Report on the EGSA meeting from 09/05/2025 to 11/05/2025
by Jan Sonnenberg
It’s 9 May 2025 and I’m looking forward to our EGSA Annual meeting 2025. This year it’s taking place in Hamburg, which makes travelling as easy as possible for me. From central station to central station, visiting a few shops, going to a nice restaurant and then take the underground directly to Hamburg-Ohlstedt. I arrive at our conference hotel, Landhaus Ohlstedt, at 5.30 pm in fantastic weather. I’m not the first member today. Ten or more are already enjoying the sun in the hotel’s outdoor area and have already made themselves comfortable with a cool drink. The chats start immediately. There is a great selection of food and drinks on offer and here they are again: the EGSA members amongst themselves. The evening comes to an end, everyone is perhaps a little tired from the sometimes long journey and everyone is looking forward to the next day.
After breakfast and so many small conversations in between, the members are let into the meeting room at around 10.00 am. A number of animals are immediately available for sale and, while the club’s board of directors is still deliberating, the members take their seats.
Our annual general meeting begins a little later than planned. At this meeting, those present are informed about the number of members, the club’s financial situation, news from the editorial team of our club magazine ‘The Garter Snake’ and the final version of the new website, which will soon be ready. A number of proposals will also be discussed and voted on. The main aim is to reduce the costs of the club magazine and the editorial team and the board have a good idea for this. All of this can be read in the minutes of the Annual General Meeting. After this exchange of ideas and the discussions in the official part, everyone has earned their lunch.
The planned lectures begin in the early afternoon. Henning Fietz will present his herpetological field observations in Hamburg’s nature reserves. About an hour later, Markus Steinkopf will inform us about research and development concerning garter snakes and entertain us (even if it is certainly not always the easiest task).
It’s already time for dinner. At this point, a big compliment from me for the really good choice of hotel. As I mentioned at the beginning, it is very conveniently located, very well maintained and the food on offer is simply superb. A direct hit!
In the evening, Steven Bol gives us lots of details about the natural lifestyle of our fosterlings, the garter snakes, in his talk. As always, this is exciting, as Steven has some news on board, as expected, and those present can get an impressive overview of the habitats of the snakes. Many members are sure to take away ideas for their own terrarium keeping from such presentations.
After this talk, most of the members are still very busy chatting. We chatted about luck and misfortune in breeding, propagation and keeping (the frequency of chatting always rises sharply towards the evening).
The next morning, after breakfast, we go to one of the habitats that Henning Fietz had introduced us to the day before. We are on the lookout for the grass snakes, adders and other reptiles and amphibians found here. The weather is still really nice, by the way, and so not only did the members finally get to see each other again and talk directly (without the noise of the stock exchange or distractions) – they also all had a really nice weekend.
I like to repeat myself. Our EGSA Members‘ Meeting and the 2025 Annual General Meeting were once again a: A hit!
If you can make it possible to attend one of the dates in subsequent years – do it. It’s absolutely worth it. When do you ever have so many intelligent people around you who not only know what you are talking about – they are finally the right people to give you something to take away with you.
Jan Sonnenberg
Sadowastraße 19
10318 Berlin
E-Mail: jan.sonnenberg@googlemail.com