Athens, 15 November 2021: The newly appointed Management Board (MB) of the Erasmus Mundus Association (EMA) inaugurated its tenure during their official Management Board Handover Meeting held in Athens, Greece. The in-person meeting was conducted over a weekend in mid-November and was attended by members of the current and previous MBs and select EMA volunteers.
Over the course of two full days, the participants deliberated, discussed, and debated policies and strategies that will influence EMA’s role and function in the lives of Erasmus Mundus students and alumni, as well as within the higher education and mobility context in Europe. Discussions included but were not limited to EMA’s membership value
proposition, reforming the association’s vision and mission, and conceiving sustainable strategic goals aligned with these, as well as setting attainable objectives for each of EMA’s units.
Besides these, the incoming and outgoing MBs also reviewed the association’s operation historically and its relations with other entities such as the European Commission (EC), the European Education and Culture Agency (EACEA), and the Erasmus Students and Alumni Association (ESAA). Ms Hélène Banegas of the EACEA was invited as a guest speaker to further shed light on the EMA’s relationship with the European Commission.
When not putting their heads together, the MB members broke up in smaller groups to engage in cross-unit collaborations and one-on-one sessions with their predecessors. The result? Several new project ideas and the fine-tuning of unit protocols.
Towards the end of the event, planning for the next General Assembly to be held in 2022 was in full swing.
Gabriella Mikiewicz, EMA’s president, had the following to say about the Handover event: “Having in-person meetings with the MB is extremely necessary and very rewarding. We all have great ideas and plans for EMA, but with limited time and with the challenges that come along with remote work and volunteering, not every idea can be put into practice. Meeting in person, however, allows us to deep dive into our ideas, brainstorm and debate for hours, and work together to put our plans into actionable steps! I personally have come out of this Handover meeting more motivated, more excited, and with a greater sense of camaraderie with the rest of the Management Board. We are looking forward to building a better EMA for our community!”
The EMA Management Board conducts monthly meetings online, and also meets twice or thrice per year in person. The next in-person Management Board meeting is scheduled for spring 2022, dependent on COVID restrictions.
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