COSPIE - Committee for Solving Problems In Exchanges

Introduction

COSPIE is a committee which was created at the MYM in Croatia, Split, with an aim to help solve problems often occurring during exchanges. Since the establishment of the committee in March 2006, guidelines for two existing problems were formed. These documents are meant to be used by NEOs and LEOs in order to help them understand and ease their daily obligations.

The “Insurance Deposit System” was created at the MYM in Croatia and discussed at many following meetings, but was only proposed and accepted at the GA in Hungary. It deals with exchanges of students and young dentists. Its aim is to help NEO to arrange the exchange, there are points related to accommodation, transportation and rules of any changes that might be done before the exchange.

The ”Abc of Exchange” was created at the MYM in Georgia, combining the ideas of the Croatian delegation and the COSPIE members. This document was proposed and passed unanimously at the Lake Balaton Congress. The document includes the following points: general duties of NEO, duties of NEO and LEO during exchange and student obligations.

COSPIE meeting in Egypt

At our recent committee meeting that took place during the 55^th IADS annual meeting in Sharm El Sheikh, the “old“ members: myself representing Serbia; Magdalena Maciejowska from Poland and Stefania Rado from Hungary, welcomed our “new” members: Aneta Filipuik and Andriana Jastrzebska from Poland; Dimitry Timofeev from Russia; Alexandar Sokolovski and Julia Bolz from Germany and Mohid Badri from Saudi Arabia.

The meeting was opened by our “most impressive” member Magdalena Macijejowska who gave an entertaining power point presentation about the committee and its current activities. The newly formed committee team mainly discussed their experiences in organizing student exchanges and went on to modify a few points in the current Insurance Deposit System. We also decided on creating and introducing official receipts for the NEOs that are using the insurance deposit system.

COSPIE meeting in Romania

Once again many participants joined the COSPIE meeting: Ole Rasmus Theisen – Denmark , Madalena Maciejowska – Poland, Joanna Filipiuk – Poland, Aneta Filipiuk – Poland, Milena Nersesyan – Armenia, Petra Langova – Czech Republic, Štefka Gladek – Slovenia, Alexander Sokolovski – Germany, Nemanja Nešković – Serbia, Nataša Predin – Serbia, Mowada Amir Nawaf – Sudan, Hassan Husein – Sudan, Lena Malaty – Egypt, Kwadwo Amakye Acheampong – Ganna and our host Ionut Luchian – Romania.

It was decided that the COSPIE receipts are to resemble the official IADS receipts, with addition of 2 points: refund conditions and specific country conditions( stated by each NEO ). Receipts are to be issued for transaction of money: from NEO to student, from NEO to NEO and from student to NEO.

As we want to look more professional, we discussed and created an official IADS invitation letter. The design of the standardised invitation letter will be sent out to all NEOs, where each local organization is encouraged to add their own, or the faculty, or the university logo.

Invitation letters are to be scanned and sent to the students via email. NEOs agreed that if the students require the original document for visa application, the student is to cover the cost of sending the letter by post. To avoid visa problems, an additional page ( with stated information such as the nationality and passport no.) should be sent to NEO together with the application form by the students with visa requirements.

In an effort to inform every embassy about the IADS exchange program, we decided to ask FDI to supply us with an official, signed and stamped notification letter, explaining the co-operation, achievemnts and aims of the two organizations. We believe that if such a document is sent to every country member embassy, it will help speed up the visa issueing. All the neccesary embassy contacts will be provided by our Editor. It was also suggested that the link to each embassy's webpage be added to the CMP, with further supervision by our IEO.

After having covered various topics, there was one more task to be completed: choose the next chairman! As this was not an easy choise we decided to appoint two chairman for the upcoming year. My congratulations go to Alex Sokolovski from Germany and Lena Malaty from Egypt.

Natasa Predin

Chairman of COSPIE 08/09