News

ABRA Meeting Wednesday 7 December

The ABRA December meeting was held at the Renaissance Hotel, Rue Du Parnasse 19, 1050 Brussels. The meeting featured a presentation on Short-Term Accommodation in Belgium by Fiona Klomp, editor of the ReLocate Newsletter, and was followed by a panel discussion. Panel members were Fiona Klomp, Olivier Simeon of Marriott Hotels, and Dave Deruytter of ING Bank. The meeting was followed by a reception. 

To see a PDF of the presentation click here.

Vlerick Expat Event

To see more photos click here.

 

 

On Friday 14 October over 150 participants took part in the third annual Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School Expat Event at ING Bank in Brussels. ABRA was a partner in this very successful event, along with ING Belgium, The Bulletin, xpats.com, and JCI.   The keynote speaker was Professor Dr Kurt Verweire, an expert in strategic management. His presentation “Implementing strategies that work” was followed by a question and answer session.   

After the presentation ING provided a delicious International buffet and participants had an opportunity to chat with Vlerick training experts and to network with the expat-oriented organizations that attended. In addition to the many ABRA members who were present, and the ABRA stand, our organization was also represented by President Eddy Bonne.  

The Board would like to thank the following members for volunteering to man the ABRA stand at the event:

• am&pm relocation - Agnes Vierendeel, Andrea Howard, Arlet Van Maelsaeke and Gaelle Geukens

• B-Aparthotels - Hilda Diodati and Alexander Welp

• Belgian Relocation Center - Sabine Castrique

• World International School - Belinda Yates and Irene Flaherty  

Special thanks to Filip Declercq of Expat & Co for organizing the stand.

ABRA Committees

Over the past months since the AGM in May, the ABRA Board has been busy making plans to restructure the way that the Board works. The Board wants to broaden the participation, and at the same time better reflect the interests its members, by forming committees. The committees are:

Relocation Committee
Head: Eric Klitsch ( ). Responsibilities will be the promotion of relocation, recognition of ABRA, legal compliance, government, CIB IPI/BIV. Training, EARP and communication with EuRA will be carried out with the help of Anita Meyer. Volunteers for this committee should be Full Members.

Membership Committee
Head Marc Van Hoof ( ).
Responsibilities will be updates to the Board on the number of members and advising Admin of potential members to contact. In addition, members of this committee will receive and communicate all problems that could arise from their category of membership (i.e. Full, Local, and Affiliate Members). All ABRA members are invited to join this committee.

Events Committee
Head Dave Deruytter ( ).
Responsibilities will be to organize Board Meetings, Member Meetings (location, sponsor and guest speakers) and all other events, such as the Vlerick event, and coordinate with Admin so that events run smoothly. All ABRA members are invited to join this committee.

For more information about the committee system: 

ABRA Committees PowerPoint presentation
ABRA Committees in PDF format