- A report from Nokia Council Meeting Finland, 9-15 November 2010
What is a council meeting? – A council meeting (CM) is held twice a year, spring and autumn. During the CM the representatives from all local groups throughout Europe meet to coordinate the projects within ESTIEM, to set up guidelines for the future and once a year elect the board and new project leaders. At the CM different working groups led by experienced ESTIEMers develop concepts and strategies, work on guidelines, do practical work ... in general just help ESTIEM becoming even better. In these working groups you can experience the spirit of ESTIEM and learn how interesting it is to work in small international teams.
So, during one week in the beginning of November, between the 9th and the 15th to be specific, time had come for the second ESTIEM council meeting of the year. Lovisa Nykänen and Anna Olsson travelled from Luleå and the destination was Finland.
The first two days of the event was spent in Helsinki. These days were not a part of the actual CM; instead it was arranged together with some of the main sponsors of the event. Nokia, Metso, Itella and BIT (Business Innovation Technology) all arranged different workshops. There were also presentations from European Professors of Industrial Engineering and Management (EPIEM), from Aalto University and Chalmers University of Technology. In the late evening all the participants and all the organizers collected all their stuff and went on a 6 hour bus drive to Tahkovouri – Golden Resort where the actual CM was about to begin.
The CM took place during the four days Thursday – Sunday. Different reports from the board, the committees and from the projects within ESTIEM were presented. A new board and several new project leaders were elected (further information, see: https://www.portal.estiem.org/EstiemPortal3/Default.aspx?PageId=1558 ).
Besides all this, which took place during the General Assembly there were also four working group slots. Because of the fact that we are organizing a Vision seminar in Luleå in January we focused on the working groups with this theme. Among other things we discussed improvements of the Vision public and corporate relations and improvements of the academic cooperation project. Lovisa also participated in an introduction about the ESTIEM student guide (https://www.estiem.org/Default.aspx?PageId=526 ) and Anna joined a training about organizing a TIMES (Tournament In Management and Engineering Skills) local qualification. Plenty of new ideas and inspiration were developed, combined with a lot of fun.
Besides the working part there was also time for the traditional finish sauna, intercultural parties, Christmas-, “vappu”-,(Walpurgis Night ) and midsummer parties and the traditional gala dinner.
As a summary, ESTIEM Council Meeting – work hard, play hard and experience a week never to forget!
Anna Olsson & Lovisa Nykänen
