Epilogue of the past ERF President

Dear friends, Ranger colleagues and members,

The World Ranger Congress 2019 in Nepal is history now and you can find a report in our newsletter.

Now Urs Wegmann is elected new European Representative for the IRF and with this Urs is the new President of the European Ranger Federation which I´ve had the great honour to create with the support from all of you. Urs officially will take over his duties as ERF President at 1. January 2020.

For the last three and a half years I´ve kept the position as European Representative of the IRF and for two and a half years I´ve worked as ERF President.

As it is with all new organizations there was a lot of work to establish the ERF, to become well-known, to consolidate ERF, to work on an image for Rangers, to support our members in Twinning-Projects, exchange-programs, Ranger Trainings and the creation of new Ranger Associations, to name but a few of the tasks.

As past ERF President I would like to thank you all for your confidence and great support.
It was a great honour and pleasure to meet you and to work for the Rangers in Europe and I´ve enjoyed your national Ranger meetings and your hospitality all over Europe.

But this should not be a final “Good-Bye” – together with Michael Großmann I am organizing our 5. European Ranger Congress in Bavarian Forest NP in Germany from 11. – 16. May 2020 and I hope to meet you all there!

Thank you all for your dedication, passion and motivation to protect wildlife all over the World by being a Ranger!!
Be proud to be a Ranger!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Yours

Frank Grütz

Dear Rangers
Dear Colleagues

This is the first time I am in touch with you via this newsletter. At the World Ranger Congress in Nepal you elected me as European Representative to the Board of the International Ranger Federation (IRF). With this, I will also be appointed as President of the European Ranger Federation (ERF), and I will take up this post on 1 January 2020.

The board of the ERF, the European Executive Committee (EEC), has done an immense amount of development work in the last three years since the organisation was founded. My sincere thanks for this work goes especially to Frank Grütz, who had the energy and motivation to press ahead with the founding of the ERF.

Under his leadership as President a lot has happened such as the twinning projects; training events; the website; this newsletter and a pan-European ranger network has been set up. And above all, the Federation is about to hold the European Ranger Congress (ERC). So please put the week from 11 to 16 May 2020 in your diaries. The Congress will take place in the Bavarian Forest National Park and I hope to see as many of you as possible there!

A new EEC – (except the president) – will be elected at the Congress. There will be many tasks for the new team. The main goal is the long-term financing of the ERF, in order to remain able to act and to support you effectively in your daily work. And to support the EEC in its work, we will form new working groups at the ERC. More of this later, but in the meantime, anyone who is interested in international ranger work is welcome to contact me.

I am very much looking forward to my new challenge and to getting to know as many of you as possible personally over the next three years!

Kind regards

Urs Wegmann, ERF President-elect
president@europeanrangers.org