A new executive committee to lead Victoria’s Greek National Day Council was elected at a meeting on Monday, May 13.
The Victorian Council for Greek National Day is made up of representatives from all of Victoria’s major Greek organisations and was established to organise commemoration events for Greece’s Independence Day on March 25 each year.
An election was called after outgoing Council Chairman Tony Tsourdalakis and Secretary Natasha Spanos announced at a February 6 Council meeting that they would step down from their roles at the end of this year’s Greek Independence Day parade.
Executive positions filled at the recent election were:
- Chairman: Sophia Siachos
- Secretary: Kristian Rapsas
- Assistant Secretary: Katerina Drougas
- Master of Ceremonies (Greek): Maria Bakalidou
- Master of Ceremonies (English): Leonidas Vlahakis
- Parade Manager: Jim Grivokostopoulos (Grivas)
The Treasurer position had already been accepted by Arthur Andronas following a meeting on April 22, 2024.
As reported by The Greek Herald, the Treasurer position was vacated by Jim Grivokostopoulos (Grivas) in December 2023.
Mr Grivas resigned at a general meeting of the Council on December 11, 2024, and said he felt unable to do his job properly as Treasurer because he was never provided access to the Council’s financial records or invoices in order to verify the P&L statement. Mr Grivas’ access was restricted despite requesting to see the financials.
While Mr Grivas stipulated in his resignation that he believed “nothing untoward” was behind the restricted access to the financials, he did put forward a motion calling for an independent audit committee to review the last three years of financial statements.
This motion was passed by the committee members present and it was agreed that the audit committee would be made up of three people: Mr Grivas himself, Father John and Mr Andronas.
In recent months, some members of the Council have also raised concerns around its constitution, as well as the recent Greek Independence Day parade on April 14 at Lakeside Stadium in Melbourne.
