Only eleven days after Pulse’s EGM, it was Studenti Demokristjani Maltin (SDM)’s opportunity to hold its Annual General Meeting. Following last month’s elections at Junior College and Mcast, both SDM and Pulse, as per tradition, elected a new executive board.
The Two Executives
At first glance, one might easily spot the variance in member numbers, with Pulse electing 19; just one less from the preceding executive, which had a team of 20 members. On the other hand, SDM has decided to stick with a 15-member board; with the mere difference that all members will be given specific roles, in contrast to last year’s board, which incorporated 3 board members to the 12 fixed executive roles.
Furthermore, during Pulse’s Extraordinary General Meeting, a Pulse executive board in Junior college was introduced, which will be constituted of 9 roles. The person responsible for this executive will be Jillian Spiteri, who has been elected as the Junior College co-ordinator. SDM also has a separate executive board for Junior College with 10 members, with Claire Muscat — Luke Muscat’s younger sister- elected as Secretary General. Distinct from SDM, Pulse involves members both from Junior College, as well as Mcast as part of their team — 31.5% (6 members) of the new executive not being University students.
The People who Stepped Down
During the past weeks, we have witnessed several members from both organisations who announced their intention to cease their participation in student activism, via social media. The most noticeable happen to be the presidents of both Pulse and SDM, Matthew Zerafa and Joseph Grech, respectively. Matthew Zerafa, who joined Pulse four years ago, represented the organisation in KSJC as President in the year 2011-2012, while Joseph Grech, who joined SDM way back in 2006, thanked the previous SDM presidents -with the most recent being Mark Grech, James Cassar and Stefan Balzan- who “made what SDM is today”. Furthermore, Ayrton Saffrett, Ernest Mercieca and Armando D’Amico announced that they will not be contesting again for their roles on the SDM board. Clara Fenech, Claire Azzopardi, Ryan Pace and Chris Vella have also stepped down from the Pulse executive.
The Newcomers
Upon its promise of implementing change, Pulse has introduced a total of 9 fresh faces in the executive, which amounts to 47.3% of their executive board. While some of the newly introduced people have already worked for the organisation, such as Jillian Spiteri (Junior College Co-ordinator) and Luanne Galea (Treasurer), others are quite unfamiliar, such as Luke Attard (Gozo Co-ordinator) and Darryl Farrugia (Media officer).
On the other hand, only 5 out of SDM’s 15 executive members have been changed, with 3 of them being quite familiar amongst SDM activists; Leo Muscat (Social Policy Commissioner), Gabriel Camilleri (Human Resources Officer), Matthew John Dougall (Events Co-ordinator) and Kurt Grech (Mcast Co-ordinator). Nevertheless, Beppe Galea (Gozo Co-ordinator), might be a new face in the SDM executive.
Presidents
Luke Muscat and Wayne Sammut, the SDM and Pulse presidents have previously both contested unsuccessfully for the role of President in the Junior College Students Council. Muscat contested in 2011, against Matthew Zerafa, who is now the former Pulse President, while Sammut contested two years later in 2013, against Simon Forster, who has just finished his term as the Junior College Student Council’s President.
The only minor advantage that Muscat might have is that this is his third year in the SDM’s executive, after formerly occupying the roles of Junior College Co-ordinator and Vice-President. On the other hand, this is only the second year that Sammut is serving in the Pulse’s executive, having occupied the role of Deputy Secretary General during the last term.
Vice Presidents
On the other hand, it is the second experience in the executive for both organisations’ Vice-Presidents, Ian Zahra (SDM) and Ayrton Mifsud (Pulse), after occupying the roles of Secretary General and Social Policy Commissioner respectively. One might also add that while Mifsud has a year of experience in the Junior College Student Council after being elected as the Education Commissioner in 2012, while Zahra has unsuccessfully contested for these elections in the previous year.
Ultimately, we would like to wish both executive boards all the best for their work, and we hope that they will continue working hard to voice the views of the students.
