Federation of Maltese Living Abroad
The Federation of Maltese Living Abroad was formerly established in 2010 following the Convention for Maltese Living Abroad.
FOMA
Previous to that, in 2000 the Federation of Maltese Abroad (FOMA) was established following the Convention of Leaders of Associations of Maltese Abroad and of Maltese origin. The assembled delegates then appointed 5 office bearers
- Dr Stephen Gatt – Australia
- Milo Vassallo – Canada
- Dr Carmen Dalli – New Zealand
- Bernard Scerri – U.K.
- Frank Asphar – U.S.A.
FMLA
At the next Convention of Maltese Living Abroad held in Malta ten years later, in March 2010, a group of delegates met to discuss the need to update the terms of reference of the Federation, but no formal recommendations were made that were acceptable to all members present at this meeting.
There was, however, to set up the federation as an organization on a more solid footing with its own constitution and a committee of management. It was agreed and decided to appoint three electoral officers to organize and oversee a formal voting process for the election of a committee for the first time. The three officers were Eddie Micallef (Melbourne, Australia) as chief electoral officer, assisted by Louis Vella (San Francisco, USA) and Fr Victor Camilleri (London, UK).
FMLA Administrative Committee
Following elections held in December 2011, the following were elected for a term of two years to form the FMLA Administrative Committee for 2012-2013:
- President – Professor Maurice Cauchi AM, MQR, Melbourne, Australia
- Vice President – Franklin Mamo Brussels, Belgium
- Secretary and Treasurer – Emmanuel Cilia, Melbourne, Australia.
- Public Relations Officer - Vacant
- Webmaster – Edwin Borg-Manché, Melbourne, Australia
Members
- Doreen Camilleri Novak, Kingston-upon-Thames, UK
- Claudia Caruana, New York, USA
- Mark Caruana, Sydney, Australia
- Isabella Farrugia, Catania, Sicily, Italy
- Alfred Flask, Canberra, ACT, Australia
- Mildred D'Agostino Meyer , California, USA
- Mona Nicholas-Vella, San Francisco, California, USA
- Dr Paul Psaila-Savona, Perth, Western Australia
- Bernard Scerri, London, UK
- Susan Schembri, British Columbia, Canada
- Albert Vella, Toronto, Canada
Achievements
- A register of affiliated associations forming the ‘Federation’ membership with voting rights on issues of relevance was set up in accordance with the Constitution. As at the end of December 2011, the FMLA had a total of 46 affiliated member associations with a combined membership of close to 10,000.
- The publication of FMLA’s newsletter, Maltese Link, which enables the Federation to connect with people of Maltese background, wherever they happen to live around the world. This monthly newsletter became a regular feature among the Federation’s activities. This newsletter has since ceased publication.
- The setting up of a website to serve not only as a source of Maltese diaspora related information, but also as a repository of important data not available elsewhere.