The Youth Atlantic Treaty Association (YATA) on  June 17^th -  20^th held its first YATA Leadership and Management Seminar taking place in Brussels.



The first two days of the seminar involved interactive sessions dealing with issues of organizational advancement and policy development, bringing together representatives from 9 national chapters.  The YATA participants gathered to discuss mostly about the future of YATA, as well as the implementation of new initiatives to further YATAs goals.

A large part of the program was dedicated to workshops on developing strategies and action plans led by Vanessa Ferrone, Senior Projects Analyst at the City of Toronto. A lot of work was done with formulating value statements including the mission and vision of YATA on the international level, and the representatives began a similar process for their national chapters. In addition to workshops and discussions, the program included a lecture on multinational project management by Col. Dr. Holger Bahle of NATO's Defence Policy and Planning Division.

At the previous seminar in Budva, Montenegro, many of the YATA representatives were from South Eastern Europe (SEE) but had not met each other before. That is why, the President of YATA Macedonia, Ilija Djugumanov, in cooperation with other representatives from the region and YATA, formulated a project proposal for the establishment of a YATA SEE Working Group.

The working group was officially announced at the ATA Spring Council Meeting, which took place at Brussels from  19^th to 20^th June, where YATA delegates took part.

This is where 37 Presidents and Directors in representation of all ATA Member associations, Associate and Observer Member associations met to discuss developments within the ATA. It was also an occasion for YATA and ATA delegations to meet with high ranking NATO and EU officials, and to discuss current NATO affairs, thus getting new input and inspiration for activities.