History Book of BEST

Chapter 4:

BEST Network

GA1990 Trondheim 22 April 1990

82

Chapter 4:

BEST Network

Story of LBG Almada

It all started in 2002 when a group of friends got to know BEST and the activities it provides to Technology Students and decided they wanted our University Students to have those opportunities also.

In August 2002, LBG Lisbon invited us to help them in their Summer Course. 2 members went there and learnt a lot from those guys in our first real contact with BEST activities. In November, two of our members took part in PM in Mamaia, Romania, and we became officially a BEST Observer Group!!! Between the 14th and 16th of March we organized our first event, Iberian Consultancy Meeting Almada 2003. It went really great and it proved we could organize good BEST meetings. Then the dream came true: We became BEST Baby Members in GA Slovakia 2003 :)

From the 5th to the 10th of September 2004, we organized our first public international event, International BEST Symposium Almada 2004, with the topic “The Bologna Process,

Quality and Accreditation Towards Recognition”.

Together with LBG Lisbon and LBG Porto, from the 10th to the 16th of November, we organized PM 2004 in Santa Maria da Feira. It was great, not only because we hosted in

Portugal 130 participants from all over Europe, but also because we finally became Full

Members of BEST!!!!

After a long process, that included the publication of our Statutes in Diário da República in November 2004, finally in January 2005 we became a Youth Association member of the National Registry of the Portuguese Youth Institute!!

From the 28th of August to the 10th of September 2005 we organized our 1st Summer Course, with the topic “High-Tech Engineering in Medicine”. The event was a success and had 25 international participants and 20 local participants. From that moment, LBG Almada organized such events every year.

In October 2007, Almada got all the local BEST groups from the Iberian region to a Regional

Meeting in Alcochete. This was an opportunity to get to know each other and make the Iberian region stronger. In this event we have the participation of Almada, Valladolid, Coimbra, Madrid, Lisboa, Barcelona, Porto and Madrid Carlos III.

From this moment on, LBG Almada gained in stability and experience, organizing events for students by students.

Story of LBG Ankara

The story of BEST Ankara began at February of 2006. It was a cold winter night everything was normal until Mustafa Tokyay, the dean of the Faculty of Engineering of METU and member of the General Board of SEFI heard about BEST from the BACo organized by LBG Istanbul in 2006. Then he decided to send our friends to BACo as observers. Who could guess that this small step would cause a huge difference in the future and would create lots of crazy, funny but hard working BESTies in Ankara =)

84

Chapter 4:

BEST Network

in the National technical University of Athens get acquainted with the BEST spirit and decide the want to be part of it too, thus forming a group that came to make its first “official” appearance in a WorkShop organised in Chania, on Crete the following year.

The Athens-team had taken things pretty seriously this time. So, in order to succeed in fulfilling their dream, the summer of 1997 is spent working, gaining experience and of course having fun at the Summer Courses organised by the 2 then-existing LBGs, Patras and Chania.

Hard work always comes with a prize, so November 1997 at a Presidents Meeting in Warsaw, Athens earns the right to be called an LBG, by becoming a “baby” and thus having the opportunity to organise academic events of their own, something that they are more than ready to do the following summer.

The 1998 Summer Course is a hit and Athens becomes a full member of BEST on a beautiful November-Sunday at the Presidents Meeting in Torino.

And so the story goes, and BEST Athens keeps organising events and activities for students and BEST members alike, managing always to bring people together and providing the best there is to enjoy to every single one of them.

And hey, almost 40 events later, “it’s still not the end”

Story of LBG Barcelona

In 1989 some students from all Europe had a dream of being able to meet each other: this was the birth of LBG Barcelona, one of the founder members of BEST. This LBG came across lots of different and random situations but now, 20 years later, it’s still ready to afford any challenge!

His first course was a summer course in 1993 about Traffic Management In An Big City. Some years later moved a step forward and organized its first Cultural Exchange, so wonderful experience that since then almost every year a CE is held.

The years passed, and BEST was becoming a strong organization growing really fast. LBG Barcelona took part in it being the nurse of Valladolid (1994) and Lyon (1999). To afford this growth and the growth of the LBG itself, Fund Raising turned out to be an aspect to take care about. Because of this, Barcelona organized its first BEST Engineering Competition in 2006 and two years later jumped into the organization of the first National Engineering

Competition in Spain.

Since then, this LBG had no desires of being stuck, and its will of expansion is turning it in a wonderful family who wants to know and be known in all Europe.

86

Chapter 4:

BEST Network

Story of LBG Brasov

The History...

The idea started about 11 years at the initiative of 2 people, Marius Todorut and Dan Chiriac who were the first president and respectively vice president of BEST Brasov. We received special help from the Local BEST Group Cluj-Napoca they were our nurse. In 1999 we became baby-members at the Presidents Meeting in Chania and in 2000 we became fullmembers at the Presidents Meeting in Budapest.

Our events...

In 11 years from 1 event per year we now have 4-5 sometimes 6.We like to develop new events for students.

Our events from this year are:

•the 10th edition of our job fair

•the 1st Engineering Competition

•the 3rd edition of BEST Film Festival

•The 22nd summer course...

We are proud of our BEST Film Festival it’s a unique event in BEST and we want to grow it and make it international, till now it is just national.

Our traditions...

From this year we have a mascot his name is Ghandi...and he is a worm. We like to meet in our office and spend the night playing computer games or other games...after our meetings we like to go out. Some of our traditions were lost on the way but we are starting to create new ones using the BEST Spirit

Story of LBG Bratislava

1990

This was the first time that BEST heard about LBG Bratislava. It was at 4th GA in Budapest when we applied for baby membership (along with LBG Tallinn and LBG Patras).

1991

After considering our work and experience, we became full members at 5th GA in Paris in 1991 with all rights and obligations. Also, we made a decision to organise GA in Bratislava in 1993.

1992

The Ministry of Interior of Czech and Slovak Federal Republic permitted to establish an organisation: Board of European Students of Technology. The official start of LBG Bratislava was dated on 26th of October 1992.

1993

Pre-registration LBG Bratislava with an amendment to the statute at the Ministry of Interior of Slovak Republic on 25th of March. Headquarters of LBG Bratislava was at Namestie

Slobody 17, 812 31 Bratislava. In the same year, LBG Bratislava organised the BEST General

88

Chapter 4:

BEST Network

First big event, cultural exchange with Timisoara started from a Czech boy having sympathies to a Romanian girl. The only thing I knew about Timisoara was that they had a neon cross on the church and I really hated the idea of having cultural exchange with them.

Smashing first summer course which put the level very high for the following ones!

The beginnings were hard and intense. Mik was so tired of working that he was able to fall asleep when standing. He fell asleep in the night bus and got robbed and stolen everything including his laptop, got even cut by the knife. He didn’t even wake up.

Regional Meeting had a great budget in one of the most amazing places, river Vltava, on one side the forest with our perfectly equipped wooden cottages and on the other side, rocks. Sauna, sports, Borovnicke, everything included!

I would speak also about bad times of BEST Brno when the second board fell apart and Brno found itself with president and three or four faithful members and no money for the course. Actually I would skip this because I would think people want to hear only positive stories. But if I already mentioned that, I must also say that this story ended with a happy end! Brno got up again and after the low cost but BEST summer course they attracted new fresh blood members!

I would write about Latino party where Brno wanted to attract also girl members and found Latin students in Brno to teach them Salsa, I would write about how we realised that each summer course had in its name the word design? And we must make it a tradition!

I would remember endless discussions with members of other LBGs about our pride, Brno mascot: “This is not a Dragon, it is a crocodile!” (Put “Brno Dragon” in Google and you will see it IS a dragon!

I would mention the current board and big LBG of more than 30 people which is finally complete and working and the BEST I have ever seen!

I would remember the BEST times of my life.

Story of LBG Brussels

It was the summer of 1993 when the European Union was founded. That same European Union choose his headquarters to be in Brussels. It must have been fate that LBG Brussels was founded that same summer.

Since the very beginning LBG Brussels has always taken great pride in organising at least 1 external event (our beloved summer course) and 1 internal event (varying from a TrainShop to a regional meeting to an international meeting) every year. Although we might seem small compared to other local BEST groups, only around 15 active members, that has never stopped us from reaching for the top/sky. At the time of writing, December 2008, LBG

Brussels has organised the most internal events of all local BEST groups. A tradition we hope that will be continued in the future.

90