WOMEN`S INTERNATIONAL MOTORCYCLE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT
WIMA International – President`s Report 2016
Enclosed with AGENDA
Dear Ladies,
Nuremberg, Germany, 30th of May 2016
My Report of the WIMA year 2016 is going to be pretty short maybe ☺
Not much time between the WIMA Rallies.
Our International Rally is just over, remaining to this fabulous event is still on our minds, and the time is here to travel to the next WIMA Rally.
Also this year, the motorcycling season in the northern hemisphere, is delayed. This is not too bad, the more time I can invest to organise administrative efforts for WIMA. Believe me, there is always plenty to do, it is never boring, but certainly it will not prevent to enjoy riding, whenever my spare time will allow me to do.
Beginning of March I had the pleasure again (second time after last year) to join the traditional skiing weekend in Elm, organised by WIMA Switzerland. Only a couple of weeks later I could meet up again and attend the ride out together with almost 20 Ladies of WIMA Switzerland. This is basically another traditional event. They call it the Jura Ride-Out.
This has been the third edition and on Saturday, 7th of May we even could celebrate the International Female Ride Day 2016 surrounded by beautiful landscape in the French Jura Mountains. Just funny, within one weekend, you can visit at least 4 countries (Germany – Lichtenstein – Switzerland – France). Europe is sometimes so small.
During the first weeks of this year`s motorcycling season I additionally visited the annual Meeting of the Women on Wheels Germany. This is already traditional for me, as this year I attended for my 3rd time. It is always great fun meeting up with friends but it is also a great opportunity to get a little view inside how other clubs are organised or how others run their club.
Of course I am on the Road not only with WIMA business on my mind.
Now and then, honestly said, I just need to freshen up my mind. With the wind in my face and with the rubber side down I enjoy curvy roads in and around Bavaria, exploring the surroundings of my home.
Before I go into details reading to WIMA activities, I would like to mention another nice small happening in February. I had the pleasure to host WIMA Poland for a short stay at my small tiny home. With a little smile I can state, only WIMA Poland Member Aga was missing, lol.
I believe all of us, who attended at the Rally in Poland in 2014 will understand when I say I gave whole WIMA Poland a host, what I am talking about and what conjures a smile on my face.
Of course Maura, our PR-Officer and me used the time to have some effective exchange and also good conversation could take place, even we had only a few hours late night (enjoying a good wine) and in the morning during breakfast.
Now, let`s have a short review back to October 2015 – The Rally in Australia:
In autumn (defined from the northern hemisphere) but actually in the later spring (viewed from the upside down hemisphere) the Australian Division hosted us for the International Rally. The Rally itself took place at “The Shearing Shed”, in Cowes, in the south of Australia from Monday 19 October until Sunday 25 October. As there was a need to enlarge my little
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WOMEN`S INTERNATIONAL MOTORCYCLE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT
background of knowledge about this huge country, I was told, the State of Victoria is NOT the most southern state of Australia. Nope. It is Tasmania!
At least I can tell afterwards, we were standing on the most southern part of the continental Australia whilst we were enjoying beautiful landscape and those tiny little Penguins during the Penguin Parade one evening at the Wilsons Promontory”.
Honestly, it would fill some pages to describe the multitudinous highlights during our stay.
In this case I just use the opportunity to refer to our WIMA International Website. Take a look:http://www.wimaworld.com/wima/press_and_publications.php
There you can find several Reports written by WIMA Members. I am grateful that some of our Members share their impressions, their individual views and their photos with our community by providing a Report. Each of it is brilliant.
Enjoy your read and thank you Ladies! I believe you only could get a better impression if you had been there with us.
But for all those who could not make it this year, there will come up another chance in the near future. Stay tuned!
At this point I can lean back and tell about the official facts of the Rally: 76 Members from 13 Nations all around got a warm welcome from the Aussies. We had a very pleasant stay and an unforgettable time together at the “Rally Down Under” and several of us at the Moto GP Racing Days at the Race Circuit Phillip Island.
Sometimes I heard myself calling it the “Upside Down Rally”. This occurred especially when I was almost struggling with my own cultural imprint facing the Aussie-Style. They definitely won the battle, totally relaxed and with a charming smile in the face.
To resume, every WIMA Rally enriches my life. It is time to thank them all once more.
As it was the International Rally in 2015 also the National President`s Meeting took place. The Meeting was scheduled on 23rd of October and we had our get-together in order to have an exchange, to share thoughts and ideas, to discuss problems and work out solutions. However, the Agenda includes usually many topics. Several are a must, some are recurrent and some are just new, dedicated to ongoings during the year.
It is also to mention, sometimes this Meeting is the one and only chance to welcome and introduce National Presidents of a new WIMA Division. Pity, but this didn`t occur this time, but at the Rally in Sweden. It was a great pleasure to welcome Violeta IVANOVA, National President of WIMA BULGARIA at our informal get-together during the Rally. WIMA Bulgaria was just established and voted in to be part of WIMA International in May 2015.
Sometimes it happens that a National President is attending the Meeting for her first time and not to forget about those Ladies, who take the task to represent their Division due to personal absence of their Division`s National President.
At this year`s Meeting we had all those situations and additionally we could welcome a guest at our Meeting.
Sangeetha JAIRAM from India represented her country and gave brief information about Women in Motorcycling in her home country. WIMA Officials appreciated her presence a lot. She also was very keen to get a view inside the structure of WIMA as a global acting and networking International Institution. Sangeetha offered to carry relevant information using her contacts with Women Riders in India, not at least in order to try for a Revival of WIMA INDIA.
We also could welcome Carol SPAULDING, National President of WIMA NEW ZEALNAND. It is pretty long time that Ladies of WIMA New Zealand could arrange personal presence at one of our Rallies. But this year it became true. I believe they didn`t regret and for me it was awesome to see now and then during the Rally week, that the Ladies enjoyed the Rally a lot. At the end of the week I was told, the New Zealand Ladies were already talking about how to
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WOMEN`S INTERNATIONAL MOTORCYCLE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT
organise a Rally in not too far future. I was more than grateful to see them pleased, to attract them for being part of this Association and to enrich WIMA International.
At this point I take the opportunity to thank them all for their efforts in fulfilling the mission in representing goals of their Division`s Members.
To avoid someone is getting bored in reading my Report, I move on quickly just providing a brief information about most relevant decisions and results out of this year`s National President`s Meeting.
If WIMA Members gather for further details just welcome to read the Minutes 2015. All significant occasions and future developments for WIMA International are covered in this document. We provide this file as every year a couple of weeks after the Meeting and it is available for a review in the “Members Only” section of our International Website.
WIMA International consists, stated with 23rd of October, of 21 Nations and 1284 Members worldwide.
It is also to announce some changes on our International WIMA Government. So we had several elections and as a result we could welcome Miss Åsa ÖHQVIST from WIMA Sweden as successor to Miss Keiko OSAWA from WIMA Japan to take over the duties of WIMA International Vice President. Additionally we had also a change on the Position of the International Webmaster of WIMA. Karin WILLERS from WIMA Germany applied for, as Sanna SEPPÄNEN, Member of WIMA Finland announced her stepping down for to retire with term end. Karin was elected to take over.
Referring to my thanksgiving words on my Report for 2015 I take it up once more just with a simple THANK YOU Keiko and THANK YOU Sanna!
In the same breath I would like to thank Åsa and Karin for taking the challenge affiliated with my best wishes for a good start and well succeeding on their posts.
I am also grateful that all those WIMA Officers, who reached end of term this year, declared availability for a re-election and finally were voted for another term of office, each one for another year.
In particular I thank Miss Maura RANIECKA, PR Officer of WIMA and Miss Pirjo KIVIMÄKI, International Historian of WIMA. Thanks Maura, thanks a lot Pirjo.
Last but not least and to complete my announcement regarding to the International Government, I would like to express my gratitude for having received the confidence for being re-elected another year in the role of the International President of WIMA.
I promise to continue to give my very best to succeed in all upcoming challenges and to serve our Association to its best. I promise to do this in all conscience and with all energy I can provide. At this point I don`t like to leave it unmentioned that all this is only possible due to your given trust and support in me and in my actions. I am deeply impressed and I would like to express, it is a great honour to be on the lead of this great Institution.
I simply say THANK YOU!
To our delight we received a Nomination for the Ellen Pfeiffer Award 2015 and it was pleasing to announce a Winner for 2015. With unanimous assent the Ellen Pfeiffer Award for 2015 goes to Miss Uli SCHOLDA from WIMA Austria. Congratulation once more, Uli!
I hope imploringly that I can welcome you at the Rally in Hungary as the handing over of the Award itself is still up.
I continue with my Report as there is still a lot to tell.
It is to take under consideration that this year, and I call the time between two Rallies a “WIMA year”, we only had a few month between the Rallies. The Rally in Australia in October 2015, which had been the voted on and as a result declared International One, is just part of
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WOMEN`S INTERNATIONAL MOTORCYCLE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT
the past. And now we write almost June and we are already heading for the next International Rally scheduled in July 2016.
So in between we count only 7 month. But those few months had been very effective for WIMA. A lot of things happened or could be organised. However, there are so many things left which are worth to be mentioned in particular.
Right now, whilst I am writing my Report, Åsa is in progress to finalise the Agenda for the National President`s Meeting taking place during the Rally in Hungary.
Yes, she still has enough breath after her amazing Marathon Run together with Anneli PILLE, National Presidnet of WIMA ESTONIA in order to arise some money for our current WIMA International Charity Project “Motorcycle Outreach (MOR)”. View more details about the MOR here: www.motorcycleoutreach.org
As usual, we provide an abbreviated version of the Agenda for our Members in the “Members Only” section on our International Website prior to the Rally. The distribution to all WIMA Officials has to be done on 1st of June, as the agreed term says, six weeks prior to the Meeting to the latest. So this has to happen in just a few days. We are pretty busy right now and still some tasks are waiting.
I would like to let you know, also our mission to attract new Members and to establish new Divisions is not exactly an easy task. It takes a lot of patience and energy. Sometimes it needs several attempts, sometimes it even takes several years. But I also want you to know, the more happy and proud I am, when it is about the time to announce the establishment of a new WIMA Division.
Within those not even seven month between our Rallies it is a great pleasure to mention, that we also had a lot of exchange with Female Riders all around the globe. We are continuing in arranging exchange with various countries, as well in Europe as also Intercontinental. For instance we are currently in touch with Lady Riders in Denmark and in Slovakia and we still try to arrange a Revival for Italy. And as WIMA is a global networking Institution we also try, in general after having received a initial to establish and maintain new contacts, such as with Chile, Argentina or lately with Indonesia. Interested people usually use our Webform to get in touch with us, and sometimes this is the also a result of the activity of our Members.
And as a result of all this continuing efforts we lately could welcome CANADA. Actually it is a kind of Revival, as WIMA Canada was a member country of WIMA until 2005. And now they are back. We had a very pleasant voting. This is also a way to see whether WIMA Divisions are spirited or not. For this particular voting we received 19 Votes out of 21 eligible WIMA Divisions. What a presence! This is wonderful.
And another electronic voting process is currently pending. The Bangladesh Women Riders Club (BWRD) founded in 2013 as the very first Female Motorcycle Club in Bangladesh, currently under the lead of Miss Israt Khan Mojlish, acting President of this Club, applied for Membership. We await the result end of June.
I am dreaming to see the presence of now all 22 WIMA Nations for this voting and to welcome the 23rd WIMA Nation might be hopefully just be a matter of time. How exciting…
And at this point I take the opportunity to express my gratitude and thanks on behalf of WIMA and personally to Miss Nor NZ YORK, President of WIMA MALAYSIA effort in this. Thanks Nor! Maybe some other WIMA Members also had been engaged in this, apologies if I did not mention them especially, but I thank them all.
WIMA International is increasing, slowly but steadily.
And now I would like to say a few words regarding to the presence of WIMA as an Association also in the virtual world.
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WOMEN`S INTERNATIONAL MOTORCYCLE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT
As we all know, social media is getting more and more important, also for us as we run an international acting organisation and one of our main aspects is to give the opportunity to connect women motorcyclists all over the world.
To be prepared for future tasks it means for WIMA to focus even more on this virtual world with all its facets and opportunities. Besides the fact, that almost all WIMA Divisions run their own National Websites and FB Groups, the WIMA International Facebook Group and Site is also very popular and frequented. Additionally I can assert, our International Website is also pretty successful and effective.
But as the trend goes more to exchange and share individual experience ad hoc via social platforms we should take this up for our International Website as well. People love to spread their individual stories and share this with the world. Even better it is, if people provide pictures together with their individual stories or their reports. This makes female motorcycling sports more visible, this makes WIMA more visible. I have the dream to take this trend up for our International Website.
Especially as this year spring was delayed we could start towards to freshen up our International Website. Together with our new team, together with Åsa and Karin, first steps are done and this is visible already.
Visit our Website: http://www.wimaworld.com/wima/index.php and have a look!
We are almost ready with our challenge to convince WIMA Officials to present themselves in order to give WIMA a face. But honestly, there are many more prospects we need to take under consideration. For instance we could arrange more fotos or even some video sequences about our activities and our frequent events during a year or of the past.
Certainly all this occur only with guaranteed privacy protection and with appropriate dedication.
Special thanks to Åsa ÖHQVIST and Karin WILLERS for their tireless and continuous efforts in this. And I call out to our Members to provide suitable material.
Last but not least I would like to mention the “Yearbook of International Organizations” edited by the UIA, the Union of International Associations (view details here: http://www.uia.org) or also a presence of WIMA International at the FEMA, the Federation of European Motorcyclist`s Associations. WIMA is supporting this Organisation, which is currently under lead of a long term Member of WIMA GB, Miss Anna ZEE. (Find more information here:http://www.fema-online.eu).
Furthermore we are in progress to strengthen our contacts and presence at The Federation Internationale de Motorcyclisme (FIM). We continue to discuss a form of future cooperation. Their objective is also as our objective to focus in the improvement, the presence and visibility of women in motorcycling sports internationally.
This will be one of our numerous matters we need to talk about at this year`s National Presidents` Meeting taking place in only a couple of weeks from now.
Last but not least and with a review to my introducing words in my Report for 2016 during the year I try to be on the road whenever my spare time will allow me to do.
It is always a great pleasure to meet up with old friends and making new friends whilst attending WIMA and non-WIMA events or simply to Ride my Motorbike enjoying the wind in my face.
Concluding my Report I would like to thank first of all, all WIMA Officials and all Volunteers, but also all supporters and fellow travellers of WIMA.
I thank them on behalf of WIMA for their efforts in serving WIMA International with all its needs in its various subjects and fields. Keep up the good work!
Please accept my apologies if I should have forgotten to mention or highlight happenings or issues and the people standing behind in an adequate manner.
Please accept that I simply say THANK YOU!
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WOMEN`S INTERNATIONAL MOTORCYCLE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT
Finally I would like to thank in advance Emese MELICHER, National President of WIMA Hungary and her Team currently on the final lap of arranging everything for the International Rally. SOK KÖSZÖNET!
I hardly can`t wait to start my journey and meeting up with WIMA Members and friends of friends already on the road or at this year`s WIMA Rally in Hungary.
Let ́s celebrate WIMA WORLD and keep the “Spirit” alive! See YOU in Hungary!
Sincerely,
YOUR President of WIMA International.
Claudia
CLAUDIA FEHRER International President of WIMA www.wimaworld.com
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