PRESIDENT esn belgium

ESN VUB EHB Brussels
www.esnbrussels.org
1
Brussels, the 29
th of April 2019
Application National President
Dear Belgian network,
With this motivation letter, I would like to apply for national president of ESN Belgium. With the
sincerest hope in my heart, I hope that you will consider me to lead the next National Board/National
Coordinators during the mandate 2019/2020.
The Erasmus Student Network to me, is more than just an organisation, more than just a good
recognisable brand. It’s a collective of people. It’s a network of people determined to bring joy and
awareness to the citizens of the world. No matter what responsibilities you take on, no matter what
positions you run for, we’re still working towards the same goal: enrichment of society through
international students. This equality of volunteers is the manner in which I also want to be president
of our Belgian network. Being president means representing the network and its position towards
external stakeholders or institutions. This representation brings me to one of the main focuses I want
to achieve: the presidents’ community.
In our network, we have achieved so much already within every section. We are all struggling with
many different issues. These challenges have the potential of being easily solved by utilising the
advantage of our numbers. As a local president, I had many challenges throughout the year, that I
tried to overcome by both consulting experienced ESNers, but also by rational thinking.
This seems to me the way to go for our entire community of presidents. The potential combined brain
power of almost twenty presidents, could vastly improve both our working together, and exchange of
best practices. This is why I want to begin my mandate with the building of this community.
Apart from the presidents’ community, we also have a goldmine on knowledge in the form of previous
NB/NC members, in the alumni network. This network of previously involved ESNers, can be focused
upon greatly, to not let our collective memory of the previous years fade, especially in case that the
new board consists entirely out of new volunteers.
One of my main focal points would be to work closely together with the Education Officers and build
up good relations with the national organisations. This could eventually lead to us being able to use
their facilities, and thus host a potential EVS volunteer in the coming years.
As I’m finishing my mandate as Local President of ESN VUB EhB Brussels, I summed up what I focused
on in my section, and what I would like to focus on if I get elected for National Presidency. In the end,
I came to the conclusion that financial stability, recognition, and grants were my main focus. This is
also what I would like to bring to ESN Belgium. For this, I am eager to work closely together with the
newly elected International Board and its president.
These practicalities will be further explained in my presentation, where I definitely hope to see all or
most of you. Hopefully you are all as excited as I am to work together as a network to develop our
organisation and create a team that can take on any challenge. After all, we are united in diversity.
Kind regards
Casper Mazijn

Dear Casper,

Just a single question for now, Silke will get the same question. I would like for you to answer this one as quickly as possible.

Do you think that asking questions here through the ML is adequate (read enough people will ask and read the questions and answers) and that the people assisting BNP III will know what has been said here?
Since in previous years we saw this was not the case.

Xander Dejonckheere
The ESN Gent team.

Dear Xander,

Thank you for this first question.

Personally, I believe that mailing lists are a good tool for spreading information to the sections, presidents, and LRs.
The mailing list, if kept up to date, gives an official direct link between both the sections, but also to the National level.

However, this is prone to issues due to a lot of conditions that have to be fulfilled in order for it to function correctly. Many things can go wrong. These problems range from technical problems like the mailing list not functioning correctly, to candidates not answering to all recipients, but only to the original sender directly. If the mailing list is not being kept up to date with the accurate email address, sections or members are at risk of missing out on information.

Due to these possible problems, I believe that these question rounds would ideally be held on a platform such as the candidates’ blog on international level. This website (https://candidates.esn.org/), currently in use for the question round for Arbitration Board and Audit Commission, provides a clear overview on what questions are being asked, and offers all members to ask their questions freely. The two main advantages a platform like this offers, is that the questions and answers are easy to check during the NP as well, in case another question comes up, related to one already asked. The other advantage is how easy it is to keep everyone up to date. The link can simply be shared with the entire Belgian network via the mailing list, but also be posted on the informal Facebook groups such as “ESN Belgium : Informal!” or the Facebook group for participants for the NP.

Unfortunately, our network is struggling with human resources in terms of IT. Therefore, this platform may be the ideal situation but not that feasible on short term. This is why a possible middle ground would be a combination of Google Form and a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet with all the questions (plus the information on who asked them) would be available for all to see, but only to be answered by the candidates. This link can then be shared in the same manner as mentioned earlier.

Hopefully this answered your question sufficiently, I am always open for suggestions from our IT community on the feasibility of these platforms.

Kind regards,
Casper Mazijn

Dear Casper

Congrats on your super fast reply, high energy!

I too have some questions:
1) You mentioned the Alumni Network. This is great, but a hard topic to tackle. What is your plan of action to activate and involve the alumni of ESN Belgium?
2) The ESNreview abolished the NR as a mandatory position and integrated it into the position of National President unless the country decides otherwise. What is your view on the split between President and NR in ESN Belgium?

Good luck with your application.

Enzo Marquet

Dear Enzo,

For the Alumni network, I don’t claim to have the perfect solution, since I am aware that I would not be the first National President trying to tackle this topic. However, my plan for alumni is threefold:

To begin, I am planning on initiating personal contact with as many alumni as possible, as well as contacting previous NB members who are currently not active or not part of the alumni network. If the network chooses to elect me, I will as well focus on contacting previous presidents and gather the best practices on how they attempted on starting or saw/see this network ideally function.

The second step will be to gather the information on how the alumni see this cooperation, their own network, and how they want to work together with the current NB. This cooperation can only function if we start with a conversation, where everyone has the chance to satisfy their needs.

The last step would be the actual implementation after the consultation. This depends greatly on the results from the previous step. If the alumni are willing however, I would gladly initiate both a formal and an informal setting where the current NB/NC and the alumni exchange ideas, tips, tricks, best practices, and general advice. The informal setting has the potential of strengthening the cohesion between these different generations of ESNers, which hopefully will result in a better management of the entire network.



Before I answer your second question, I have to express my surprise that it took the full three questions for the review to pop up in the question round

Currently, the split between president and NR hasn’t been a conscious decision from our network as a reaction to Proposal 1 being accepted. At the moment, the transition period is at its starting phase, where countries will have to align their statutes and positions and think strategically on how they want their country represented. We, as a network, will have to start that discussion as well. How do the sections see the future of their representation? In the end, it is a decision by the National Platform, where I hope every single section will bring their own informed opinion on the matter.

That being said, I strongly believe in a separate position for the representation within ESN. For this, I would like to draw the parallel between national and local level. During my mandate as Local President this year, my LR had a full-time job by keeping the section informed on every single opportunity that the network offered. It is a clear consequence that if you were to merge the external and internal representation, decisions will be made on what deserves priority.

Evidently, the two positions can be combined and merged into one. Presidency is representation, which is a combination of gathering the input from the section or the country (depending on whether you’re a Local or National President) and then negotiating / talking to other institutions. This representation can be both internal (towards other ESN countries and the international level) and external, as mentioned above.

In the end, it’s all about finding the right balance. When you combine both positions, it might result in more efficiency. However, we mustn’t forget that the position of the NR is here mainly to ensure the information dissemination in the network. I am strongly in favour of representation by one person, who is then supported by another. How you fill in these positions, that is up to the network to decide. But we should keep in mind that having only a President do the representation, might result in less transparency if you dissolve the position of NR (and Vice-NR). Even though the international discussions are one of my passions, I believe it should not be inherent to other positions than the NR, whose sole purpose in this network is to inform, consult, and then represent. Especially now that this process of consultation and representation will be vastly more important since the sections won’t be able to cast their vote themselves.

Kind regards

Casper Mazijn