Stqarrija: ESO AGM 2021

As another term came to an end, on Monday 17th May 2021, ESO held its Annual General Meeting virtually on Zoom. AGM confirmed the President, Vice President, Secretary General, Public Relations Officer, Events Officer and International Office of the new executive team for the term 2021/2022. Furthermore, elections for Financial Officer, Media Officer, Social Policy Officer and Academic Officer, were held through an online election on 18th May 2021 between 10:30 am and 17:00. All University students were invited to attend, but only European Studies students were eligible to vote during the online elections.

It was agreed upon by the members present, that Edward De Gabrieli would be the Chairperson for this AGM, while the appointed electoral commissioners were Michela Pace and Ylenia Inguanez.

The meeting started with the approval of the Agenda, which was unanimously approved. Proceeding, last year’s AGM minutes were read by Secretary-General Michaela Vassallo. Subsequently, Bernice Bonello, who served the role of ESO’s President for the term 2020/2021 gave her speech. She thanked all the executive members for the past term and mentioned all the achievements ESO attained during the 2020/2021 term. Bernice concluded her speech by wishing luck to each candidate contesting the election and to the new President, Rebecca Azzopardi.

Following this speech, there was the reading and approval of the Administrative Report and the Financial Report. The Administration Report was read by Secretary-General Michaela Vassallo, where she mentioned all events which took place during the term 2020/21. The Administrative Report was unanimously approved. The Financial Report was read by Financial Officer Rebecca Azzopardi, where the final balances of both profits and losses from organised events were recorded. The final balance recorded was 1490.03 Euro deficit and the term was ended with 2335.85 Euros in total. The Financial Report was unanimously approved. This was followed by the amendments of the Statute which were also unanimously approved.

Afterwards, all contesting candidates gave a speech presenting themselves for their respective roles and their visions for the future of the organisation. A common vision was that all candidates would like ESO to prosper within and beyond the University of Malta. The candidates were split into two groups, those who did not have an election and those who had an election. The candidates were presented and approved as the elected executive as follows:

1. President: Azzopardi Rebecca
2. Vice President: Vassallo Michaela
3. Secretary General: Cassar Katrina
4. Public Relations Officer: Lomax Mariah
5. Events Officer: Camilleri Matthew
6. International Officer: Cremona Yana

The final speech of this AGM was by the President elect, Rebecca Azzopardi. She stated that together with the new executive members, she is determined to work harder for the upcoming term so that ESO will represent and work with all students.

Due to more than one candidate contesting for the roles of Academic Officer, Social Policy Officer, Financial Officer and Media Officer, an election was held on Tuesday 18th May 2021. All European Studies students were eligible to register for the AGM and vote for one of the candidates between 10:30 am and 17:00. Following are the contestants and results for each role:

Financial Officer:

1. Fenech Michaela – 40 votes
2. Tocharshewsky Kelly – 17 votes

Media Officer:

1. Bugeja Giulia – 22 votes
2. Portelli Matthias – 30 votes

Social Policy Officer:

1. Mallia Amy – 31 votes
2. Mifsud Briana – 24 votes

Academic Officer:

1. Curtis Robert – 19 votes
2. Zammit Maia – 36 votes

Therefore, Michaela Fenech was appointed the role of Financial Officer, Matthias Portelli was appointed the role of Media Officer, Amy Mallia was appointed the role of Social Policy Officer and Maia Zammit was appointed the role of Academic Officer.

Lastly, the ESO would like to take this opportunity to thank those who attended the AGM, and all those who helped out the organisation within the past term. Even though the past term brought several challenges with it, especially due to the Covid-19 outbreak, it was still a successful year. With hope to a better year, ESO promises to deliver another successful year and pledge to enhance its participation on campus and work more intimately with the students it represents.