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April 04 2020

LYMEC Spring Congress 2020 - ONLINE

April 04, 2020 at 9:00am - 5pm

LYMEC Spring Congress 2020 - ONLINE

  The LYMEC Spring Congress 2020 will be organised online in a digital form due to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) threat. The Congress will mainly focus on the election of the new Bureau of LYMEC. It will take place on Saturday 4 April 2020 from 9 h till 17 h online. There is no pre-Congress seminar this year.   Agenda of the Congress and documentation page are now available!  

Digital Spring Congress Decision by the LYMEC Board The LYMEC Bureau has decided to turn the Spring Congress intended to be hold 3-5 April 2020 in Skopje, Northern Macedonia into an Online Congress taking place on the Online conference Platform Zoom on the 4. April 2020. Please find attached a FAQ with the reasons for the decision and on practical questions. You as well find the new agenda attached, as well as an overview about how the digital congress should work. We need your support! Mail us! To be legally safe that hold digital congress will be valid, based on our congress rules (Article 2) we need at least 1/3 of the Member Organisations present at the last congress to approve of the change of location, date and agenda. We ask you to support this decision in the interest of upholding the functioning of our organisation in this very special times. Please send a reply to this email by Sunday 15 March evening and say that you support on behalf of your specific organisation of the change of location, date and agenda and the form of an online congress. We expect the head of delegations (and IMS delegates) to reply to us on behalf of their respective organisation (one answer/organisation).  Together we can keep up democracy and our work for a liberal Europe. Communication by the LYMEC Board Dear friends, dear delegates, It is with a heavy heart that we have taken the decision to not hold the Spring Congress as a physical congress in Skopje. Congresses are the heart of the organisations where our members come together and we know many of you have looked forward to this special congress. But as the situation currently stands, no one can give a concrete guarantee as to when the COVID-19 pandemic will slow down. We can not guarantee for the health of the delegates on the ground and we can not be sure, that participants will even be able to travel or be allowed into the country. It is quite clear, that in a force majeure situation – in a context that could not have been foreseen at the initial planning time and the circumstances of which render travels practically impossible, we need to come up with a reasonable alternative, especially given how often we discuss and adopt positions on having more digital ways of undertaking different spheres of our current-day lives, and given that we are already using a number of electronic tools for decision-making. Therefore we have at the early stages of the CoronaVirus outbreak have explored the legal and practical aspects of an alternative in the form of a digital congress.  As some experts expecting the peak of the virus spread to be reached in as far as September we couldn’t postpone the congress for an unknown time. Furthermore, from a practical point of view, the cancellation of the physical undertaking of the Congress in Skopje renders significant losses, and we can’t risk setting up a new event baring the current cancellation costs, and further costs surrounding a new Congress event, especially under the risk that it might also not take place. The LYMEC Congress is the biggest and most cost-extensive event we have, and we simply cannot afford holding what would basically be a third one this year. For all the reasons above, and to safeguard the workings of the organization, the LYMEC Bureau is setting up as a plan B a digital LYMEC Congress in lieu of the physically present Congress with on Saturday April 4th. This would ensure maintaining the work of the organization complying with the statutory, legal, taxing and financial provisions and preserving LYMEC’s core functioning at a time of a special emergency situation. We propose to deal with a limited agenda focusing on statutory matters.  While the LYMEC Bureau realizes that seeing each other and exchanging our ideas in person is what all of us would have wanted, we ask you to understand that the situation we are currently in,  requires a special decision and responsibility, where we all need to do our best to make sure our work at European level continues as smooth as possible, in full respect with the democratic principles we all stand for and taking into account the digital evolution we stand in defending.   Kind regards, LYMEC Bureau

  Statutory Deadlines 8 weeks before the Congress/ 7 February 2020: • Date and location of the Congress • Proposed agenda of the Congress • Proposal of Statutory changes • Proposal of changes of Congress Rules • Applications for full membership • Application for associate membership • Changes in member organisations • Programme of Action • Proposal to expel or suspend membership 4 weeks before the Congress/ 6 March 2020: ° Application to become member of the Bureau and other positions • Annual Financial Report with external Auditors report • Annual Budget • Annual report and Bureau reports • Motions and resolutions • Applications for reduced membership fees and payment arrangements 2 weeks before the Congress/ 20 March 2020: • Internal auditors’ report ° Presentation of the Bureau candidates 1 week before the Congress/ 27 March 2020: • Amendments to motions and resolutions Before the start of the Congress • Amendments to amendments of motions and resolutions • Urgent resolutions     Saturday 4 april 2020 9 h 00: Start of the Congress 13 h 00-14 h 00: Lunch 17 h 00: End of the Congress   Since this year we have an electoral Spring Congress, the LYMEC Bureau decided to lower participation costs to ensure equal opportunities in attendance. The fee for congress including accommodation in double rooms Friday-Sunday and meals, is 120 EUR. If you are already based in Skopje or for other reasons are not in need of accommodation, the participation fee for Congress is 75 EUR. Applications for reduced participation fee must be submitted by the registrations deadline together with the application to Congress (case by case decisions). Please take into account the overall cost of your participation to the Congress before registering (participation and travel costs). Participation fees will be refunded - if you have paid already please do send us an invoice with the amount requested as soon as possible. If you didn't pay yet, please don't make your payment anymore.    The application deadline was Friday 24 January 2020 at 14 h 00 CET. REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED!   Please note that there are limited places both to the congress. Member organisations should clearly indicate the order of preference (priority) of the delegates. We guarantee 3 spots for full member organisations and 2 spots for associate member organisations for congress, the rest will be distributed among the organisations in accordance to voting rights. IMS are guaranteed spots for the three delegates, the Steering Committee and six individual members on top of that, selected in accordance with this criteria.  

The Bureau is happy to be able to continue the use of the LYMEC Freedom Fund, making it possible for even more member organisations to be present at our congresses! The Freedom Fund will provide financially strained member organisations with a travel reimbursement for participation in LYMEC congresses. The aim is to increase the democratic aspect of the congress by enabling more member organisations to exercise their voting rights and take part in the highest decision-making body of the organisation. Deadline for applications was Friday 24 January 2020 at 14 h CET together with Congress applications!  We ask applicants to explain the circumstances and reasons of their request, the amount they would be seeking and to take into account the opportunity to get reduced participation fee.   Freedom funds were this time given to the following applicants:

  • Joves Liberals Andorra - 300 EUR
  • Momentum TizenX - 200 EUR
  • ERPY - 300 EUR
  • LLJ - 350 EUR

————————————–   As all LYMEC events, this seminar also applies the rules of late cancellation and no show fees: Cancellation less than 2 weeks prior to the event leads to a late cancellation fee of 50 euro, and cancellation less than 48 hours prior to the event or not attending at all leads to a no-show fee of 100 euro. You have to be logged in to register. By registering for this event you agree to our updated privacy policy and understand that your personal data will be shared with the hotel where you will be staying. Delegates should be of 18 years of age because of insurance reasons. Please make sure that you know your username and password as these are needed to login and register. If you have trouble with the registration, please contact the office. The requests will be handled as soon as possible during office opening hours (Mon-Thu 09-17, Fri 09-14:30).  

  This is an electoral congress, meaning we will elect a new leadership for LYMEC. According to the statutes, the process is the following: Article 22 – Composition and election of the Bureau (1) The Bureau consists of:

  • The President
  • The Vice President 
  • The Treasurer 
  • Four other Bureau members

(2) Candidates for the Bureau may be put forward by full member organisations or an individual member. All members of full member organisations and individual members of LYMEC can be put forward as a candidate for the Bureau. (3) Candidates to the Bureau must be between 18 and 33 years of age on the date of the election. A mailing, introducing all candidates that supplied the secretariat with the necessary material at least four weeks prior to the Congress, shall be sent out at the latest 2 weeks before the Congress. (4) Members of the Bureau are elected by secret ballot for a regular Bureau period of two years according to the procedure specified in the Congress Rules. Bureau members elected in a by-election serve until the end of the regular period. The introduction of all candidates shall be arranged by the Chair during the Congress. (5) Bureau members who have not attended at least half of the meetings in the twelve months following their election will be subject to a vote of confidence by the next Congress. For further information on the electoral procedures, please see chapter VII of the Electoral Rules. In order to facilitate the electoral process, an Election website will be created. To be included in the website and mailing, the candidates must send the following information to [email protected] by Friday, March 6th, 12 pm (noon) CET, applications can still be received at a later stage but they won't be published:

  • Motivation letter clearly stating what position (president/vice president/treasurer/bureau member) the person is running for
  • CV
  • Picture
  • A short (max 60 words) statement on why they are running (for the website)
  • A nomination letter from the Member Organisation (not applicable for Individual Members)
Besides the President, Vice President, Treasurer and four Bureau Members, the Spring Congress in Skopje will also elect two Internal Auditors and their substitutes and the LYMEC representative to IFLRY’s Bureau. For these positions as well, we ask candidates to provide a motivational letter, CV and nomination letter (for MO representatives) by 12 noon on Friday, March 6th if they want to be included in the congress mailing and website. Applications can still be received later but they won't be published anymore. 
LYMEC Delegation to the ALDE Party Congress 2020
For candidates to the LYMEC delegation to the ALDE Party Congress nominations can also be submitted on beforehand and on spot, those submitted before Friday 6th March noon will be included on the webpage. Nominations can, but do not have to, be supported by a nomination letter from the Member Organisation (not applicable for IMS). We recommend everyone to read this guide before running in order to make sure the responsibilities of the delegates are clear. The ALDE Party Congress will be held beginning of December in Stockholm, Sweden. 
For transparency reasons and because we are lacking applications for the ALDE delegation, candidates applying before the Congress will be added to the Elections page. 

 

  Events organised by European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) may be audio- and video-recorded as well as web-streamed. A photographer and/or a cameraman, contracted by LYMEC, may have access to the meeting room in order to take pictures and videos for communication and publication purposes. Videos and pictures taken by the photographer and/or cameraman, contracted by LYMEC, may also be published on the LYMEC website and on related social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc.). They may also be used in other media and means of communication in order to pass on information about the event and activities of LYMEC. The European Liberal Forum might also use the pictures, video or audio in their communications. ***Disclaimer: By registering for this event you give your permission for LYMEC to use your picture in their promotional campaigns and materials and communication about the event. Please make clear in advance if you do not wish your picture to be used by LYMEC.***