4. ADVICES FOR ACTIVITIES

General:

for organisers:

- The travel behaviour of participants can be capricious. They will arrive at night or get lost at dawn. So, provide participants beforehand with 24-hours a day telephone numbers during the whole programme.

- If needed, a certain number of participants will forget their sleeping bags. Some sleeping bags or blankets have to be held in reserve.

- Spare-time activities have to be offered in some way or another, even if you don't think so. Your guests often don't have the slightest idea what to do with themselves in your city. The three most important ways to help them to fill their spare time (in order of importance):

a) Give public transportation tickets to move freely about a city.

b) Provide participants with a list of possible ways to amuse themselves during spare time, in particular for the evenings (pubs, cinema).

c) Organize activities which are attractive to be joined together, in order to stimulate the well known 'EESTEC integration'.

- Espacially during EESTEC-Exchanges it is important that the guest have time to relax. Thus don't overload the programm. After late-evening-parties leave the next morning free.

- Important for EESTEC communication and continuity is that a complete list without errors of NatCom- and personal adresses has to be handed out to every participant (not only to every NatCom). The best way to produce an errorless list is to give a questionnaire and demand to give it back the same day or even better, the same hour.

- Because personal contact is the best contact, make sure that the phone-numbers in the participant list are correct.

- Talking about EESTEC as a traineeship mediator (intermediary) is not useful. On this field many, many tries have been made, but it did hardly work. Of course the EESTEC 'network' can be used to exchange company adresses to write individual requests to. Still, using IAESTE or other specific traineeship organizations (AIESEC) is the best way.

- Very important occasions during an event are the informal meetings and talks, like a welcome party, extended lunch or a farewell party. The simple minimum criteria are a suitable place to talk with each other, some food and drinks and maybe a relaxing interruption.

For participants:

- Gifts for the hosts have long since become a tradition within EESTEC. It will be an odd feeling for you if you are the only one without a gift on the farewell-party. Try to be creative, there is sure more to express your gratitude with than only alcohol. Creativity goes before price.

- Organizers have done a lot of work, so a guest should be careful not being unnecessarily or unjustly critical. 'Easy' is the perfect attitude you should adopt. Remember that the difference between an optimist and a pessimist is simply that the optimist is having fun.

Congresses:

- An EESTEC congress should be a place and occasion to discuss organizational matters and operating policies, elect the new Board, establish Exchanges and Workshops, etc.. It should be an event relatively free of professional programmes, and the representatives should be strictly EESTEC NatCom representatives, capable of expressing the views and opinions of their NatComs, even in unexpected situations.

- One of the goals of a Congress is to receive as many NatComs (=countries) as possible, which means that the 'invitation procedure' must be powerful. A maximum attendance of NatComs will result in a more vivid continuation of EESTEC. A way to invite very unstable NatComs is to send the letters also to some of the individual NatCom members.

Workshops:

- An EESTEC Workshop should be a mostly professional event with a bit of local sightseeing and feasting. It is important (also to attract new-comers, 'the future of EESTEC'), that the participants are outside students who are particularly interested and/or outstanding in the subject of the Workshop, and not only NatCom members.

- Make very good preparations on the subject of the Workshop, otherwise you may forget what everything actually is about during the workshops.

- It is desirable that a workshop is presided by a person who knows more than a lot about the subject, otherwise the discussions will not be efficient. A professional expert is the best choice.

- Keep in touch with the experts and lecturers you have contacted during the period of preparation - even if you think that everything is clear with them. Send them all information available.

- Ask the lecturers to send abstracts in advance (for your proceedings/reader), if possible in English.

Exchanges:

- An EESTEC exchange is the one event which offers practically unlimited possibilities to the organizers. The host NatComs should do whatever they want to and are capable of. As EESTEC participants are mostly EE-students, the host can foresee that they will be interested in some electrotechnical subjects during the exchange.

- Remember that your guests are there for a good time, and that one day or another you are going to reciprocate their visit.

- Try to assure, that all participants of your own country are also involved in the organization. Try also to make sure that you are going to meet your guests again during the return-visit.

- If the guests are spread in different student places all over the city, it is very recommandable to organize one or two nights in a place out of town, like a landhouse, a chalet or something similar. This allows to get to know one another much closer.