40. Council Meeting Porto 2010

April 27^th – May 2^nd, 2010

Once again it was time for a new edition of the ESTIEM Council Meeting. This time it was a very special event because in 2010 ESTIEM is celebrating its 20^th anniversary and CM Porto was - as the name already says – the 40^th Council Meeting. To celebrate this special occasion the number of participants was increased to 200 and it was just amazing how 200 students from all over Europe spent this week together. For Local Group Braunschweig it was also a special occasion as for the first time we went to a CM with 6 people: Anna Diener and Nils Michel as delegates, Ilka Petersen and Markus Divjak as Trainer, Janine Brockmeier as Working Group Leader and Annett Juras as “Studentischer Vertreter des VWI”.

Tuesday, April 27^th was the arrival day. A part of our delegation already started their trip on Monday staying one night in Karlsruhe in order to take the same flight as the 13 people from Karlsruhe and Kaiserslautern. So there were already 18 ESTIEMers on the plane on Tuesday morning. Some hours later we finally arrived in Porto. The sun was burning, but all of us just smiled in prevision of the following days. Little by little all the participants arrived and it was incredible to see old and new friends greeting each other, hugging, starting to talk and – after the Junior Training, which introduces all the new CM participants – playing Energizers on the Campus. Imagine 200 people, sunny weather, songs and games. It was a perfect start of the following week.

After a welcoming barbecue at the university with a great performance of the university`s guitar orchestra we started the official part of the CM the next morning. General Assembly usually starts at 8 and even in Portugal we managed to stick to this time. No Portuguese five minutes. ;)

During the General Assembly we learned about the work, which had been done in ESTIEM during the last few months, listened to the Board, the different Project and Committee Leaders, the people highly involved in ESTIEM etc. We also watched the presentations of applicants for the vacant positions of Project Leader of Student Guide, TIMES, Vision, Magazine, Organizer of Spring Council Meeting 2011, Organizer of TIMES Final 2011 as well as the new Observer Group Barcelona. There were a lot of discussions, questions and solutions and everyone was happy to get some coffee during the breaks. The great organizer team of LG Porto took care of us and provided us with enough food, beverages, information, help etc.

In addition to the General Assembly we spent quite some time in Working Groups (WGs) and Trainings as there are always 4 slots for the work in smaller groups and the education of ESTIEMers on a CM. Every Committee or Project had several WGs and worked upon the past and future of its responsibilities. Many new ideas were created in small group discussions and creative sessions. During the Trainings the participants were introduced to things like Fundraising, Motivation and Recruiting, Public or Corporate Relations etc. and trained for their tasks like in the Local Responsible Trainings.

After a very tiring day program we started our evening activities right afterwards. As we were in Portugal dinner was scheduled for 10pm or even later, so we could work until late and then meet each other in front of the hotel in order to get to know a new fancy place in Porto guided by our organizers. After dinner we climbed our private dinner-party-connection buses and enjoyed Porto’s nightlife as long as we could as we were forced to get up very early the next morning. Thursday afternoon was special as we finished our work a little bit earlier and went on a boat cruise on the river Douru, which is running through Porto. A really beautiful landscape surrounded us as Porto is a very picturesque city with several bridges, port wine cellars and very old, tiny and colorful houses. A view you’ll always remember. The cruise was followed by a city tour in the old city centre and some free time before we started to form the word “ESTIEM” with ESTIEMers on the place in front of the city hall. A great activity and it was interesting to see how Porto’s inhabitants enjoyed it when we were singing songs with 200 students.

With so many program points the few days in Porto passed faster as we could imagine and on Saturday evening we had a big Gala Dinner at a nice place with very delicious food. Unfortunately, many people had to leave right afterwards, so it was time to say goodbye. But many of the participants still went to the Queima, which is “the” student festival of Porto, where thousands of students celebrate every year. Those of us, who had their room in the hotel next to the main hall, could also listen to the serious celebrations the next morning, when people were gathering in front of the city hall praying, singing and listening to a concert ;)