT This forum is organised by EYP Poland and is part of “Power Shifts - Reflecting Europe’s Energy” which is a project by the European Youth Parliament and the Schwarzkopf Foundation in cooperation with the RWE Foundation.

Throughout Europe it enables young people to monitor, inform themselves and debate about European energy policy from 2015 until 2017. The project will focus on the diversity and interdependency of energy policy on the European level, while France, Poland and Germany will serve as national example cases and will organise three international forums. Led by a steering group of young people who will further develop the academic content of the project, the main activities of the project will be three academic forums in Lyon, France in 2015, in Warsaw, Poland in 2016 and in Germany in 2017.

DETAILS

ABILITY TO CHANGE AND MAKE RESOLUTIONS MORE REALISTIC

The forum will be held from the 23rd - 30th October with officials arriving on 21st October and delegates throughout 22nd October.

The Chairs, Media and Organisers Training will be held in Warsaw from August 26th - 28th with a travel reimbursement per person up to 150 EUR. The forum is head organised by Mr Andrzej Daniluk (PL) and presided

by Ms Megan Smith (IE) together with David Soler Crespo (ES) and Hovsep Patvakanyan (AM) as Vice-Presidents.

Silja Tuovinen (SE) is the Editor.

Going beyond superficial input to European issues, committees will have the opportunity to not only create their motions for resolutions, but to address issues which arise during debate and adapt and change their solutions to be realistic and informed by their peers and experts in the field.

OPPORTUNITIES WITH THE FORUM

FOCUS ON DEVELOPMENT

The forum will hope to build on the work of Lyon 2015, and thus there is already an experienced and qualified steering group working on the programme ready to ensure that the forum is a unique and truly beneficial experience for all involved. Along with a full officials team training, the programme of the session still allows for input of the officials and this will ensure a truly collaborative effort and inclusion of ideas by all. The forum will focus on development and progress not only for European energy policy but for officials, delegates and the potential of our events within the European Youth Parliament network.

As this is part of a wider series of events, the forum hopes to build on the successes and weaknesses of its sister forum and push for creativity, development and forward thinking.

This forum will embody the theme, not only through energy centered topics, but by using the past to build a future. A future for European energy, for the power shifts forum, for its participants and for the youth’s say in Europe.

JUST THE FACTS

The official language of all programme parts is English. There is no participation fee for officials.

Attendance to the Chairs, Media and Organising Team Training (OT) is compulsory, and will provide for a The forum will aim to embody the collaborative approach towards the ethos of inclusion in the Europe- logistics and academics of the sesan Youth Parliament by offering an sion. opportunity for students to engage with EYP for the first time, 50% of the participants will be first time University students.

INCLUSION

THE APPLICATION All candidates are asked to fill in and submit their application form through the members platform: https://www.members.eyp.org/event/warsaw-2016-power-shifts-academic-forum The deadline for all applicants is July 19th, 23:59 CEST The Selection Panel will meet shortly after the deadline, and the applicants will be informed about the outcome individually. The Panel consists of the Session President, the Head-Organiser and a member of the Board of EYP Poland. As project coordinator the International Office of the EYP will be present during the selection as a silent member.

If you couldn’t submit your application by the deadline please send it to officials.powershifts@eyppoland.com.

VISION FOR THE MEDIA TEAM All serious daring starts from within, but most times the 'within' needs a framework to function. In the media team of the Power Shifts Academic Forum in Warsaw there will not be absolute 'freedom' because if that was the case it would not make sense for you to apply. The working process will be built upon limitations that work to enhance creativity and experimentation. The absolute creative freedom you can use outside the session (and I do encourage you to).

The framework for the media team is there to enable the members of the team to expand their understanding of their own work. At the moment there are many floating ideas in the air concerning the 'concrete' vision for the media team. However, the vision is not set until the team has been selected. I want to create a session where the vision is relevant for the team and therefore the team is what guides the vision, not vice-versa. By applying, you get to become a relevant building block for the team instead of filling a pre-formulated spot.

However, it is for sure that an important point of departure for the media team will be videos. Videos have a great power attached to them and the responsibility for them should not be left in the hands of a single person. There are various ways of how a session, its people and theme can be documented and investigated and I am extremely excited to push people in finding their ways and daring to use them. I promise to be the ultimate cheerleader for whatever sounds a bit risky or has potential of failing.

Main Partner:

Initiated by:

The Schwarzkopf Foundation is the international umbrella organisation of the European Youth Parliament (EYP). EYP Poland is a National Committee in the EYP network.