During 2009 the main goal of SWYAA-SE was to develop both our domestic and international networks. Even though our AA is one of the smaller ones we aim to play an active role in the SWY community. In 2009 we tried to accomplish that through various activities and initiatives from all our members, ExPY:s from SWY4, 10 and 18.

For the first time ever one of our members boarded Nippon Maru as an advisor. Annelie Gustavsson (SWY18) joined SWY21 in charge of the education course. Her programme “Education; symbiosis between individuals and societies” was very appreciated by the PY’s and the rest of us followed her participation through her online diary with pictures at www.resedagboken.se. We are of course very proud of Annelie and the way she represented SWYAA-SE and we hope to contribute with more advisors in future SWY-programmes.

Our official website www.swyaa-se.org is one of our most important tools helping us to spread information about our organisation. It provides general information in English about SWY and SWYAA-SE as well as member profiles and information about homestay in Sweden. Our webmaster Gustaf Rindler (SWY18) put a lot of effort into making updates about recent events as frequently as possible.

The SWYAA-SE mailing list has during 2009 proven to be an equally important tool when it comes to running the communication within our AA as smoothly as possible. In the time between board meetings and other more informal gatherings the mailing list bridge over geographic distances and work as a well needed social platform. All our members regurlarly post information and keep each other up to date about SWY related activities they take part in. We also started a SWYAA-SE facebook group to keep in touch this way too.

As much as we enjoy sending our members on conferences and reunions abroad, we like it even more when ExPY:s from all over the world come visiting us in Sweden. We try to further develop our homestay network step by step every year. When people contact us before a visit we try our very best to accommodate them and arrange activities such as ExPY dinner parties, guided tours in Stockholm etcetera.

Two of our most recent visitors were Ben Bertoldi and Susan Doel from Australia (both SWY18). Susan wrote an article about their visit, which we published on our website. She summed up the homestay like this: ”Ben and I returned home with a lot less sleep and lot more laughs!” We are of course hoping for many more international visitors in 2010.
Throughout 2009 and early 2010 a few of our members participated in different SWY-related activities. Filip Lendahls (SWY18) went to Japan on holiday. He was well taken care of by a number of ExPY:s in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. He also had the opportunity to meet up with some of the ExPY:s from different AA:s who were in Tokyo for the 2009 ExPY conference.

Gigi Lönn Stråle (SWY4) worked as a volunteer at a camp for orphans in Thailand organized by our sister organization SSEAYP. Among other things she donated handicap equipment and toys on behalf of SWYAA-SE.

In February 2010 Gigi Lönn Stråle, Daniel Schatz (SWY18) and Fredrik Quistbergh (SWY10) went to the SWY gathering in Oman and Dubai. They met up with dear old friends, enjoyed the ExPY hospitality
and came back very inspired.

During 2009 SWYAA-SE has had national meetings and gatherings, both fysical and using internet. On our last Annual Meeting Åsa Danielsson (SWY10) became the new President and Filip Lendahl (SWY18) and Lotta Rössner (SWY10) remained yet another year as Secretary and Accountant. We particularly make sure we involve members from all batches in the board and active inner circle, to make the foundation of our small Alumni Association stays solid .

On the agenda for 2010 we have the following main focuses:

1) Reconnect with xPY:s of the previous batches:
Gigi Lönn Stråle (SWY4) is currently doing research to find all the Swedish members of her batch since she is involved in the networking and planning around an up-coming reunion for all the members of her batch, celebrating the 20th anniversary of their programme. Åsa Danielsson (SWY10) is working on updating the contact with members of SWY10, which has been linked to other members in a more non-formal way.

2) Discussing the possibility of Sweden arranging a SWY Reunions. The will is very strong among many of the members, however we feel we are very few persons that are spread over a big country and therefore the logistics of such an event is a big challenge. However we are currently planning to recieve one group of xPYs to Sweden this summer and are discussing the possibility of making this visit an official SWY Reunion. To be continued.

3) Arrange national reunions on a regular basis so that all our members from all over the country and abroad can have the possibility to join. With these words we want to send our warmest greetings to the rest of the SWY community around the world and to the organizers of this fantastic programme.

Filip Lendahl (Secretary SWYAA-SE)
Åsa Danielsson (President SWYAA-SE)