New chairman of UFO-Sweden

The UFO-Sweden Annual meeting and exhibition was this year held on Saturday, May 4, in the city of Halmstad, on the West Coast of Sweden. It will be remembered as a historical meeting as our chairman for 22 years, Mr. Clas Svahn, had decided to retire to be able to spend more time with his family but he will continue as vice chairman and International Director. The annual meeting participants unanimously voted for Mr. Anders Berglund as new chairman of UFO-Sweden.

The old and new chairman of UFO-Sweden. Clas Svahn and Anders Berglund

As usual members of the board arrived already on Friday to build the exhibition and check the facilities and technical equipment at Sturegymnasiet, the school rented for the meeting. It proved to be an excellent  premises with plenty of space for exhibition and tables for books and magazines. After three hours of hard work everything was in place and we could all retire to the Hotel Amadeus for a beer and relaxation before dinner at Restaurant Norreport.

Tobias Lindgren with the new AFU roll-up

Building the exhibition. Carl-Anton Mattsson, Johan Gustavsson, Håkan Ekstrand

Saturday started with the Annual meeting at 10.00 AM. After ordinary procedures and elections Clas Svahn explained his reasons for retiring as chairman and Anders Berglund was elected and installed as the new chairman of UFO-Sweden. By a funny coincidence Anders is 33 years, the same age as Clas when he was elected chairman in 1991. Like every organization the UFO-Sweden board needs to recruit younger members to continue our work and traditions. Anders Berglund is a skilful field investigator and a worthy successor as chairman. After the regular meeting I and several collegues honoured Clas Svahn with short speeches and he received gifts and flowers for his excellent work during 22 years.

Photo taken during my speech to Clas

At 1.00 PM the exhibition was opened to the public. Three lectures were given during the afternoon. I gave a historic presentation of AFU and the challenges of UFO research. Clas Svahn gave an excellent lecture on the Ghost Rocket phenomenon in Sweden and Tobias Lindgren showed UFO pictures and spoke of the problem of misidentifications. All in all a successful and pleasant Annual meeting.

The exhibition area from above

UFO-Sweden´s new web master Ronny Thörnvall together with Tobias Lindgren

No, this is not from Midsomer Murders but Anneli Åstebro, wife of Clas Svahn, trying to get our alien doll into the car for the journey home