The first meeting of the Executive Committee after this year’s Federal Delegates’ Assembly was aimed at establishing a new regulatory framework for the work in the coming months. This included determining responsibilities within the Executive Committee elected at the end of June, in which five new representatives from the regional associations and the youth association have assumed responsibility for the next three years. In addition, discussions were held on the question of who will be responsible in future for cooperation between the Humanist Association of Germany and the European Humanist Federation and the International Humanist and Ethical Union, which represent the interests of both the European Union and the United Nations. The previous Federal Representative Werner Schultz will retire in 2016. The strong will for continuity and sustainable development also characterized the final discussions on the budget for the coming year, which was adopted at the meeting in Hanover. This maintains the proven priorities of the past year. The constituent meeting on Saturday was also the last meeting of the Executive Board this year and therefore an opportunity to look back on the successes in the countries over the past twelve months. These included the smooth transition in the management of the Humanist Academy Germany, which has been in the hands of the new Director Ralf Schöppner since June, as well as the office of Chairman of the Board of the Humanist Association Berlin-Brandenburg, which has been held by Martin Beck since September. Beck, who was a member of the Berlin House of Representatives until he took office, also attended the meeting in Hanover. The successful initiation of the Alliance for Self-Determination until the End of Life, the continuation of the work of the Alliance for Sexual Self-Determination and the intensification of cooperation with smaller religious communities such as the Alevi Community Germany were also welcomed as positive events. And both the discussions at the Federal Association’s strategy meeting in January and the impressions gained at this year’s World Humanist Congress in August will help shape the objectives and focus of the Federal Association’s work in the future. This makes it necessary to strengthen the umbrella organization, emphasized Frieder Otto Wolf in Hanover. Preparations for the next meeting of the Coordinating Council of Secular Organizations next month were also discussed at the conference: The representatives of the Humanist Association will confidently present the association’s independent profile as a worldview community. The Executive Committee also agreed that the ideological profile should be further strengthened. Frieder Otto Wolf said that this should be perceived as a joint task of the federal association, the regional associations and the youth association. “All members of our association are needed here,” said Wolf.
However, this task also includes the new draft of the Humanist Self-Conception, which is currently being prepared by an editorial group led by the Director of the Humanist Academy Germany. The new, concise and consensus-oriented draft should take into account all previous proposals and objections and be adopted next year. Once adopted, the text, together with the principles of the Bavarian Humanist Association presented last year, should also provide the necessary impetus to continue the self-understanding of organized humanism. “However, these discussions must not be seen as an end in themselves,” said Frieder Otto Wolf on Saturday evening. Above all, the aim is to offer renewed positions and answers to the question of “why people who have no ideological affiliation should join our community and, with the help of the association, take concrete responsibility for each other and for other people. Being able to provide up-to-date, contemporary and appropriate answers is a task that will become increasingly important in the coming years.”
