The somewhat cramped hall in Laupersdorf seemed well filled when the day's moderator and Vice President Rainer Riek welcomed the guests. This was after the attendees had already made themselves comfortable in the restaurant area and had to change locations for the actual meeting. The logic behind this was not entirely clear to some; with the appropriate technology, it would have been perfectly possible to hold the AGM in a proper setting directly on site.
There has been a further slight increase in the number of member clubs. Four new clubs have joined the SHVF since their admission at the DM: the Swiss Sunbeam Tiger Owners, the Soci di Trabicoi Vecc, Oldtimer am Rigi and the Fondation Mais-Je-Vais-Piquer 1909. Two clubs will no longer be on the membership list in future: The Classic Motor Alliance, which once received much advance praise - even its website has been deactivated - has resigned and the Classic Car Club Reinthal has been excluded for failure to pay its dues over the past four years.
More expensive FIVA ID cards
The price increase for ID cards, the "FIVA passports", will be directly noticeable for future owners of historic vehicles. After the system changeover of the international umbrella organization FIVA in 2021 led to chaos in the processing of corresponding applications - with a huge backlog of outstanding passports - the problem has now been solved.The problem has now been resolved, the processing time has returned to normal levels and the number of ID cards issued each year is back at more than 500, with an upward trend. As René Gauch, the SHVF officer responsible for these issues, noted, applicants who only realize at the last minute that they need an ID card for certain events - including the Mille Miglia, for example - are a problem. Rarely belonging to a club anywhere, they see the SHVF purely as a service provider and would expect the scrutineers and SHVF managers, who work entirely on a voluntary basis, to have a correspondingly "gun-to-hell" attitude. This is another reason why IDs will be significantly more expensive for non-members of an SHVF club in future: instead of CHF 180, non-members will pay CHF 300 for a motorcycle ID, while the fee for cars will now be CHF 400 instead of CHF 270. For members, the cost is now CHF 150 instead of CHF 80 for motorcycles and CHF 180 instead of CHF 170 for four-wheeled vehicles, and the clubs will continue to receive a refund on each card.
Indicative of the importance of the topic, only one item on the agenda was discussed at length. It concerned the provision of a larger budget item for the promotion of young talent. To this end, the SHVF is directly involved with young people - in the form of a new platform and the establishment of the "Young 4 Vintage" label - and with the continuation of its sponsorship contribution to IgFS, the Interessengemeinschaft Fahrzeugrestauratoren Schweiz. Its aim is to broaden the scope of future courses and extend the training framework for prospective vehicle restorers to include vehicles from the 1970s to 1990s. Or to put it another way: In future, the scope of training will be expanded to include the special technical features of youngtimers with early digital systems, fuel injection and exhaust aftertreatment.
Club involvement in the promotion of young talent
There was some criticism of the umbrella organization's support for a new digital platform. For example, the question was raised as to what extent the clubs can participate if the umbrella association itself is to be the door opener for the youngsters, i.e. if the top-down principle is being applied to the promotion of young talent for once. The Swiss Historic Vehicle Days, which took place at the same time as the delegates' meeting, proved that the opposite approach works very well: With around 40 events on the official list of these Swiss Historic Vehicle Days of Action and numerous other meetings, outings or campaigns in favor of the historic witnesses of road traffic. It is the clubs, private organizers and specialists who give the Swiss Historic Vehicle Days their character - under the overarching label of the umbrella organization, but without its further involvement.
Courses and driving lessons
The plan to offer courses on vehicle care and maintenance and on driving techniques with historic vehicles is probably a different matter. Here, the clubs should be involved from the outset, otherwise this campaign could give rise to the suspicion that it could be a hidden attempt by commercial providers to gain new customers. In the absence of more detailed information, however, the whole thing does not yet seem to be fully developed, so we will have to wait and see. But as a first sign, it is a good and certainly necessary step.
The umbrella organization is now taking the lead for the Swiss Classic Award, after Bernd Link had initially launched it as an event of his Swiss Classic World trade fair, but moved the gala to the autumn season as an independent event after two editions. After the delegates had waved through all the items on the agenda, Chairman Reiner Riek proceeded to the final official act of the DM:
Former President Bernhard Taeschler received a special honor. The SHVM awarded the honorary member the title of Honorary President as an additional dignity and recognition. To this end, the tradition of an "Oscar", which he himself had introduced, was continued and he was presented with a corresponding statuette by Vice President Rainer Rieck. In his own words, as a "gray eminence" in the background, the umbrella organization can continue to count on his support when needed. The delegates' meeting concluded with lunch and a highly valuable exchange with the representatives of other brand clubs and classic car clubs.
