Hello people,

month our newsletter was stolen by a giant rabbit roaming the streets of Geneva. Standing in the office one morning before easter, the rabbit had confiscated our computers and said “yo guys, chill, it’s Easter, and you’ve been working real hard for actNOW!, go eat some chocolate and crack some eggs!”. So that’s what we did.

And now we’re back (and the computers too). So how was actNOW!? You might be, at this very instant, in fear of yet another demonstration of euforia’s excessive use of superlatives. We’re not going to say that actNOW! was the best euforia event ever, but it was definitely a bit better than anything we’ve produced so far go on and read here.

Other than that, when not battling with rabbits or enjoying some time off, we’ve been very active within the CHANGEmakers network and we’re happy to announce the venue of our next STEP into action in Zurich. Do you know teachers interested in education for sustainable development? Please don’t hesitate to put them into contact with euforia. And of course, check out our engagement opportunities.

Alright, we shall now continue with our organizational spring cleaning, so that we’re ready for our next set of events to take place in autumn.

Live long and prosper!

Besides “blood, sweat and tears”, planning actNOW! created an incredibly close team of around 20 euforia staff members, facilitators and volunteers. With a smile we can look back on two amazing events in Lausanne and Zürich. We have been able to convert over 100 participants into future CHANGEmakers. An amazing total of around 40 organisations and CHANGEmakers came from all over Switzerland to give workshops, pitch at the action market or share their personal experience with the participants. Taking back home the spirit of the day, new friends and inspiration for engagement, everybody is invited to join the CHANGEmaker network, to stay in touch and join euforia event during the year.

We’d like to thank the amazing staff of UniPoly, a students’ association at EPFL at Unil working for sustainable development. They have co-organized actNOW! in Lausanne and even though at times they might have been scared by the size of the event, we pulled it through in the end and it was great to see how UniPoly and euforia staff partying together. Special thanks once again to:

• Zoé, for bearing with us and giving us the opportunity to learn a lot from this collaboration;
• to Tom, who did an amazing job coordinating logistics;
• for Roman, who organized all the testimones;
• and Alice, who managed the cooking team which provided probably the best food in the history of euforia events.

And we’d like to thank Stefano from project21 who helped us with actNOW! in Zurich.

After the success of this new euforia event, we are looking forward to the next event: imp!act 2013. This event will be the next step for old and new euforia participants to increase their impact and set up their own projects during a 5-day event. For the younger generation between 16 and 19, there is the STEP into action, a 3-hour parcours to get to know personal interest and engagement opportunities. Many thanks to all participants, organisations and the entire euforia team to make this event such a success. Stay in touch and get informed about all the future euforia events!

Approximately half a year after imp!act 2012, comeBACK! was the occasion for the former participants to gather together again and also to meet participants from previous years they didn’t know yet.

The small group size in both Lausanne and Zurich allowed for an intensive exchange among participants, who got valuable insights and inputs and got to know each other better while doing activities such as the living library to share competences among the participants themselves. Furthermore, every participant could choose one skills workshop which taught them new skills in subjects such as writing a social business plan or working well in a team.

The connection with the program of actNOW! was another added value to comeBACK! and allowed some comeBACK! participants to present their project and get further inputs. This happened in the form of world café organized by the project groups themselves, with the the help of euforia. This allowed them to identify challenges and put the collective intelligence of actNOW! participants to the service of their project.

All in all we got a lot of positive and constructive feedback for the comeBACK!. The only drop of bitterness: we would have loved to meet even more of our wonderful former participants!

As we are planning our two imp!acts in October in Geneva and Zurich, we are providing you and your friends with several opportunities to shape imp!act and join our team.

Do you like the challenge to organize the most sustainable imp!act ever? Providing our participants with delicious local food, taking care that we produce as little waste as possible, organizing a crazy sustainable party and, and, and… your innovative ideas are asked!

Or do you want to learn more about communication, e.g. online promotion, facebook strategies and catchy e-mails? euforia provides you for the first time with the opportunity to take part in an online-marketing programme with experts, develop together an online communication strategy and try it out! Keep your eyes open – more information about this programme will follow soon on facebook and our website! There is also the opportunity to join our offline communication heroes, plan together cool events such as an ice-cream party to advertise our event in the public or try out your public speaking skills. So if you are looking for a new and exciting challenge (or you know someone who is), contact us (silja@euforia.ch)!

Are you rather interested in taking part as a participant in imp!act? Applications will open soon, if you have any questions feel free to contact silja@euforia.ch.

You are a student from the ETH and you want to shape your institute? Then you have the opportunity to develop project ideas during imp!act in the field of mobility, waste and encounter areas and taking part in a competition afterwards (also with team members not from the ETH). Besides the opportunity of winning a prize, your idea might be choosen to be implemented at the ETH! Further information will follow!

As our two editions of the STEP into action are moving closer, we have started planning the recruitment of the legions of volunteers that we will need for the organization, the school visits and the facilitation during the event itself to assure that everything will go smoothly. We have already been able to awake enthusiasm for the STEP into action among some of the participants at actNOW! and we are hoping to multiply the number of STEP-volunteers in the next weeks and months. So if you are looking for a new and exciting challenge (or you know someone who is), contact us (carla@euforia.ch)!

Also have we finally succeeded in finding a location and fixing a date for the STEP into action in Zurich. We are very happy to announce that it will take place at the Umweltarena (Spreitenbach) on October 1, 2013.

However our biggest ongoing challenge still is to motivate as many schools and teachers as possible for our event. If you happen to know teachers, students, or anyone else with a connection to schools in Zurich or Basel, tell them about STEP into action and help our amazing project to be a success! You can find more information on www.euforia.ch/stepintoaction.

Finally, we are very much looking forward to the forthcoming team weekend and to intensifying the preparations at this opportunity!

A little flashmob at the beginning of April, upcoming trainings in May, articles appearing on the blog…the CHANGEmaker network is as active as usual!

An expression in between surprise, anxiety, confusion and joy that was the first reaction of the young woman who one Thursday afternoon found a screaming, smiling and celebrating crowd in front of her door offering her colorful balloons, plenty of hugs and an AquaClic.

Believing in an misunderstanding, she first wanted to sent them away, but the mystery was solved quickly. No misunderstanding, but an ecological flashmob organized by the CHANGEmaker network in order to bring joy and an water saving aquaclick in someone’s life. After this explanation the young woman fully enjoyed the surprise and invited the group into her home, where this mysterious water-safing device was installed after some initial difficulties

The video of the flashmob is coming soon! You missed the Flashmob? No worries, there will be more, keep your eyes open!

And there is already another upcoming opportunity for you! In cooperation with the Toastmaster Clubs in Geneva and Zurich, the CHANGEmaker network offers you the possibility to practice your public speaking skills during a 90 minutes training.

In Geneva, the training will take place the 1^st May at 19h15 in the euforia office. Applications usually are closed by now, but you can try to find out if there are still some spots left and write at alina@euforia.ch

In Zurich the training will take place in the 30th May, at 18h15 in Zurich! Interested? Inscriptions can be done till the 15th May by filling in this form. For more information or for any questions contact alina@euforia.ch.

On 2nd of March, Corina had the opportunity to bring the euforic spirit to Medicine Students in Zurich during the first ‘Design your studies’ Symposium. In a workshop entitled „Working in a NGO and how to start a project“, the highly motivated participants had the opportunity to make some hands on experience on how to start a project about issues they really cared about. In one of euforia’s famous world cafés, they brainstormed and designed cool project ideas, such as an innovative project against mobbing and racism in schools or another one to introduce compulsory voluntary engagement across all generations, which showed them that the first step towards action is actually quite easy to take! More information about the symposium and workshop: design-your-studies.ch/dys-2013/

euforia had the honour to attend this year’s Skoll World Forum at Oxford University. Plenty of inspiration, top-notch advice and amazing contacts were gathered in Harry-Potter-like dining halls, over drinks at the many Pubs and during amazing discussions with the likes of Bunker Roy, Annie Lennox or Mohammad Yunus. It gives you goosebumps to see what happens to social ventures that have been seriously developed over a few years and you start to imagine where euforia could be in 10 years… Euphoric thanks go to Pamela Hartigan, director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University, for the invitation!!!

From April 6th to 9th the entire euforia staff has retreated to the beautiful village of Écoteaux, situated at the boarder of the canton of Fribourg and Vaud. Besides giving us the opportunity to stop at the Palézieux train station, something you don’t do everyday, we took a moment to look back at our first couple of months working within a new team. Having successfully mastered actNOW!, though not without difficulties, it was important for us to take a step back. The agenda of the meeting was largely co-created by the entire staff and included moments of reflection as well as crucial strategic decision-taking. We’ve reached the conclusion that some of our goals have been set too high and that we need to invest more in the development of our human resources in order to achieve them. However, this is not an easy undertaking as we face budgetary constraints just as any other organization. Thus further effort will be made in order to better support our staff in its work by freeing up funds for trainings. Moreover, decision-taking within euforia has been clarified so that we can better react to upcoming threats and opportunities in future. The main conclusion of the weekend has been to make organizational development a priority for everyone. It is not easy to develop the structure of euforia when the staff is busy preparing our events. But in light of our wish to scale our activities, it will be important to develop our organization so that we can work together more efficiently. Therefore, a task force has been created which will make sure that clear goals for organizational development are set and then pursued. A highlight of the weekend was definitely the stress-management workshop organized by Yoko Malbos, euforia’s president. And needless to say that we’ve also spend an enjoyable time just sitting together, drinking a little something and musing about euforia’s future.

Spring came around and the euforians crawled out of their dark offices and winter retreats to spend a weekend together in an idyllic small scout cottage situated between a loud highway and a dangerous Swiss Golf ground (Hornussen-Feld) – time had come for another euforia strategic weekend. Strategic weekend may sound abstract and fancy, so here are some things we did: we welcomed some new and very cool volunteers to euforia, served as guinea pigs for Javier’s new energizers, had an extensive Sunday brunch outside in the sun (see photo), tested new brainstorming methods, and the euforia strategic commission pondered on hot topics like criteria for the collaboration with companies or what kind of food to buy for euforia events and weekends. And of course we danced and had a really really really good time (click on this link to see the video of the euforic party we had; 1min30).