Kick Off Meeting - Warsaw, August 2010

The first Grundtvig European approach - exploring, experiencing, exchanging project partners meeting took place in Warsaw (Poland) from 22nd to 24th of August 2010.

It was a very important meeting, as most of the partners were meeting each other for the first time. Local coordinators from five partnerships organizations came to Warsaw. They were: Seppo Tahvanainen and Miikka Rikala from Finland, Joana Duarte and Ines Calado from Portugal, Tahir Demircioglu from Turkey, Anastasia Zorga Greece and Panagiota Arvaniti from Greece, Malgorzata Tarasiuk from Poland.
Unfortunately, two partners couldn’t participate in the meeting because of justified reason.

For most of us 22nd of August was arrival day. At 13:00 we had first meeting in the Westin Hotel. During this appointment we had an opportunity to get to know each other but also we discussed basic rules of our learning partnerships.

In the evening, when the remaining partners from Greece had arrived, we ate supper together and we tried typical Polish dishes like: pierogi, kartacze, bigos. It was a further useful opportunity for the partners to unoffically continue the discussion about the project.

Next day – 23rd of August - our first official meeting to initiate the project took place at Szpitalna street. Each local coordinator presented information about their partnership institution and their reasons for becoming involved in the project. Then we discussed the study plan, details about website/blog, rules of recruiting learners, drafts for the meetings in partnership organizations, especially meeting in Portugal, we spoke about interim and final reports. This was a very important starting point from which to formalise the content of the successful bids the partners had submitted through the respective National Agencies. We established the rules and details of partnership as well as discussing roles and responsibilities for delivery of the agreed outcomes.

After a short rest, we went for a walk around city centre with English speaking guide – we saw The Old Town, the Royal Palace, Krakowskie Przedmiescie street, the Presidential Palace.

After a very busy and productive discussion meeting and sightseeing, we finished the day in the typical Polish restaurant near the Old Town, where we tried local dishes. Meeting around the table was a great opportunity to speak about culture, traditions, politics and customs.

The next morning we had a last meeting in the Westin Hotel. That day we talked about evaluation issues. And we recalled the most important decisions about the learning partnership. We also evaluate our first meeting. We agreed this kind of meeting was very important. We could explained all the rules of the project and appreciate each other.

In the afternoon most of us left Warsaw and we came back homes full of energy and very enthusiastic about our partnership.

MT, Poland