It is true that there were members who attended online, but despite the Covid-19 pandemic, despite health restrictions, despite all other forms of constraints, ASAF was able to pull off a successful core-group meeting in Bonn-Germany.

The meeting lasted the whole weekend, starting on Friday 05 and ending on Sunday 07 November. A weekend that is not like the others: rich, fortifying, exciting and motivating, especially for a tomorrow that seems to us joyful. As usual, the ideas and strategies came from different representatives of African countries such as Cameroon, Egypt, Nigeria and many others, together as usual with a professional German moderation and organization.

Friday, 5 November:

The event was opened with an official welcome from Ms. Fiorella Perotto who represents the European Commission, followed by Mr. Gereon Müller-Chorus who, in his turn, represents the Service Provider. After this official welcoming, we took a few minutes for personal introductions so that everyone would know each other, and that there would be no strangeness during the meeting. 
Our long-time moderator, Ann-Christin Berger, takes her microphone and begins to play her game with those miraculous weapons that are words. She leads the event successfully and with a lightness while keeping in mind the primary objective, which is to share the three-day agenda (05., 06. and 07. November) with the public present.

The highlights of this first day were as follows:

ASAF milestones:

Of which we first saw the ASAF journey 2020-2021, then an overview from starting phase to present state, and ending with the challenging question: where are we now?

ASAF future :

Of which the ASAF’s role and position in the wider AU-EU strategy, was mentioned with precision.

Saturday, 6 November:

Hyper condensed, the day was dedicated to the consolidation of strategic topics, such as structure and governance which is a heavy topic to cover in a reduced space of time, or Vision and Mission which are almost at their final determination.
However, all members were divided into small groups of three or four participants. Those four working groups, are called to study and dig into four different but complementary topics:

1. Vision, Mission, Values
2. Structure and Governance
3. Membership / Identity, Draft Statutes
4. Projects, Partnership, Network

All those working groups are called to discuss guiding questions; finalize and come to an agreement on the various topics; Develop concrete steps (what) to be undertaken in 2022 (for the annual plan), and finally to define a process. The density of work and tasks to be done during this second day, requires from time-to-time coffee breaks to refresh and energizers to remotivate both body and mind.

The work goes on.

After the distribution of the results by the rapporteurs of the working groups, Mr. Dominik Graef (PPW) joined the rhythm established by the core-group by preparing a presentation about the future ASAF, precisely about a new online community portal.
Still under this sphere of the future of ASAF, the European Education and Culture Executive Agency presented themselves, through Mrs. Hélène Banegas and Mr. Anastasios Tsirakidis and who gave us another rich presentation, a preview on ASAF's future.

Sunday, 7 November:

The last day of the weekend arrives, and the end of our meeting also approaches. After yesterday's tiredness, all the members got up early to continue what we started from the beginning, but above all in order to draw the path of our train during the year 2022 in a definitive way, based of course on yesterday's priorities.
The objective, which our active moderator reminded us of many times, was to fix this annual program, to see if it is feasible, and to add some modifications if necessary.
The event ended with a summary of the three days, a reminder of the objectives of the meeting, but the ASAF train continues its adventure towards another station.

1 Dec 2021