WBAA Board meeting in Tivat, Montenegro

From 4th until 5th June 2022, a WBAA Board meeting was held in Tivat, Montenegro. The following members of the board joined the meeting, seven of them taking part onsite, while three joined virtually for the two-day summit to discuss the current issues around the network:

1. Albania: Jonida Mersinllari and Rregjina Gokaj (joining online)
2. Bosnia and Herzegovina: Adnan Rahimić
3. Kosovo*: Altin Gashi (joining online)
4. Montenegro: Aleksandar Vučinić and Andrija Tomić
5. North Macedonia: Kristina Nikolova and Dejan Galovski (joining online)
6. Serbia: Mila Lukić and Milan Stojanović
7. Service Provider: Laura Jarmatz, Gaia Maria Fermanelli and Kimberly Schilitz (joining online)

The first day was used to present the new board members to WBAA:

1. Rregjina Gokaj is National Representative for Albania
2. Jasmina Salihović Hodžić is National Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina
3. Altin Gashi is National Representative for Kosovo*
4. Dejan Galovski is National Representative for North Macedonia

The Board members from each chapter presented the report on activities done in the previous period, including promoting WBAA and the network, implementing projects, cooperation with other organisations, etc. In the external outreach, two activities were emphasized: Serbian representative Milan Stojanović shared the experience from the Erasmus Generation Meeting held in Porto, Portugal, while Adnan Rahimić (B&H’s representative) presented the experience from the Erasmus Mundus Association General Assembly held in Copenhagen, Denmark.

WBAA discussed the handover process to new Board members and how the information from current Board members can be transferred to the new Board members. The meeting continued focusing on the Tracer Study, WBAA Teams and WBAA Projects activities, promotional video, and thematic publication about the first four years of WBAA. This meeting was used to develop a participation process for the WBAA Board or other active members in other international events.

After the meeting on Saturday, an outreach dinner was held with representatives of the University of Montenegro (UCG), University of Donja Gorica (UDG) and the National Erasmus+ Office in Montenegro.

The 2nd day was used to reflect on the 3-year plan and the importance of having a strategy for the network for the future generations of WBAA. The strategy will provide much-needed insight into where the Board and members see WBAA in the future, thematic and strategic priorities, establishing more partnerships etc. It was agreed to create a “bottom-up” approach creating a strategy with ideas from the WBAA Teams and members and the Board. The work team for strategy was named, and deadlines for work on the document were determined to have it adopted by the next General Assembly in March 2023.

The Board has also tackeled the elections of the WBAA Board and its minimum voter turnout and how to increase the inclusion of WBAA members in these actions. Later on, the discussion was continued on membership criteria opening the possibility for WBAA to be more inclusive and have active members from different EU funded programmes. WBAA Board explored the partnership option with various stakeholders and organisations, increasing the activities and promoting WBAA clusters. This includes the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the relevant stakeholders. The representatives of WBAA at the upcoming Ministerial meeting in Tirana will use the opportunity to map the relevant stakeholders.

Adnan Rahimić

Montenegro, Tivat, 05 June 2022