EWA general meeting: A strong sign of loyalty from our members

EWA President Markus Achleitner was able to welcome 118 representatives of 37 ordinary and 32 supporting members to the EWA General Meeting 2022 on the occasion of Interbad in Stuttgart. The Board of Directors, the Committee of the supporting members and the team at the office were extremely pleased about this strong sign of loyalty. It is anything but a matter of course that so many members take the time after a busy day at the fair for this formally important but usually rather unentertaining act. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them!

President Markus Achleitner took the opportunity of his annual report to thank all members of the EWA personally and also on behalf of the board members for the confidence expressed with their re-election in 2021. He was pleased with the high activity rate of the EWA members. After a long phase due to the pandemic, during which it was only possible to exchange information online, the response to the EWA Operations Day in Strassen in December 2021, the Aquanale in October 2021 and the EWA Congress in April 2022 had shown how important face-to-face meetings are. With 170 registrations, the highest number of participants ever for an EWA Congress was reached. President Achleitner thanked the Mack family of entrepreneurs, Rulantica Director Michael Kreft von Byern and the entire Europa Park team for their great hospitality.

The online seminars on current topics also proved their worth, attracting between 15 and 114 listeners. It was also due to the challenges of the present that the number of newsletters, information letters and position papers of the EWA in 2021 and 2022 clearly exceeded those of the previous years. Markus Achleitner was particularly pleased with the joint appeals and initiatives the EWA has launched with friendly associations in the direction of politics. Regular surveys of the member companies formed the basis for the activities and focal points of the association’s work.

Probably nobody could have foreseen that at a time when all waterparks and spas were busy coping with the Corona crisis, a new and even greater challenge for politics, economy and society would be coming our way with the attack on Ukraine and the energy crisis. He appealed to the associations of the baths industry to continue to stick together in the crisis and not to slacken in their joint commitment. Step-by-step plans that envisage the closure of waterpark and pool companies are an advantage for politicians and do not help to strengthen the unity of the industry: “We can only overcome this challenge together”.

In his accountability report, the President recalled the numerous initiatives of the EWA, which campaigned for waterparks and public pools with appeals to national governments and the EU Commission, with position papers and checklists. In this context, he thanked the pool operators who financially supported an EWA submission to the German Federal Ministry of Finance on the VAT rate.

Markus Achleitner pleaded for keeping the waterparks, leisure pools and spas open even in difficult times in order to give people an opportunity for health-oriented leisure activities, sports and recreation. This can only be achieved, he said, if financial aid and investment programmes continue to secure the existence of the public pools.

At the end of his speech, the EWA president thanked his colleagues on the board, the committee of supporting members, the team of the office and all members of the EWA, who support the work of the association with their voluntary commitment and are loyal to it. The fact that there was an increase in membership even in the second major year of crisis was a clear signal of how important it is to have a strong representation of interests for the waterpark, pool and leisure industry.

At the meeting, President Markus Achleitner, together with Vice-President Jutta Kleiber, was able to honour the following companies for their many years of membership in the EWA:

20-year membership:
– Maximare Erlebnistherme Hamm,

25-year membership:
– Aquarena GmbH, Jettingen,
– Grünbeck Wasseraufbereitung GmbH, Höchstädt an der Donau,
– Roigk GmbH & Co. Gevelsberg,
– Weise & Partner, Bad Berka,

30-year membership:
– Laguna Badeland, Weil am Rhein.

Surprised at the meeting were the office team around Managing Director Dr. Klaus Batz, who were honoured for 20 years of service to EWA.