AEGEE gets you to the best places in Europe. And it gives you experiences you can have nowhere else- like having a great and motivating Network Meeting in a Romanian mountain cottage, near the most famous palace of the country. Network Commissioner Lavinia Țole organizes this event in cooperation with AEGEE-Ploieşti. She told the Golden Times, why you cannot miss the NWM, which will take place from 15th till 18th of September.

Lavinia Tole
Lavinia Țole invites you to the Network Meeting!

GT: Lavinia, where is Buşteni?
Lavinia Țole: Buşteni is an idyllic city located in Prahova Valley, 36 kilometers from Brasov and 132 kilometers from Bucharest, at the bottom of Bucegi Mountains.

GT: The next NWM will be in a cottage in the mountain village Buşteni. That sounds pretty cool. What can you tell us about the place?
Lavinia: It not only sounds cool, it is! In 2014 AEGEE-Ploieşti organized an RTC in the same area and everybody was super pleased about the place and they had a great time at that cottage. That’s we decided to go back there. It’s a beautiful, peaceful area, surrounded by mountains.

GT: It’s close to Brasov and Sinaia, also to the spectacular Peles Castle. These are famous and beautiful places – will the participants have the chance to visit them?
Lavinia: The official program of the NWM includes only a hiking trip in Busteni, but if there are people willing to visit Sinaia or Brasov we can offer our support by guiding them to get there, giving them tips about where to look for accommodation and what to visit.

GT: Let’s talk about the programme. Your NWM is the first this autumn. Why is it so much earlier than the others?
Lavinia: We wanted to give locals a chance to fulfill the antenna criteria that are counted before the Agora by sending members to statutory events. Moreover, all the other NWM are held in big capitals or much more popular cities like Barcelona, Moskva or Manchester and we didn’t want to compete with that.

Peles
Spectacular Peles Castle

GT: What are the programme highlights? Is there any thematic focus?
Lavinia: Besides some surprise sessions from the Network Commission, one of them being what does a Netcom really do and why is cool to be a Netcom, we want to take a moment to reflect on the impact that AEGEE had over time on the development of young people and through them on Europe and also to brainstorm and refine projects that hopefully will be implemented not late afterwards. And of course, we will not neglect best practices in our locals and debates about the issues we should focus on the following years, especially now that we are drafting a new Strategic Plan.

GT: Who will be trainers and speakers?
Lavinia: We will have representatives of the Network Commission and CD, but also from other bodies like EQAC or SUCT. Also, some of the trainings will be held by members of AEGEE Ploieşti that are very passionate about the thematic.

Brasov
Also Brasov is nearby.

GT: How many people will be able to come?
Lavinia: We planned to have 30 participants but the cottage is quite big so if there are more AEGEEans motivated to join our awesome event we can manage up to 40 participants.

GT: How can interested people apply? And where is the deadline?
Lavinia: The participants have to apply on both Intranet: www.intranet.aegee.org/event/view/30/18731 and Google form: http://bit.ly/2a2GBZt. The deadline is Saturday, 13 August, 24.00 CEST.

GT: Anything you would like to add?
Lavinia: What differentiates us is that we want to have a real outcome of the event, with palpable project drafts. Moreover, the organizing team of AEGEE-Ploieşti is very happy and enthusiastic about the opportunity to make this event great for all participants.