Message of the President, March, 18th, 2020

Dear friends and colleagues,

A week ago, we have had another meeting of the Board of Directors, where we have addressed the recent situation with the new COVID-19 explosion, so let me briefly summarize our decisions.

The BoD decided to:

• postpone our Annual conference in May – we cannot wait any more with planning and preparations, and a few of you have already stated you are not coming, so it does not make sense to do it just for the ECBE “officers”;
• we still want us to meet, so shifting the conference to a date in fall seems feasible, at the moment; please, let us know your point of view by filling-in the questionnaire here:
  click;
• we have to keep the Annual General Meeting, though, due to the legal reasons, so we need your assistance! We will organize the AGM in Brussels, the seat of ECBE, but we need to assure having a quorum to be able to:
  • (1) approve the reports of the President, Chair of Commissioners, and Treasurer (Financial statements and Annual budget),
  • (2) elect new members of the BoD – the documentation will be send beforehand, so that you can see the proposals and instruct your potential proxies on how to vote on your behalf;
• we will try to keep the scheduled accreditation visits, if possible. Depending on the development of the situation, we will try to minimize the impact of the current measures taken in different countries on the ECBE operations.

Based on this all, and as mentioned in the previous communication, the AGM will take place on May 23 in Brussels – please decide on the two options for your participation:

• preferred – send the proxy (will be attached to the e-mail with the materials on the agenda of the AGM) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Before the meeting, you will have the possibility to instruct your proxy about the voting.
• if you are going to personally participate in the meetings, in Brussels send an e-mail notification to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. together with a potential request of accommodation arrangement (and an invitation letter, if needed for getting visas).

If you have any comments or questions, please send them to me or any of the board members. Your remarks will certainly be considered and answered.
Even if we don’t have sufficient members present or represented at the Annual General Meeting, we can still operate, but it will be much easier if we are able to decide about the necessary issues belonging to AGM.
So:

• financials will be sent on or before April 13, 2020 (enabling the 40-day advance before the meeting) to all members;
• current composition of the BoD voting members is:
  • Maja Fošner (mandate till AGM in 2021),
  • Dmitry Kuzin (mandate till AGM in 2021),
  • Teresa Shafer (mandate till AGM in 2021),
  • László Szepesi (mandate till AGM in 2021),
  • Alkis Tsiklis (mandate till AGM in 2021),
  • Pavel Žufan (co-opted by the BoD in May 2019),
  • Marc Van Gastel – representative of employers (co-opted by the BoD in November 2019),
• which means we have 2 “vacancies” for the upcoming meeting – Pavel Žufan, and Marc Van Gastel (representative of employers is a “compulsory” board member given by the Statutes).
• send your proposals for the BoD members to the President (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) till April 3, 2020 (enabling the 50-day advance before the meeting). We will then prepare the list of candidates and include it in the invitation and financials sent on/before April 13.

I hope you understand the sense of urgency and that you will act accordingly.

The AGM in May can still serve as a continuation of preparatory processes, and, hopefully, can contribute to a successful ECBE evaluation by ENQA.
The form for proxies will be attached to the AGM materials – please, consider giving it either to one of the Board members, or to a member who will be joining the meetings, so that we can regularly vote.
On behalf of all the Board members I would like to thank you for your cooperation and wish you a good, virus-free spring.
We will keep in touch.

Pavel Žufan
President

Brno, March 18th, 2020