We have a new Council
On behalf of the Elections and Voting Committee, I'm excited to introduce the following new Members Council representatives:
Henk Alkemade, Ina Bluemel, Petra Boettinger, Flavia Bruni, Tamara Butigan, Steven Claeyssens, Michal Čudrnák, Robert Davies, Killian Downing, Maria Drabczyk, Maria Engberg, Pilar Irala-Hortal, Loa Steinunn Kristjansdottir, Hans van der Linden, James Morley, Marta Musso, Clemens Neudecker, Dafydd Tudur, and Erwin Verbruggen.
In addition, nine Councillors have been re-elected. Over the past two years, they have proven their dedication and experience, and we are delighted to welcome them back for another term: Georgia Angelaki, Erik Buelinckx, Olimpia Curta, Barbara Fischer, Karin Glasemann, Susan Hazan, Vera Kriezi, Antje Schmidt, and Frederik Truyen.
Congratulations to all our elected representatives.
The new Council represents various backgrounds, interests and expertise. We hope the new Councillors will be active and regularly engaged in leading and steering the six Europeana Network Association communities and their activities. We eagerly await their input.
The newly elected Councillors will serve a three-year term. A further eight Councillors, elected in 2017, will continue to serve for another two years: Stephan Bartholmei, Laura Carletti, Ellen Euler, Kate Fernie, Sara Di Giorgio, Marco De Niet, Peter Soemers, and Marco Streefkerk.
We will introduce each of your new representatives in a new Europeana Pro News series launching in 2019.
Elections and the voting process
The 2018 Elections campaign began on 24 September. The vote was opened during the 2018 AGM event, and remained open from 5-14 December. Of the 2,198 members eligible to vote, 889 participated in the elections - a 40% participation rate, which is the same as in 2017. Participants campaigned on social media under the #EuropeanaElects hashtag - it was used 96 times and reached a total audience of 96.996 people.
As well as choosing their new representatives, the members voted in favour of key documents, including the Activity Plan 2019, Annual Report 2018 and Financial Report 2017, and provisional budget for 2019.
And next? Electing the new Management Board
The new Members Council is composed of 36 elected representatives who will start working together on 1 January 2019. They will hold their first meeting in spring to draw up work plans and priorities for the Association and its communities. However, their first task will be to elect a new Management Board. Between 7 and 20 January 2019, the 36 Councillors will have an opportunity to step forward to be elected as one of the six board members. The elections will take place between 21 and 27 January, internally within the Council. We will come back to you with the results on 28 January 2019.
Mogelijk de installatie van de carnavalsprinsen in het stadhuis, op het podium de jeugdprins, wethouder Steeghs en burgemeester Van Maaren-Van Baalen, Gemeentearchief Weert, CC BY-SA
A big thank you
We would like to thank all the candidates who ran for this election, and hope to see you remain as active members in our communities, and possibly campaign again in the future!
We would also like to sincerely thank those Councillors who completed their terms and will be leaving the Council after two or four years for all their expertise and good work: Francesca Di Donato, Wim van Dongen, Sergiu Gordea, Sanja Halling, Gill Hamilton, George Homs, Lizzy Jongma, Max Kaiser, Julia Katona, Paul Keller, Jef Malliet, Johan Oomen, Lars Rogstad, Cristina Roiu, Merete Sanderhoff, Sorina Stanca, Romain Wenz, Uldis Zariņš, and myself.
I also thank my colleagues in the elections and voting committee - Jef Malliet and Marco Streefkerk - for their efforts to make this election process transparent and smooth.
And finally, we are grateful to all the voters who dedicated time to approve the formal documents and choose their new representatives.
We invite you to have a look at the complete final results.