History Book of BEST
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•People feel like having a name, rather than a number for their board
•It makes the team feel closer
•It’s fun!
•People are curious how you got your name
•There is an extra reason to make t-shirts, sweaters and other nice stuff
The first board that had a name was the XV board, and their name was “lighthouse”. Then “the gliders” came, just to be followed by “the flowers” and “the jazzers”. The next three boards were “the sailors”, “the lemons” and “the bunnies”.
As it’s visible, the names don’t have any special meaning for people who are not inside the team, something that makes it even more interesting and funny at the same time.
Of course the naming doesn’t only happen with the boards, but also with other teams inside BEST. Coordinators have names since the restructuring of the board (being “the ONEs”, “the
Smurfs”, “the Trees” and “the Force”... as you see their names follow their number… Apart from that, whole committees and working groups can have a name (we have a clear tendency towards animals. See: Tigers, Kangaroos) or even trainers generations (see: Cows).
Having a name for your team is something definitely cool. It can increase the team-build and also the motivation for the members to work for the ideals that are represented by their name.
BEST Spirit
What is BEST spirit? Now that is a question that is very hard to answer. The reason is because the definition of BEST spirit is not coming from the brain, but from the heart, and it’s coming from thousands of hearts at the same time.
Since, no historian could ever give an accurate definition of BEST spirit, a kind of survey was conducted among all BESTies. The question was simple: Define BEST with one word, and the result... we made it a picture :) The bigger the word, the more frequent the word appeared....
So this is the BEST Spirit:
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BEST Stories
Majlosh’s Mother
On Monday 16th of July 2007, something came that would change the life of every helpdesk member active at that moment. It was a request that no equal to it had ever appeared, and that its solution would require the mobilisation of the whole BEST mechanism.
The request was submitted and it was like this: “Hi,
I’m Majlosh’s (from Czech Republic) mother. Because I have no chance to contact him
(probably he is abroad with his friends from BEST), please send him a message, if it is possible:
-His mobile phone should be ready for roaming using. -He must switch it off primarily and switch it on next.
-If the provider isn’t applied automatically, it is necessary to try it by MENU handy. -In other case he should contact me by e-mail (‘’e-mail removed for privacy issues’’)
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Thank you very much and tell him please of calling me immediately. (‘’phone removed for privacy issues’’)
With kind regards, Majlosh’s Mother (the real name is omitted)”
In the few minutes that followed, a lot of e-mails were exchanged between BEST members, with the result to track Majlosh down in Ljubljana, and let him know that his mother was looking for him.
The request was proposed for ‘request of the summer of 2007’. Another successful operation by the Helpdesk team!
The tragedy of MS Estonia
Not all stories in BEST are happy….even so, all stories are pieces of BEST’s life.
In the beginning of October 1994, LBG Lund organised a Workshop that gathered many participants, especially from northern Europe.
The Estonian delegation consisting of 4 members were planning to attend the workshop and boarded on the ferry MS Estonia, on September 28th, to reach Sweden. That night, while cruising in the Baltic Sea, the ferry sunk, claiming 852 lives, among which some members from LBG Tallinn. The ones that perished in the tragedy were Vice-president Andres Avekukk and member Merle Juust and the lucky survivors were President Maiko Kalvet and member Marek Kaasik.
“I was at the workshop in Lund at that time, and I remember the unreal atmosphere… suddenly cheerful students were confronted first hand with the tragedy.” (Michelangelo
Calabresi, participant of WS Lund, 1994)
Many years have passed since then, but we have not forgotten. Rest in peace!
General Meetings
Gwen!
Everybody knows the story behind Murphy... When things can go wrong, they will go wrong. And again, everybody knows that technology fails you when you mostly need it... Combining these two together, mixing with a bit of BEST spirit and adding a lot of fun makes us... what else: Gwen!
The story is like this: Back in GA2004 in Oresund, Gwen was the VP of ITC in the board for that year. As each self respecting board table has to have one little geek behind it, so did
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that table in Oresund. The geek of the table is responsible for all kind of technology that is around: microphones, computers, server links, presentations, USB keys and many more. That computer though was a bit more ‘naughty’ than the usual ones.
When things got a bit messy, mighty Gwen tried to solve things out... However as things were talking a bit longer to be fixed, plenary started to become anxious. It was then when they all slowly started saying rhythmically the magic word: ‘Gwen!... Gwen!... Gwen!...
Gwen!’ As eye witnesses have described his face was just indescribable, and thus it is left up to your imagination.
Ever since, when difficulties appear and technical problems are to be found, people are calling the old magic words hoping that the problems will be fixed ASAP: ‘Gwen...! Gwen...!
Gwen...!’
Speaker’s Corner
Getting the idea from the pretty famous corner in Hyde Park, London, where all kinds of people can stand up and talk about whatever they want. Other people can, of course, listen to them or, (and it seems to happen more often) boo at them.
Based on this corner, a similar idea was developed during GA1991 in Lisbon in a form of a session. People had the chance to get in the middle of the plenary and talk about anything they wanted to share and talk about. Of course, some of the time, the ‘booing’ was inevitable, but most of the times, BESTies were touching topics that couldn’t be touched during the sessions and whole new ideas got developed in this unique way.
The speaker’s corner is still going on in every General Meeting since 1991, and it’s the responsibility of the speakers to facilitate and organise it. So, do you have something that you want to share with the rest of the BEST world? Then go ahead and attend the next speaker’s corner in a General Meeting near you!
I foolly-fully support
As usual, during GA 007 in France there were some presentation of the candidates to organise next PM.
It was just after the presentation of LBG Madrid for PM08, when Patri from LBG Valladolid read 2 times the same sentence of her “Fully Support Statement” with Fully support inside :) After that, everybody started to Fully Support everything and now it’s also used when the delegate of the LBG nurse of an observer/baby LBG speaks a bit about all the great things- progress-potentiality of the observer/baby LBG and supports it.
After a while, the sentence “We fully support the LBG XYZ to become a baby/full member”
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came almost every time and became an “expression”.
Nowadays, when you agree with someone’s idea, you can just say/write “fully support”...
However, during PM07 in Valladolid, a new form of the statement appeared in the plenary. Various people started holding signs with the words ‘Fooly support’ written on them, just to make fun of the tendency of BESTies to support all the ideas that appear, while at the same time playing with the word “fully” that existed in the famous sentence.
Last but not least, T-shirts were produced with both expressions on them (one in front and one in the back) in order to be used whenever is needed.
Passing gifts
One of the oldest traditions inside BEST is the passing of gifts from person to person.
The first things that were transferred had a very important role. It was the archives of BEST, back then in paper, and they had to be transferred from one board to the next. Without them a lot of working hours would go for nothing, as it was the only way to store and transfer information back in 1989.
Later one, other objects started getting transferred, but with a more symbolic character. The president’s wooden whip was the only gift that was passed by the current president to the new one during every election. It was first given in 1992 and it was used to symbolise the authority of the president. The words that were usually said while it was changing hands were: ‘so you can handle your board’. BEST presidents engrave their name on the handle of the whip. Some say that at some point, one of the presidents though was playing too much with it, and it resulted in fracturing the whip in the middle. Other say that the whip broke for the first time during transportation, not by playing. It was finally repaired, but no other president dared again to use it…
BEST Presidents with the BEST whip
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Of course, not only the president could pass gifts. One other special person present during the General Meetings was the speaker, and (s)he was also in need of authority and power.
order to symbolise this power, a wooden hammer was needed and so a hammer was found.
It was first used in GA1995 by the speaker and since then it is transferred from speaker to speaker. Like the president’s whip, the hammer has engraved the name on the handle. However, since the speaker could not always travel to the next General Meeting, the tradition says that the delegates of the LBG of the previous speaker had to bring the hammer in every General Meeting and deliver it during the opening session to the new speaker.
After the years, a lot of other people got jealous and started passing gifts. A lot of items including small pigs, weights, little chickens and teddy bears were transferred over the years. However, only the whip and the hammer are the original old ones.
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Acronyms and Abbreviations
Admins = Administrators AR= Annul Report BAS=BEST Application System BCC= BEST Career Centre BCS = BEST Career Support
BEST = Board of European Students of Technology
BGMDSC = BEST General Meetings Demographic Statistics Committee Boardie, boardies = member/members of the International Board of BEST BTCN = BEST Co-ordination for the Thematic Network
BWoE= BEST Workshop on Education CaSCo=Career Support Committee CE=Cultural Exchange
CESAER = The Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research
CIF=Course Information Form CMT= Committee
CV= Curriculum Vitae
DG= Discussion Group
E4, ETNET21= two thematic networks on engineering education
EAEEIE= European Association for Education in Electrical and Information Engineering EAN = European Access Network
EC= European Community EduCo=Educational Committee of BEST EEC= External Events Committee
EFC = European Fairs Club
ENAEE = European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education EoE = Event of Education
ERABEE = Education & Research in Biosystems Engineering in Europe EU=European Union
EUCEN = European Universities Continuing Education Network
FEANI=European Federation of National Engineering Associations finTeam, fT=Financial Team
GA= General Assembly
GFC = Global Fundraising Committee
H3E= Higher Engineering Education for Europe HRs=Human Resoreces Responsibles
IBS= International BEST Symposia
ICF = Inter Committee Forum /International Committees’ Forum IE= International Evening
IFEES = International Federation of Engineering Education Societies IPF = International Projects’ Forum
IR=Internal Regulations
ITC= Information Technology Committee IW= International Week
JAM = Jamboree
JobShop= Romanian Brand for BEST’s Job Fair Johnny=Application system for the BEST Courses LBG= Local BEST Group
Leonardo 2000= a project connecting engineering education institutions and industry MINERVA = Moving Into a New Era of Recruitment with Virtual Access
mT= markeTeam
NExUS = Needs and Expectations of University Students
P@B=Professors at BAS, a BEST project regarding the academics for the courses made by
BEST
PaRade =name of a server of BEST PM= Presidents’ Meeting
Recognition= project of BEST that aimed to the recognition of the BEST Courses REVE = Real Virtual Erasmus Project
RM= Regional Meeting
SC= Summer Course
SEFI=Société Européenne pour la Formation des Ingénieurs / European Society for Engineering Education
SIM=Short Intensive Meeting
SMILE = The Strategy Committee SP=Summer Programme
SP96=first attempt to optimise the application system SPOC =Season Programme Optimisation Committee
SPUTNIC= Seminars Promoting the Use of Technologies for Networking and International
Collaboration
STED= Students of Technology European Database TiGro = Training Interested Group
TN=Thematic Network
TRAM = Trainers’ Meeting
TRAP = Trainers’ Camp TS= TrainShop VI=Visual Identity VIA=Very Important Aims
VIP=Virtual International Plenary
VM-BASE = Virtual Mobility before and after student exchanges WG= Working Group
WR= Working Reunion WS= WorkShop
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Thank you ...
Many passionate people took part in the creation of the book, for which I, coordinator of the
History Book Project have enormous gratitude: Karina Herman, Risto Koivunnen, Cristian Arteni, Nikola Gajic, Lucien Romagnoli, Martin Varvas, Diana Wosik, Teele Kundla, Panagiotis
Isigonis, Pim Bonne, Busse Pettersson, Nico Deblawe, Beatriz Santos, Andrei Ganci, Sille Metsvahi and many others. Without the support of LBG Istanbul, Trondheim, Grenoble, the XXI and XXII International Boards of BEST this project wouldn’t have been possible.
A big “thank you” goes to the persons that year after year have preserved the archives or were available to give details about some periods and aspects of BEST.
Mirela Andriescu
Coordinator of BEST History Book Project