EYCAtcher conference

New EYCA President, Board and Director

The XXVII EYCA conference took place in Amsterdam from June 18 until June 20, 2011 and was hosted by CJP Netherlands. EYCA member organisations came together to discuss changes in key documents such as the Statutes, the Quality Standards and the Graphic Chart as well as to exchange ideas about projects and activities connected to the card. During the General Assembly, elections of the new EYCA Board of Administration and President took place. Congratulations to the members of the new Board who will serve for a period of three years until June 2014:

President: Jarkko Lehikoinen (Finland)
Vice-Presidents: Dorota Orlik-Lisek (Poland), Manel Sánchez Garcia (Treasurer, Andorra)
Members:
Suzan Damen (The Netherlands)
Vladimir Jedlicka (Slovakia)
Kristiina Ling (Estonia)
Ana Martinez Fernandez (Spain)
David McNeill (Scotland)
Milos Milenkovic (Serbia)
Mugurel Stan (Romania)
Jose Sousa (Portugal)
Observer: Concha Fernandez Iglesias (Spain)

On behalf of all member organisations of the European Youth Card Association we would like to extend our most profound thanks to Wolfgang Schick - the outgoing President - as well as Angela Dato (Italy), Xavier Castellana (Spain-Catalunya), Walter Groenen (the Netherlands), Graeme Robertson (Scotland) and Riivo Sinijarv (Estonia) who served on EYCA's Board from 2008 until 2011.

We would like to thank Marcel Hagmann for his energy, dedication and ideas that helped make EYCA what it is today. Thank you, Marcel, for being a great boss and a friend through all these years.

A huge thank you also goes out to the Dutch organisers who put together a fantatic programme with a theatre show, a dinner cruise on the canals as well as a great farewell party. The host also enriched the conference by inviting two speakers who shared their insight on research regarding young people's mentality and their use of social networks.

From July 25^th, 2011, EYCA will have a new Director – Bob Forsyth. Bob has a strong connection with the Board and staff at EYCA, as he has worked closely with EYCA member organisations during conference design / facilitation, delivering a summer school, facilitating a vision review process and supporting the annual members’ survey process.

Before joining EYCA full time, Bob worked as Programme Development Manager with Habitat For Humanity (a major global NGO). His previous work experience also includes the position of founding director for a successful social policy consultancy company, which employed twenty-five people in three offices across the UK. Among other assignments, he has been commissioned by National Youth Agency for England, British Youth Council, Scottish Youth Parliament and Young Scot, as well as UK and Scottish Governments to devise strategic responses to issues for young people. Bob has a Master of Arts (Honours) in Social Policy from the University of Edinburgh and also obtained an Additional Certificate in Community Education Studies from the University of Koblenz.
The EYCA office and all European Youth Card organisations are looking forward to a new chapter in the Association with the new Director and the new Board.

Youth on the Move conference panel

During the conference, we had the pleasure of inviting EYCA’s partner organisations to take part in a panel discussing the key features for the future Youth on the Move card.

Marcela Valkova from the European Commission reported among other updates that the results from the online consultation will be published in September; the other important development coming up is the fact that the EC will hire a national expert for the YoM card programme. Both Martijn van de Veen (ISIC Association) and Allan Pall (ESU) welcomed the initiative of the EC, which will help bridge youth initiatives and the youth policy field.
Wolfgang Schick, the EYCA representative on the panel, pointed out how important it is that all young people are the target audience of the YoM card. This was also echoed by Andres-Jacques Dodin from the Council of Europe who stressed that mobility should not be a luxury and the YoM label should make mobility programmes available to as many young people as possible.

Anja Ruhland also took up the issue of mobility by emphasizing that the Youth on the Move card should also be a tool to communicate mobility and other opportunities available to young people in Europe. The concluding speaker Marc Boes from ERYICA remarked that mobility programmes must be more than just allowing young people to be "tourists" – the involvement should make them entrepreneurial, experienced for a future job and open-minded towards different culture.

The representatives of member organisations also contributed with their vision of what the YoM label should bring to young people. The YoM card should facilitate cultural participation, have a connection to education (recognition of credits and diplomas), carry a health insurance and encourage cooperation between national governments and youth organisations. The next expert meeting, which is to take place in Brussels in September, can draw on the results of the issues raised during the Youth on the Move panel and discuss them futher.

Key conference decisions and the Hercules awards

The General Assembly of EYCA has approved during the Amsterdam conference changes to key documents of the Associations. Besides new Statutes and Quality Standards, EYCA also has a new Graphic Chart defining the final version of the new logo (with rounded corners as displayed here). The official documents and graphic material are available for download on the EYCA intranet.

The GA has approved the membership withdrawal of NSTS in Malta and the International Program Participants Association of Georgia (IPPA), which are no longer EYCA’s member organisations as of 2011.

The Golden Hercules for best card organisation was awarded to Young Scot and Carnet Jove Europeo from Spain-Aragon received the Silver Hercules for best developing card organisation.

The award to the Scottish member organisation also got coverage in The Scotsman newspaper: “Young Scot, the city-based national youth information and citizenship charity for Scotland, has been crowned with the Golden Hercules award, recognising it as the best youth card organisation in Europe. The association picked up the prestigious award at the European Card Association annual conference in Amsterdam. Education minister Michael Russell MSP, said: "Hundreds of thousands of young people in Scotland are benefiting from a world-leading system."

Keynote speaker on youth culture research

During the conference, we had the honour to listen to inspirational guest speakers who addressed us on issues that concern EYCA members the most: young people and how to communicate with them. Judith Lieftink from YoungWorks, a research bureau specialising in youth communication, presented their study about the values and behaviour of young people in different subgroups.

The YoungMentality study is based on interviews with pupils and students who speak about their motivations and desires. The study divides young people into groups not based on the usual criteria (such as age, education, gender etc.) but based on their lifestyle. The six most typical subgroups are: home attached leisure seekers (10%), enthusiastic explorers (9%), social adapters (14%), recognition seekers (21%), extrovert status seekers (22%) and headstrong idealists (24%).

With the view of young people as a very heterogeneous group, special campaigns can be designed to communicate with a specific target group. CJP, the Dutch member of EYCA, cooperates with YoungWorks on promoting cultural events for their cardholders.

Dirk-Jan de Haan from DBF (DataBase Fulfillment) spoke to the conference participants about innovative membership concepts that help reach young people. In his speech he presented new technologies that can help card organisations to better reach their goals with regards to membership growth and retention.

Besides the "usual suspects" such as twitter, facebook, google buzz and LinkedIn, also newcomers such as foursquare were mentioned as ways to interact among and with young people. What is foursquare? Foursquare is a location-based mobile platform that makes cities easier to use and more interesting to explore. By “checking in” via a smartphone app or SMS, users share their location with friends while collecting points and virtual badges. As a user, you can write a review for example of a restaurant, which you then share via social networks. Businesses can use the application to reward regular customers or offer special deals.
Based on latest research in marketing, companies and organisations should use so called "influentials" to promote their brand or activities. Influentials are a group of people who are responsible for creating trends and influencing the opinion of other and "selling" products - 10% of customers determine how the rest consume. In EYCA's case these would be very active cardholders who report attractive offers to their circle of friends.
The DBF expert couldn't also skip the latest trend in discounting, which are "coupon" websites such as groupon.com or livingsocial.com. Their biggest advantage are the minimal cost for promotion because it is mostly word of mouth and very measurable marketing. Short-term discount deals are a great tool to attract non-members and reward existing cardholders.
Another new important aspect mentioned in the talk was behavioral targeting, which is a technique used by online publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns. Behavioral targeting uses information collected on an individual's web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to select which advertisements to display to that individual.

Two new EYCA member organisations

During the EYCA GA in Amsterdam, a new organisation has received associate membership to develop the card in Ireland. Youth and Students Services was founded to operate the EYCA license, which will be not-for-profit. One full time and two part timers will be working solely on the European Youth Card, with occasional students helping out. The organisation plans to issue a co-branded ISIC/EYCA card for all students and a stand-alone European Youth Card for non-students aged 12 to 30. Discounts will be developed for the European Youth Card including mobile phones, computers, language courses, tickets on sports events and clothing. The aim is also to add several features to the card, such as bank payment, student ID, city card, online sales, ticketing and insurance and to focus on partnerships with large established companies and chains. Shane Derby, the representative of Youth and Students Services, came to introduce his organisation to the EYCA GA.

The second change to EYCA’s membership is that there is a new organisation, which will develop the card in Georgia. Academy for Peace and Development has 9 years of experience in the area of youth policy, youth projects and exchanges. APD coordinates the Youth Organisations Forum events in Georgia and in cooperation with the Tbilisi municipality APD manages the first and only Youth Centre in Georgia. APD has been part of the Youth council at the Committee of youth and sport in the Parliament of Georgia. APD consulted state officials and members of parliament on youth policy issues. APD have carried out several projects within the Youth in Action programme, cooperate with the Council of Europe and Salto and Giorgi Kakulia, APD’s director is a trainer at the Council of Europe on youth issues.

The 2012 EYCA conference will take place in Russia. Mr. Oleg Rozhnov, Deputy Minister for Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy of the Russian Federation, joined us in Amsterdam to present the next hosting organisation and country of the EYCA annual conference. Organised by the Russian Union of Youth, the event will have two venues – Moscow and Yaroslavl. To watch the promotional video, please follow this link.

	summer 2011, conference summary New EYCA President, Board and Director 2011 is a year full of changes for EYCA. In Amsterdam,the General Assembly elected a new Boad and a new President and in July, the new Director will start his job at the EYCA office. more
Youth on the Move conference panel During the conference, we had the pleasure of inviting EYCA’s partner organisations to take part in a panel discussing the key features for the future Youth on the Move card. more Conference decisions and awards The GA has approved several important changes to official documents and the Board assigned the Hercules awards. more Youth culture research During the conference, we had inspirational guest speakers who addressed us on issues that concern EYCA members the most: young people and communication. more	New members in EYCA During the EYCA GA in Amsterdam, two new organisation have received associate membership to develop the card in Ireland and Georgia respectively. more