CEE REGION

from RTI Legacy Magazine - 1 -December - 2022

TASTE THE WORLD

REGION CEE

ASSOCIATIONS

RT Austria RT Belgium RT Germany RT Great Britain and Ireland RT Hungary RT Luxembourg RT Moldova RT Romania RT The Netherlands RTI E-Club CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE REGION

Central & Eastern Europe Rising

By JULE GOSSCHALK,CEE Chairman 2022-2023

DEAR TABLERS, 4 weeks after the RTI Wm 2022, we had our CEETm (Central and Eastern European Tablers meeting) this year in Nottingham, UK. The CEETms are being held in alphabetical order, therefor after RTBI, the host for 2023-2024 will be RT Hungary.

First arrivals came in on Thursday, and there were day tours arranged. I flew in early on Friday morning with my wife Isabelle and some of the Dutch delegation, including their traditional ”Benjamin Travel” (the 14 youngest Tablers of the Netherlands, one of each district). This way, the Dutch make them enthusiastic at a young age and hope they take to (inter)national Tabling early on and grow from there. on Friday, I joined one of the day tours. All activities were arranged within walking distance from the hotel, so very convenient. The main hotel was a bit expensive, but hotels are more expensive in the UK in general, and it was not mandatory to book the main hotel. Friday night’s welcome party was themed medieval - Robin Hood. many were dressed up, which gave a great atmosphere. Beer and food were included until midnight. my favourite was the roasted pig, which also perfectly matched the theme.

The meeting was held on Saturday at a beautiful (still functioning) council house. We started at 10am instead of 9am, which was much appreciated by all. Apart from the association reports, guest speakers were RTI VP marc Germeshausen speaking about his plans for RTI and the Secretary of LCI about their regions. RTI’s Past President, Jason Thomson, talked about the history of RTBI and RTI. Last but not least, mark meijer, RTNL VP and chairman of the Dutch expansion committee, about expansion - specifically internal growth, in which my personal expertise lies. I like to prioritise internal growth in our region this year. The meeting finished at 12:30, including a 30-minute break.

During the gala dinner later that evening, we had some entertainment upfront by a light show performer. Afterwards, the four CEE award winners were announced as follows:

Association of the Year: RT Germany Club of the Year: RT 20 Botosani Romania Tabler of the Year: Karlkristian Dischinger Service project of the Year: RT 62 Geel Belgium

I want to give a special nod to max Pouille for winning the ”last man standing” cup. Lastly, a big thank you to RTBI and the convening team for being great hosts. We, therefore, handed the certificate of appreciation to the chairman of the CEE TM convening team Ray Carr. After all that, the night just went on and on.

CEE TRAVELS Two weeks after the CEETm I travelled to visit RT Germany as an invite of IRo Jorg von Ludowig to the ”Unanstandiger Abend”, an event organised by his club 84 Hamburg-St. Pauli. CEE CSo Gottfried Lumpi joined me on this travel, and we also were joined by RTI Past President Sebastian Walter.

It’s nice to visit a ”smaller” event (still 100 Tablers attending). There is more time to connect and discuss items more deeply. RT84 Hamburg-St. Pauli is a special club with a special location. A recommended experience for all Tablers once (or twice). Afterwards, Gottfried visited me in the Netherlands, and we had more time to discuss RTI E-Club.

The weekend after, I travelled with my wife to Austria for the (re-)charter of RT13 Graz Umgebung. We were welcomed there by RT Austria President Lukas Pritz, the rest of his board, and of course, our own RTI VP marc Germeshausen. Even though it was an 11-hour drive (so 22 hours in 3 days), we had a blast and would not have wanted to miss it. The newly installed Tablers of RT13 are superb guys, and I’m sure we will see them internationally too. They also managed a great charter weekend and program. The HIGHlight for me was fl ying by myself for the fi rst time!

The weeks following this were in the setting of Half Year meetings for me. Firstly the Dutch HYm and the week following visiting the Belgium HYm. one of the items mainly discussed is internal growth and how we can facilitate this on an (inter)national level. And you can really see all associations are also focussing on this regard, especially after the last couple of years, which hugely impacted our membership numbers. Therefore I am very proud of the eff ort put in by the CEE associations and the way back up that seems to have been found.

Yours in International Tabling