01/04/2019
Dear Fellow EUI-ers,
Please save the date for the General Assembly, which will be held on July 6-7th, 2019, at the Badia. More details will follow soon.
The last two years were marked by the process of separation from the EUI, as requested by its authorities. We changed the Statutes, have acquired legal personality, built the new website, and organized as many events we could, within the limits of our tight finances and men-power.
The EUI decision to grant all alumni a free email was a hard-fought battle, and a victory for the AA, as it is standard practice in all institutions of the EUI standing. However, it also deprives the Alumni Association of its main source of income, as previously members joined to have the email: the numbers show that only a small fraction of alumni registered on the new website.
The next GA will thus be crucial, as it will be called to discuss and decide on the future course of the Association. For this reason, I kindly urge all those who can to attend in person. For those who cannot, I am trying to organize a two-ways web-stream to allow as many members as possible to give their input.
I am also taking this occasion to ask for volunteers to serve on the electoral committee, which will be tasked to supervise the correctness of the forthcoming elections. I remind that the members of the electoral committee cannot run for elections, and it would be advisable that they are not candidates’ next-of-kin. Kindly write to [email protected]. There are several challenges in organizing the elections the way we initially thought to, and I am working on different options to be discussed with the electoral committee before we can issue the official call. It is, however, a good time to think if you want to serve in the next Executive Committee.
Which brings us to a little food for fought on serving on the Executive Committee. Serving our community is a wonderful experience, but also a very time-consuming task - especially since there is no support whatsoever from the EUI anymore. Everything – from drafting invitations, organizing events, to sending mails, keeping the website updated, budget, etc. – all has to be done by the EC, mostly by the President. There are also more obligations under the law now that we have juridical personality, like producing the budget in the first trimester of the year, paying taxes, taking care of the data under the new directive, etc. This also explains why at times I have been slower than I would have liked to: for how much we love the EUI and the AA, it often comes on top of (a long pile!) of professional and personal obligations – which for instance for me lately has meant (and will mean) surgeries and several hours of rehab a day – life happens!
I would therefore strongly advice people who want to run for President to consider how much secretarial support they can have at their own institution. Last but not least, if you are thinking of running for the EC, please make sure you are in Florence for the GA, as we will need a few hours to be done with formalities, pass over all the information, the credentials etc.
For those attending the EUSA conference in Denver please mark your calendars we will have a little get together on Friday night after the EUSA reception at about 6:45 pm. An invitation will be issued soon. I am sure others will meet around the time at the State of the Union in Florence.
It has been a wonderful privilege to serve you all, and I look forward to passing the baton to a new executive.
All the best
Federiga
