Welcome
Dear SFPE Europe members,
The end of the year is a time for reflection. So I take this opportunity to look back on 2021 as the first year of SFPE Europe "in action".
In 2020 we registered SFPE Europe in Belgium as a nonprofit association and received the Royal Charter. We were ready to go, but Corona put a temporary spanner in the works. Unfortunately we have not met in person since and so we have not been able to toast on that occasion yet (but have no fear, it will not be forgotten).
Then on March 22nd 2021 the Chapter Leaders met for the last time as SFPE European Chapters Coordination Group (ECCG) in an online meeting. The format of the ECCG served us very well for many years but it was time to let go and move on to another organisational form. The ECCG format has been replaced by the SFPE Europe General Assembly meetings.
One of the first tangible activities put together by SFPE Europe was a proposal in cooperation with The Main School of Fire Service Warsaw, Poland to offer the hosting and organisation of the Symposium for the International Association on Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) in Europe for 2026. We saw it as an opportunity to bring the two Associations SFPE and IAFSS closer together. It was incredible how quickly we could put together a team to work on this proposal and pull this off with a very credible bid which was handed in at the end of March and presented to IAFSS in April. Unfortunately for us, IAFSS awarded the Symposium 2026 to the University of Poitiers France. Congratulation of course to them!
Over a few months and with great help from SFPE headquarters, the Standing Committee on Europe Conferences organised the biannual SFPE Europe conference held on March 24 – 25. It was planned for the conference to be held in Berlin but due to Corona this had to be organised as a Virtual Conference. It was a challenge to deliver it in such a short time as a Virtual Conference but the format worked very well and we received a lot of very positive feedback from some of the over 200 participants. And Berlin is not cancelled – just postponed until 2023.
In May the very first SFPE Europe Annual General Assembly Meeting was held with most chapter and student chapter members attending. So with that behind us SFPE Europe is fully active and formally operating according to the constitution! And we even managed to hold an Additional General Assembly Meeting in November. With the success of these General Assembly meetings we plan to hold three General Assembly Meetings per year.
Also due to Corona we Europeans had to be absent from the SFPE Annual Conference, October 17 – 19, in Baltimore. We welcomed the move to hold it in person despite meaning that we would be absent due to travel restrictions. The networking amongst the SFPE members is such an integral part of the association and we are very hopeful that we will be able to join again in 2022.
In terms of membership, at the beginning of the year Albania formed a SFPE chapter and joined SFPE Europe and in November's Additional General Assembly we formally admitted Denmark as a new chapter member which brings us to 17 chapter members and 5 student chapter members. Before the closing of the year Finland has also established a SFPE chapter, which will be admitted to SFPE Europe at the next General Assembly. A big welcome to the new chapters – it is very nice to see how the European map is filling in.
And the year end delivered us a fantastic surprise: We will have the first European to lead SFPE with Jimmy Jönsson being elected as SFPE President Elect for 2022, becoming SFPE President in 2023. Congratulations to Jimmy.
This quick review shows that SFPE Europe is off to a very good start. A very big thank you to all involved in the various activities and the support we get from everyone to build and develop SFPE Europe.
With the current Corona situation and just finished festive season I hope all of you are well. Stay safe.
David Grossmann, SFPE Europe Council Chair 2021