Ljubljana vs. Valetta

Each Agora is unique. Nevertheless, in order to evaluate what is going on during an Agora one should compare it to another one. So, let me turn back to spring Agora 2007 in Valetta and compare the Agora in Valetta to the Agora in Ljubljana to see what changed in one year and what tendencies are there in place. The comparison is based on the content and the participants of the Agorae. I will present you now some opinions of old AEGEE members:



Patrick Hanckmann, AEGEE-Academy

Patrick’s view upon the Agorae in Ljubljana and in Valetta was relatively neutral. He said that the content and the election procedure of both Agorae were similar. Concerning people, Patrick has noticed that there are more ‘older’ and more experienced AEGEE members in Ljubljana compared to Valetta. This means that more experienced people can work well, which was proved by good, high level and relevant questions to the commissions and the candidates.
Patrick stressed that the current Agora in Ljubljana was much more interesting. Valetta did not have the re-opening of the Comite Directeur (CD) candidates list, which is not the best practice according to Patrick.

Still, it was people’s choice and it just happened so. Although there was a reform of CD cycle in Valetta, Ljubljana wins in the regard of CD issue as it was “more extreme with the CD in Ljubljana” according to Patrick.



Wiebke Hahn, Former Comite Directeur

Wiebke compared mostly about people, motivation and general content of the Agorae: “I had an impression that Valetta was a big boost of motivation for many people, but, unfortunately I couldn't see this here in Ljubljana with the people. The organization has been working well, but especially the CD was at the top of checking situation."
"Concerning content, this [Agora Ljubljana] was a nice project. People were happy with the agenda, the training sessions and the progress meetings. Concerning proposals, this time it was not as radical as in Valetta with the change of the CD cycle, but you cannot reinvent something every year. The audience was a little bit confused, it’s not really possible to solve the confusing”.



Thijs Huijbers (Fish), DWG, AEGEE-Groningen:


The Fish was mostly informal in his evaluation and he concentrated more on the people and their behaviour. The Fish started with the very beginning – the selection procedure. As it was quite hard due to the limited number of places, people who were not selected also had hard time in Ljubljana by trying to register.

In general, Agora in Valetta was easier to organize, as Thijs states. He further points out that in Ljubljana people were much more stressed because of the schedule and time pressure, as everybody had to get up early (6:30) to get from the gym to the plenary that was located outside Ljubljana.

Thijs also mentioned the CD candidates were better in Valetta, but Agora in Ljubljana was more exciting in this regard.



Theijs van Welij, former President AEGEE-Europe


Theijs called the Agora in Ljubljana "the Agora of innovation."
He stated that “The biggest difference with Agora Valetta is that at that time [spring 2007] the proposal to change the CIA was mutually prepared, while what the European Board Meeting discussed there was a discussion of the statutory reform, but what has been done creates a lot of confusion”.
Theijs found a similarity between these two Agorae: they both were really hectic. Concerning the content, Theijs found it very nice, as there were many workshops and the new projects. “At the Agora in Ljubljana it was made a nice progress in being very active, and being very innovative”, Theijs continued.
Further comments of Theijs concern the procedure: “Valetta a year ago was a mess and this Agora is also a mess. What you see here is that the basic information the CD needs to provide to the Agora two weeks in advance has not happened. As the confusion is bigger here, in Ljubljana, better organization of procedure was in Valetta”.
Finally Theijs recognized that "the organizers here, in Ljubljana, put much more effort than the organizers in Valetta to make a nice Agora, but they managed pretty well”.

Theijs had the greatest European night and in general he is very satisfied with the Agora in Ljubljana.




No matter the agenda, each Agora has holds something unexpected for its participants. We had some surprises in Ljubljana too, but we managed to end up happily 3 full days of plenaries, workshops, prytania sessions, training session, progress meetings and of course parties.


We are looking forward to Fall AGORA 2008 in Aachen,


Maria Morozova
AEGEE-Kyiv