PET meeting 2018 - What? What for? Why?

People for Education and Training (PET) meet annually to update themselves with changes, achievements and directions of YEU, share and learn from past activities and each other
and plan the future. Such meetings took place in different locations, there have been always some new people participating, but the aim stays the same - to learn from the past, analyze the present and form the future.

This year we met on weekend 9th-10th of June in Crnomelj, Slovenia. Two days is a very short time, but having in mind, how difficult it is to make 30 people available on the same
time and in the same place already makes this meeting a huge success (left alone not having donors for such event). Thanks to Basecamp we could get some comments from
people who were not present there and update them with the notes from discussion. We did our best to make this meeting fruitful. Many topic were discussed: relationship between PET members and Member Organizations (MOs), possible contribution of PET to capacity building of MOs, involvement of PET members in project writing, need for better
documentation of our work (and achievements), successes and challenges in projects done in last year and how to promote them (successes, not challenges), visibility and promotion of YEU in general, expectations and responsibilities of PET, YEU office and GB towards each other, learning badges (what they are, how do they work, how should they work, challenges in implementation, etc.)...and we still did not cover all we planned!

The one question that appear during our meeting, that didn’t open the discussion was if we need such meeting (PET meeting). This is one thing we fully agreed on. All available online tools are still not able to assure the quality of physical meeting of people. Such event not only gives us the opportunity to work together and fully focus on PET as such in given time, but enables us to have meals together, spend free time together and laugh together, which strengthens our bonds and commitment for YEU and youthwork.

by 

Bogusia Garus

YEU PET member