NEW YEAR'S PROGRAM LETTER

Ladies and Gentlemen, Colleagues, members and supporters of the Polish Salt Mining Association

At the beginning of my letter, I would like to wish everyone in the new year 2022, first of all, health, and all the best in private and professional life. May this year be the last one that brings concern for the health of you and your loved ones. May it, despite pandemic challenges and limitations, provide you with at least a bit of joy, success and new important scientific, implementation and economic achievements, bringing fame and satisfaction to you and the splendor of our Organization, which we create together.

The beautiful winter weather in recent days has encouraged me to be active and present you with a summary of PSGS activities in 2021 and plans for this year. Therefore, I encourage you to read (mandatory for Members!) the following, quite long report and constructive comments, conclusions and proposals.

Topics:

1. PSGS 2021 General Election Meeting
2. QVS Symposium 2021
3. Publishing activity
4. Association's finances and fees
5. Cooperation with foreign partners - membership in SMRI
6. Plans for 2022

Ad1. General Assembly

The most important event for our organization in the past year was the ordinary General Meeting (election) of PSGS Members. It took place on October 1 at the AGH in Krakow during the annual Quo Vadis Sal symposium.

With great satisfaction, we noted a significant attendance, despite the pandemic time, reaching almost 60 %! Resolutions of W.Z. and conclusions from the discussion regarding the further activities of the Association, most of you know because they participated in the sessions. Some of them will be presented in the following sections.

Major changes took place in the PSGS Board, which was formed as a result of the elections.

The board consisted of:

• Jacek Wachowiak - President of the Board
• Katarzyna Cyran –Vice President (Wydz. Inżynierii Lądowej i Gosp. Zas., AGH)
• Justyna Nowińska-Jarzębińska – Secretary (OBRGSChem Chemkop)
• Natalia Walczak-Torba – Treasurer (OBRGSChem Chemkop)
• Grażyna Meisel (former Hołojuch) – Member of the Management Board, financial officer (PAN)
• Krzysztof Bukowski – Member of the Management Board (Wydz. GGiOŚ, AGH)
•  Kajetan D’Obyrn – Member of the Management Board (Wydz. GGiOŚ AGH)
• Damian Kurdek – Member of the Management Board (KSK „Kłodawa” S.A)
• Joanna Wrzosek – Member of the Management Board (ZG Polkowice-Sieroszowice, KGHM).

I hope that the new composition of the Management Board, significantly "rejuvenated" and dominated by ladies, will effectively contribute to the further successful development of our Association.

Ad. 2. Symposium QUO VADIS SAL

The QVS' 2021 Symposium under the slogan: "Varia Sal - Everything about Salt" was held on September 30 and October 1 at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow. The Symposium was attended by about 100 people from 31 companies, institutions and state offices. The symposium, due to the pandemic, was more modest, but its finalization was a great success. Even in May, many doubted whether it would be possible to carry it out at all. The conference brochure with the programme, topics and abstracts of speeches is available on our website (http://www.psgs. agh.edu.pl/).

Noteworthy is the very good cooperation of the Association with the AGH authorities during the organization of the conference, for which I would like to thank the Rector of AGH and the Dean of the GGiOŚ Faculty.

I would also like to thank the sponsors of QVS 2021: Kopalni Soli Kłodawa S.A., KGHM Polska Miedź S.A., UOS-Drilling S.A., OBRGSChem "Chemkop" Sp. z o.o.,  Sandvik Polska Sp. z o.o., KGHM Metraco S.A. for fruitful and cordial cooperation. I am deeply convinced that the logistical, substantive and financial support offered to us brings real benefits to Polish science and Polish salt mining.

Ad.3. Publishing activity

The basic element of this activity is the development and publication of the yearbook entitled "Salt Review". This item has been published continuously since 2007, i.e. for 14 years. The first yearbooks were published in cooperation with GSMiE PAN and AGH Publishing House. Since 2014, Przegląd Solny has been published as an independent PSGS magazine/annual and is financed entirely from the Association's funds. All articles published so far (one hundred and several dozen items!!!) are available in PDF form on our website in the "Salt Review" http://www.psgs.agh.edu.pl/przeglad-solny/  and recently in the BazTech database http://baztech.icm.edu.pl/

The last Volume 15 was published at the beginning of last year and is a double volume 2019/2020. This situation was caused by the "freezing" of activity in 2020. We all know the reason. It is currently being prepared for printing Vol. 16.

Among the minor publishing activities, the Association's calendar deserves attention. "Sequor Salem"  (from Latin: follow the salt), which presents in the form of photos with extensive descriptions salt, geological and sightseeing curiosities from our expeditions. For several years, the calendar has been part of the QVS conference materials and has been very popular, also due to the dates of important PSGS events in a given year. The theme of this year's "Sequor Salem" is the last salt expedition to Portugal in 2019.

Ad. 4. Finance

The Polish Salt Mining Association is a financially well-off organization. He has no debts or other liabilities. We have enough financial resources to carry out all the intended plans in a given year and a certain reserve for the next year. We owe our good financial condition not only to our resourcefulness, but to a large extent to our Partners and Sponsors who support our activities in exchange for promotion during the "Quo Vadis Sal" salt conferences.

The current balance of the account is tens of thousands of zlotys,  which is a security for the issue of Przegląd Solny, advance payments for the organization of QVS 2022, a small co-financing for a possible expedition and current fees.

FEES

Ladies and Gentlemen, in accordance with the PSGS Statute, each member of the Association is obliged to pay a membership fee.

As you have probably known for a long time, contributions are not the main source of financing our activities, but must be sufficient to cover basic fees and costs which amount to approximately 14,000. annually. A detailed list of costs for this year will be prepared and sent to you soon by the Treasurer.

The current membership fee was PLN 100 per year (about PLN 8.30 per month) and has not been changed for 15 years.

At the General Meeting of PSGS members on October 1, 2021, a resolution was adopted to introduce a uniform membership fee for all members of the Association in the amount of PLN 150 per year (PLN 12.50 per month). Thus, discounts for retired employees were abolished.

I am now asking all members of the Association to pay their outstanding contributions by 2021.  The Treasurer sent you individually information about the arrears. If anyone has not received such information, please contact the Treasurer directly at the following address: skladki.czlonkowskie.psgs@gmail .com.

Please pay all arrears by January 14, 2022. On this day, the meeting of the Management Board will be held to consider the issue of contribution arrears. According to the PSGS Statute, people who do not pay contributions must  be removed from the list of members!  This is not only a statutory requirement, but also a legal and fiscal requirement, from which we have to account to the control authorities.

Ad. 5. SMRI Membership

At the General Meeting of PSGS members on October 1, 2021, it was decided that the PSGS association would join the international organization SMRI - Solution Mining Research Institute. We have been thinking and discussing membership in SMRI for a long time. What was at stake, however, was the high membership fee in opposition to the profits. In the end, we decided that it would pay off and we could afford it. The decision of the GM was, of course, preceded by correspondence with the authorities of SMRI, sending information about the Association and determining the conditions of membership. Detailed information about SMRI can be found on their website. Most of you know this organization. So, in short, I'll just add that:

• The Institute is based in the USA and associates companies, scientific units and other institutions from around the world, dealing with research and exploitation of deposits by underground leaching, underground storage and storage in caverns, etc.
•  SMRI organizes 2 large conferences every year - in the spring in the USA and in the autumn in Europe, in which our members also participate.
• Members of SMRI from Poland used to be Chemkop and IKS, and now there are: the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Resources Management of the AGH University of Science and Technology and the Strata Mechanics Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences from Cracow.
• Benefits of SMRI membership include significant discounts when attending their conferences and, very importantly, access to the SMRI library, papers and all published materials. This information is not available to third parties.
• Membership fees are up to several thousand. USD, depending on the size of the company. For scientific units and non-profit organizations, such as ours, the annual fee is USD 1,000.
•  This year, the European SMRI conference will be held in September in Krakow, a few days before Quo Vadis Sal (dates are marked on the calendar). We are already talking about cooperation and assistance in organizing these events. We want some of the SMRI participants to also participate in Quo Vadis Sal.

II. PLANS FOR 2022

1. "Quo Vadis Sal" symposium

This year's Symposium will take place on September 22-23, again in Krakow, at the Qubus Hotel, right after the SMRI conference (September 18-21). As I mentioned above, the organization of both conferences - QVS and SMRI will take place in close cooperation between these entities. I hope it will be a beautiful mining and geological celebration of solar workers. The subject and schedule will be sent to you soon and posted on our website.

2. PSGS 30th Anniversary

This year we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the activities of the Polish Salt Mining Association. The Association was registered in December 1991, and the first General Meeting and the appointment of the first PSGS authorities took place in 1992. We would like to prepare this anniversary very solemnly, with the awarding of decorations, mining degrees and other distinctions. Perhaps it will be possible to develop and publish a monograph devoted to Polish salt mining.

The celebrations will begin with a gala in the auditorium of the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, on the first day of the QVS Symposium - September 22, at 9.00.

3. Salt Review and possible monograph

At the General Meeting, we decided that from this year, Przegląd Solny will be published in a bilingual version - Polish and English. This is dictated mainly by the desire to expand the group of recipients with foreign readers and to increase the number of points for which most authors strive very much. Many articles published in PS have a high substantive and cognitive value, unfortunately, due to the current language version, these articles were read by only a small group of Polish recipients.

As for the occasional thematic monograph, such a project is being considered, but the road to its implementation is quite long and winding, mainly for financial reasons. We will inform you about the progress and decisions in this matter.

4. Expedition

PSGS expeditions and trips have already become a tradition of our organization. In addition to scientific and cognitive values, they also played a very important integrating role for the members of the Association. So far, we have organized 14 trips to various corners of the world. The last one to Portugal in 2019. The pandemic prevented us from organizing trips in 2020 and 2021. I hope that this year the trip will take place, although there is no specific azimuth yet and the matter is to be discussed together. My opinion is that after a two-year break, it should be short (7-9 days) and relatively cheap (PLN 3-4,000) to be universal and integrative. Therefore, exotic destinations to Africa, Mexico, etc. are eliminated in favor of Europe or the Middle East, e.g. the Dead Sea from Jordan or the Mediterranean region. I am asking for constructive and proven suggestions from you.

This is more or less in a very long summary (: the Association's affairs and optimistic, ambitious plans for 2022.

Thank you in advance for reading this rather extensive correspondence and I would like to ask for your comments, conclusions and other suggestions regarding our activity in the current year.

With respect and mining greeting God bless

Jacek Wachowiak

 President of the PSGS