European Management Assistants Greece was founded in 1982 by Mrs. Helen Bafe. Mrs Bafe is now running her own business as an organiser and a speaker to seminars on the secretarial profession and also is the Honorary Chairman of European Management Assistants Greece. Greece's membership as a National Group of EUMA was ratified during the 1982 AGM in Lillehammer, Norway. Greece was the 10th National Group to become part of European Management Assistants. Following recent legislation requirements and according to the Greek law (Court of the First Instance, Decision NR 5550/96), the Greek Group of European Management Assistants is the only officially acknowledged Union of the profession in Greece. In the year 2002, we celebrated our 20th Anniversary with some special events.

Most of our members live in the Athens area, so we mostly meet in Athens. The working meetings are usually held in various hotel conference rooms once a month, except for the Summer period. Besides the working meetings, we also arrange visits for business, social or cultural reasons to various interesting places.

We are proud to announce that since March 2001, we have our own national website at www.euma-hellas.org. We selected the name "Hellas" instead of "Greece" - the English name for our country - in order to keep the originality of our country's name. Our national website is bilingual (Greek and English language) and reflects the professional image of the EUMA Greek group. It supports the communication between members, advises on websites, training, certification of the profession of Management Assistant, local events, meetings etc.

We have established the following committees to allow our members to acquire experience, as well as to be actively involved in a wide range of activities.

Seminars/Education Committee - responsible for members' further advancement through organising seminars and lectures connected with the secretarial profession.
Committee for Professional Matters - an advisory board whose tasks include: Keeping members informed about any matter relevant to the profession, job hunting & moonlighting, suggestions and support aimed at career development for secretaries, market surveys.
(National) Central Secretariat - keeps the database of all European Management Assistants Hellas members.
Press Committee - responsible for establishing good relations with the Press towards the secretarial profession. Its duties also include the issuing of periodical press releases regarding the activities of the National Group.
New Members' Committee - deals with the selection and recruitment of new members. Its tasks also include the briefing of new members about European Management Assistants' aims, history, activities, etc.
Focus Committee - deals with introducing members and guests to the culture, traditions, and the business environment of the country hosting the European Annual Conference and AGM of European Management Assistants. Those European events are held in a different location every year.
Social Activities Committee - caters for matters of a social and cultural nature.
EUMA Hellas NOLET (National On-Line Editorial Team) - assists in providing information for the www.euma.org site.
Bazaar Committee - organises the annual Bazaar (held at Christmas time).

The membership fee in 2007 for Full Members is 95 Euros, whilst for retired members it is 45 Euros.

"IMPETUS"
Is the local European Management Assistants Greece magazine, which is published quarterly in Greek. It is distributed among European Management Assistants members, as well as the business world.

Since most of our members have email addresses and access to the internet, we replaced the paper printing format of Impetus with an electronic format in 2003.

Annual Conference
In 1987, European Management Assistants Greece organised a most successful 13th AGM and Conference. 350 enthusiastic secretaries attended this event from all over Europe.

In 2004 (year of the Olympic Games undertaken by Greece) the 30th European AGM and Conference took place in Greece.

In 2006, the 1^st Panhellenic Conference for Secretaries and Top Management Assistants was held in Athens, organized by Q-Training with the support of EUMA Hellas. This event was attended by 450 secretaries and top Management Assistants from major companies in Greece.

Managers Meet Secretaries
Ms. Bafe's idea of having yearly "Managers Meet Secretaries" events first materialised in 1990. Distinguished guest speakers from the State and the Business world make the function a really special one. The success of the formula has led other National Groups to introduce it locally.

"Train the Trainers"
EUMA Greece is proud to have conducted the first EUMA Secretarial Trainers Program. Villy Paritsi, a professional trainer and EUMA member herself, launched the "Train the Trainers" program within EUMA, so that other secretaries can become coaches to newcomers to the profession and thus offer a solution to the problems of downsizing.

The "Train the Trainers" program was implemented in May and June 1996. 15 Top secretaries undertook the basic training and they are now in the market, offering their services as Trainers to private organisations.

Because of the success of this course, as well as receiving requests from our new members, the training program will be repeated at the future.

Local events Seminars, lectures, training sessions, "Managers meet secretaries", company and cultural visits, social gatherings and other social and professional activities can be found on our website (see above link).