Blog

1. IMPORT
The past year proved to be very fruitful for ELISM, since all our planned activities were carried out, and in fact very satisfactorily, as confirmed by the strict criticisms of the Board of Directors, the organizations with which we collaborated, and your own impressions.

2. MEMBERS 
In 2015, 26 new members were registered, and an additional 31, Seminary Students. Also, last year, the magazine's subscribers increased by 2.

It is recalled that the full member receives the magazine, but there are also simple subscribers to it. Fortunately, we did not have any cancellations of members for 2015, although unfortunately many of our members were not consistent in their subscription obligation, despite the relevant letter that was sent to them.

3. ORGANIZATION – COMMITTEES E E

3.1. Organization
The organizational structure did not change, the Statute is in force as usual, the Internal Regulation of the Institute was drafted, which, after a thorough discussion of its articles by the members of the Board of Directors, was finally approved a month ago.

There were no changes to the Board of Directors, while 2 Committees were established, one for "Hellenic Diaspora" Issues and the other for "Detecting the Impressions of Our Members from the Institute's Activities"   

3.2. EU COMMITTEES
3.2.1. 1st EU (Committee on Internal-Political-Economic-Developmental & Organizational Issues) with Commissioner Mr. Zacontinos, deals with internal issues that are basically related to Politics and the Economy in general, as well as evaluating corresponding International issues that may affect the Greek reality.

In this context, its activity for 2015 focused on the preparation of two papers, the first of which concerned the establishment - purpose and mode of operation of the ECB (European Central Bank) and the second of which concerned the IMF (International Monetary Fund).

The above two tasks, due to substantial difficulties of the chairman of the committee, could not be completed in 2015.
Also in the field of exploratory contacts with institutional bodies to achieve collaborations, a meeting and discussion was held with bodies of the Region of Western Macedonia.

3.2.2.2. The EU (Committee on Internal Defense - Security and Internal Identity) with Commissioner Mr. Basharas.
Its members held 5 meetings and handled the following 4 issues (Files):
"Crisis Management" FILE, which was closed.
The 2 FILES "Common European Foreign and Security Policy" and "Reserve - Service", "National Identity, Education, Culture" are in progress.
Another 2 FILES "'National Interests, Objectives and Strategy", and "'Asymmetric Threats (Critical Infrastructures - Information Systems & Networks - Cyberspace - Cyberwarfare", have not yet been opened.

3.2.3. The 3rd EU (Committee on International Relations & International Law of National Interest Abroad) with Commissioner Mr. Doudoumis.
He constantly monitored international developments and informed the Board of Directors about them at its weekly meetings.
He took the initiative to write a collective volume by twelve editors (9 members of EL.I.S.M.E., 2 university professors and 1 Academic) on the topic "The geopolitical value of the Balkan countries in the West - Russia conflict". It is estimated that this volume will be ready for printing within the coming weeks. This work is to be used for the benefit of EL.I.S.M.E., since the writing of the individual chapters is offered free of charge.

4. LIBRARY-ELECTRONIC DATABASE
4.1. The Library was enriched with 11 new books, donated to the Institute, many Studies, Workshops and Conferences of ELESME were added to them as well as a number of 30 CDs, the numbering of the books was completed, with the result that their number from 800 in 2014 will hopefully reach 1187 by the end of 2015. All these data can be seen by the visitor in the Electronic Catalog of books from the Institute's Website.

4.2 A committee consisting of Messrs. Daskalakis, Kolombakis, Koutroumanis and Politis, responsible for the computerization of the Secretariat's data, with the aim of more complete handling of correspondence, proceeded to record the information required to be included in each file (file structure). This work continues with the drafting of a program for the interconnection as well as the completion of the fields.

5. SPEECHES AT ELISMES OFFICES
13 speeches were given by our members and 5 by friends of the Institute.

6. RESEARCH PROJECT
An open proposal for undertaking a research project by prospective researchers was published through the ELISME website. There was interest from a total of 8 people, two of whom have already registered as our members. The first is Ms. Aristea Tsamadia who undertook the project “The financial crisis and its response in the USA & E/E”. The topic falls under the 1st EE supervisor, Mr. Voutsinas, and the work will be completed in April.
The second researcher is Ms. Vasiliki Kountouroyannis with the topic "Globalization and National Identity" of the 2nd UE, supervised by Mr. Daskalakis and ending in May.
The relevant contacts have been made for two more researchers and within the first quarter the topics of the relevant work will be assigned and the supervisors will be determined.

7. SPONSORS
Also, following the Latsis Foundation's ANNOUNCEMENT regarding grants to Institutions-Institutes, a complete file was submitted with the requested information for a grant of 5000 E, to cover secretarial support needs. The relevant decision of the Foundation was posted on the internet 10 days ago and was negative for ELISME, as well as for all similar Institutes.  

8. WORKSHOPS-CONFERENCES-SEMINARS

8.1. On April 30, a conference was co-organized with the Crispi Foundation on the topic "The Skopje issue and Greece's positions", with Mr. Stergiou as the coordinator and Mr. Daskalakis, Doudoumis, and Martzoukos as speakers from ELISME.

8.2. On 30 Oct., a conference was co-organized with the Academy of Athens on the topic "The internal security of the country, current situation and prospects", with Mr. Vrettos as the coordinator and 2 of our speakers, Mr. Argyropoulos and Daskalakis.
The proceedings of both Workshops were sent to the competent bodies for information and actions on their behalf.

8.3. From 12 Oct. to 14 Dec. a Seminar was held at the Institute's offices on the topic of "Defense and Strategy". Out of the 45 applicants, 32 students attended, a very satisfactory number. The evaluation and comments from them were particularly positive and flattering for the Institute. The 10 lecturers, members of the Institute, were considered excellent trainers, according to the students' judgment. At the end of the Seminar, the Students received a relevant Certificate of Attendance as well as all the Lecturers' texts in electronic form.

9. OUR PARTICIPATION IN EVENTS OF OTHER BODIES
7 of our members were invited as speakers at events of other organizations and 4 of our members participated in IDIS events.

10. ASSIGNMENT OF STUDIES
   
The prepared Study on the topic "Optimization of the Management Structure and the Organizational Chart of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff and the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces Branches" was submitted to the Hellenic National Defense General Staff and approval is awaited for the assignment of a new Study by the same body on the topic of "Energy Diplomacy"

11. 'PROBLEMATISMOI' MAGAZINE
Its publication continued in 2015 under the care, as in previous years, of Mr. Argyropoulos. The published copies were sent to our members, subscribers, as well as to Military Formations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Universities.
Also, in the 4 editions of 2015, all the speeches of the speakers invited to our own conferences as well as to the events of other organizations to which we had provided speakers were published.

12. WEBSITE – FACEBOOK – TWITTER

12.1. WEBSITE

12.1.1. 36 Actions were presented, which were 6 Workshops, 22 speeches to the members and friends of the Institute, 19 opinions and proposals from our members and 23 friends of EL.I.S.M.E and 8 Book Presentations                                                                           

12.1.2. 225 Articles were posted. Specifically 4 on studies, 14 on international developments and strategic assessments, 96 on national foreign policy issues, 68 on issues of national interest, 14 on defense-security issues, 1 on the international economy, 3 on issues of geostrategic interest and 23 on other various issues. It should be particularly mentioned that regarding the Cyprus issue, announcements were repeatedly issued, relevant to our positions on this major National issue.                                  

12.1.3. Finally, 35 Announcements-Invitations and Press Releases were posted.                                                                                                          

12.1.4. Website traffic exceeded 364500 visitors, 105 articles had more than 1000 visitors and 16 articles had more than 2000.

12.1.5. As part of its improvement, there was a radical reformation of the website with basic features, as you will have noticed, simplicity, ergonomics, attractiveness, comprehensiveness, timeliness, easy search, access and processing of a true treasure trove of articles, actions, opinions, texts, books, as mentioned above. Also, from the end of the year, a serious effort of the Website began to improve the Marketing of the Institute, through promotion, announcements, book presentations, advertisements, etc. 

12.1.6. Finally, as a comment on the Website, we can say that ELISME should, for 2016, seek to increase the number of articles on the topics of Merchant Shipping, Tourism, Greeks Abroad, Society, Justice, Labor and Health. 

12.2. FACEBOOK
Essentially, in its first year, it operated with great success with more than 300 posts and over 350 Likes per day.                                                 

12.3. TWITTER
At the end of September, it was designed, developed and activated under the management of Mr. Myrogiannis. Already in the first 3 months of 2015, more than 200 Tweets were uploaded, while it is currently followed by 330 Followers. 

13. PARTICIPATION IN T/O AND R/F STATIONS

In total, there were 8 participations of our members in television and online channel broadcasts, in which the Institute's positions and opinions were presented in the best possible way.

14. OUR PARTICIPATION IN MAGAZINES AND WEBSITES
Mr. Daskalakis contributed 4 articles to corresponding editions of "New Politics", 4 articles to "Ethniki Echo" and 37 articles to the "New Politics" website.

15. BOOK PRESENTATIONS
Two of our books were published by the KADMOS publishing house, the first entitled "Our Thrace is Bleeding" and the second with the falsified title "Greece is in danger, save it".