International President’s Report – 2024
The number of members paying subscription fees during the year has continued to rise
| Year | Subscriptions paid |
| 2023 | 2759 members |
| 2022 | 1732 members |
| 2021 | 2396 members |
| 2020 | 1640 members |
| 2019 | 1368 members |
2024 brings us two international rallies, one in Australia and for the first time, one in Romania. Next year we continue the theme of 2 International rallies, one in Germany in July 2025 and USA in September to celebrate our 75th Anniversary in the country where our founder, Louise Scherbyn, started WIMA.
It is good to see that we continue to be very active around the world and have a good programme of events, including more local ones that are open to members of all national divisions and are published in our new on-line events diary.
As part of our plans to grow and support a global network, I am asking national presidents to approve my request to change the International Officer structure so that we have 3 Vice Presidents, each one with responsibility to grow and support a specific geographic area – Central, Eastern and Western. The idea is to spread the focus of regular international events beyond Europe.
We have also re-established the procedure started in 2014 but allowed to lapse after 2017, of saying thank you to members who have volunteered as International Officers by presenting them with a small pendant in recognition of their efforts and dedication to WIMA.
This year, starting in October, we will be looking for a new International Treasurer and an International Historian, the latter to establish an on-line archive of all WIMA documents and other physical memorabilia and to return physical copies to those divisions who donated them. Our history and archive is important and something that we should be proud of, not kept in cases in a garage or store where nobody can see them and they slowly deteriorate with age.
In 2023 we introduced a new support fund by raising membershiop fees from half to one euro per member per year. Half of the fund is to help members to attend an international rally and half to set up a fund to support national divisions with new projects. This was to be a long-term project as lots of half euros are required to make an effective fund. I was absolutely delighted therefore when WIMA Switzerland offered to donate €5000 which has meant that loans are now available for national divisions to set up projects eg an international rally that would have previously been too expensive to set up or even for new national divisions before their members’ contributions are received. If you have a plan, put it in writing and send it to me so that national presidents can discuss and vote on your application.
So far, we have managed to award 2 grants to WIMA members to enable them to attend an international rally, one for the Romanian and one for Australian rallies. National Presidents are invited to submit applications each year to the WIMA Funding sub-committee.
As I look forward to my final year as International President, I hope that we can continue to grow our membership and to support individual members and national divisions, wherever possible.
My thanks go to all International Officers, National Presidents and WIMA members across the world who are making Women’s International Motorcycle Associations such a wonderful and supportive organisation, no matter what type or age of bike you ride or simply aspire to ride.
Zara Strange, International President
France, July 2024.