The UIAA Management Committee which met earlier this month in Orvieto, Italy (Italian Alpine Club – CAI) has approved the creation of a working group to attract new members, especially federations from smaller and financially disadvantaged countries.
The work of the group includes a review of the UIAA Solidarity Fund which was established in 1997 to help financially support federations that could not pay their UIAA membership fees.
Because of problems deciding which federation would receive funds and why, the original mandate was changed in 2009 by the UIAA Porto General Assembly which voted to transform the fund into a way to help individual members attend meetings as specialists or delegates.
The UIAA Executive Board has now come forward with a proposal to change the conditions attached to the Solidarity Fund so that, for a limited time, member federations who cannot pay their membership fees can receive financial help. The new criteria upon which the help will be given have yet to be established by the Working Group.
The working group will look at a range of options to encourage newer members to join the UIAA, so that it can become an even more representative body of mountaineering associations from around the world. The findings will be presented and discussed in October at the next General Assembly in Pontresina, Switzerland.
The UIAA was founded in 1932 and has 74 member associations and five observers in 55 countries representing about 1.3 million people. The organization’s mission is to promote the growth and protection of mountaineering and climbing worldwide, advance safe and ethical mountain practices and promote responsible access, culture and environmental protection.
The organization operates through the work of its commissions which make recommendations, set policy and advocate on behalf of the mountaineering community. The UIAA is recognized by the International Olympic Committee for mountaineering and natural surface climbing.
The working group consists of the following members:
- Anne Arran (British Mountaineering Council, United Kingdom)
- Agnes Semelet (UIAA office, Switzerland)
- Lucia Foppoli (Italian Alpine Club, Italy)
- Col H.S. Chauhan (Indian Mountaineering Federation, India)
- Nejat Akinci (Zirve Mountaineering Club, Turkey)
- Peter Farkas (Executive Board link – Hungarian Mountaineering and Sport Climbing Association, Hungary)
If you wish to contact the working group, please email agnes.semelet@theuiaa.org
