Partner meetings

European Approach – Partner meetings

Summary of the partner meetings through Finnish eyes

During the project seven partner meetings were arranged, one in each country.  The partners took it in turns to host a meeting, each partner in their own country. In each meeting there was a presentation about things which had been learned during the previous period. The idea was that the partners (except for the hosting country) worked in pairs and studied topics about each other’s country and presented their work (portfolios) to other participants.

Connected to each meeting there was an International Fair and Cultural visits where the partners presented their own organisation, their home region and culture as well as themes of the meeting.  Naturally the program also included Staff meetings where the process of the project was evaluated and the future activities were planned.

In November 2010 the series of meetings started in Lisbon, Portugal.  The common theme was the History of Portugal, and especially the Age of Discovery.  We also had the opportunity to listen to Fado music and to try typical Portuguese cuisine.  History became familiar to us at some impressive destinations during the study visits.  With our Greek partner we also discussed the refugee problem of the Mediterranean region.

The second partner meeting was in Athens, Greece, in February 2011.  The theme was Art.  The many cultural destinations in Athens and the Peloponnesus were really apt for this purpose.  Also the discussion about illegal immigration continued among the participants.  The trip to the partner meeting was quite something else than just a tourist trip.  This was partly due to the critical situation in Greece, demonstrations, strikes and symptoms of the economical crisis.

In May 2011 it was the Polish partner's turn to be host for the third meeting.  The meeting was held in Białystok.  The common theme was Gastronomy, but in addition the participants were provided with a comprehensive presentation about the multicultural history and rich natural environment of Northeastern Poland.  The bus trip from Warsaw to Białystok lasting several hours also gave a good picture of the Polish countryside with its small towns and villages. 

At the shift of July-August 2011 the fourth partner meeting was arranged in Palamuse, Estonia.  The common theme, dance and music, could be experienced also in practice.  The Estonian countryside, the natural environment, folktales as well as the biggest cities Tallinn and Tartu were presented from aspects which were new even to Finnish participants. The Finish study group returned to the Tartu region again in October for a weekend when we visited new places and also met our Estonian partners for a quiz about Estonia and Finland.

To the fifth meeting we travelled as far as Konya in Turkey in November 2011. The common theme was handicraft, but we also had the opportunity to acquaint ourselves with Mevlana culture, Sema performance and places of some very early settlements in the known human history.  Some of them can still be seen in Konya region.  The difference between the Turkish and the North European cultures was inspiring and gave reason to new thinking and rechecking of our attitudes.

The Finnish people's sixth and the last trip was to Naples, Italy, in March 2012.  The future of Europe is very much under public debate, and so it was discussed also at this meeting.  Also here the difference in the way of action compared with our ways enabled us to learn something new about the European integration and the problems connected to it.

The seventh meeting was held in Kouvola in June 2012.  The theme was Nature and Environment.

The topic had been prepared by different partners by collecting pictures of the photographers' favorite places and also places where the human activities are not in harmony with the natural environment. The photographer also had to give reasons for why he or she had taken this particular picture.  A large number of our own members took part in the hosting and in various events of the meeting.

Evaluation of the meetings

At all the meetings feedback was collected from the participants. The evaluation includes the program, organisation and interaction. The evaluation of the Palamuse meeting is not available. The participants used the scale: ”very good” - ”good” - ”fair” - ”poor” - ”not enough information”.  At all points of evaluation the answers accumulated to the levels”very good” and”good”.  There were differences between different meetings.  These were due to e.g. different program, organisation, or the combination of the participants.

As regards content, objectives and methods, the highest points were given to”Interest of the subject” and”Cultural visits related to the subject”.  A clear majority gave the mark”Very good”.  The clear need for improvement was in ”Time management”.  Here the most common answer was”Good”, but”Fair” answers were more frequent than in other cases.

In the evaluations concerning”Interaction” the best marks were given to”General atmosphere of the meeting” for which the majority gave the mark ”Very good”. ”Communication/cooperation between participants” and”Possibility to take part as an active participant” gathered the most”Good” answers.

English was the common language in the meetings, but what we can gather from the feedback shows that there have been gaps in the command of English and the communication between the participants has partly relied on expressions and gestures and partly on the interpretation of those who speak English better.

In evaluations connected to”Logistics” the”Accommodation” and the”Transport” gathered the most”Very Good” marks. The biggest need for improvement was in”Support equipment”, although in this question the level was above”Good”. Poor compatibility of the equipment and programs caused also problems in time management in some cases.

The hosting organisation was responsible for the program but the head coordinator composed the agendas of the staff meetings.  The evaluation forms differed from each other on”Meeting Program”.  Generally the best marks ”Very good” were given to some cultural visits, like the culture program in Lisbon (including Fado), the Cappadoccia tour in Turkey, the Peloponnesus tour in Greece and all events organised in Finland.  In Poland the highest marks were given to the ”International Fair” with a big selection of food, musical program and active participation of the members of the project. Unfortunately, the Italian partner did not ask for evaluations of the specific items of their program.

For the”Overall assessment” of all meetings was accumulated on the scale ”Very good” -”Good.

”Very good” gathered most answers.  ”Overall assessment” was given by 137 participants.  The answers of Palamuse are missing from this figure.  All in all the number of foreign participants in the partner meetings was more than 160.  In addition there were the participants of the hosting organisations, which is estimated to be almost the same as the number of foreign participants.  Therefore we can be very satisfied with the mobility part of our project, both for numbers and outputs.  Text: Seppo Tahvanainen