NEVA-the next step, Polska 2007
W styczniu 2007 roku zaprosiliśmy do Polski przedstawicieli najbardziej zaangażowanych stowarzyszeń sieci NEVA, aby przedyskutowac możliwości dalszego rozwoju sieci i by zaplanować kolejne wspólne działania. Dzięki dofinansowaniu z Akcji 5 Programu MŁODZIEŻ w spotkaniu uczestniczyli przedstawiciele 7 europejskich organizacji.
Spotkanie okazało się dużym sukcesem. Po raz kolejny przedyskutowaliśmy ideę istnienia sieci i oceniliśmy naszą działalność od czasu seminarium w Portugalii.
Budowanie sieci to żmudna, trudna i wymagająca poświęceń praca, ale wszyscy widzimy jak wiele nasze organizacje i byli wolontariusze mogą z niej skorzystać, więc wiele osób z entuzjazmem zaangażowało się już w działania NEVA.
Poniżej raport ze spotkania.
Budowanie sieci to żmudna, trudna i wymagająca poświęceń praca, ale wszyscy widzimy jak wiele nasze organizacje i byli wolontariusze mogą z niej skorzystać, więc wiele osób z entuzjazmem zaangażowało się już w działania NEVA.
Poniżej raport ze spotkania.
NEVA-THE NEXT STEP
We met in Krakow for 1 and a half working days. The idea to prepare this visit was born after the seminar “EVA in action” in Portugal, June 2006.
Jeremy, Pedro, Toninho, Mattia, Pawel, Niki, Basia, Kirsi, Jose,
Antonio is taking the photo, Przemek and Katerina – not with us at that moment
Antonio is taking the photo, Przemek and Katerina – not with us at that moment
The aims of this feasibility visit were:
- to discuss again our ideas about the Network of Ex Volunteer Associations (NEVA)
- to think over the goals of NEVA
- to discuss the cooperation of organizations within the network
- to think about and discuss the future activities
- to prepare the annual seminar of NEVA in Poland (September 2007)
- discuss how can we improve our webpage and the newsletter
The discussions on NEVA:
The discussion showed that our expectations and ideas about NEVA differ a lot. There are organizations that imagine NEVA as a separate European Association with its own formal status, others imagine NEVA as a just network of organizations. At the end we agreed that to create a separate NGO with the name NEVA will be our aim for the future Thanks to it we could maybe try to get more funding for our activities and become more ‘stabile’.
But as for now its too challenging and we are not ready to take such a responsibility yet.
Goals of NEVA:
Should NEVA have some ‘outside’ goal or rather we should focus on the member organizations? At the end we agreed that first of all NEVA should serve all the EVAs in the network and the resources we have are the most important and we should use them.
In general the aims of NEVA should be:
- to keep and strengthen the international cooperation of our organizations
- to serve as a platform for sharing our experiences
- to fasten the flow of information between EVAs
- to serve as a great recourse of information, ideas, partner organizations
- to promote EVS and Ex-EVS and work on the quality of EVS
Thanks to NEVA we can learn a lot from each other and save time in a meaning that sometimes we can use idea or a solution which already exists from some organization in the network.
Communication:
As for now the communication is the most important thing and we should definitely focus on this aspect now. The problem is that we don’t have the proper webpage-the one we created in Portugal is not always available. The newsletter which we started issuing after “EVA in action” seminar doesn’t work that well as we wished.
The idea appeared to create a new yahoogroup where we would invite all the EVAs from Europe. It will be more serious from the one we have after Portugal and it will be a kind of starting point to get as much EVAs as its possible. Jeremy from VE MEDITERRANE will create the yahoogroup and will try to get the database of all EVAs in the Europe to invite them to join the list.
(* guys, in my opinion the mail addresses should be the general ones of the organization if they have such – like info@......)
During the discussion we agreed that it would be great to do some project together to check out if we can cooperate at all : )
Kirsi from IKINEUVOUT proposed to check out if we can use one of the actions within the new “Youth in Action” program. She will send us the information soon and then we will think about some common project.
The danger we see is that everyone of us active in national EVA is working as a volunteer and we cannot engage ourselves so much : ( Life is life and always job will be put on the first place.
To keep the network work ; ) we could think about some common rules of cooperation between the organizations (a kind of partnership agreement- starting point to settle up the network).
The idea is that before the next seminar we will discuss the expectations, issue of goals and the rules of cooperation within our EVAs and this will be the starting point to create the common definitions and take final decisions about it during the seminar.
The most important thing is to stay in touch and be honest with each other. Its very important that if take some responsibility and we aren’t able to do what we promised we should ask and make sure that some other organization (person) will do it.
We agreed that in the network we should have a kind of presidency – one organization leading the activities. In the year 2007 this will be polish TRAMPOLINA.
Annual seminar in Poland:
The idea of doing the seminar was born in Portugal – we agreed then, that we have to meet at least once per year. Polish EVA TRAMPOLINA took the initiative : )
The ideas about the seminar:
- it should be something that brings benefits to each participating EVA but at the same time that will strengthen the network
- should it be a ‘thematic’ seminar? The proposal is to have a PR seminar
- we should fallow the topics we’ve already started in Portugal and improve them (newsletter, webpage, mission of the NEVA)
- give space to share experiences among EVAs
- give space and time to find out about participating EVAs, to give time to integrate the people as this is the most important
- plan future activities- find leaders, partner organiations
- focus on networking: work on the rules of cooperation, communication, decide about common goals and discuss the motivation of EVAs to join the network, discuss the possibility of creating a NEVA international organization
- invite an expert on networking – ex. somebody from Eurodesk or Europe Direct.
We haven’t decided about precise things – those are up to the organizers.
TRAMPOLINA will apply for the grant the 1th of June, and the most suitable time for the seminar is the end of 2007.
We wished that after the seminar something touchable is created what gives us satisfaction.
We want to reach as much EVAs as its possible.
We will probably work in groups. Openspace method should definitely be used.
We hope that at the same time some other organization takes initiative of preparing some activity for NEVA.
We put our hopes in the new Youth in Action Program… lets all keep an eye on it : )
See you in Poland soon!
- to discuss again our ideas about the Network of Ex Volunteer Associations (NEVA)
- to think over the goals of NEVA
- to discuss the cooperation of organizations within the network
- to think about and discuss the future activities
- to prepare the annual seminar of NEVA in Poland (September 2007)
- discuss how can we improve our webpage and the newsletter
The discussions on NEVA:
The discussion showed that our expectations and ideas about NEVA differ a lot. There are organizations that imagine NEVA as a separate European Association with its own formal status, others imagine NEVA as a just network of organizations. At the end we agreed that to create a separate NGO with the name NEVA will be our aim for the future Thanks to it we could maybe try to get more funding for our activities and become more ‘stabile’.
But as for now its too challenging and we are not ready to take such a responsibility yet.
Goals of NEVA:
Should NEVA have some ‘outside’ goal or rather we should focus on the member organizations? At the end we agreed that first of all NEVA should serve all the EVAs in the network and the resources we have are the most important and we should use them.
In general the aims of NEVA should be:
- to keep and strengthen the international cooperation of our organizations
- to serve as a platform for sharing our experiences
- to fasten the flow of information between EVAs
- to serve as a great recourse of information, ideas, partner organizations
- to promote EVS and Ex-EVS and work on the quality of EVS
Thanks to NEVA we can learn a lot from each other and save time in a meaning that sometimes we can use idea or a solution which already exists from some organization in the network.
Communication:
As for now the communication is the most important thing and we should definitely focus on this aspect now. The problem is that we don’t have the proper webpage-the one we created in Portugal is not always available. The newsletter which we started issuing after “EVA in action” seminar doesn’t work that well as we wished.
The idea appeared to create a new yahoogroup where we would invite all the EVAs from Europe. It will be more serious from the one we have after Portugal and it will be a kind of starting point to get as much EVAs as its possible. Jeremy from VE MEDITERRANE will create the yahoogroup and will try to get the database of all EVAs in the Europe to invite them to join the list.
(* guys, in my opinion the mail addresses should be the general ones of the organization if they have such – like info@......)
During the discussion we agreed that it would be great to do some project together to check out if we can cooperate at all : )
Kirsi from IKINEUVOUT proposed to check out if we can use one of the actions within the new “Youth in Action” program. She will send us the information soon and then we will think about some common project.
The danger we see is that everyone of us active in national EVA is working as a volunteer and we cannot engage ourselves so much : ( Life is life and always job will be put on the first place.
To keep the network work ; ) we could think about some common rules of cooperation between the organizations (a kind of partnership agreement- starting point to settle up the network).
The idea is that before the next seminar we will discuss the expectations, issue of goals and the rules of cooperation within our EVAs and this will be the starting point to create the common definitions and take final decisions about it during the seminar.
The most important thing is to stay in touch and be honest with each other. Its very important that if take some responsibility and we aren’t able to do what we promised we should ask and make sure that some other organization (person) will do it.
We agreed that in the network we should have a kind of presidency – one organization leading the activities. In the year 2007 this will be polish TRAMPOLINA.
Annual seminar in Poland:
The idea of doing the seminar was born in Portugal – we agreed then, that we have to meet at least once per year. Polish EVA TRAMPOLINA took the initiative : )
The ideas about the seminar:
- it should be something that brings benefits to each participating EVA but at the same time that will strengthen the network
- should it be a ‘thematic’ seminar? The proposal is to have a PR seminar
- we should fallow the topics we’ve already started in Portugal and improve them (newsletter, webpage, mission of the NEVA)
- give space to share experiences among EVAs
- give space and time to find out about participating EVAs, to give time to integrate the people as this is the most important
- plan future activities- find leaders, partner organiations
- focus on networking: work on the rules of cooperation, communication, decide about common goals and discuss the motivation of EVAs to join the network, discuss the possibility of creating a NEVA international organization
- invite an expert on networking – ex. somebody from Eurodesk or Europe Direct.
We haven’t decided about precise things – those are up to the organizers.
TRAMPOLINA will apply for the grant the 1th of June, and the most suitable time for the seminar is the end of 2007.
We wished that after the seminar something touchable is created what gives us satisfaction.
We want to reach as much EVAs as its possible.
We will probably work in groups. Openspace method should definitely be used.
We hope that at the same time some other organization takes initiative of preparing some activity for NEVA.
We put our hopes in the new Youth in Action Program… lets all keep an eye on it : )
See you in Poland soon!
