”What if I don't understand anything they are talking about there?” ”What if they ask me something and I don't have any idea what to answer?” These we a couple of my thoughts, when I started my journey to CNR Malta. Council of National Representatives (CNR) is an international meeting of ESN, where the National Representatives of all ESN countries come to talk about strategic issues and represent the interests of their countries. As the Vice-National Representative I got the chance to participate in CNR Malta on 22nd to 26th of September together with Pablo, the NR of ESN Finland.
Really soon I notice, that all my fears and doubts were really unnecessary. All the presentations were really clear and it was really easy to follow and understand them. Also all the other participants were really approachable and I felt, that if there was anything unclear, I could just ask from anyone and would get a clarification.
During the weekend there were presentations for example about all International Committees' action plans, updates on ESNcard.org issues and Candidacy presentation from International Students Club Tuzla. Indeed on Sunday was time to vote and one of the votings was, if we accept new candidate section. With all NRs favouring their application International Students Club Tuzla is now officially an ESN candidate section. Jeij!
Pablo was also presenting latest updates about ExchangeAbility.
Besides presentations there were also a couple of rounds of workshops. One of the most interesting workshops was ”IB for an hour”. I attended in Matt's, the IB Vice-President, workshop. We got three different problems he has dealt with during his mandate and first we discussed in smaller groups, how we would solve those problems and afterwards we discussed about these problems with the whole group. It was really interesting to get a little inside peek on the work the IB is doing.
Sometimes the discussion in the plenary room got a little heated, when people were passionately defending their opinions and expressing, what is the best for their country. Despite the disagreements on some of the topics, when the plenary room's door was closed behind us in the late afternoon, everyone was like one big family joking together and getting ready to have a great evening program together. And this is how it actually should be.
This CNR was a great experience and I'm really happy I got a chance to participate in it. This was also a great reminder about the unique Pallomeri spirit there is in ESN: when you attend national or international event it doesn't matter if you are a newbie or an old ESN dinosaur you are always warmly welcomed to the group.