Dutch Young Members

The Dutch Young Members are an active group of around 25 YM’s that participate in international UWE and IFUW activities.

We have given a YM-workshop in Ottawa and Perth and will organise another one in Manchester together with the German Young Members.

We meet regularly with part of this group to prepare for workshops, the IFUW YM-programme and other activities.

The Dutch Association of University Women (VVAO) has about 750 YM among their total membership of around 4.000. Besides the group of international active YM’s, we have several circles of YM’s in the different Dutch cities.

To know more about us you can contact:

Willemijn van der Meer
vdmwillemijn@hotmail.com

German Young Members

Formation of a nationwide young members network within the German Deutsche Akademikerinnenbund (DAB)

On November 25th and 26th 2006, the first nation-wide meeting of the young members within the DAB took place in Bochum, Germany. Thirteen participants from Bochum, Dortmund, Flensburg, Groningen (NL) and Hanover had come to the meeting to discuss the ideals and aims of the young members network in a relaxed atmosphere.

At the beginning of the meeting every participant filled in a questionnaire on her personal wishes and expectations from the umbrella organisation DAB. Afterwards the main ideas were collected in order to find out our common major aims and goals which we want to work on in the future.

The results of the weekend are the following:

The young members in the DAB are a network for under- and postgraduates and academic women from every field of study who are between 20 and 40 years old. The young members are organized, apart from their local or regional groups, in a nationwide network without hierarchical structures. We regard ourselves as an interdisciplinary, job-related network and take position and action on current socio-political issues that have an impact on the lives of (young) academic women.

In view of the proceeding globalization we also want to establish a close contact to the international umbrella organization.
Apart from regional meetings we plan a nationwide young members meeting every autumn. This may be held in the form of workshops, in which we can discuss and work on current topics.

Sabine Fehrmann (DAB 21, DAB Hannover), Sandra Zeidler (BoNetzMentoring, DAB Bochum)

Swiss Young Members

First gathering of Switzerland’s Young Members
October 18, 2008, in Solothurn

15 Young members from German speaking sections of the Swiss Association of University Women came together for the first time at the occasion of a friendship meeting between the German, Austrian and Swiss Associations. We also welcomed a young member from Slovenia, Andreja Jarc. Inspired by the presentation of two German Young Members, Regine Scheder und Angela Lohberg, and based on our own ideas and expectations (extracted from a questionnaire), we concluded that:

• We shall in no way separate from the other members of the Swiss Association,
• We shall not limit the age of young members to precisely 40 years,
• We want to enhance the exchange of experiences among the younger members anyway, since their main interests definitely differ due to their stage of life,
• We will limit our gatherings to one additional event per year and shall besides use the Mailing list for communication,
• We shall organize a young members dinner at the occasion of the forthcoming general assembly in Bern on March 21, 2009,
• We are definitely interested in meeting other young members from other IFUW or UWE member states,
• We shall report in the International Young Members Newsletter about our activities.  

For the Swiss young members
Uschi Kozomara Yao
Swiss Association
ukozomara@yahoo.com