By Peter Jarrett

A huge crowd attended the most recent meeting of the EUU Coordinating Council on June 17. But out of 18 participants I was struck by the fact that 16 of them were women. C’mon guys, don’t be shy!

The highlights are as follows:

1) The last retreat in Saarbrücken in April was a success. Everybody enjoyed it, especially how the teen group coalesced with our Transylvanian guests. Despite a lower-than-expected turnout, it almost broke even financially, thanks to the organizers’ ability to hold the line on expenses.

2) The next retreat in Cologne in September had planned on 80 participants, and as of this CC meeting, that goal was not yet met. (Editor’s note: We are now close to breaking even and still getting registrations for off-site attendance, although it is likely that a small loss will still be incurred due to this being a more expensive hostel.) It was decided to hold open registration and hope to fill in as many of the spare beds as possible. (Editor’s note: This resulted in filling all our beds at the hostel, so no decision needed to be taken later in the summer as to whether to cut back on our allocation of reserved beds.) Registration will remain possible up until just before the retreat, with participants staying at nearby hotels if no more rooms open up in the hostel.

3) Planning for next year’s retreats is underway, but more volunteers are needed. We now have to pay the host sites miles in advance, so registration for the April retreat (again in Saarbrücken) will take place immediately following the next retreat and will close already in October. The officers have decided that pricing for the two retreats in 2026 should be evened out to some extent. So the Cologne budget in October 2026 will be cross-subsidized by the spring retreat because the hostel in Saarbrücken is so much cheaper than the one in Cologne.

4) Gevene Hertz is seeking people to help her transition away from editing the Unifier, updating the website and looking after publicity in social media. She wants to give responsibility for all that up at the end of this year after long and loyal service. During the meeting, several enthusiastic people volunteered to work on this, so she is feeling good about the future.

5) The next meeting of the Coordinating Council is set for Tuesday October 21. The EUU AGM will be held on Sunday November 16 at 3pm CET. Both will be on Zoom.