Hauptversammlung 2018
By Janet Britnell
Stockerau
Photo by Janet Britnell
The 2018 OAV Hauptversammlung (HV - AGM) weekend was co-hosted by Sektion Stockerau and Sektion Flandern, the other 'Ausland section', founded in 1958 and celebrating their 6Oth anniversary, in Stockerau. This old compact town on the northern bank of the Danube, in Lower Austria (Niederösterreich), ca 2Okm NW of Vienna. with good rail and road links to the rest of Austria, made an ideal location for the HV. Its compactness meant most people just had to walk from their accommodation to the various meetings held in City Hotel or across the square in the events centre Z2000, where the HV itself was held all day Saturday, and the many departments of Alpenvereinshaus in lnnsbruck laid out their stalls ready for the deluge of questions from the 300 representatives from 300 representatives from Alpenverein(AV) sections from all over Austria, and beyond.
Many of the meetings on the fringes of the HV are as important to the sections as the HV itself, and this certainly applied to the 2018 Sektion Britannia team, Mike Garrett (Vice-Chairman and IT Representative), Philippa Carling (Secretary), Tony Cooper (Nature Conservation Representative), Mark Ryder (High Peaks), Cat Mittins (AAC(UK) Office), and myself (Hut Fund Representative and Ausland Representative on the Bundesausschuss (BA - Federal Committee), who arrived with a long list of questions and people we needed to consult. The official programme started with the Huts and Paths Committee meeting on the Thursday afternoon. The BA met all day Friday, and workshop discussions on topical AV themes were held on Friday afternoon, including one on the launch of a year's consultation leading towards a 10-year IT plan for the AV. During Friday evening, many landesverb nde (provincial associations) meetings were held in local restaurants, including the rather more informal Ausland meeting of S. Flandern and S.Britannia representatives and friends.
At the HV itself two brothers from Salzburg were awarded Green Cross medals for over 40 years' outstanding service to mountain rescue, often under very difficult conditions. The Gloggnitzer Hütte, accessible only by foot at 1548m on the northern flank of the Rax Alp in the Vienna drinking water catchment area, was awarded the Environmental 'Seal of Approval'. ln the 2018 guest lecture, Dr Kurt Kotrschal discussed the re-introduction of large predators such as the bear, wolf and lynx and possible conflict and synergy with humans. Other reports included the allocation of funds for hut maintenance; the Whitsun youth camp on 'Edelweiss lsland'; the fight to save the Alpine wilderness from continuing expansion of ski-infrastructure; a celebration of the 1Oth anniversary of the Bergsteigerdörfer (mountaineers' villagers) project, which has recently expanded beyond the Austrian border: in 2018 Jezerko in Slovenia, Kreuth in Bavaria, and Lungiaru in Südtirol were added to the list. Michael Larcher, Head of Bergsport, introduced the SicherAmBerg (safety in the mountains) videos due to go online the following week, with 'The Sheriff', a semi-humorous trailer about safety on climbing walls. The HV voted to accept the subscription increases for 2O2O (the proposed increases had been circulated to all sections for discussion and feed-back early in 2018); the sale, under very circumscribed conditions, of two areas of land in the Hohe Tauern National park to the DAV to enable the modernisation and survival of the Neue Barmer Hütte and the Neue Prager Hütte; and changes to the Constitution to take account of GDPR. This was followed by the elections to the präsidium and the BA. Later on Saturday evening we returned to the hall for the traditional Festabend and more networking.
The first post-HV Sunday walk for many years was well supported by Sektion Britannia, one member from Bavaria, and members of Sektion Stockerau. ln pleasant Autumn weather, we walked the 18km of the Jacobsweg from Karnabrunn to Stockerau, via Michelberg, 409m, with splendid views of the mountains from Schneeberg to Traunstein, and over the Danube to Vienna and the Vienna Woods.
Return to the top of this page, or to the complete Index, or to this section's Index.
