Would you like to meet your fellow Young SIETARians in the area that you live? Then you can organise a Young SIETAR Café. This is an informal meeting organised by local Young SIETARians to meet each other for dinner and/or drinks and simply have some fun and get to know each other. And if you offer some couches for people to sleep on, YSians who live further away may be able to join as well!
How can I organize a YS Café?It’s simple: pick a date and place, and then approach the Young SIETAR mailinglist to see who is interested to join you. The details of the meeting can be determined as you go along. Also, don’t forget to add your YS Café to the list below by e-mailing our webmaster (webmaster_[at]_youngsietar_[dot]_org), so that other people – including non YSians - can find out about it as well. You can also announce the YS Café on the Young SIETAR Facebook page. And don’t hesitate to remind YSians of your YS Café nearer to the event! I am not a member but I would like to check it out
You are not (yet) a member of Young SIETAR but you would like to join the YS Café to find out what the organisation is about? You are more than welcome to do so. Contact us at yscafe_[at]_youngsietar_[dot]_org to find out the details of where exactly we are meeting (see the list of dates and cities below). If you are a member, then you can find these details on the Young SIETAR mailinglist. Date | Country | City | Start time | End time | Couchsurfing possible? | Your YS Café? | | | | | | Upcoming YS Cafés | End of March/Beginning of April 2011 | Egypt | Cairo | ? | ? | ? | 22nd of April 2011 | The Netherlands | Puur in Den Bosch | 17.00 | ? | ? | Past YS Cafés | 15th of January 2011 | UK | London | 16.00 | 18.00 | ? | 26th of September 2010 | The Netherlands | Utrecht | 15.00 | evening | no | 30th of May 2010 | Ireland | Dublin | afternoon | evening | no | 6th of March 2010 | The Netherlands | Nijmegen | 15.00 | evening | yes | 26th of February 2010 | Germany | Bremen | 19.00 | evening | no | The YS Café was… fun!Share your experiences with other Young SIETAR members to let them know what they missed out on – and encourage them to organise their own YS Café! Send a short account to the YS mailinglist, or ask our webmaster to post it online, together with a picture or two. Below you can find out what happened during the YS Café that took place in Dublin in the summer of 2010.
 On a rare sunny Sunday afternoon in Dublin five intercultural enthusiasts, Sabrina, Marielena, Johane, Helen and Andrea got together in a convivial café, the Queen of Tarts in Cow’s Lane, to discuss Young SIETAR and to share intercultural resources, experiences and advice. None of the five women was from Dublin, instead, Germany, Canada, the U.S., England and France were all represented. After the event, it is also safe to say that the name of the café and its location say nothing about the women’s (or rather the ladys’) characters and reputations.
We began by introducing ourselves before getting down to the serious business of drinking hot drinks and sampling delicious carrot cake and muffins. We also found out about intercultural events that members of the group are involved with, such as the SIETAR France Congress 2010 on Diversity and Human Rights taking place in Lille in October. We then considered Sabrina’s suggestion of hosting the 2011 Young SIETAR congress in Belfast which we concluded would be an interesting location for discussing intercultural issues given its sectarian history. Marielena told us about her positive experiences working with the not-for-profit organisation Meridian International, who aim to strengthen intercultural understanding through, for example, arranging international professional exchanges. Johane brought some of the good intercultural resources available at European Union House, 18 Dawson Street to  our attention and also showed us a handy publication called ‘Embracing Diversity’ available at ECO-UNESCO which provides a set of useful training exercises aiming to raise awareness of both intercultural and environmental issues among children and young people. Our discussions finished with a cultural and institutional comparison of the merits and mostly demerits (!) of different university registration procedures and with wishing Andrea well in her move from Ireland to Switzerland. We hope she can fly-by for a visit back to the café later in the year.
Not all of the group were members of Young SIETAR but after this successful inaugural Dublin Café event, hopefully they soon will be! So, if you too find yourself in Dublin on the last Sunday of an odd month (next to be July) do get in touch.
Helen O’Sullivan (1st June 2010)
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