FMSI – Fondazione Marista per la Solidarietà Internazionale

The Board of Directors’ meeting of FMSI was held on 27 February. The meeting took place in Rome at the head office, in the presence of all the members of the Board of Directors of the Foundation and the Board of Auditors.Mario Meuti and Jim Jolley, directors of the Rome and Geneva offices respectively, also took part. The Board of Directors’ meeting has ideally closed 2012 and inaugurated a new year of activity for the Foundation. This is in fact the session in which the Directors make a balance of what was achieved in the previous year and approve the plan of action for the year in course.

The first point of order was the nomination of the President: the Board voted unanimously to confirm Michael De Waas, who begins his second term at the wheel of FMSI. Br Michael De Waas belongs to the Congregation of the Marist Brothers of the Schools, and is one of the General Councillors of the Marist Institute. This guarantees the smooth relationship and continuing harmony between FMSI and the Marist Institute, of which the Foundation is an instrument and expression. Among the other points examined by the Board of Aunditors were: the approval of the final balance and the budget; the report on the activities of 2012 with particular reference to the work at the United Nations, the training programs on the rights of children and the solidarity projects which FMSI has carried out; the updating on the principal activities in course, which are going to be developed in the coming months.

The Board of Directors’ meeting was preceded by a work session of the Board of Auditors at the Foundation office. In conformity with the statute of FMSI and Italian law, the Auditors are responsible for a double inspection: of the accounting management – to verify the correspondence of the accounting records with the values inscribed in the balance; and the legitimacy of the employment of the funds – to verify that they are used in a way conforming to the law and to the institutional aims of the Foundation. The Board of Auditors therefore carried out its customary auditing and drew up its report on the final balance prepared by the President. This report, explained during the Board of Directors’ meeting, confirmed the clarity and the veracity of the balance and the correct representation of the patrimonial and financial situation of FMSI.