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tion plan such as promotion of Minerva in the job-fair catalogues of bonding and a lot of TrainShops being attended and organised by BESTies and members of bonding, full access of bonding to Private Area and public archives.
During PM 2003 in Belgium, a first crack in the cooperation with bonding appeared. Several
BEST members questioned our cooperation and made a proposal to revoke the right from students who are coming from bonding associated universities to apply for BEST Season Courses. This proposal was rejected and a suggested timeline was approved in order to improve the cooperation with bonding.
Later on, besides the official events between the two organisations, several cultural exchanges between LBGs and bonding groups were realised, bringing the students from BEST and bonding closer. All those contacts proved that BEST and bonding can cooperate to realise joint projects and especially to exchange know-how that helps the development of both organisations.
Not much has changed since 2003 in the cooperation plans. Since there was a decrease of knowledge exchange (less people attending bonding job fairs and less German students attending internal BEST events) and people exchange (less courses organised by bonding and less German students sent to BEST courses) between the two organisations, new projects had to be found. The next big project that got initiated was the International Engineering Competition, where together with CFES, BEST and bonding started preparing a big Engineering Competition (IEC) for students coming from all three organisations. The discussions about IEC started in GA2006 in Zagreb, and a timeline was made in order to have the event in 2010.
In the end of 2008, a workshop was organised to evaluate the cooperation between BEST and bonding. As the cooperation was found to be unbalanced, several proposals were submitted during the General Assembly 2009 in Budapest. Many of the LBGs agreed with the concerns stipulated in the workshop. Nevertheless they insisted in having a life meeting with bonding to see how the balance can be regained.
At the moment of writing, this workshop is scheduled but did not take place yet. Let’s see what the future holds!
CFES
BEST was officially introduced to the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES) in Spring 2000 at the GA in Stockholm, where the president of CFES (Amitabh Saxena) did a presentation of the CFES for the members of BEST. No project however was defined there for the organisations to cooperate on. Since January of 2001, discussions were initiated and CFES started thinking of their own courses programme. In spring 2001 and during GA
Chapter 8:
BEST and Partners
in Ljubljana serious discussions on how to cooperate on projects took place and the main exchange activities, complementary education courses and Engineering competitions, are identified. CFES was also interested in a Career Support program for its members, but this interest died after some time.
The cooperation went one step further in 2002, when in March teams from BEST went to Quebec city in Canada, in order to compete in the Canadian Engineering Competition. The bad news is that one of them wins the Team Design category and the Canadian sponsors are not really happy about it. At the same time, the first international workshop took place with representatives of bonding and NAESC (National Association of Engineering Student Councils, USA).
After 2 years of collaboration with CFES, BEST was also ready to take one big step in its history: to organise the first demonstration of a competition during GA2002 in Paris, where representatives from CFES were present. At the same time, the representatives of CFES get the very handy electronic voting system, that BESTies had developed few years ago, and bring it back to Canada to use it in their voting sessions and they name it ‘votrön’.
2003 was a very important year for the cooperation of BEST and CFES. It was the year that the first education course and the first full scale competition was organised by CFES and
BEST accordingly. All the experience and knowledge sharing was extremely fruitful in the end, with two very successful events. BEST and CFES proved that a cooperation between two organisations can have good results. The first course of CFES was organised in summer 2003 by Ryerson Polytechnical.
After the very successful events, new ideas for collaboration between BEST and CFES started to get developed. One of them was the Sister schools pairs and it was introduced in GA2003 in Slovakia. For such an idea to proceed though, a cooperation plan between BEST and CFES had to be adopted. After almost 1 year, this new idea started functioning and the first two pairs were selected. They were Lund - Sherbrooke and Patras - Calgary.
However the “Sister schools pairs” idea was not developed further and no more pairs got selected. This was also one reason why BESTies and CFES members tried to find a new common working project. After a lot of discussion the idea of an International Engineering Competition (IEC) together with bonding was brought in GA2006 in Zagreb. After long discussions and planning, the event was planned to happen in 2010. The reason for such a long timeline is the complexity of the event, and also the quality standards that have to be met in order to assure a good competition. Besides all, big preparations from all three organisations were needed in order to prepare their competitions system and to be able to send good quality competitors to the IEC.
The cooperation of BEST and CFES is a good example of a fruitful cooperation. It has
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resulted in big projects and a lot of improvements and new ideas in both organisations, regardless of the big distance and the relatively few exchanges between members. Let’s see what the future holds!
The website http://www.cfes.ca gives more information about CFES.
Unofficial Gossip Starts here:
Deep Grewal & Guillaume Renaud (BEST Ambassador & CFES VP Comm) attended PM 2004 in Porto.
Both quickly adapted to the BEST Spirit and demanding schedule of the Portuguese lifestyle.
While Mr. Deep developed an appreciation for the food, drink and locals, Mr Renauld was fascinated by the hotel elevator and was found asleep early morning on a couch within the elevator. Typical GM events continued; highlights include marathon working sessions, marathon drinking sessions. Deep & Guillaume were introduced to 95% Alcohol Polish Spiritus and Deep’s favourite Vanna Tallinn!
Other NGOs
There are several European and worldwide student organisations, each offering some specific services to the students of their target group.
BEST is collaborating with these associations, which helps to improve the existing projects and share the experience in the various fields of expertise, and at the same time to lower the barrier for students to find the right organisation fitting to their studies. Take a look here for an introduction to most of those student organisations.
Besides the organisations that BEST is officially cooperating with, there are numerous organisations that BEST is in contact in order to exchange ideas, projects and people among each other. Some of them are:
AEGEE, AIESEC, EDSA, EESTEC, EFPSA, ELASA, ELSA, EMSA, EPSA, ESN, ESTIEM, EUROAVIA, FISEC, IAAS, IADS, IAESTE, IAPS, IEEE, IFMSA, IFSA, IPSF, IPSO, ISAVCP, IVSA, JADE,
PRIME and WISE.
Each of these organisations are different, however what they all have in common is the aim of promoting mobility and exchange among students. Exchange and communication is vital for all of them in order to sustain their services and develop their members so that each one can reach their goals.
Besides the individual communication, there are more ways that these organisations communicate. One of them is IFISO (Informal Forum of International Students Organisations). This forum brings organisations even closer and reaches the goals of communication and exchange in a more structured way, even though it is informal.
Chapter 8:
BEST and Partners
BEST and Companies
Prehistory
Grenoble 1988. EAU (European Association of Universities) was just getting the idea to change its name to BEST. Those were great times. Those were the times when the wheel was just being invented for the first time!!!
One of these wheels was the one that fuels most of our activities: the money wheel. A short term goal of the association was to get companies interested in the EAU.
Yet, money was not the only thing the EAU was expecting to get from the companies. Another goal (long term this time) was to create international job-shops where “foreign firms”
- as they were called - would propose jobs to students. The goal was indeed very long term, as to this day BEST has still not organized a live international job fair although the idea circled around many times. However it is interesting to see how after 21 years, some local BEST job fairs still bear the name JobShop.
The short term goal to get companies interested worked well though. Already during the next meeting in Vienna in 1989, BEST was in contact with P&G, Schlumberger, Fiat, and Thompson.
The very first company meeting took place in 1991 with P&G during the BEST Conference and Members Meeting - GA - organized by ENSAM, but it wasn’t one without problems. Strangely enough the problem was in choosing the BEST members that would attend the meeting. Eventually, the arguments ended and 4 people were chosen, but this started another discussion: Would BEST need to elect a board?
In preparation of this meeting, the GA delegates also held a brainstorming session on what BEST can offer to the companies and what the companies can offer back - and so was formed the first fundraising strategy!
The Industrial Era
One of the first steps taken towards starting the contacting of companies was BIN (BEST
Industry Network) Born during GA Liege 1992, this was meant to be a tool through which LBGs would share contacts of Industrial Partners with each other and with Global BEST (or international BEST as we know it now) We might say this was the first Company Database of BEST! ...though it never really developed.
GA Liege also brought along the first set of guidelines and limitations regarding Global Partners, such as not advertising products, or not cooperating with companies in the cigarettes, alcohol and arms industries.
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Another wheel was invented for the first time in GA Warsaw 1993: STED (Students of Technology European Database) The very first mention of a CV database! Ethical limitations were imposed here as well, the strongest one being: “The personal data of the members of the database cannot be given to any Company” The idea was for the companies to read the competencies of the student, and only if they decide (s)he is interesting, a member of the STED team would facilitate the contact.
Of course, a CV database so early in the internet era was not very feasible, so the idea died quite soon after.
At the same GA in Warsaw, a new project was launched: GPI (Global Partnership with the
Industry) which could be looked upon as the first wheel for the later Support Group and
Partnership Levels. This project was being led by one of the committees of the time: The Industry Subgroup.
By PM Timisoara 1994, STED, GPI and BIN had become things of the past. So much so, that a discussion group was already reinventing the wheel when they proposed that a Global partner should get promotion in all local groups.
The Dark Ages ended quickly, and already in 1995 huge steps were being made. The first fundraising handbook for LBGs got released in GA Patras, and... tam-ta-raaaaam! The first
Global Partnership! And not just any kind, but a three-year contract with ENSPM (Ecole Nationale Superieure du Petrole et des Moteurs). Huge step, but it was still not a company.
One more wheel got reinvented (luckily) during that GA, when after being elected, the new treasurer (Alfredo Loreto) stated he would start a new committee to deal with global fundraising. No more than one year later, in GA Tallinn the GFC (Global Fundraising Committee) was established, after a set of very strong proposals.
Proposal 1 (in PM Trondheim ‘95): To allow the treasurer to speak to potential partners on behalf of all LBGs. He would be allowed to give tasks to LBGs according to what the global sponsors required. These tasks would range from collecting CVs or questionnaires to even organizing company seminars.
Proposal 2 (in GA Tallinn ‘96): Every LBG will have a Global Fundraising Responsible.
These local responsibles are to be used for implementing what the companies require, in case this implies work on the local level (such as promotion or events). As a benefit to the LBGs, if a company wants to have a local partnership, the GFC member will establish the contact, and the money will be divided between the LBG and BEST International.
LBGs had 1 month to elect a GF responsible and communicate the name to the treasurer.
Chapter 8:
BEST and Partners
The GFC (Global Fundraising Committee) was formed not of these responsibles, but of very experienced BESTies (current and former boardies) which were aided at the local level by the GF responsibles in case a partner needed some local promotion.
Still, with all of this, one year later (1997) there was still no partnership signed apart from the one with ENSPM. This could be attributed to several factors: lack of things to offer to companies, lack of company contacts, and lack of international FR experience.
But then, in PM Warsaw 1997, the lack of things to offer was a lack no more! MINERVA was born! The dream of STED (long time forgotten) was now becoming reality and BEST was building an international CV database.
By 1999 MINERVA was up and running and Fiat became the very first company to pay for access to the CVs.
In the same year, we also had another thing up and running: the Support Group. As it was thought of, the member companies would work together with BEST for the same purpose of offering personal and professional development to students. The companies’ involvement was not just limited to money (though this was also a part of it) but they also had to give input and support in the design of new initiatives. The members of the SG were P&G, PricewaterhouseCoopers and American Management Systems.
The Great Wars
Much like human history, BEST financial history had its Great Wars too.
The First Great War: Alcohol, Cigarettes and Guns.
If you remember the prehistory part of this story, in 1992 a GA had decided that BEST should not cooperate with companies from the above mentioned industries.
Well, in 1999 when MINERVA and the SG were just picking up, a very simple and clear proposal made by LBG Budapest removed that limitation from our Internal Regulations. There were no heavy discussions on the topic, just a clear vote that would remove a rule people were not so sure about.
Of course a hot topic like this couldn’t stay dormant for long, and in GA Greece 2005 it picked up again. Proposals and counter proposals with one or more options were pouring in. We shouldn’t cooperate with alcohol producers... cigarette producers... arms producers... or any company that does not have good ethics. Things got hot there. Between all the ethics and the shades of grey, no limitation was voted. The reasons that popped up were:
•It’s very hard to draw a line between ethical and non-ethical companies
•It’s hard to tell which work with arms, as many make software for arms
•We are non-political so we shouldn’t discriminate
•Some LBGs are part of Military Universities
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• We promote career opportunities, not the products
For now, this war is quiet.
The Second Great War: BEST is not a company
This war was not nearly as dramatic or hot as the first one on the one hand, but it is surely not over on the other. We could say it is a cold war.
One the one foot (hands are already busy), BESTies are aware their organization is built and structured after following the examples and input of several companies, and that many training topics and organizational knowledge that we have comes from the industrial world. They are surely also aware of its value.
On the other foot, BESTies are afraid of the companies’ influence on their spirit and pureness of heart. They get suspicious when a company gives input on a session in plenary, feeling like the company is trying to elbow its way into our ways of work. They get defensive when a company proposes organizing an event, because we shouldn’t organize what the companies want (this is part of the IRE since 1992). Trying to make a point about BEST work by giving an example from a company or corporation is a sure way to lose an argument in plenary.
This is a war that will never be over (hopefully) and the balance will be kept, as neither way is a good way to go in itself.
The Corporate Era
At the change of the Millennium, BEST international FR was on the rise. MINERVA was launching and going seemingly well, the Support Group had 3 companies at all times... BEST could finally afford travel refunds and administrative expenses.
In 2000 in The Hague, BEST held its very first Partners Round Table! (entitled Support
Group Meeting) It’s interesting to see that the structure of this meeting is the same as the one being used in BEST Partners’ Round Tables today: presentations about BEST structure, activities, and opportunities for companies, plus input on 2-3 hot topics in BEST.
Things were going well.
In 2003, the Support Group Team officially became finTeam and soon after Partnership Levels were born to replace the Support Group.
Two years later, when CaSCo was dissolved and the CV database went into finTeam’s capable hands, FR results sky-rocketed.
The BCS - BEST Career Support (former BCC, former MINERVA, former STED) - was gathering lots of CVs and Career Newsletter Subscribers, and the partners were lining up.
Even more tools were developed for the companies, one of which was LCE - Local Career Events (former Jimmy). This is a place where all LBGs can upload their upcoming events so that companies from all over Europe can get the info quickly and possibly attend.
Chapter 8:
BEST and Partners
In 2008 BEST already had 18 annual industrial partners, and the budget went into the 6 digits. Of course this was the perfect time for an economical crisis.
Evolution in a nut shell
Legend
BIN = BEST Industry Network, STED = Students of Technology European Database GPI = Global Partnership with the Industry, MINERVA = Moving Into a New Era of Recruitment with Virtual Access, SG = Support Group, BCC = BEST Career Centre
Article written by Cristian Arteni
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History Book of Board of European Students of Technology |
1989-2009 |
Chapter 9
BEST Culture
•BEST Traditions
•BEST Stories
•General Meetings
Chapter 9:
BEST Culture
BEST Culture
BEST Traditions
Portuguese scarf/flag
It all started at Summer Course Lisbon 2005. At the city-rally we were given the task to bring pictures of the Portuguese scarf. In my team we wanted to do something original and I came up with the idea that our 3 girls can pose topless and cover themselves just with this Portuguese scarf. I did not think they will accept but they were crazy enough to do it. So we did it in the middle of the street in a quite exposed place. I remember an old lady saw this out of the window and started to shout at us. Then the guys took their pants off for another picture and the old lady got really mad ... she was screaming ‘go away, whores!’ and threatened to call the police. But we managed to escape ... with the picture :)
So this is the first one ever in the history of BEST, August 2005, taken in Lisbon:
Initially I did not pay too much attention to it; I just uploaded it together with the others. But some people forwarded the link and soon it started to get hundreds of visits from all over BEST. After that I saw it in many places ... including presentations.
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