Dear members,

I hope this email finds you well!

To all of you who came to the AGM on Saturday 20th of February, thank you for your attendance and participation! There was a generous amount of people present, with plenty of new faces and recently joined members. Your participation – be it by running for a position or voting for others running – made for a successful and democratic meeting and election, and is integral for the growth and collaborative aspect of the association. For those of you who were unable to attend, not to worry! So as not to leave you in the dark as to what happened, I will provide a brief summary of the meeting and its results.

The meeting, chaired by Delegate General and Treasurer Yann Blake, began at 1pm Irish time. After an introductory speech and statement of the structure of the meeting and the settling-in of all in attendance (along with some mild technical difficulties to break the ice), a speech was presented from THE SONAR’s President, Agathe Flambard. The pre-recorded speech, as she was unfortunately unable to attend live, evidenced her optimism for the growing association and excitement for the challenging yet eventful and exciting year ahead. Her appeal to the aims and values of the organisation, and her gratitude towards members for their participation and engagement fostered a sense of togetherness and emphasised the unity of all members of the association as striving towards a common and important goal. It set the inspired and optimistic tone that was to follow for the rest of the meeting as her speech was followed by a series of reports and addresses from both the administrative and executive boards.

Reports included those of Lukas Emich as Secretary General, Yann Blake as Treasurer and Sophie O’Riordan as Chief of Internal Affairs. Moreover, reports were given by Ella Burkett as the Talent Acquisition Director, Rayan Chachoua as the Social Media Director and Chloe Hayden as the Ambassador’s Coordinator. For Internal Communications, Holly Ronayne presented the numerous upcoming projects and plans for THE SONAR. The various reports provided everyone, both members and board members, with an insight into the many different branches of the organisation and their own goals and contributions.  Yann Blake then presented the expansion plans for THE SONAR, as well as the new Executive Board departments of Talent Acquisition, Editorial, Institutional and Public Relations, Social Media, Events and Sponsorship and Partnership, applications for which should be submitted via email by the end of March.

Following this was the voting process for the four new places on the Administrative Board. Six candidates ran in total, two of whom spontaneously decided to run. All candidates proved their competence and experience in their speeches of around a minute long, and a few minutes after the anonymous voting poll had been set up, the four successful candidates were announced. The four new members that were elected to the Administrative Board are Eugenia Hanniffy, Jacob Hartley, Jonny Xiao and Harry Fennell. After the election, various breakout rooms were set up for members, ambassadors and board members alike to socialize and get to know each other. This cordial and relaxed end to the meeting was a great way to set up all members for the year to come – having made new connections and being able to recognize friendly faces for future events! 

 President’s Address VIDEO : 

All in all, the AGM ran smoothly and successfully, bringing people together to understand the intricate inner workings of the association, elections to the Board and a pleasant social finish to the afternoon. Congratulations to those who were elected and many thanks to those who attended!

Take care and until next time, 

Holly Ronayne, Internal Communications
THE SONAR Executive Board