YEE left one more Annual Meeting behind with the member organisations, YEE secretariat and Executive Board members. The meeting provided an opportunity to review and to evaluate what YEE has done all year long and also discuss future plans for its next projects and activities.

 In 2017, the meeting took place from 14^th to 16^th July in Meriharju Nature House in Helsinki, Finland with 34 participants from over 15 different countries. They participated in a variety of sessions which included discussions, peer to peer communication, evaluations, energizers and presentations.

 The meeting started with some outdoor name games and energizers. Then the Annual Meeting was official opened. The agenda was presented and approved, YEE structure was introduced and presentations of reports related to YEE work in 2016 were done (Annual, financial and internal audit reports). The Secretariat team made a small quiz game about the YEE office work. Later on, each of the Executive Board members shared the results of their work in YEE and they all were cleared from their position by the General Assembly. After this, it was time for project planning. Participants were divided into the project groups to have an exchange of ideas and to develop them further. The day ended with traditional Finnish sauna in the forest. 

The second day began with a session where the outcomes of YEE Work Groups were shared with the delegates. Afterwards, project groups had a chance to continue working on their project ideas and to prepare their presentations. General Assembly discussed and voted the updated YEE policies which are presented by Former Executive Board and the Secretariat. Then, it was the time to review the memberships of three member organization and discuss the acceptance those which applied this year to join the network with General Assembly. Umbrella from Georgia, “Public Awareness and Monitoring Centre” NGO and Blejan from Armenia have accepted as new members of YEE. After lunch, project teams made their presentations about the projects and answered questions from the delegates. Following this, the General Assembly voted for the projects which were presented by teams and YEE. According to the results of election, 5 project has approved in 2018.

At the end of the day, the nominations for the Board and Auditors were closed and the elections for the new Board members and internal auditors with closely contested election atmosphere started. According to results of voting; Stefan Rudel was selected as new Chairperson, Jovana Mirjanic as the Vice-chairperson and Project Officer, Niall Barret as the External Relations Officer, Aram Mnatsakanyan as the Treasurer, Daniela Para as the Publication and Promotion Officer and Ketevan Kochladze as the Member Organization Officer.

The last day of the Annual Meeting had shorter agenda than the first two days. After some energizers, the draft budget for 2018 was presented and voted. With the approved budget, it was the time to close the Annual Meeting and to hear how it went for the participants through interactive evaluation.

We left Finland with a positive feeling and many activities planned for the next year!