SAE Oceania hold their Annual General Meeting

SAE Oceania held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Sunday, November 27 at the premises of the Ilion Association ‘Hermes’ in the Sydney suburb of Bexley.

The AGM was attended, both physically and virtually, by dozens of representatives from all over Oceania, Greece and Europe.

Among the guests who watched the AGM online were the former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Grigoris Niotis (Athens); the Global Secretary of SAE, Dr Olga Sarantopoulou (Vienna); the Head of the Network of European Scientists, Dr Costas Karras (Germany); and Costas Giannakodimos representing the Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Ioannis Mallikourtis.

The minutes of the AGM of June 2021 were presented, as well as the financial statements and the financial report for the financial year 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021.

This was followed by a report of the Coordinating Council presented by George Angelopoulos, where he briefly mentioned the main priorities of SAE Oceania in the past year:

• The SAE law passed on February 21 and the reopening of the SAE.
• On the Vote of the Greeks Abroad and for the establishment of the Ministry of Hellenism Abroad.
• The activities of the Family Emergency Fund.
• The cooperation of SAE in the Oceania Region and Organisations/members of SAE in matters of parochial structure and functionality and issues that concern the organisation locally.

Everyone in attendance unanimously approved the minutes, the finances, the financial report, the report of the Coordinator, as well as the appointment of the Chartered Accountant and the Accounting Company Rothsay Accounting Services for the current year.

Subsequently, a number of issues also emerged during the AGM. These included: the signing of a bilateral agreement to avoid double taxation; education and the activation of the youth; the SAE Archives; the periodic publication of a brochure to inform the members of SAE; the formation of an educational team that will take action to help maintain the Greek language.

Of the proposals put forward, Ms Sarantopoulou’s proposal for providing further humanitarian aid to the Greeks of Ukraine, and the proposal of Fotini Makri for the operation of a Center for Spiritual Creation of the Expatriates based in Thessaloniki stood out. Both proposals were approved by the General Assembly.

The Electoral Committee consisting of Yiannis Koutsoupis, George Lianos and Paul Tsani delivered to the Assembly the names of those elected to the New Coordinating Council which the General Assembly ratified for the period 2022-2026.

The committee is: Coordinator – Ioannis Theodoridis; Coordinating Council – Costas Alaveras, Dimitris Kanellakos, Eleni Kalymniou, Yiannis Bellas, Leonidas Naoumis, Savvas Papasavvas, Peter Papoulidis and Asterios Tsitzas.

The General Assembly also unanimously declared the until-now Coordinator George Angelopoulos to be Honorary Coordinator of SAE Oceania and Far East, which will be effective from the date of his departure from the Coordinating Council on November 27, 2022.

Finally, Angelopoulos thanked all the delegates and the Coordinating Committee for the support and help they have offered him throughout the years and wished every success to the newly elected.

The new coordinator Yiannis Theodoridis in a short greeting emphasised that the homogenia needs the SAE.