Frequently Asked Questions
New members
What are the requirements to join AEGEE-Barcelona?
The only requirement is to be over 18 and under 30 years old (the latter is not very strict). Note that this could be different for other AEGEE antennas.
Even though AEGEE is a student association, you do not need to be a student to be a part of it. However, most of our members are university students, or former university students.
You don’t need to live in Barcelona to be part of AEGEE-Barcelona. Although we’d love to see you take part in our local activities, you can still attend European events as part of AEGEE-Barcelona, without having ever been in the city.
What do I get with the anual fee?
The 10€ anual fee allows you to be a part of AEGEE-Barcelona and attend European events as part of this antenna.
By being part of AEGEE-Barcelona, you can also join in all our local activities, although their cost (usually very little) is not included in the fee.
Is there a “trial period” before I need to pay the membership fee?
In some of our local activities we are joined by friends which are not part of AEGEE-Barcelona. Most of them end up joining shortly after! If you want to casually join some of this events, let us know, and we can tell you of the next local activity that you can join, even if you are not yet a member.
European events are all managed by AEGEE-Europe and require all participants to be part of an AEGEE antenna, so you need to be officially registered as a member of AEGEE-Barcelona, which means that you need to pay the fee before.
What’s the best time to become a new member?
The payment of the fee is anual, and it needs to be renewed after a year of the day of the initial payment, so there is no best time of the year to join.
Our local activities and European events happen all year round, so the sooner you join, the sooner you’ll start to discover the AEGEE lifestyle ;)
If you plan to join AEGEE-Barcelona in order to go to a seasonal event, such as Summer Universities or New Year’s events, keep in mind that their registration period happens a few months prior to the event, by which time you already need to be a member.
Current members
I want to renew my yearly fee. What do I need to do?
If it’s already been a year since the last payment of the anual fee, you need to renew it. The process is not automatic, so you need to do the payment again (as if joining for the first time).
How do I stop being a member?
The anual fee is a one-time payment, which makes you a member of AEGEE-Barcelona for a whole year. If you don’t wnt to continue, do not renew the fee for the following year.
Activities
When do you organize the next event?
Check the activity calendar for a list of the upcoming local activities. Keep in mind that we have an internal Whatsapp group for members where we also announce them; sometimes, smaller activities such as evening drinks, will be proposed sporadically.
What is the language spoken in the events/activities?
For our local activities we will usually be joined by members from outside of Spain, so very often we resort to English. If that is not the case, then Catalan or Spanish.
In European events the official language is English. The only exception are some special events targeted to learning the local language (for example, a language course in Germany, where you can expect to speak German), but it is always very explicitly announced. Unless otherwise said, the language of European events is English.
My English is not very good. Is that ok?
That’s not a problem! For our local activities, most of our members are locals and will speak Catalan and Spanish. But even for European events, keep in mind that for the big majority of people in AEGEE, English is not be their first language, and everyone is usually very friendly and open despite the possible language barrier.
Also, it is very common to coincide with other Spanish participants in European events.
Is it ok to only join for European events? Or for local activities?
Sure! Some of our current members are only interested in the European events and never join for the local ones, while others prefer the small informal meetings and parties we do all year around Barcelona. It is completely fine.
Although we recommend you to try both, you are gonna love them!
Are Summer Universities related to real universities?
Not really. The name comes from the cultural program of these events, where you will learn lots of things (like at university) during the summer. Learn more about them in the Summer Universities page.
Visiting Barcelona (for AEGEEans from other antennas)
Can you host me?
As opposed to some of the other large antennas in Europe, in AEGEE-Barcelona we don’t have deals or agreements with hostels or other types of accommodation.
Let us know of your intended stay and we will do our best to host you. It will depend on the availability of our members, so nothing is promised. In the worst case, we can give you advice on finding a well-located and affordable accommodation.
Would you like to meet?
Of course! Let us know when you are coming to Barcelona and we will gladly organize some informal meeting or local activity during that time, if our schedules allow; maybe even do a city tour and some cultural activities ;)
About AEGEE-Barcelona
What is the legal status of AEGEE-Barcelona?
Under Spanish law, we’re constituted as a a “Non-Profit Civil Association with no political affiliation” registered in “Cens General de la Secreataria General de Joventut”. More simply, we’re a student organisation (most of us are or have been students). However you don’t need to be student to join us.
At the moment we are linked to UB (Universitat de Barcelona) and UPC (Universitat Politèctica de Catalunya). We used to be linked to UAB in the past but we lost the connection after covid.
Do you have physical offices?
No, all of our activities take place in some board member’s house or in a public place, such as pubs.
Where does AEGEE-Barcelona get funds from?
Currently the only sources of income are membership fees and any benefit we might get from the organization of European events (in which other AEGEEans from Europe pay a fixed fee to attend).
The cost of our local activities is paid by the members attending them, but we don’t get any benefit. We will usually have the attendants pay their own expenses (such as food, or tickets), or split the cost between us (such as gasoline for the cars).
What are the funds used for?
We don’t have a lot of funds, but our expenses are low too. The main cost we deal with is the payment to AEGEE-Europe twice a year before each Agora. This fee depends on how many members we have and how many people from our antenna join the Summer Universities.
Our finances get checked every year by the AEGEE-Europe Audit Commission. They need to approve our financial report for us to stay part of the AEGEE network. Our current bank is Caixa d’Enginyers (Caja de Ingenieros).