ORGANISASI UIAA

Organisation :

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Every year our member organisations come together at the General Assembly. The General Assembly makes the decisions concerning the UIAA’s role, its activities and its budget. It elects the President, the Executive Board and members of the Management Committee.

The President is the UIAA’s representative to the world and chairs all meetings of the General Assembly, the Management Committee and the Executive Board.

The Executive Board is elected for a four-year period and consists of the President, Vice-President, Secretary General, Treasurer and three other members. Together they carry out the decisions made by the General Assembly, control finances and supervise the commissions and the office staff.

The Management Committee is elected for a four-year period and consists of the Executive Board, representatives from the five largest member associations, one representative from each continent and three to five representatives elected by the General Assembly. It makes recommendations to the General Assembly on matters such as budgets and admission/expulsion of member associations. In addition it creates and dissolves the commissions and assigns them responsibilities.

The Commissions consist of members with special expertise in a particular field of mountaineering. They give advice to the Management Committee and the General Assembly, as well as giving information and recommendations to all members. The commissions are: Access, Medical, Mountain Protection, Mountaineering, Safety and Youth.

The Auditors are responsible for auditing the UIAA’s accounts. They report in writing to the General Assembly.

The Court decides in conflicts of competence and other possible disputes between the UIAA, its members and bodies.

The International Commission for Ice Climbing Competitions (ICICC) is the sports body responsible for the administration and development of all aspects of the new international Competition Ice-climbing sport. Since 2004 it has organised World Championships in addition to the established international and continental competitions.

Those who compete in the sport must adhere to the rulings of the following commissions:

The Anti-Doping Commission assists Member Associations in implementing the World Anti-Doping Code (WADA code), and is responsible for the application of the code in the organisation of our competition sports activities.

The Disciplinary Commission deals with violation of UIAA competition rules.

The Appeals Commission hears appeals from athletes who have been found guilty in a disciplinary case or who wish to contest competitions results or judges’ rulings.

Office staff
The UIAA has an administrative office in Bern, Switzerland which supports the work of the elected volunteers.

Management Committee :

The Management Committee came into being with the new Articles of Association on January 1, 2008. Its functions are described in the Articles of Association.

The Management Committee is responsible for implementing all the policy directives and decisions made by the General Assembly. This includes in particular:

a) to prepare the agenda of the General Assembly;

b) to prepare the annual accounts (consisting of the profit and loss statement and the balance sheet);

c) to make recommendations to the General Assembly about:

1. the long-term strategies of the UIAA;

2. regulations and rules to be decided by the General Assembly;

3. the admission and expulsion of member associations;

d) to decide upon the creation and dissolution and the tasks of Commissions and appoint a President of each Commission upon recommendation of the Commission itself;

e) to recommend any proposed changes to these Articles of Association;

f) to make recommendations on the terms and conditions of contracts to be concluded with third parties;

g) to decide on membership issues between General Assemblies;

h) to decide the official means of information of the UIAA.

The current members are:

Georges Elzière FRA
Joan Garrigos i Toro ESP
Frank-Urs Müller SUI
Roland Magg RSA
Homayoun Bakhtiyari IRI
John Nankervis NZL
Mark Richey USA
Michael Pupeza ROU
Dimitris Georgoulis GRE
Doug Scott GBR
Fumio Tanaka JPN
Frits Vrijlandt NED
Stefano Tirinzoni ITA

Executive Board

President Mike MORTIMER was born in the UK, raised in Southern Africa and is a Canadian citizen living in Calgary, Alberta. A former president of the Alpine Club of Canada, he was the Canadian delegate from 1995 and a member of the UIAA council from 2004 to 2006. He has been involved with mountain safety for the last 25 years, in both a retail and volunteer capacity.

Vice President Jordi COLOMER comes from Barcelona. He has been a member of the UIAA’s Expedition and Mountaineering commissions and was the president of the International Ski Mountaineering Committee from 1999 to 2007.

Treasurer Jan BØNDING lives in Copenhagen. He was on the board of Dansk Bjergklub for a total of 21 years, including ten years as president. He was the Danish delegate to the UIAA from 1994 until he was elected Secretary General in 2004.

Secretary General Nico de JONG was the first president of the merged Dutch federation, the Mountaineering and Climbing Association of the Netherlands, from 1998 to 2002. He was a member of the UIAA Council for seven years and is active in many sports including ski mountaineering and mixed rock/ice climbing.

Member Peter FARKAS comes from Hungary and has also lived in Australia, where he did several first ascents. He was a member of the Hungarian Youth National Team and is the vice president of the Hungarian Mountaineering and Sport Climbing Federation. His favorite area is the Elbsandstein "where climbing is still an adventure".

Member Rita Christen comes from Switzerland. She is a lawyer and works for a regional administrative court, for the executive board of the working group, Expertise in the event of mountain accidents (EMA), and for the commission on mountain sports in canton Graubünden. She is also a professional mountain guide, a yoga teacher and a mother of two boys.

Member Silvio Calvi lives in Bergamo, Italy, where he has his own architecture and engineering office. He was president of the Bergamo section of the Italian Alpine Club (CAI) and chairman of the CAI's Central Committee for five years. He has represented the CAI in the UIAA and the Club Arc Alpin (CAA) since 2006 and has worked for the UIAA as chairman of the working group for the reform of the statutes.

Commissions :

The Commissions consist of members with special expertise in a particular field of mountaineering. They give advice to the Management Committee and the General Assembly, as well as giving information and recommendations to all members. The commissions are:

• Access
  
• Medical
• Mountain Protection
• Mountaineering
• Safety
• Youth
• Ice Climbing
• Anti Dopin
  

Office staff :

	Judith Safford is the UIAA's Executive Director. She was born in London and started mountaineering after moving to Germany, where she studied Business and Economics and completed a PhD in Public Finance. She has also completed training in management for non-profit organisations, intercultural communication, mediation and other communication techniques.
	Valérie Thöni is the UIAA's Administration Officer. She is Swiss and French, and made her first mountaineering experiences in Chamonix. She studied international law and worked in administration, fund raising and public relations for the UN and various NGOs. Her main duties are assisting the Executive Director, taking care of the daily office tasks and administering the Safety Label.
	Gurdeepak Ahuja is engaged in the development of the UIAA Safety Label. From Chandigarh, India, he obtained post-graduate training in Business Management from the IMDR in Pune, India and a Masters degree in Sports Management from the AISTS in Lausanne, Switzerland. He learnt about mountaineering at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi, India and is also a passionate mountain biker.
	Dale Bechtel, who has a dual Swiss-Canadian citizenship, is the Web Editor. He was a broadcast journalist before becoming a dedicated web editor specialising in alpine tourism. He launched his internet career with a multimedia re-enactment of a 19th century mountaineering expedition. Dale is responsible for the editorial and communications policy of the UIAA website as well as content.
	Cristina Manof is our Webmaster and she is based in the Romanian capital, Bucharest. Her job is to look after the day-to-day running of the website content and development. A passionate climber and backpacker she is involved in various mountaineering activities in Romania with the national federation and the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup. Cristina’s skills are in web-based marketing and publication.
	Alexandru Paun is also a UIAA Webmaster based in Bucharest. His job is to look after website maintenance (IT) and development. A climber, he is actively involved in mountaineering activities in Romania with the national federation and the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup. Alex's skills are in web programming.
	Cara Shields is originally from Ireland and is a part-time Web Journalist. She has a degree in Multimedia and has experience in marketing. She writes news articles and edits content for the UIAA website and also works for an NGO in Geneva. She discovered alpinism while working at the International Scout Centre in the town of Kandersteg in the Bernese Alps.
	Heidi Hagemeier is a freelance journalist who writes for the UIAA website. Raised in the western United States, Heidi grew up backpacking, skiing and climbing in the Rocky Mountains. She worked at newspapers in the US as a reporter and editor, handling stories as varied as the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park to a man who flew 300 kilometres in a lawn chair tied to helium balloons. She now lives in Bern.