OBESSU takes a step forward!
The 2013 General Assembly (Haapsalu, Estonia, 27th – 28th July) brought changes to the structure of the organisation with the aim to bring OBESSU to a new level of development. OBESSU 2.0 is more inclusive, encouraging school student structures in Europe, more effective in its work and refreshed with new team members!
Meet the new Secretary General!
The General Assembly gave the vote of trust to the new OBESSU Secretary General – Rasmus Åberg! Read more.
OBESSU Board of 6!
After the General Assembly decided to extend the number of Board members, and that way introduce overlapping mandates in OBESSU, a new Board member was elected – Luke Shore, a school student representing Estonian school student union (ESCU). Luke will, together with the 5 other Board members elected in May 2012, lead the organisation in the future and be responsible for all the activities and all major decisions between two OBESSU statutory meetings.
Working Groups and Taskforces
The GA was certainly a turning point for the way the different OBESSU Working Groups and Taskforces work and the topics they focus on. The GA served as the ending point of two OBESSU Working Groups – “Member organisations’ cooperation” and “School Students’ Structure Development”. These are an addition to the two Working Groups already operating: the VET Working Group and the European Parliament Election Platform “School Student Europe 2019”. Other than the Working Groups, other OBESSU structures are the Pool of Trainers and the Taskforce on the upcoming OBESSU campaign on social inclusion titled “Education, we have a problem!”
New! – The new structure announced at the General Assembly is a Study Visit Taskforce. This structure composes of activists from OBESSU Member Organisations or OBESSU trainers gathered to plan and implement study visits to countries where school student structures are only developing. The aim of these study visits is to assist school students’ movements to develop into a national, representative, democratic and school student led organisation. If you are an activist from OBESSU Member Organisation and interested in sharing your ideas for the effective development of an organisation, watch out for the call in the next month for the first Study Visit Taskforce.
OBESSU welcomes a new Candidate Organisation – the Romanian School Student Council (CNE)
With the mission to represent, defend and strengthen educational, democratic, and social rights of school students in Romania, the Romanian School Student Council – Consiliul Național al Elevilor (CNE) joins OBESSU as the second Candidate Organisation (a status formally known “Observer Organisation”). This means that the representatives of CNE will from now on be a part of OBESSU initiatives together with their peers from other parts of Europe, and contribute to OBESSU work by representing the ideas of Romanian school students.
OBESSU Affiliates
The experience in working with school students’ movements in Europe showed that there are many initiatives from proactive school students around Europe to organise their peers and jointly become stronger in the fight for our right to influence the education we are getting and enable a democratic, inspiring and fearless educational environment! As a way to integrate these movements into OBESSU, represent their perspectives for quality education and assist them in their further development, the OBESSU 2013 General Assembly introduced a new status in the OBESSU membership – Affiliate organisations.
Affiliate organisations are organisations:
- Whose activities are organised in Europe;
- Who are primarily led by school students;
- Who run democratic elections and run by democratic principles;
- Whose objectives are in accordance with OBESSU’s objectives;
- Who do not fulfill the criteria for membership in OBESSU
Affiliate organisations have the right to attend OBESSU events, take part in OBESSU statutory meetings and join OBESSU campaigns and other initiatives. More about the rights and liabilities, as well as the ways to apply to be an affiliate organisation in OBESSU, read the OBESSU Statutes (Art. 3.9 – 3.12)
