Zbyszko Pisarski

Environmental Protection Information Centre

INSTITUTE of ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Krucza 5/11, 00-548 WARSZAWA, POLAND

phone +48 22 6299254 ext.72, fax +48 22 6295263

E-mail: iospisar@plearn.edu.pl

The following paper is an amended version of the speech given to the EGEA members during colloquia.

Changing Europe - changing EGEA

10 years of EGEA makes a good moment to remind of its origin. Having this opportunity of such an

anniversary, it is also a possibility to share experience of "old times". Changing Europe has created different

conditions for EGEA during this period, but some of the main themes of its existence remain the same. A lot of

details can be found in GEOZETA, No. 3, 1998, published by students from Warsaw. Some other things could

be reminded hereby.

Pre-natal phase

If the First Congress in 1989, is said to be a beginning (or the birth) of EGEA, the period since the León

Congress, April 1987, should be considered as a pre-natal phase. That was the moment when the idea of an

international association for students and young geographers was proposed in public. Three persons created the

idea and prepared that announcement after discussion and consultations. Those three very beginners or EGEA

founders were: Carla Kist from Utrecht, Xavier Munoz i Torrent from Barcelona and Zbyszko Pisarski from

Warszawa. Their enthusiasm was helping them so well that there were no problems with understanding between

the Dutch, the Catalan and the Pole. Surprisingly enough the common but not mother tongue for all the three

founders in León was not English but Spanish...

Birth of EGEA

The First Congress was held in the palace of Zaborów near Warsaw, Poland, on 22-27 of February 1989. It

confirmed and developed the basic of EGEA principles. These remain more or less the same and contain such

components as Annual Congresses, Regional Meetings, Student Exchanges and Magazine. The structure had

been settled and then more and more regulations appeared: statute, personal positions and so on.

But at the beginning the discussion focussed on following themes;

- the objectives of EGEA,

- the administrative structure of EGEA (for the purpose of data collection and magazine distribution),

- the fund rising,

- the facilitation of student exchanges,

- the whereabout of the next congress.

There was also a strong feeling of a need of information exchange. The first step was to create a database about

geography faculties and geographers all over Europe. There was an offer to manage it at the Cambridge

University.

The First Congress made a proposal to establish administrative structure of EGEA. The main goal was to

support data collection and magazine distribution. The structure which was proposed 10 years ago, could be

summarized in the following table. Some changes have been obviously done as it could be easily compared (for

example: there are four regions now, some countries do not exist any more and there are some other ones, the

Magazine is still changing its existence etc.), but the idea is to give an impression about the original structure in

1989.

Level Location Tasks

International Congress [and organizers]

(location to be decided annually)

- decision making (the highest body

of EGEA),

- invite all members,

- prepare an agenda (together with the

3 Regional Centres,

- run the Congress.

Magazine

Centre

UTRECHT

Headquarters

UTRECHT

Information

Centre

CAMBRIDGE

- collect the articles,

- publish and distribute the Magazine

to the Regional Centres

- represent EGEA outside,

- save EGEA Central Fund

- collect and compile the data on

every member university and

distribute to the Regional Centres

Regional Regional Centres - distribute data lists to member

universities,

- arrange regional meetings,

- regional focal point for

communication and integration.

BARCELONA Albania

France

Greece

Italy

Portugal

Spain

Turkey

Yugoslavia

UTRECHT Austria

Belgium

Luxembourg

Ireland

Netherlands

Switzerland

U. Kingdom

W. Germany

WARSAW Bulgaria

Czechoslovakia

Denmark

E. Germany

Finland

Hungary

Iceland

Norway

Poland

Rumania

Sweden

USSR

National National Centres - coordination between all the

national EGEA members and other

universities,

- distribution of the Magazine,

- collecting Magazine fee and its

transfer to Utrecht Headquarters

Local Universities - promotion of EGEA and the

Magazine,

- distribution of the Magazine,

- collecting Magazine fee and its

transfer to the National Centre,

- send articles to Utrecht,

- providing data for the Information

Centre in Cambridge

Magazine

An idea of having a magazine was so old as EGEA itself, being raised from very beginning (during the

"pre-natal" phase). A magazine was considered as a vital tool of sharing our experience as geographers. We

needed this because such idea gave us a feeling of doing something continuos (existing regardless to the meeting

places) and helping an exchange of professional achievements, views, polemics etc. It was expected to be a

Pan-European Quarterly EGEA Magazine.

What has been agreed at the beginning about an ideal magazine, can described as following:

- content balance should be carefully established to achieve good proportion between research academic articles

and items of personal interests, with possible equal representativity of all three (then) regions of EGEA;

- selection of letters and articles should be stated/presented, with listing of delivered but unpublished materials

(articles);

- every issue of the magazine should preferably focus on particular subjects and then should announce the theme

of the next one;

- there were also such general matters as a need of the word limit, name/address of the author(s), black and

white format for the pictures.

Magazine Centre was proposed to be settled in Utrecht, were useful facilities and skills seemed to the most

appropriate and accessible (with future international board or committee). Contribution, finance and distribut ion

were proposed to be via national centres. They were to have a look into delivered material, assist in terms of

content (and language). Although it was decided that the Magazine should be in English, some articles could be

added in "local" supplements of the Magazine, using another language (when unpublished in the "main" issue).

After designing and editing, the Magazine should be sent to Poland to be printed (cheaper then in the

Netherlands) and (cheaper) distributed within the Eastern region.

Information Database

During the First Congress, a proposal of having a geographical database was offered by the representative of the

Cambridge University. It was agreed that it should contain some basic information to facilitate

interest/professional contacts between the members. The idea was to create a kind of meta-database, with such

info like addresses, research profile, field excursions/expeditions, personal contacts etc.

Student Exchanges

Curiosity about other peoples and countries was one of the greatest motives to go abroad and meet other

geographers. Such association as EGEA, created by and for young geographers, was immediately working in an

"operational level" what means very concrete things like student exchanges. It had started even before the First

Congress. It is impossible to underestimate the value of those pioneer exchanges, done in late 80'. First of all it

must be stressed that there were totally different political conditions in Europe at those times. The Berlin Wall

still existed but we tried to overcome the obstacles and achieve the goal: to meet East and West. We succeeded

bringing together students from different countries of opposite military blocks. That is probably the most

important thing about early EGEA, that young people regardless to the former divisions, created such

association and travelled together, sharing friendship and understanding of their national cultural and natural

heritages. A great challenge was to organize an exchange without any official support and sometimes even

against it. The start of EGEA was then full of difficulties but young geographers had got a strong faith and did a

lot only themselves. An exchange was a team effort, with strong geographical input (preparing the programme

of the study tours) and a great organizational effort, to say nothing about such basic things like earning money

and learning languages. That should be also recognized as an advantage or very positive effect of

individual/team work before and during organizing an exchange. Showing the home country to the colleagues

from abroad, geographers learnt to appreciate their own heritage, which many times had been undervalued and

they became conscious of its value because of the interest of the foreign geographers. As any other such a work

- it was a really very big effort but a great fun when being together with other participants. The travel costs were

extremely expensive in comparison to the income, but the reward was an unforgettable adventure - for some of

us the first trip to the West in our lives. It does not need any further explanation what it meant for a

geographer...

The Second Congresses

During the First Congress in Poland a discussion about the place of the next one arose. Cost of the event became

a “hot” moment. The Polish organisers managed to cover all the expenses with the 80 dollars fee, paid only by

the half of the participants - Western citizens. An Austrian representative declared, that keeping to the same

standard of food and accommodation (a palace near Warsaw) offered by the Polish organisers to the

participants, the Austrians should have charged a fee of at least 300 dollars upon every participant. The Austrian

did not know yet at the moment, that the Polish final party would include caviar, champagne and other drinks

for free...

Follow-up message

The First Congress was followed by the three messages sent to/with the participants:

- an emphasis upon making contacts with other universities and sharing with them the importance, benefits and

credibility of the EGEA ethos;

- an emphasis on every common/single effort to raise as much money as possible for the Central EGEA Fund;

- an emphasis of supplying the information database in Cambridge with data about geography/geographers.

Are those messages still valid?

Future

10th anniversary of EGEA brings a lot of hope for its future development. Changing Europe creates so many

new possibilities that it is just impossible to miss them. I would like to thank all the people who contributed to

the evolution of former EGEA and who helped its nowadays vitality. Thinking about future, let’s share our

enthusiasm with others: be geographers and_join=enjoy EGEA!!!