Jože Rovan remains at the helm of the Alpine Association of Slovenia

At the regular annual and electoral assembly of the Alpine Association of Slovenia (PZS), held on April 23 in Sevnica, delegates from mountaineering associations elected the current PZS president Jože Rovan as president of the umbrella mountaineering organization, who thus remains at the helm of one of Slovenia's largest volunteer organizations for a second term. The vice-presidents for the 2022-2026 term will be Roman Ponebšek, Martin Šolar, Jožef Bobovnik, and Miha Habjan.

In Sevnica, 117 delegates from mountaineering associations gathered, making the assembly quorate with 40% attendance of delegates, who practically unanimously supported the sole candidate for PZS president for the 2022-2026 term. Thus, they expressed their trust in Jože Rovan (PD Ljubljana Matica) for the second time; he has been involved in the mountaineering organization for decades as a mountain guard, mountain guide, path marker, path marker instructor, and touring cyclist guide before taking on the responsible role of leading PZS four years ago. With strong support from the delegates of mountaineering associations, he will lead the umbrella mountaineering organization with nearly 60,000 members for the next term as well.

The assembly also held elections for the new presidency as well as the management and supervisory boards of PZS. On the proposal of the new president Jože Rovan, the current vice-presidents Roman Ponebšek (PD Litija), formerly head of the PZS Youth Commission and president of PD Litija, and Martin Šolar (PD Bohinjska Bistrica), former director of Triglav National Park, active in the PZS Youth, Mountaineering, and Economic Commissions, were confirmed as presidency members, along with long-time PZS management board member and PD Fram president Jožef Bobovnik (PD Fram), active member of the PZS Mountaineering Commission, and alpinist and mountain guide Miha Habjan (Academic Mountaineering Association), former head of the PZS Mountaineering Commission. The PZS General Secretary remains Damjan Omerzu (PD Bohor Senovo).

"Our term over the past two years has been marked by the COVID-19 pandemic; we lost 16 percent of our membership, and our first task is to bring members back to our ranks. We can be optimistic, as membership in the first four months of this year is at pre-COVID levels. We have some permanent tasks, such as safety, which we strive to ensure through training, demonstrations of proper hiking on tours by mountaineering associations, professional mountaineering literature, and quality maps. Another permanent task is nature conservation, so we include only those mountaineering activities that do not have an excessive impact on the natural environment. We have also set ourselves the goal of better work with the elderly, as the population, including the mountaineering one, is aging, and mountaineering programs need to be adapted for them. We must not forget the young; we used the COVID period well for training mentors, and now we are striving for mountaineering groups in schools to become active again. We will also focus on our sports branches, namely alpinism, sport and ice climbing, and ski touring, where we want to further improve the already high level of results. Our mountain huts are not in the best condition and require energy and environmental renovation. The same applies to paths, but we are relatively optimistic there because the amendment to the Mountaineering Trails Act also brings state co-financing for training path markers and maintaining mountaineering paths. Last year, after a long time, a call for environmental and energy renovation of mountain huts was realized; associations used it well, works are underway, of course with co-financing from associations and sponsors. We will strive for such calls to become a staple, as Slovenian tourism needs well-maintained paths and updated huts," said Jože Rovan about the further challenges of the mountaineering organization, thanking for the trust after the election.

For the management board members, Niko Bertoncelj (PD Podpeč-Preserje), Milena Brešan (PD Tolmin), Aleš Drekonja (PD Preddvor), Igor Oprešnik (KPD Hej gremo naprej Maribor), Bojan Rotovnik (PD Šoštanj), Aldo Zubin (OPD Koper), and Jakob Zupanc (PD Srednja vas v Bohinju) were elected. The President of the PZS Supervisory Board remains Franc Ekar (PD Preddvor), and for supervisory board members, Brigita Čeh (PD Ljutomer), Nataša Kocjančič (PD Postojna), Mirko Tovšak (PD Mislinja), and Valerija Vidmar (PD Krka Novo mesto) were elected.

The electoral assembly took place in a good working and constructive atmosphere; all submitted reports were approved, including the PZS bodies' reports for 2021 (more in PZS Chronicle 2021), and the outline content and financial work program of PZS for 2023. The cultural program before the assembly was organized by PD Lisca Sevnica, enriched with songs and humor by students from OŠ Boštanj and OŠ Sava Kladnika Sevnica. Mountaineers from all over Slovenia were proudly greeted at the foot of Lisca by PD Lisca Sevnica president Peter Požun and Sevnica Municipality Mayor Srečko Ocvirk; the audience was also addressed by President of the Olympic Committee of Slovenia - Association of Sports Federations Bogdan Gabrovec and representative of Triglav National Park Sašo Hrovat.

Before the assembly, the workshop "Mountain Huts and the Trend of Environmental Requirements" aroused interest among association workers. The next opportunity for mountaineering socializing will be Slovenian Mountaineers' Day and Kamnik Mountains Day, which with a diverse program for mountaineers of all generations, touring cyclists, and other nature lovers invites to Kamniška Bistrica on June 11, 2022. New clubs were admitted to PZS membership: Climbing Club Sevnica, Climbing Club Dobre razmere, and Sport Climbing Club Vizija; the president and general secretary thanked long-serving meritorious mountaineering workers Marinka Koželj Stepic, Mirko Tovšak, Mira Mlinar, and Franc Benedik with book gifts.