Note from Katinka Estrade, President of MPI Belgium Chapter 2020-2022

Dear all, 

Today is an important day for the MPI Belgium Chapter, as the Board starts the new 2021-2022 term. It is my greatest pleasure to announce that the entire MPI Belgium Board was re-elected in May by our members. 

This year we had to say goodbye to two dear Board Members, Elina Jutelyte and Stephanie Raskin. Elina, our Past-President has now officially finished her term on the Board. Thank you Elina, for your continuous support over the past year! Thank you both for your years of hard work and continuous engagement to raise the visibility of MPI Belgium and bring the highest level of education to event professionals! 

Looking back at the past year, our key priorities were: 

1. Improve our membership engagement

2. Relationship strengthening with other associations in Belgium

3. Educational sessions to members and non-members (including event professionals, assistants, and any other association professionals who organise events)

4. Ensure the financial stability of the chapter

5. Improve good governance of the chapter

We are proud to report a few of our achievements from the past year:

• Our Board organised 34 educational sessions for members and non-members (average three per month)

• We started a beautiful and flourishing partnership with our association friends, Visit Brussels and Associationworld

• We welcomed Thomas More to our network, led by Elisabeth Uvin’s unwavering engagement with our chapter and dedication to her students. We also welcomed ten student members

• We won the MPI Chapter Net Growth Award

• We created a stable budget for the chapter

• We worked on good governance by updating our Legal Statutes through a year-long exercise with the Board and members. We are proud it has now been voted and declared at the Moniteur Belge.

All of this would not have been possible without our dedicated and hard working Board Members who do all of this amazing work on a voluntary basis. It is so very impressive, how twelve strangers came together, connected quickly and started to work so effectively and passionately right from the beginning. It has been a wonderful learning process for all of us, to find the perfect balance between twelve unique sets of skills and expertise. I couldn’t be more proud of each of the Board Members’ efforts this year and can’t wait to see how we build on this foundation as the Board moves into its next year together. 

This year, I am incredibly happy to welcome our President-Elect, Sofia Rodrigues, who will be taking on the President role after me. I am very much looking forward to working together in the upcoming year! In addition, it’s my pleasure to welcome two new Board members, Dominic de Gruyter as VP Membership in Belgium and Jeroen Janssens as VP Associations. We are so looking forward to working with you and wish you a fun and fruitful year within your role.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all of our speakers, partners, and collaborators who contributed to our events and to our successful year overall. You all played an important part and our chapter is very grateful for your continuous support.

Now it’s time for a celebration! You are kindly invited to join us to raise a glass on 9 July at our annual picnic. This will be a chance to meet the Board, our members and MPI Belgium friends in person. We hope to see you there!