Last December, I took part as a Chair (i.e. person-in-charge of a committee) at the 33rd National Session (SN) of the EYP (European Youth Parliament), better known in France as Parlement Européen des Jeunes or PEJ, in Nantes.
A National Session, held over four days, is the meeting
of the of the nine high school delegations from all over France that have been selected. A NS consists of team-building games, committee work, and, on the last day, the General
Assembly during which the delegation which will represent France in the International Session is chosen. A National Session is a unique experience which the participants will
never forget.
My role was to welcome and supervise the delegates of a committee (a committee has to discuss an important European issue, it is made up of nine pupils in Première, all from different schools). They didn't know each other and so I was there to help them build their team and trust
each other in order to be more productive during their committee work. This
involved fun games and lots of laughter! It’s really exhausting, but it’s so
great to see them get to know each other.
The other role of a Chair is to help the
delegates work on their resolutions, i.e. the proposals they will be submitting, after all their discussions, to the vote of the General Assembly (the GA is the most important moment of a
National Session, the most solemn part of it).
What do you have to be like to be a Chair? Sociable,
basically, that is open to others and tolerant of their ideas. You also need a
lot of stamina, i.e. to be able to go without sleep for four days! You also need
patience because sometimes the delegates have complicated problems...
This was such a good experience for me… I learnt a lot
during these three days: how to manage stress (my own and that of others) and to
manage a team. I learnt too that helping others is very
important to me. Actually, I can’t wait to take part in the next EYP event!
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