Introduction

Dear members,
Summer greetings from Gent (Belgium) where I'm actually taking part in the first European Convention on Youth Work!

I am happy to have seen and met many of you in Yerevan during the conference. It is always a pleasure to hear your professional and private news and see a room filled with EYCA energy.

We were all overwhelmed with Armenian hospitality and I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank the team of the Armenian Junior Chamber for their warm welcome and great work.

Many significant developments for the Association took place during the conference such as the adoption of changes in Statutes and Quality Standards, which are the key to a strong and successful European Youth Card. We have also approved more precisely defined rules for suspension of underperforming members and confirmed the validity of the reDesign Manual.

We have introduced a new concept for the “EYCA market place of ideas and projects” based on the “speed dating” system and renamed it to Bazaar. I hope we can continue this exchange in all upcoming conferences and seminars, I think it has proved very successful as we could learn a lot from each other. For those of you who could not attend the conference, the office will put together an overview of good practices.

Dear friends, I wish you sunny days and a great time during your vacations.

Sincerely,
Wolfgang

News from countries

Croatian summer camp
The Croatian EURO<26 organisation is pleased to invite all European Youth Card holders to join the eleventh International summer camp from August 16 until August 22 in Zadar, Croatia.
The goal of the International Summer Camp is to give opportunities to young people coming from different countries to spend an active and joyful week together in the beautiful Croatian coastal town of Zadar, to discover the beauties of Croatia and to discuss the European Youth Card project. The working language will be English.
The Croatian Youth Hostel Association, to which all participants should register not later than July 16, organizes the camp. The participation fee per person is 170 EUR including lodging, all meals on full board basis in multi-bedded rooms with shared bathrooms and one-day trip to National park Krka. The travel costs to/from Zadar are not covered.
More information on: www.hfhs.hr

Young Scot Extra
Young Scot have been especially busy over the last few months, preparing for the launch of “Young Scot Extra” - a brand new package of services, aimed particularly at young people between the ages of 16 and 26 who have left school. Young Scot Extra will include a brand new digital platform at www.youngscotextra.org. This will utilise the best of new social media and technology to provide high quality, relevant and accessible information and engagement tools. It will also include a focus on new discounts and enhanced entitlements on the Young Scot NEC (National Entitlement Card). Young Scot will be making sure that the discounts provided by other EYCA partners across Europe are heavily promoted as part of Extra as this will be especially relevant to young people in this age group who are more likely to travel or study in other countries than those still at school. Young Scot Extra will be launched at Scotland’s biggest music festival, T In The Park, on the 10th & 11th July, so check out the new website when it goes live and send any feedback you have to martind@youngscot.org.

New Senior Staff
Young Scot has also welcomed a new face to their Senior Management Team in recent weeks, with the arrival of David McNeill. David heads up the new Rewards and Entitlements Directorate at Young Scot, and their work around the Young Scot NEC card. David is not new to the world of EYCA, having previously worked closely with Bob Forsyth as a consultant, managing and carrying out research and evaluation on projects related to youth issues, health, regeneration and employability. He is also currently Chair of Recharge, a youth facility near Edinburgh, so he brings with him a whole host of relevant skills and experience.

Catalunya festivals
Throughout the summer, there are irresistible discounts on various culture events in Catalunya with the European Youth Card. Cardholders from Spain and abroad can for example attend the international music festivals in Cambrils, Ripoli or Matadepera, check out the Barcelona International Environmental Film Festival and many more cultural venues. For more details, please visit www.carnetjove.cat

Portuguese summer highlights
As every year, the Portuguese Cartao Jovem partners with the best festivals in the country – cardholders can get a discount for Sumol Summer Fest, Delta Tejo, Super Bock Super Rock and Sudeoeste TMN. To find out more, please go to http://microsites.juventude.gov.pt/Portal/CartaoJovem/Noticias/festivais_verao.htm. What is more, young people can save on city tours and river cruises, trains, busses, car rental and entrance fees to World Heritage Sites such as Jerónimos Monastery, Belém Tower, and other monuments.

Change of membership in Austria
During the 2010 conference in Armenia, the General Assembly of EYCA has approved the transfer of membership for the territory of Austria from Akzente Salzburg to jugendinfo.cc. EYCA would like to take this opportunity to thank the team of Akzente Salzburg for their outstanding work and contribution to the European Youth Card Association. We applaud Wolfgang Schick, Gabi Haslinger and their colleagues for their commitment to youth work and their creative ideas with youth projects.
As Akzente Salzburg is one of the regional members of jugendinfo.cc, they will continue their good work for young people and issuing the S-pass European Youth Card for the region of Salzburg.
Jugendinfo.cc is the umbrella organisation of all Austrian regional youth info organisations. The headquarter is based in Vienna and the youth card work will be coordinated and carried out by director Alexandra Cangelosi and project manager Stefan Parnereiter-Mathys. To find out more about the plans of the Austrian youth card please check their website www.jugendkarte.at.

Andorra to host European Youth Games
The City of Encamp, Andorra has been selected to organize the “European Youth Games of Twin Cities” in 2012.
The first edition of the Youth Games held in 1972 after the city of Tortosa and Avignon decided to organize a sports event for young people, a proposal which other sister cities got involved in. The European Youth Games aim to promote harmony among young people between 15 and 16 years through sports competitions, cultural events, and leisure activities, through which they have the opportunity to meet and get to know young people from other cities and countries.
The presentation of the cities candidature took place in Tarragona, Spain. There were 3 cities that wanted to organized the games: Avignon (France), Pisek (Czech Republic) and Encamp (Andorra). The Executive commission selected Encamp unanimously after the presentations of the cities candidacy. More information about the events is available at tarragona2010.com or from Manel Sanchez (EYCA Board member).


Summer specials for Greek cardholders
The European Youth Card in Greece is a partner of the Athens Video Art Festival 2010 throughout the summer taking place in 11 Greek cities. In Athens it was successfully held on May 7-9 and it greatly boosted the card. The festival will continue in Syros (July 10 - 11), Lefkada (July 23 - 24), Rethimno, Crete (July 30 - 31), Mytilene (August 7 - 8), Tilos (August 20 - 21), Thessaloniki (September 11 - 12), Kozani (September 18 - 19), Orestiada (September 25 - 26), Volos (October 2 - 3) and Tripoli (October 9 - 10). Visitors will have the opportunity to acquire the card for only €5 plus a gadget as a gift. More information can be found at www.athensvideoartfestival.gr

News in brief

- The EYCA member organisation in German-speaking Belgium has a new website www.eurojuka.be with a video introduction about logo re-branding by Thomas Leigsnering. The abbreviation “eurojuka” stands for Europaeische Jugendkarte, i.e. European Youth Card.

- The Slovak EURO<26 card partners this summer with 15 cultural festivals across the country – from pop and rock to folklore and theatre. Included in the summer discounts are also reduced entrance fees to thermal baths, wellness centres, aqua parks and outdoor swimming pools. More news at www.euro26.sk

- Since June 8, the Greek card is sold for a promotional summer price of €10 (instead of €15). In the framework of promoting tourism in Greece there is a special effort to highlight the hotels, apartments and travel agencies discounts. Furthermore, the General Secretariat for Youth has been in contact with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture with the aim of offering a 50% discount in archaeological sites, museums and theatres to all cardholders.

EYCA conference 2010

The XXVI EYCA conference took place in Yerevan, Armenia from May 12 until May 15 and was hosted by the Armenian Junior Chamber. The Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Mr. Tigran Sargsyan sent a welcome letter to the participants (presented by Arsen Karamyan, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Youth and Sport of RA) and on the occasion of the conference, Armenia joined the Partial Agreement on Youth Mobility through the Youth Card within the Council of Europe.
Representatives of thirty EYCA member organisations attended the conference, which, for the first time, took place in a country of the former Soviet Union. Through the warm welcome, evening programme and guided tours, we had an amazing opportunity to get an impression of Armenian gastronomy, culture and history.
The initial session of the conference was traditionally dedicated to a review of the Annual Report, an update on organisational issues (membership, survey, internal changes), a summary of Board members’ portfolios as well as communication and promotion.
Our online guest speaker this year was Dr Rachel O’Connell who is an expert on internet safety and most recently held the position of Chief Security Officer of the social networking site Bebo. 

In her talk, Dr. O’Connell spoke about the democratisation of information that came with social media and how young people changed from passive recipients to active creators on the net. Conference participants were of course interested how to enhance the buzz around the youth card and how to be recognized on social media sites. The answer is creating a social media strategy, i.e. allocating budget and staff to the online presence because “your brand is not what you say it is – your brand is what the community says it is”.
Member organisations exchanged their projects and ideas as part of the interactive “Bazaar” marketplace. In-depth analyses of case studies took place in workshops that were divided into subgroups according to partnerships with the corporate sector, culture and education, Europe and various levels of governments.
During the General Assembly the following was adopted:
- changes in membership: jugendinfo.cc is the new licence holder for Austria replacing Akzente Salzburg; full membership rights were transferred from Movit to Mobin in Slovenia; Aurora Tours is now officially the associate member for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The Gold Hercules award for Best Card Organisation was awarded to Cartao Jovem Portugal and the Silver Hercules award for Best Developing Card Organisation went to EURO<26 Romania.
The preliminary conference dates for the next conference in Amsterdam hosted by CJP Netherlands are June 15-17, 2011.

Board meetings

An EYCA Board meeting took place during the conference in Yerevan, Armenia. The main focus was the finalisation of decision-making documents for the General Assembly but other issues were addressed as well. With regards to the Office and President’s report, the Board discussed the developments in individual EYCA countries, EYCA’s cooperation with other European youth organisations and other business. 

The Board also voted on awarding the Gold and Silver Hercules to best performing, respectively best development organisation. A summary of the meeting was sent out to all EYCA members.

The EYCA Board would like to thank Andree Debra and the Youth Card in Luxembourg – Centre National d’Information pour Jeunes for an invitation to Luxembourg and hosting the latest Board meeting, which took place on July 22-23, 2010.

Coming up

On July 1, President Wolfgang Schick and Director Marcel Hagmann will participate in a preparatory meeting together with ERYICA and Eurodesk discussing the upcoming NET 3.0 seminar (a cooperation of the Three Networks). The joint event will take place in Lyon, France from September 30 until October 3, 2010 and will be entitled “Innovation towards participative society”.

Based on an initiative from the Young Scot, EYCA together with the Scottish member organisation are preparing a conference in Edinburgh for December 8-10, 2010. The event carries the working title “Young people influencing policy: online and offline - A critical role for European Youth Cards”. It will gather EYCA’s member organisations as well as government representatives and young activists. The key themes will be the card as the key to influencing policy and young people as agents of social change through co-production/co-management.

EYCA office news

Marcel Hagmann together with Board member Mugurel Stan and EURO<26 Romania staff visited the EYCA member in Moldova on the occasion of launching a cooperation with the Ministry of Youth.

Director Marcel Hagmann attended the ERYICA General Assembly on behalf of EYCA in Helsinki, Finland where he held a presentation about the Association’s activities as well as the cooperation between the Three Networks.

Stani Gajdosova together with Marcel Hagmann conducted a quality visit with the Bulgarian member organisation in Gabrovo. During meetings with Ivelina Peeva and Daniel Nikolov, they discussed possibilities of European funding for the card in Bulgaria and other issues.

Sasha Petrasova (PR & Communications) took part in the third meeting of the Expert Group on the Mobility of Young Volunteers on 14 June in Paris. She also attended a working group on the European Year of Volunteering in Slovakia organised by IUVENTA – the National Youth Council.

New PR and communication tools

Continuing the re-branding process of the EYCA logo, there are now new communication and promotional tools available for member organisation. In cooperation with an advertising agency, the office has designed a new PR video for the card. The animation, which takes place in a factory, illustrates the many different kinds of discounts that the cardholders can benefit from. In the next phase, a new EYCA website will be launched with an upgraded  discount 

database connected to an iPhone application. Last but not least, the next round of the TRAFO campaign has been launched. The office is approaching youth organisations involved in volunteering – be it EVS or other – to publish their stories, calls for participation and project ideas through TRAFO. There is an ongoing competition on the portal for young people who share their ideas on “learning to participate” with their peers.

Members survey

All members of the Association received a summary of the EYCA Annual Survey 2010 but here is a quick ”teaser”:
- on average, there are 3 full-time and 3 part-time staff working in card organisations
- there are four different age limits applicable to the card: under 26 (last day before 26th birthday or last day before

27th birthday) and under 30 (last day before 30th birthday, or last day before 31st birthday)
- only 10 % of members say that their card is the only card on the market; 45% stated that their card is one of many cards and equally 45% describe their card as the main card
- 13 member organisations offer more than 1.000 discounts

Partial Agreement

The Slovak Republic joined the Partial Agreement on Youth Mobility through the Youth Card on 17 February 2010, becoming the 18th member state and Azerbaijan joined the PA on 23 February 2010 becoming the 19th member state.

Together with Ralf-Rene Weingaertner (Director of CoE Directorate of Youth and Sport), Marcel Hagmann met with a representative of the Moroccan Youth Ministry to discuss a possibility for Morocco to join the Partial Agreement on Mobility through the Youth Card. This would be the first country outside of Europe to join the PA.