PZS – GRZS Agreement Signed

In the main hall of the National Home of the Municipality of Celje, on Saturday, December 4, 2010, an extraordinary assembly of the Alpine Association of Slovenia took place. 130 delegates out of 257 mountaineering associations gathered. In the second part, the number even increased to 132 delegates. After the musical introduction by the Šaleški Student Octet, PZS President Bojan Rotovnik greeted all those present in his address. In his speech, he particularly highlighted the foundation of mountaineering, volunteering, and congratulated Rozalija Skobe (PD Krka Novo mesto), who received the award for the most volunteer of 2010, and greeted the ambassador of the European Year of Volunteering 2011, Magdalena Strmšek from PD Moravče. He expressed the desire to move from the formal frameworks in which the mountaineering organization currently operates to more substantive activities, such as the renewal of the Ciciban planinec and Mladi Planinec campaigns. In addition to discussing the guidelines for the new statute, the substantive and financial work plan for 2011, discussed at this assembly, are also important. At the end, he called on the mountaineering associations to pay their obligations to the Slovenian Mountaineering Museum.



The working chairwoman was elected as the president of the Savinja Inter-Association Committee, Manja Rajh. The proposal by Marjan Burja (PD Kranj) to exclude the point on guidelines for the new PZS statute was not accepted, so the assembly continued according to the proposed agenda.



This was followed by the presentation of the PZS and GRZS cooperation agreement, presented to the audience by PZS Vice President Tone Tomše. After a chronological overview of the cooperation, the substantive part followed, as the cooperation between the two associations should benefit mountain visitors in terms of safety care, in the preventive field, exchange of experiences and transfer of knowledge to members of both associations and the broader mountaineering and general public. The Mountains and Safety Committee was also established, consisting of representatives from PZS (Borut Peršolja, Drago Horjak, Tomo Česen) and GRZS (Franc Miš, Jani Bele, Ljubo Hansel). In 2012, based on hard joint work, they should present a national mountain safety program, a high-quality, professional and financially supported program. The presidents of both associations, Bojan Rotovnik and Igor Potočnik, then solemnly signed the cooperation agreement.



Veronika Susman Šegatin, professional collaborator of the PZS Youth Commission, presented the renewal of the Ciciban planinec and Mladi Planinec campaigns, where the goal of the renewal is to attract as many of the youngest as possible to our ranks.

Supplementary elections were also held with public voting for the vacant vice-president position of PZS, which was taken by Slavica Tovšak (PD Jakoba Aljaža), for the other positions delegates voted secretly. Thus, Mihael Kersnik (PD Dovje – Mojstrana) became the prosecutor at the PZS Honorary Court, Dragica Onič (PD Poljčane) deputy member of the honorary court, Irena Matekovič (PD Krka Novo mesto) member of the PZS Supervisory Board and Mirko Tovšak (PD Mislinja) in the second round member of the PZS Management Board.



PZS Vice President Borut Peršolja presented the substantive and financial plan for 2011 in the seventh point. The substantive work program of the PZS presidium, the work program of commissions and committees and the financial plan for 2011 were adopted by majority.



In the presentation of the guidelines for the new statute, Bojan Rotovnik presented the reasons for changes, guidelines for the new statute, dilemmas that arose in public discussions, which guidelines were misunderstood, and plans for the future. Before voting, Darko Lorenčič (PD Paloma), Jurček Nowakk (PD Moravče) and Jože Rovan from the PZS Touring Cycling Commission joined the discussion.

The proposal for guidelines for the new PZS Statute as such was adopted by majority vote.

This was followed by secret voting on four main guidelines for the new statute, of which the proposal not to change the MDO name, on voting at the assembly and a new variant on incorporating new mountaineering associations was adopted, while organizing market activities in the mountaineering organization was not accepted.



At the end, the PZS President provided information on the membership fee for 2012, when the fee should be much more substantially enriched, certain innovations should be introduced, there is also a desire for direct payment of fees in huts, etc. Several activities will be carried out to prepare all changes (public discussion, analysis of benefits, promotion of membership, introduction of additional payment options ...). In 2011, however, the fee remains the same as in 2010. With this point, the assembly also concluded.



The newly elected PZS Vice President Slavica Tovšak, PD Jakoba Aljaža, said upon election: "I must say that the invitation from President Bojan Rotovnik surprised me, although I followed the activities of the new leadership immediately after the election and noted that changes are being prepared in the mountaineering organization, new ideas have come, for which I was always enthusiastic and which actually attracted me to this work. I took the position as a challenge, because it seems to me that I have certain experiences, both in mountaineering and otherwise, and I could contribute with my knowledge to realize what the leadership has set. The program they presented today is also my program and I think it won't be hard for me to work and realize these ideas. I know it will require a lot of my free time and I will have to start thinking about how to proceed with the functions I still have in the mountaineering organization, because being quality in many areas is impossible. I am most sorry to leave my friends in the editorial office of Planinski vestnik, who are really excellent, and with whom I got along very well; I know they are hardworking and diligent. Working is not a problem for me, as long as it is what the mountaineering associations want, because we are not for ourselves, but we work for the benefit of the entire mountaineering organization, which I want to be a modern European organization that can proudly show its face at all levels of its operation."



Andrej Brvar, PD Domžale, president of the PZS supervisory board, said about this extraordinary assembly and future work in PZS: "Regular assemblies have a standard repertoire and there are usually no major substantive discussions there, as urgent documents need to be discussed and adopted. Therefore, I welcome such forms of meetings, which I would not call extraordinary, but rename them. These are meetings where the leadership can communicate with the base in the most direct way, which was shown today when the leadership checked some ideas they set. The discussion was not rich, but the majority of proposals were confirmed, which means that the delegates gave the leadership a mandate to continue substantively. Personally, I am glad that the delegates explicitly rejected the attempt to bring party functionaries back into mountaineering through the back door, which we once firmly rejected, but on the other hand, it saddens me that the same delegates rejected the possibility for PZS to perform market functions in a more professional way, which would mean better marketing and higher returns. This is simply the burden of the delegate system we have at the moment and we unfortunately have to accept it."



Irena Mušič Habjan and Vladimir Habjan