2014 FAI Active Members’ Presidents Meeting

Coming from all around the world, 24 Executive Representatives from 21 FAI Member organisations met in the Swedish capital of Stockholm on Saturday 7 June for the 2014 FAI Active Members’ Presidents Meeting.

Numerous matters of importance were on the agenda of the meeting, including:

• 108th FAI General Conference – Group Captain Veerayuth Didyasarin, President of RASAT Thailand National Airsport  Control, made a report on the preparation of the Conference which will take place in Pattaya, Thailand, on 17 and 18 October 2014;  
• FAI Vision and Mission – FAI Executive Board Member Otto Lagarhus made a presentation on the FAI Vision (“A world where safe participation in air sports and recreational flying is available to everyone at reasonable cost”) and Mission ("FAI - the global organization for the promotion of air sports and recreational flying"), and listed the “essential activities” of the Federation;
• FAI World Air Games – FAI Sports and Marketing Director Markus Haggeney gave a report on the next Games which will be held in Dubai in December 2015.

A full summary of discussions will soon be available for download on the FAI website.

For the Executive Representatives, the meeting was also the opportunity to get to know the new FAI Secretary General Susanne Schödel and FAI Sports and Marketing Director Markus Haggeney, who both commenced their duties at the Head Office earlier this year.

FAI President Dr. John Grubbström said: “The importance of face-to-face debates, informal discussions and information exchanges cannot be stressed enough – the annual FAI Active Members’ Presidents Meeting does play a significant role in the life of our Federation. On a more personal note, I would like to add that this meeting could only have a special meaning to me considering I worked for the Swedish Airsport Federation for a great many years. I was delighted to see that they organised everything very smoothly and efficiently, and I would like to thank them warmly for that.”

Bengt Lindgren, President of the Swedish Airsport Federation, declared: “It was a real honour for us to host this important meeting in Sweden. Discussions were intense and productive. One of the highlights came when I had the privilege of presenting FAI President Dr. John Grubbström with the Swedish Motor Federation Royal Gold Medal.”