1. What exactly is RM Ankara, which BEST local groups were a part of it and how many people were there?

-RM (Regional Meeting) is an event in BEST that happens twice in one year. This autumn it was in Ankara where you could find delegates from the Local BEST Groups, delegates from the departments of BEST, one representative of the international board of BEST and the Regional Adviser. These Regional Meetings most commonly last from 4-5 days and delegates can attend different soft skills sessions, work groups on which they can see the departments work, but also preparations for the upcoming General Assembly. In our region are the following BEST groups: Skopje, Nis, Podgorica, Patras, Athens, Chania, Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir. There were a few delegates + trainers + delegates of departments from every mentioned group, and we were about 50 students on this event.

2. What were the sessions about and which one was your favorite?

-Those were actually soft skills sessions, on which through a very interactive, interesting way you learn for example tricks to improving your time management, as well as improving the way you give feedback to people working with you (this for example will be very useful when i get employed after my studies). I mentioned two of the many i attended, but i would say that my favourite was the effective meetings session. We all want to come to a meeting and discuss a certain topic and finish the job fast, but afterwards we realise that are stuck with hours because the discussion wasn’t led effectively. I realised on that session that it’s very easy for the meeting in the organisation to be unproductive, i noticed what things we need to avoid and learned how to lead an effective meeting.

3. Was there time to go sightseeing in Ankara besides the sessions?

-The moto of this event is Work hard, party harder! During the event we were on sessions from 9 AM to 9 PM (With coffee and lunch breaks in between of course), and after dinner we had parties that were organised just for us. Because of that we couldn’t go sightseeing in those 5 days in Ankara, but the beauty of these events is that nothing stops you to come a few days earlier or leave a few days later, so you can go sightseeing. I was there 4 days before the event, and i went to many places. I met again with students from BEST that i already knew on previous events, i met a new culture (not much different than ours but still different) and my wish came true to visit the Mausoleum of Ataturk (which is an enormous building and enchanted even those that are not fond of history)! It’s absolutely worth to visit Ankara, and its even better if those days are directed by members of BEST!