On 7 December, the newly created Council of Delegates of the HVD Federal Association met for the first time in Hanover, where the delegates from ten member organizations (nine state associations and the Federal Association of Young Humanists) were warmly welcomed by their Lower Saxony hosts. The new Delegates’ Council, which meets annually, replaces the larger and more cumbersome Federal Delegates’ Conference (every three years) and the Federal Main Committee, which meets in between. The most important items on the agenda were the adoption of a new membership fee schedule and the election of the new Federal Executive Board.
After a constructive debate, a contribution structure was unanimously agreed upon that is based on the annual income (“turnover”) on the one hand and the number of members of the member organizations on the other. This naturally means that a regional association such as Berlin-Brandenburg with over 1,300 employees contributes significantly more to the new federal budget than a regional association that has barely been in existence for ten years and is still at the beginning of its work. However, the new statutes grant the “wealthier” member associations hardly any more co-determination rights than the “financially weaker” ones. This is also reflected in the composition of the new board, whose five members come from five different member organizations. Andreas Henschel (Worldview Department), Erwin Kress (Public Relations Department), Katrin Raczynski (Finance Department), Richard Scherzer (Youth Department) and Hedwig Toth-Schmitz (Networking Department) were elected to the Board with large majorities.
One of the first tasks assigned to the new Board was to develop a viable concept for diesseits magazine as the association’s flagship publication. Great interest was expressed from all sides in maintaining diesseits as a voice of practical humanism and its background. A new Public Relations Committee is to support the Board in its work.
In general, specialist committees will play a major role in the association’s new work, in which practical experience can be exchanged and theoretical approaches can be explored in greater depth.
A specialist committee for “Humanist Celebration Culture” was set up directly. The aim of this committee is to reflect on the practice of celebrating life in many regional associations. The aim is to share experiences on organizational and structural issues as well as to exchange expertise on rituals, their humanistic orientation and the design of humanist celebrations.
Another specialist committee will deal with the teaching of values in schools. While the association in Berlin teaches over 66,000 pupils “Humanist Life Skills”, other regional associations are campaigning for non-denominational pupils to be offered non-religious values lessons in the first place.
The new board members emphasized the importance of bringing the association’s existing intellectual and practical resources together in a creative discourse in order to make the Humanist Association of Germany more visible again as a positive and welcoming community and as a creative social force.
Board spokesman Kress explained: “We have an experienced Board team and I am firmly convinced that we will now tackle the many good projects and ideas with determination and drive them forward. It is our obligation to provide humanistic convictions with social and political assertiveness. We will be fully committed to this.”
The day in Hanover was a day in a constructive atmosphere that gave us courage for new tasks.
Photo collage: Lydia Skrabania (Photo A. Henschel: Arik Platzek; Photo K. Raczynski: Die Hoffotografen GmbH; Photo E. Kress: Evelin Frerk; Photo R. Scherzer: Konstantin Börner; Photo H. Toth-Schmitz: Markus Schöllhorn)
