By Klas Åstrand
The history of IVSS / IAESS contains many successfull congresses starting with the congress in Planneralpe, Austria 1966. The focus has always been schools and universities in terms of snow sports.
When planning for the 2009 congress in Rovaniemi the IVSS / IAESS board had a very intense discussion about the benefit of regular IVSS / IAESS congresses between the Interski congresses. The board could see a change in the snow sport world in connection to interest and money spent. The evaluation from the board gave that it was, and is, the same people that meet regardless of who arranges a congress. This gave the decision to cancel the Rovaniemi congress and focus on having the IVSS / IAESS General Assembly (GA) at the Interski midterm meetings.
In spring of 2009 IVSS / IAESS had its first GA in connection to the Interski midterm meeting. This was done with big help from Fritz Mares who helped to set up everything in advance. This first meeting gathered over 20 nations and a new IVSS board was elected.
The main work for the board, 2007-2011 was to get finances in order since IVSS had no money at all. This gave way to the IVSS / IAESS GA 2011 in St. Anton the assembly decided to collect a fee from the member countries.
Another big effort was made to transform IVSS / IAESS into an English spoken organization with English as the primary language. This decision was crucial due to costs in terms of translation and in terms of a clear signal in terms of understanding around the globe.
Starting at Interski St. Anton IVSS / IAESS has been in charge of the “Interski skischool” and have delivered a very good and happy event at the Interski congresses since. The aim of the project has been schoolchildren with low economic status.
Starting with the IVSS / IAESS GA in St. Anton the transformation of IVSS / IAESS has continued and the aim and goal to be the scientific branch in the Interski family focusing on promoting snowsports in schools and universities.
At the IVSS / IAESS GA in Pamporovo 2019 the then elected board consists mostly of researchers from different universities. This is the groundwork for a successful development of IVSS / IAESS and the Interski family.
During the General Assembly in Levi in March 2022 the membership voted in favor of the name change from IVSS to IAESS (International Association of Education in Science and Snowsports) to reflect the international collaborative goals of the association.