The weekly Macra newsletter arrived in my email inbox and it caught my attention straight away. “Are you interested in representing Macra na Feirme at the Rural Youth Europe Study Session in Strasbourg” was the heading, and there started my Rural Youth Europe journey.

I was lucky enough to attend the study session in May 2016, where I had the most amazing week, meeting lifelong friends, delving into the topic of inclusivity and finding out more about Rural Youth Europe.

Kätlin from Estonia 4H was the board member of Rural Youth Europe who was on site for the week and I must have asked her 101 questions about being involved with the organisation. I came home to Ireland with so many memories and a drive to find out how I could represent Macra on the board of Rural Youth Europe.

Rural Youth Europe is an umbrella organisation with 23 member organisations all over Europe, having a reach of up to 500,000.

There are seven board members; chair, vice-chair, four regional board members and a special interest board member, all elected with a specific purpose.

There are three events that take place throughout the year. A spring study session, a summer rally and the autumn seminar.

In November 2020, at the height of COVID-19, I was elected to the board of Rural Youth Europe with responsibilities for special interests at the first ever online general assembly.

Grab every opportunity that comes your way – say yes, and who knows where it may lead you!

It wasn’t an easy time to join the board of Rural Youth Europe. I hadn’t met three of my board colleagues in person before, but we had to put that to one side and get stuck into our roles as best we could, technology being our best friend. In my role on the board, I was responsible for driving forward the policy work which had began in 2016 and I represented and advocated on behalf of our members at external events such as the Youth Network events, EU youth conferences, advisory council seminars as well as the European Youth Forum Council of members.

I have been invited to facilitate workshops at the Rural European Parliament, the Congress on the Council of Europe, as well as address MEPs, ministers and decision-makers at the Council of Youth Ministers.

I will also travel to Prague in July to represent Rural Youth Europe and our members at the EU Youth Conference.

My term on the board of Rural Youth Europe comes to an end in August. I look forward to supporting my successor in their role as special interest board member and seeing the organisation go from strength to strength.

If I hadn’t read the Macra newsletter all those years ago, who knows what would have happened, but I am extremely thankful for all the opportunities that Macra offers its members. It’s up to us what we get out of it.

My advice to anyone in the organisation now is to grab every opportunity that comes your way – say yes, and who knows where it may lead you!