Dear Volters!

We hope that this newsletter finds you well!

Summer Break

The Board of Volt Belgium will be on summer break until the end of August, as we are individually taking a few weeks off to recharge our batteries and to spend some time off grid. Together with the Board of Volt Europa, we are encouraging all Volt volunteers to take the month of August off too 🙂 #noburnout

Given the Italian snap elections (more about it below) as well as the possibility of some of you wanting to dedicate your vacation time to finally volunteer for Volt, you can however always reach us at board@voltbelgium.org. We will respond within three days.

Before going on a summer holiday, we would like to share some of the events we had and the projects we have worked on in the last month.

Volt Belgium at FestiVolt

Upcoming General Assemblies

• 8 & 9 October: Volt Europa General Assembly in Prague. Have you already bought your tickets? 😉 More info and Ticket registration here - Members-only Infochannel and Discussion group here.
• 22 or 23 October: Volt Belgium General Assembly in Flanders. Exact day and location will be communicated to you in due time.

IMPORTANT: In order to vote at either General Assemblies, you must be a member of Volt Europa and Volt Belgium respectively. If you are not a member yet, to vote at the Volt Europa General Assembly you must become a member of any of Volt national chapters before Sunday 4 September and to vote at the Volt Belgium General Assembly a member of Volt Belgium before 21 September.

You can sign up as a member here.

In the case you are a Volter living in Belgium but a member of a national Volt chapter other than Volt Belgium, that allows double membership, you may also apply for Belgian membership by sending an email to secgen@voltbelgium.org.

Announcements

• We are happy to announce two new additions to the Belgian team. The Belgian Board appointed Jordy Vanpoucke as Secretary General ad interim and Frans Wiggers as Community Lead. Jordy will support the Board in finalising and executing the 2024 election strategy and take over the day-to-day management of the functional teams, while Frans will build a new national community team to coordinate onboardings, diversity, team building and local expansion. You can reach them at secgen@voltbelgium.org and community@voltbelgium.org respectively.
• There are still many vacancies within the Belgian team! Help us fill essential functions such as Secretary General (D/F), Community Lead (D/F), Policy Lead (D/F), Communication Lead (D/F/M), and Events Lead (D/F/M), and many more. You can read up on our vacancies here. You want to become active and don’t know how? Send us an email at secgen@voltbelgium.org. We welcome you to join the team.
• Bank Accounts, Finances and Fundraising: The board has successfully taken ownership over and consolidated the bank accounts. Our bank account will remain the Belfius bank account (BE29 0689 1061 0664). Our treasurer Martin Sommer has now access to all of our transactions and plans to periodically report on our expenses and incomes. Further, we will now look into financially empowering our local teams as well as getting the funds for full-timers and election campaigns.

Past Highlights

• On 25 June, a delegation of Belgian Volters attended the FestiVolt in Delft, a festival organised by Volt Netherlands with keynote speeches, workshops and plenty of networking with Volters from across Europe.
• On 28 June, Volt MEP Damian Boeselager came to a Meet & Greet in Brussels to tell us about his work in the European Parliament and his team’s strategy for the coming two years.
• On 30 June, our national policy team organised a policy discussion evening in Leuven, with a special focus on policies in the making.
• On 6 July, Volt Brussels organised an Election Evening, dedicated to identifying policy priorities and talking about election strategy.
• On 12 July, Volt Antwerpen organised their Policy and Pasta evening - a delightful brainstorming session on the themes the team wants to address in 2024.
• On 13 July, Volt Leuven organised their Leuven Cafe Volt, a social event in a local pub to talk about politics and discuss local challengres.

Volt Belgium Policy Discussion in Leuven

Snap Elections in Italy & You

The government led by Mario Draghi collapsed two weeks ago and elections were immediately announced. Italians will vote on September, 25th 2022 for a new Parliament, Italian Expats vote already on around September 18. In order for Volt Italy to run in the constituency for Italians living abroad (Europe), we need to collect 250 signatures in very very little time: by the 12th August.

What can I and my local Volt team do?

SIGNATURES: The signatures need to be made by Italians living in a foreign European country (officially registered at AIRE) and you need to sign in person at your consulate (both Charleroi and Brussels have our forms, as well as many others all around Europe). If you want to sing, check the details in this page. Please also share this with anyone else you know who is an Italian citizen living abroad in Europe!

If you can’t sign but would like to help with the campaign to collect signatures first, and then with the real political campaign late August/September, please sign your name here. We have listed all cities with the Italian consulates we’d like to focus on, yet any city is important also for elections.

Join our WhatsApp group to learn more!

Volt MEP Damian Boeselager presenting his work at a Meet & Greet in Brussels

News from Volt Europa 🇪🇺

Congratulations to the team of Volt Czechia for becoming a legally recognised party! With a successful media coverage of their first press conference, Volt Czechia has set the tone for their first participation in the municipal elections in Prague. Let’s celebrate this success together at the European General Assembly in Prague!

Growing our presence in Liège

After a successful edition of the first Volt Café in Liège, we all invite you to join us again on the 11th of August at 19h for a drink and a chat in Obar in Liège. You can find all the details on the Facebook Event.

Volt will also be present in Liège at Les Retrouvailles taking place the 3rd and 4th of September. Les Retrouvailles is a chance for organisations of all sizes and backgrounds to show themselves to the Liège citizen’s - and it’s the perfect opportunity for Volt to turn Liège purple. You can find more information on the event on their website. We are still looking for volunteers, especially Francophone, to strengthen our team during this event. For more information on joining us at Les Retrouvailles send an email to our ad-interim secretary general at secgen@voltbelgium.org.

Get in touch with us

If you have any questions, or if you want to get in touch with the Board, please send an email to board@voltbelgium.org.

Do not answer directly to this newsletter, as we do not receive the responses.
Thank you for reading!

Johanna and Carlo,
For the Board of Volt Belgium