General Assembly in Sweden

40 participants from 20 member organisations of Rural Youth Europe attended the annual General Assembly in Halmstad, Sweden in August 2010.

The programme started on 4 August with an introduction session, presentation of the proposed Development Plan 2011-2013 and a workshop on membership criteria. The workshop took a very visual approach with participants standing in different parts of the room according to the size of their organisations, age of members, number of staff, number of local clubs, funding from public institutions, involvement in agricultural activities and level of political involvement. The workshop results clearly showed that every member organisation is unique but we all share a common identity and common goals.

Regional meetings followed with delegates gathering together from the 4 regional groups (UK & Ireland, Central Europe, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe) to discuss GA proposals and ideas on how to co-operate within their regions.

For the next session, participants chose between 2 workshops:

• Fundraising strategy - conducted by Johan Ekman from the European Youth Forum Board. Participants analysed the current situation in their organisations using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) and then discussed the competitive advantages their organisations can offer to sponsors.
• Youth Employment - conducted by Michael Schwab and Kadri Toomingas from the Rural Youth Europe Board. Participants heard about the international Youth Employment Action (YEA) project and entrepreneurship projects from Finnish 4H, Wales Federation of Young Farmers and Estonian 4H, and exchanged ideas for future projects.

The General Assembly was held on 5 August with presentations on the Annual Report 2009, Development Plan 2007-2010, Board meetings 2009 and Finances 2009, 2010 and 2011. An active discussion on the future directions of Rural Youth Europe was held during the meeting which resulted in the approval of a comprehensive Development Plan for 2011-2013. An overview of the future activities for 2011-2013 was provided by local hosting representatives as well as updates on the new website and the Youth Project of 2010 competition.

A highlight of the GA was the election of the new board:

• Michael Schwab (Germany) elected Chairperson
• Kadri Toomingas (Estonia) elected Vice-Chairperson
• Lukas Helfenstein (Switzerland) elected Central European board representative (Group 2)
• Ulrica Berglöf (Sweden) elected Scandinavian board representative (Group 3)
• Ragnar Kekkonen (Estonia) elected Eastern European board representative (Group 4)

Congratulations to Michael. Kadri, Lukas, Ulrica and Ragnar! We’d also like to give warm thanks to the retiring board members for their much-appreciated contributions to Rural Youth Europe: Robin Swann (Northern Ireland), Stina Lindedam (Denmark) and Martin Geier (Austria).

And a big, big thank you to Swedish 4H for being such wonderful hosts!

Amanda Hajnal
Secretary General, Rural Youth Europe