ESC COVERS, which is a EUROVISION fan website, based in Johannesburg, South Africa has decided to look at the various candidates in the upcoming OGAE elections for a new board.

In the second part we look at the 3 candidates standing for the position of SECRETARY.

ESC Covers invites ordinary Eurovision fans and OGAE members to tell us if you have any specific questions for these candidates.

I personally have a question for all three of these candidates. According to our statues the Secretary of the Bureau shall be responsible for the minutes, the accuracy of which is approved by the Bureau ex post facto by simple majority decision. The minutes of a general meeting shall include all relevant documents decided in such a meeting. The minutes shall be sent to all Members of the Presidents’ Board who shall make it available to the members of their respective clubs.

Now I cannot talk on behalf of the other club president’s but I have yet to see the MINUTES of the Stockholm meeting, ONE YEAR after it took place. What is your reaction to this? I know the statues do not give a time frame for minutes to be distributed, but clearly waiting one year for minutes are totaly inacceptable to me and I have forgotten 90% of what was said there by now. How will you, if you are elected as secretary tackle this?
LAUFEY HELGA GUDMUNDSDOTTIR – OGAE ICELAND

I have truly enjoyed being part of OGAE International, the world’s largest ESC fan network, and was honoured to be elected as secretary of the Bureau in 2016. Although one year is not an extensive experience in the Bureau I would like to put my skills forward again for a full term. The OGAE International network has been a success but there are a few adjustments needed. In my opinion we need to be more present on social media and have a more active webpage, the registration of the network in France has proven to be problematic at times and should be revised and last but not least the statutes need a fine-tuning. I still believe that the Bureau members of OGAE International should reflect more the diversity of the network’s members and that we all should celebrate diversity during Eurovision as well as in our network.

MICHAL SMREK – OGAE SLOVAKIA
I was one of the founding members of OGAE Slovakia and served as the club’s vice-president during its first two formation years. This endowed me with skills such as club management, statute writing and registration, member recruitment and PR. I have also been in charge of or- ganising the first convention of the club so I know what it means to be in charge of fun. In my capacity I have attended two Presidents’ meetings of OGAE International which gave me a good picture of how the organisation operates and what tasks and challenges it deals with. I am also a board member at the Department of Government, Uppsala University, defending the interests of my fellow PhD colleagues. This means that I can be tough when defending my point but also very accustomed to listening to others and agreeing on compromises.

SEBASTIEN ROGER CHIPOT – OGAE ITALY
As strong supporter of the Eurovision Song Contest which I have been following for years now. I have always wanted to be involved in this project and the first step I took was to become I am an active member of OGAE Italy, which I joined in 2013. In order to get further involved in the life of OGAE Italy, I have developed a fan survey last year to better understand the need of our fan club and its way forward. I have also embarked on a more challenging project of revamping the OGAE Italy blog into a website, I am currently the project manager of this initiative.
I would like to further support the ESC ambitions and take a more active part in the life of OGAE International and I think I have interesting assets I could put at the service of the organisation especially in the area of communication (both internal and external) and project management for example. I would like to point out that I also have experience in the area of voluntary work as I was nominated Ambassador for Italy for an international organisation promoting the use of natural cosmetics (www.slow-cosmetique.org). I also have experience in meeting preparation (prepare agendas, prepare and distribute minutes, receive and disseminate correspondence to and from the club etc).

I would be very happy to further contribute to the life of OGAE International and to take care – among others – of communication related to OGAE activities as well as administrative tasks. I found it very interesting to be the link between the Bureau, the members and other stakeholders.

ESC COVERS, which is a EUROVISION fan website, based in Johannesburg, South Africa has decided to look at the various candidates in the upcoming OGAE elections for a new board.

In the first part we look at the 3 candidates standing for the position of PRESIDENT.

ESC Covers invites ordinary Eurovision fans and OGAE members to tell us if you have any specific questions for these candidates.

I personally have a question for all three of these candidates. Back in 2009 OGAE clubs had to vote where the statues of OGAE would be hosted. France and Finland were the candidates and there were very little to choose between the two – what however tipped the scale in favour of France for most club presidents was the fact that they said if any non profit organisation registers in France, the French government supplies them with a 5000 euro a year payment – money for nothing – any club can do a lot with that money. Despite me asking year after year, we have never seen the money or got a satisfactory answer to why we have not received it. I feel we had voted on a blatant lie and I want to know what the new OGAE president will do to get the statues away from FRANCE as quickly as possible.
BEN ROBERTSON – OGAE SWEDEN
I stand for President of OGAE International because I believe our current ways of working limit our huge potential. This goes beyond any difficulties with Kyiv and instead focuses on how we must raise our profile, making OGAE International truly fit for purpose. My manifesto is about empowering you as clubs to be more successful, and empowering the International Bureau to be more effective. It is time to truly #empower OGAE.
The full manifesto of Ben can be found here
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7MqZOJ54QgjVjIxZHk5VEQxdVk/view

ANDY MIKHEEV – OGAE REST OF THE WORLD
I enter the OGAE International President elections under the motto “Transparency First”. OGAE network is facing a series of challenges, that need to be addressed, there are several weaknesses in its operations that should be strengthened. The most important of them is the lack of transparency in the operations in the network, when details of the internal processes are not accessible even by presidents of clubs, not even mentioning the general fans, who should be the core of the system.

The full manifesto of Andy can be found here
https://www.facebook.com/notes/andy-mikheev/transparency-first-ogae-international-president-election-manifesto-by-andy-mikhe/10155335675697845/

SIMON BENNETT – OGAE UK
I would very much like to seek another term in office to continue the work that has been started, particularly:
· To build on OGAE’s good reputation as a reliable partner for the EBU and host broadcasters
· To try to secure continued access to OGAE tickets and the EuroClub for our members
· To protect OGAE’s reputation as the premier fan organisation
· To review OGAE International’s legal status in order to simplify our structure and processes
· To give OGAE International greater flexibility in its ability to organise fan facilities in the ESC host cities
· To further improve our on-line presence
· To try to secure a more formal role for OGAE in ESC event planning in order to prevent a recurrence of the difficulties experienced in 2017
· To facilitate individual fans being able to locate and join their local national club

So far it looks like Simon has not published his manifesto in a public forum