Rapport du Président Alumni Europae ASBL, Monsieur Reinhold Ziegler Assemblée Générale - Samedi 20 Décembre 2022, 19H CET


Welcome to all of you.


Challenges have been our daily issue in 2022 and we tackled them.


I thank our active members of the board, a great team and we have been able to deliver sound results after an AGM last year which was more a cold and shaking shower than a friendly meeting of old friends, our alumni. The controversial discussions however have been a clear call to be much more professional than we were before.

We all learned that a network of roughly 6.000 members is asking for more complex handling than the organisation of the smaler group we were in the early years.

We had an out-of-date constitution unable to cope with the issues we were facing. Ioannis did an extraordinary job and is the architect of our new one which will help us to steer our organisation. Thank you so much Ioanis, you did a terrfic job.

The Conseil Supérieur was reluctant in the past lo aknowledge us and to talk to us. Today we cooperate trustfully in a very friendly way. Michael Stenger gained their confidence and they support us significantly today. Thank you Mr. Beckmann and Mr. Brodyo, the two key players with Conseil Supérieur.

We, AE, though since roughly 50 years in business, are still not yet known as a brand name and we have to fight year by year to tell the bachleirees that we exist, that we are their network. 

Here too, we are proud to say we are „ in business“: Cosup, the organisation representing all the pupils coming from all the ES type 1, are working intensely with us. Thank you Robin and Nina from the Cosup, thank you Max, Katrin, Ildiko and Guy, you make this daily job working. Next year we will extent the cooperation to Cosea, the sister structure for the ES type 2.

Thank you Max, you traveled this year with me from one ES to another and we gave a face to our organisation. The Director of ES Luxembourg explained what he is expecting from us and honoured Martine Reicherts, our alumna and ex board member to lead the ceremony of the bac distribution in 2022. Martine addressed the future alumni and we were tangible for the very first time with such a great audience. Thank you Martine, you did a great job.

We had an old www; a new one is ready and here again a tremendous workload has been delivered; we cut the costs, we will be much more professional. Thank you Laszlo, thank you Mike and your team within your company.

We will extend our hands to young AE-professionals and try to offer a coaching service and will cooperate with a platform which will allow meetings, discussions and information. It will be called AGORA and it’s Katrin Hoppmann’s project. It will allow discussions and meetings even in troubled times, not to mention Covid. Thank you so much Katrin.

We meet once a month for board meetings hoping we can deal issues within 1 hour. It’s late, very late when we close our meetings. 

Clement, our Secretary General is doing a tremondous job while organising the meetings and recording the discuissions. Clement thank you for your excellent professional skills and for being so reliable.

Some of the our elected board members experienced a tremendous discovery:  the usual day is 24 hours long, not very much more. It is a heavy challenge to cut some, long hours and to devote them to AE. AE is a heavy organisation, present at 80% in Europe, 20% in the USA and slowly growing in Far East. 

Assuming a job within AE is a serious commitment; we work a lot, face numerous challenges, face frustration, get no money and prefer to put money in instead. But we deeply believe in friendship, in extending our hands to good old and new friends, sharing experiences and having the chance to cooperate modestly to European values. This is the mission we fulfill and we are committed to it.

The network is created by the users. No place for malice, agitation and hate. We are happy to identify with our knowledge. Our experiences. We are very happy about and proud of the new and young board members who were elected last year and are an enrichment for our network: Clément and Laszlo.

I have clearly told to resign at the end of 2023; it’s time to see new faces. We, the old board members will stick to that what we have built. We will constitute a „Comité des Sages“, at the disposal of the executive board if they want our help, our support and our connections. We will be there to help if the board wants us. 

Let’s face the new challenges and elect our new board. Be warned:  It’s a lot of work. BUT it’s such a satisfaction too. 

Thank you.