Gaminger Initiative

The Gaminger Initiative is a transeuropean officers' and reservists’ association founded in 1989. The current member countries are Germany, Italy, Croatia, Poland, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Northern Macedonia and Romania. It is a non-governmental, non-political, non-profit organization.

Purpose

The Gaminger Initiative is a joint platform of its officially recognized officers' and reservists' associations, which works on a level below politics and the armed forces, towards national and European defence readiness and collective security. The focus is on the role of reservists in the increasingly professionalized armed forces and the role of the armed forces in Europe as part of the EU and NATO. The Gaminger Initiative aims to help ensure that the greatly downsized armed forces do not lose touch with society and that the specialists and reservists these armed forces rely upon can be trained and deployed meaningfully.

History

The predecessor of the Gamingen Initiative was founded in 1989 as the fireside chats by a private initiative of Colonel Charles Ott (Switzerland), Colonel Professor Armin A. Steinkamm (Germany), and Colonel Volker Zimmermann (Austria) in the monastery Kartause Gaming near St. Polten. The original aim of the Gaminger Initiative was to bring together the military and reservist associations of Austria, Switzerland, and Germany with the new military and reservist associations of Central and Eastern European countries that were formed after the political changes in 1989 to create a trusting basis for mutual information and cooperation. In 1995 the working group was institutionalized with its own presidium and general secretariat as the Gaminger Initiative. In 2002, the Gaming Initiative was officially recognized by CIOR. While both organizations work closely together, they are independent and autonomous in their respective areas of responsibility. Since 2004, the Gaming Initiative has increasingly focused on European security policy and military affairs. Since then, the member states have met on a biannual basis. The meetings are attended by representatives of the individual national associations and authorities as well as particularly invited speakers.

Organization

The central executive body of the Gaminger Initiative is the Presidium, which consists of a president and two vice presidents. Traditionally, the positions of the vice president are occupied by the future president and the former president. This ensures continuity in the operations and work of the initiative. Elections are held for two years at a time. The current Presidium is formed by the President Lieutenant Colonel Philipp Leo (Switzerland) and the two Vice Presidents Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Sebastian Söllner (Germany) and Lieutenant Commander Giuseppe Filippo Imbalzano (Italy).