Yesterday we held our 2024 AGM at Portlaoise Plaza and I want to thank all who attended in person and online. Last year marked a period of significant transformation for the association, with numerous changes to our operational processes and the tools at our disposal as a committee, alongside the changes happening across the EV landscape that is the focus of our work. While we are not where we want to be in everything we set out to achieve last year, everything has its ups and downs and we are thankfully working from a good position, one that we can continue to build upon. It has been an absolute pleasure to lead this committee and the Association for the past year and I am delighted to be in a position to do so for another year, and I thank you all for the continued input and support.
Coming into the AGM, we had three positions to fill this year with Kevin Dowling, Inge Davidsen and Tony Joyce leaving the committee. It is never easy when you are loosing people from a committee like this, as like any other year where someone steps back from the committee, we no longer have that individual there who has done so much to help us to be where we are now!
Kevin stepped up as Chair in the year I joined the committee, and I am thankful for his encouragement, time and input when I stepped up into this role last year. He has been fantastic to bounce ideas off of, and to give guidance with his limited bandwidth due to his busy schedule. He has been part of the furniture here for a while, and has been a key member in the foundation of our payment and CRM systems of Stripe and Hubspot we use day-to-day as an Association. He has done so much more than that, and it is important to highlight the position we are in today has come about from the work of others before us, and Kevin has been critical in many, many ways! I have no doubt we will still see him around the place, as I know this work is something close to his heart and a passion to get it right.
Inge Davidsen joined IEVA at the same time as myself in 2022. At that time he was more actively involved than I was starting out, as alongside Guillaume Seguin he had formed what we now know as the 'Irish EV Association' YouTube channel under the banner of 'EV TV Ireland' in 2019. This collection of videos has served as a reliable resource for newcomers and seasoned enthusiasts in the realm of EVs, offering a substantial library of clear and concise content that is ideal for individuals entering the world of EVs, as well as new content to keep people up to date with what is happening with the Association and our work. This is something we must keep going and to build from, but the strong base that we have to work from is due to Inge and his dedication to this work over the past few years.
Finally to Tony Joyce. Tony joined the committee last year, and while only serving a single year with the committee, his input has been invaluable and it is a pity to not have him returning for another year. I want to highlight the input from Tony around our ongoing work as a committee throughout the year where he always had a thought or opinion to what we were doing or what our plans were, and to help give his view and input to steer our work in the right direction. While his time has been short, he had been an excellent individual to contribute and to help out where he could.
Thank you to you all!
As we look towards the coming year, we have a strong sense of direction. We are seeing a large media narrative that is very negative to the world of EV's, something that is impossible to miss and a place where we have a strong thirst to combat this head on, with plans being drawn up as we speak as to how we combat this. Our Strategy Day last year was a key moment in developing our plans as an association in the second half of the 2023 committee term. We are going to build on this in our work around EV mythbusting and a vision for the future where clear, concise and real-world information and views that are brought forward in a way where people can understand where the transition to EVs is going! We have many areas of concern, and we will continue our work to support the critical transition to EVs for the mass-market.
Finally, I want to welcome our three new committee members, Andrine Mendez, Bodgan Duzel and Carl Coates. While it can be an unknown with what's to come when three committee members are stepping back, I am glad to see these three come forward and to be voted in by our members to join us for the coming year.
With that, I present to you your 2024 Committee:
| Role | Name |
|---|---|
| Chair | Matthew Sealy |
| Vice Chair & Treasurer | Annette Lynch Conway |
| Secretary | Thomas McGuire |
| Membership Officer | Bryan Hickson |
| Events Officer | Derek Reilly |
| IT Officer | Roland Krijnen |
| Without portfolio | Blake Boland |
| Without portfolio | Darby Mullen |
| Newly elected | Andrine Mendez |
| Newly elected | Bogdan Duzel |
| Newly elected | Carl Coates |
I would like to congratulate the returning committee members on their re-election and to extend a warm welcome to our newly elected committee members. We are once again heading into an exciting year, with lots of challenges and ongoing changes. Let's keep up the great work, and aim for another successful year!
Matthew Sealy, IEVA Chair