Representative meeting 2023-11-10–12

Sunday 12 November at 12.00

General meeting hearing

Last but not least, the formal autumn meeting itself was held before the stay at Hasselö ended with a joint lunch at the hostel. Lotten declared the meeting open and was elected chairman of the meeting and Joar was elected secretary. The meeting decided that the membership fees are unchanged.  Sten-Åke gave an account of the secretariat for "Clean energy for EU islands" and ESIN. ESIN is a non-profit association for European small islands and has the task of working towards the EU to address the needs of small islands. The most important thing is to ensure that Article 174 is satisfied in a good way. The Secretariat of “Clean energy for EU islands" works to support projects on islands to transition to fossil-free energy supply. SRF has applied for a project for energy conversion. Four islands are included Holmön, Visingsö, Ven and Vinön. If the application is granted, conversion plans will be drawn up. There will be a digital education on November 29. The board realizes that the work in working groups takes place on a non-profit basis and therefore may not be so active. The board proposes to be able to employ someone on a project basis, who can focus on any issue in a working group. The board proposes that the working groups work on, but decides to prioritize an issue and can get help with a project employee to pursue the issue actively. Priorities in the Action Plan for 2024 are to try to get an Archipelago Parliament and a pleasure trip in 2024. The proposal is a visit to Aspö in Blekinge. SRF cannot pay for this trip, but those who want to go along are responsible for their own costs. The Scientific Network for Island Research (SNIR), which is led by Södertön University in collaboration with SRF and SIKO, held its first research conference in October 2024 on Holmön. Read more. The next conference will be in a year on the West Coast. There is now a new graphical profile, which will be on drive. Now it is time to formulate a sstrategy for 2025-2027. The board will contact the member associations to gather views and comments. The annual meeting will be held digitally on February 18. The representative meeting 2024 will be held October 18 – 20. A new working group with Catrin as group leader was decided. If you are interested in participating, sign up Catrin. The formal autumn general meeting was then concluded. Lotten thanked everyone who had attended the representative meeting and wished everyone a safe and secure journey home.

Sunday 12 November at 10.00

Breakfast

Sunday began with a delicious full breakfast before the meeting continued with Joar digitally presenting how SRF's drive and digital platforms work. He went through the dive, website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Whatsapp. Joar will hold a training course on Google Drive in particular later in November. This was followed by reports from various working groups.

Eva told us that many schools that were part of the network have disappeared and that many schools are closing down. Birgitta talked about the report "Schools in the whole country Balance Report #10 2023". It is a series of reports published by "Hela Sweden ska leva". The report contains a lot of statistics about the school's development and the consequences that arise when schools are closed. Schools are increasing in cities but closing down in rural areas. It is also noted that smaller schools are more popular, but throughout the country the trend is towards larger schools. Most often, this is driven by economics. There are also charts and tables illustrating distances to different types of schools and locations, as well as costs for different types of schools and locations.

Anna-Karin told about the work in the archipelago farmers group. They work to gather younger people to, among other things, learn about different forms of support. There is also a group that collects information before the new program period to see how different supports can be used in the best way. One looks and calculates the difference in conditions for cultivation and animal husbandry in different places in Sweden and how support can be distributed in a rational and efficient way. It appears that there are difficulties in conveying these differences in conditions to the EU's decision-making body for the aid.

Kjell talked about the fishing group's latest work. The group includes representatives from Småland, Stockholm, Norrbotten, Blekinge and Västkusten. Pelagic fishing is mainly found in Österjörn, the fishing bay and the southern Bothnian Sea. The spawning biomass of brook trout has halved since the 70s. The average size of stömming has also decreased. The group works against various authorities with referrals and via the media. Various reference groups within the EU are also monitored. One issue raised is the difficulty of licenses for binary fishing. A regulation is needed so that a generational change can take place. Another is the industrial trawl fishery. They are working to move this to 12 nm off the coast and to introduce a break in this fishing in sensitive areas. Quotas have been lowered for streamers and other species. A project being followed is a mussel farm at Hasselö, Dalarö and Kalmar.

Lena and Lena talked about the ferry group's work. They meet with the Swedish Transport Administration regularly. However, the group thinks that not much happens at the Swedish Transport Administration. They have therefore recently worked to meet with the Riksdag's Traffic Committee to raise this issue. According to EU treaty 174, special consideration must be given to vulnerable rural areas, but who in Sweden is responsible for the treaty being fulfilled? The Swedish Transport Administration's goal is to be climate neutral by 2045. There is no requirement for consultation or social cost analyzes of its decisions. The Swedish Transport Administration's functional requirements for public ferry routes do not extend to the requirements in treaty 174. At the meeting with the Transport Committee, the group got a clear understanding of the committee's area of ​​responsibility and was able to present SRF and our operations and the conditions that prevail on islands in different parts of the country. The group presented the specific conditions that prevail for certain selected ferry routes in various places in the country, including Holmön, Vinön, Aspö, etc. For a living archipelago there must be permanent residence. The population is aging and what will it look like in the future. The government will come up with a National infrastructure plan in 2024. Will there be anything about islands without a land connection? The group is now considering how to proceed.

Olle told us a little about the Sustainability Group's project "Sustainable infrastructure for energy and environment on islands". The project included a visit to Smasö Energy Academy to learn more about how they work and what they have done. There was funding for 30 participants to participate. On the trip last spring, only 10 people participated, which meant that there were funds left over. We therefore requested an extension of the project time, which was granted, and were able to carry out another trip to Samsö in early October. A detailed description of the spring trip is available on SRF's website.

Nille talked about the project that was done where a film was shot with him. The film is called "Nille på Rindsö". Everyone is invited to watch the film.

Saturday, November 11 at 23.00 p.m

In the evening, a wonderful dinner was served with salmon tartare for starter and fallow deer for main course and a dessert of chocolate cake and panacotta. As a conclusion, a competition was held where it was important to answer questions based on music as a guide/clue. One moment was that a team participant had to listen to a song in headphones and would try to illustrate the song in different ways, but without words, so that the teammates could guess the song.

Team participants had to listen to a song and try to illustrate it for others in the team

Saturday 11 November at 17:00 After lunch there was a tour of Hasselö and Sladö with quad bikes. See pictures.

Start with 4-wheelers from the hostel
At the Drejern
Sjökanten's own cows
At Maria's farm
By the bridge to Sladö
Sladö nature reserve

A coffee break followed the tour, and then the member associations had to use three pictures to tell about their biggest challenge, what they would like to work on and what they are proud of. On Gräsö, they have worked on the fishing issue and compiled the work in a small brochure. Holmön sees the ferry traffic before winter as the biggest challenge and wants to work with the housing issue on the island and is proud of its contacts with the Municipality. På Vinön is proud of its shop and restaurant, which is now open all year round. Challenges for Visingsö are the ports, footpath and cycle path to the port, population development and main operator for the ferry route. On Hasselö, the biggest challenge is being aloneling of sorted waste fractions under municipal authority from 2024 and ready by 2027. They are now working with FNI in the archipelago and continue to work with safety issues First aid, alarms, CPR, fire protection. Follow broadband expansion, strengthen the tourism industry through sustainable conditions for permanent residents and create cultural objects typical of the archipelago. SIKO's big challenge is that the area includes 6 municipalities where the archipelago is a smaller part of each municipality. An important issue is the school issue, where it looks different in different municipalities. Priority issues include increased direct democracy with local co-determination, better coordination of archipelago issues (county board, region and municipalities), housing in the archipelago, sustainability including fishing. They are proud of the projects that the member associations run. BSR's big challenge is to keep its coast together and get better contact with the member associations along the coast. Includes 9 municipalities, 2 municipal associations and a region. You want to work with communications with ferries and buses and spread knowledge about conditions to the region and authorities and work in SRF's working groups. We are proud that reports from meetings with the Transport Committee were quickly disseminated to many people. Over 12 had been reached within 000 weeks via Facebook. On Ven, people are proud to live on the island and to have broken the depopulation trend. The school question is an issue you work on. Östergötland is in the process of making a fresh start with archipelago issues. There are many islands and few people and you have no natural meeting place. Several municipalities are affected and the school issue is important. They are also thinking about SOT points. Many islands are used in agriculture, including grazing.  Before the break before dinner, there was also time for a digital quiz.

The winning team was Roli, led by Rosie, Olle and Anette

   Saturday 11 November 12:00

Breakfast in the hostel's dining room

The morning began with breakfast at the Hostel. The meeting was held in Hasselö Mission House. Lotte began by welcoming everyone. Maria spoke briefly about a working group that she had been invited to be a part of. Lotten's introduction touched on the need for us to be visible in society and not just the board working. Everyone can be involved and contribute to SRF being noticed in society. Malin Ohlsson and Anna Karlin talked about the Archipelago Council in Östergötland and northern Småland, which includes Norrköping, Söderköping, Valdemarsvik, Mönsterås, Oskarshamn and more municipalities in the Östergötland Region. Fewer and fewer choose to live on islands without a land connection and 57% are over 65 years old. 30 years ago, about 630 people lived on islands. Today, however, part-time accommodation is increasing. The Archipelago Council is an informal forum. The aim is to be a joint force. A number of non-profit associations yesterday in addition to public representatives. They are working on revising a development program for the coast and archipelago. 

Malin and Anna talked about their work digitally

The revision focuses on sustainability issues, digitization and children's perspective. Opinions are collected via archipelago councils, where different actors in the archipelago are asked to give opinions, and important issues are grouped into different themes to see what is considered the most important to focus on. They have also issued a survey to visitors and residents. 277 responses were received, of which 78% were full-time/part-time residents. Important things that were highlighted were the calm, environment, sea, archipelago. Needs included better connections. You also look at whose responsibilities lie. The region: healthcare and public transport, prio of state infrastructure, municipal physical planning, school, omsog, municipal infrastructure. Business Non-profit commercial service, construction social activities. The development program must clarify ownership and division of responsibilities and consist of three parts: Strategy, planning documents and collaboration agreement. The idea is that the program can be adopted in the fall of 2024. The strength is to gather and talk about the archipelago and dits special conditions. You can see, however, that the council's mandate is a little unclear. Questions that often come up are: Fishing, preventing fires and accidents, commercial and public service. A Leader project is run. You fudge on houses where you can collaborate more. An archipelago parliament in May 2024. How to get the public actors involved? The meeting then continued with group work where the question of what our biggest challenges are and how we can tackle them. Important issues that came up were communications, housing, water/sewerage, business, increasing the population. During the groups' reporting, the questions that came up were grouped according to SRF's 8 overall goals. Some of the questions ended up in SRF's goal 1. Some questions also ended up in goals 4 and 5. An important aspect is that nature and the environment, which is an important factor for the hospitality industry, and it is important to find a balance in the use of the environment and nature so that it is sustainable and the environment is not damaged. During the coffee break, Maria told about the history of Missionshuset (where the meeting was held). The house was built in the 1860s and fulfilled an important function in the religious activities in Hasselö. The mission activity was active and was within the Church of Sweden, but in recent decades it has ceased and the building began to decay, among other things the roof kept collapsing. In 2010, an attempt was made to save the building with various financial contributions and in 2013 the building was renovated. Today, the house is used for various meetings. Anna-Karin talked about the working group she is part of in "Program council for traditional knowledge". An important issue they discuss is agriculture and fishing. Before lunch, Lennart told us about Sladö, which is the southernmost part of Hasselö.

Friday 10 November at 23.00

Dinner at the hostel

In the dark we arrived with the boat Bella at Hasselö. Maria and Lina met us at the quay and guided us to our various accommodations. Transport was by four-wheelers. At 19:XNUMX dinner was served in the Hostel. It was a tasty fish stew with salmon and perch that was seasoned with, among other things, saffron. Maria told us a little about Hasselö and Lina about the company that runs the hostel and the hybrid store on the island. The evening continued with togetherness where the rest of us could talk and discuss life and its challenges in our various archipelago areas.

Friday 10 November at 15:00

View Bus4You

This weekend 2023-11-10–12 is SRF's annual board of representatives meeting. This year we are holding på Hasselö outside Västervik. As usual, the meeting is referenced here on the SRF website in a notice that is continuously updated with posts in reverse chronological order.

Hasselö hostel

Alla participants traveled in different ways from different places in the country. I myself went by flight and Vy Bus4You with a short stop in Norrköping. We will be accommodated at the hostel in Hasselö. The last bit out to Hasselö is by boat.