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Seminar in Vilnius

The 7-day seminar "Free Your Mind, Feel The Media" was organized by VIKC, the public organization of the faculty of Economics of Vilnius University in Lithuania. Main goal of the project was to find out the influence media has on society. A group of 30 students from Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands tried to find this out by attending lectures, visiting local media and doing some research.
Among the highlights of the program were a public research project in a trolleybus, a lecture from a well-known Lithuanian press-photographer, a visit to the Vilnius Television tower and a project at a student newspaper and radiostation. For the Dutch delegation a Queensday reception at the Dutch embassy also formed part of the program.
Next to the official part of the program there was also a lot of room for getting to know the other participants and the city of Vilnius. It was remarkable to see how quick 30 individuals from different countries and cultures got to know eachother and became good friends. Maybe the Vilnius nightlife might have contributed to this?
The week was ended with a visit to the castle of Trakai on the Lithuanian countryside. A nice end of an interesting project-week in which the participants got to know a lot about the media, but moreover: got to know eachother!

Projects

The Institute is going well. One had a representative at a networking seminar last week in Georgia, I will go with 5 others to Vilnius end of April, we are preparing a 3-week trip to the Balkans for 20 people and busy with a lot more. The interest for the Vilnius seminar was overwhelming: only 5 spots and 20 applications. Too bad I have to disappoint so many, but better luck next time, as many more seminars will come.

EIDP update

Last Friday we finally opened a bank account in Nijmegen, as we all had to come together and sign for it. Now we are really up and running! This Wednesday, we handed in 3 proposals to the National Youth Council to organize seminars/study-trips to Georgia, Kaliningrad and Armenia. A rather impressive line-up I would say! Lets hope all proposals get approved.

EIDP - the battle

As you might have read in an email or on my weblog: I started a new adventure with 2 other idiots. The three of us have a common interest in eastern Europe and combined a whole lot of experience in participating and organising projects, living and working, and travelling in eastern Europe and the Caucasus. My companions both worked for another organisation before; the one that I joined as a participant to Moldova, but due to miscommunications, or better the lack of communication, the dictatorial style of how the president was leading the organisation, and the kind of projects the organisation was organising they decided to leave the organisation and we got in touch and talked about a new, better one. :-)

Of course, it is always easier to say than to do, but we do want to do things different and we do have a clear vision and goal in our minds. We do communicate and we want to do the more difficult projects in regard to EU funds etc. Not only the week drinking and cultural exchange in Turkey or Hungary with 40 foreigners. Of course, this is also fun, but it doesn't provide us with the incentive to make a change and to stand for a challenge. We would like to do the Election Observer Missions, the TACIS-grant projects, the working-experience exchanges/study groups, and more. It may take some time, but we have a very wide network already and are all born (sorry to sound a bit posh) networkers. Besides that: we are highly motivated and ready to do some work.

The other organisation has some problems with us, in regard to our existence, as it is not highly appreciated. Some background information to understand the matter. The other organisation, DiDEE, was formed out of 2 liberal youth organisations in the Netherlands, but operates independently. The liberal organisations (of one I am a member of) didn't have much to say and "lost" control over DiDEE. Not a problem, as long as the organisation works, but lately some bad publicity harmed the image of the organisation. A participant complained that the president didn't pay his bills, gave false information, and only goes on seminars to party instead of participate. Now I am not going to comment on that, but the complaints made it to 2 different university papers in the Netherlands, in which also the dubious financial reputation of the president was discussed. This all, coincidentally, came up at the same moment we were about to launch our organisation. Now the battle started about which organisation the 2 liberal organisations would support: the new, motivated one (EIDP), or their old, dictatorial, baby (DiDEE). Some sentiments play a role, in trying to rescue the old organisation and to revive it, but this weekend, 2 of the remaining 3 board members resigned, explained that some statements made by the board did not have their support, and the president stands now alone. I give him credit for being so optimistic and continuing his struggle, but it seems like a hopeless task. In my opinion he is still bluffing and trying to regain control, by making statements that this weekend a new, full board will be presented, they will have an office and a full time employee etc...

In the meantime, are we setting up our first projects, contacting our friends, professors and other acquaintances to start to build a new and great organisation. Wanna join? :-)

European Institute for Democratic Participation (EIDP)

Dear all,

A couple of months ago, the idea, and vision of an organisation that deals with east-west cooperation were formed in our minds. We have been involved in different organisations before and have gained a lot of experience with (running) projects in Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia. Now the time has come to do something with this knowledge and our common enthusiasm for working on these affairs.

It is this enthusiasm that gave birth to the European Institute for Democratic Participation. (Please visit the preliminary website at EIDP).

The goals of the EIDP are:

• To support young Europeans in democratic participation

• To serve as a platform where young Europeans can jointly develop and conduct projects that stimulate democratic participation

• To promote east-west cooperation

• To support and develop civil society

We have been writing our first project proposals and concurrently we are studying ways how best to organise ourselves, in a way that we could create an organisation that would be able to both inspire and retain enthusiastic people to work on issues of democratic participation and East-West cooperation.

The idea with the EIDP is to not only organise YOUTH projects, but also the more extensive, adult and difficult projects in regard to MATRA, TACIS grants and EU/EC tenders. Projects financed under the YOUTH programme often lack its intended impact and tend to be more of "trips" or "holidays." With the EIDP we want to have a more professional and experienced approach, covering all the topics and possibilities concerned.

The reason for writing to you is to inform you of this new organisation and perhaps to make you consider working with the EIDP as a participant in a project or even as a project leader for any of the (upcoming) projects.

We offer our cooperation to you. It is our belief that in good partnership we can make a difference in the countries of the Former Soviet Union, and generally Europe as a whole

If you would like to know more, just reach us personally (Leander, Luc, or Olaf) or send an e-mail to the newly established office.

By all means, we look forward on cooperating with you, and finding common ways to act as citizens in our ever-changing world!

With regards,

Leander van Delden
With Luc Vocks & Olaf Koens