Report from Delegates Assembly in Martigny 2019

The CTIF Delegates Assembly 2019 started on Friday morning at Hotel Vatel in the beautiful Swiss mountain town of Martigny, with a Silent Minute for Fallen Colleagues around the world in the various member countries.

28 countries are represented this year with 88 national Delegates.

After the Quorum was established and the Minutes from Delegates Assembly of Las Vegas were approved, the program started with an inspiring and thoughtful Activity Report by the CTIF President Tore Eriksson (Sweden).

Then followed the activity report of the General Secretary Michel Bour and the Treasurer Marc Mamer.

The Presentation Section of the morning was opened by Grégory Allione, the President of the French Firefighters´ Association, who spoke about the European Working Time Directive and its effect on voluntary fire services around Europe, should this new directive become realized. (We have written extensively about this subject here on CTIF.org before).

The morning sessions were continued with Major Tom van Esbroeck from the CTIF Commission for Extrication & New Technology speaking about the importance of implementing the ISO Standard for New and Alternative Fuel Vehicles in all countries around the world, in order to achieve a standardized best practice when performing rescue work on new vehicles.  

After the coffee break followed a presentation from Jean Marc Bedogni from the CTIF Forest Fire Commission.

Then Tore Eriksson held a short presentation about CTIF´s cooperation with UITP regarding the ISO standard for new vehicles and alternative fuels.

CTIF Special Project Adviser Dennis Davis held another presentation on the topic of new fuel types, about a possible EU project named Hydrogen Response, where CTIF (if the project is funded) will help facilitate training for first and second responders in rescue involving hydrogen fuelled vehicles. The funding for this project will be decided upon in August.

Rosenbauer then made an interesting presentation of their new all electric Concept Fire Truck, which was present at the CTIF youth games and outside the hotel during Delegates Assembly.

Milan Dubravac made an announcement about the Ostrava CTIF Seminar on October 25 and 26, and presented the preliminary speakers´ lineup.

In regards to the 2020 CTIF Seminar, Tore Eriksson made an announcement that it was recently decided that Norway will host it at a conference center in the Oslo Airport, Gardemoen. The 2020 Seminar will be a cooperation between the Norwegian and the Swedish National Committees, partly in order to strengthen CTIF´s role in Northern Europe. 

The last hour before lunch was spent with listening to the seven candidates´ presentations in preparation for the afternoon´elections for vice presidents and Secretary General in the Executive Committee. (There were originally eight candidates, but Iran decided this week to withdraw their candidacy.

Presentations were made by the following candidates:

• For GENERAL SECRETARY:
  • Hansen Ole (Norway)
  • Sykora Roman (Austria)
  •  
• For new VICE PRESIDENTS:
  • Bérczi László (Hungary)
  • Hartmut Ziebs (Germany)
  • Sanders Russ (USA)
  •  
• RE-ELECTION FOR VICE PRESIDENTS:
  • Dubravac Milan (Slovenia)
  • Hansen Ole (Norway)
  • Nytra Zdenek (Czech Republic)