THE Guyana National Youth Council (GNYC) is calling for nominations for young people as it readies to elect its 2019/2020 Executive Committee.

According to information released by the council through its Facebook page, “Over the past couple of weeks, GNYC’s constitution committee headed by Chairman Chevy Devonish and his seven-member committee has been working to finalise the governance structure of the new GNYC.”

This structure will see persons being elected as President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, Sports Development Chairperson, Policy and Advocacy Chairperson, Resource Mobilisation Chairperson, Monitoring and Evaluation Chairperson and Inclusion and Regional Participation Chairperson.

Nominations are also open for the Chairpersons of each of the 10 Regional Youth Development councils (YDCs) to be established in each administrative region.

“The council has been governed by a steering committee for quite some time and it is now time for persons who have led this ambitious venture to hand it over to the young people to whom it belongs,” steering committee member, Derwayne Wills told the Guyana Chronicle recently.

As the council seeks to broaden its base and include more youth into a national network, it opened membership applications in August, 2018.

Young persons may become eligible to vote and contest at the GNYC’s General Assembly and Executive Elections once registered with the council between August 20 and October 31, 2018.

Persons must also fall within the category of ‘youth’, that is, be between the ages of 18 and 35 years old.

The general assembly and elections will be held later this month as the GNYC seeks to formalise its members and kick start the council to foster greater youth development in Guyana.

The council came into being in 2014 due to cognisance that there was a gap in youth representation in Guyana. Later, it functioned to promote active citizenship among youth. And while there are a plethora of youth organisations across Guyana, there is no umbrella organisation which amalgamates the common interest of developing youth and that also led to the creation of the GNYC.