After a two-year break, the time has come again! “I really wan­ted this trip to hap­pen after the Covid time-out, and eve­ryt­hing fell into place per­fectly after the Inter­forst Trade Fair in July 2022,” explains Anne Wah­lers- Dreeke. So, in Novem­ber 2022, anot­her 22 women cus­to­mers from Ger­many and Austria had the oppor­tu­nity to tra­vel to Fin­land with Anne Wah­lers-Dreeke and Monika Rath­jen to visit sales part­ner PONSSE.

“With each new trip since 2002, and thanks to the posi­tive expe­riences and ack­now­led­ge­ments sha­red by par­tici­pants, we keep plan­ning the next trip each year, to this day,” A. Wah­lers-Dreeke explains; the ideas gene­ra­ted sug­gest new items for the agenda, such as the recent visit to the KEI­TELE Saw­mill, and the iti­ne­rary always inclu­des an att­rac­tion or buil­ding in Vie­remä. A par­ticu­lar concern for her was to pro­vide a space where women fores­ters and busi­nesswo­men could network in a laid-back atmosp­here away from their daily fores­ting rou­tine and become fami­liar with a variety of ope­ra­tions in the forest industry. “These trips have crea­ted many pri­vate friends­hips and lots of pro­fes­sio­nal col­la­bo­ra­tion,” Anne Wah­lers-Dreeke adds.

At the Wah­lers Ladies Lounge, par­tici­pants pre­sent inte­res­ting and infor­ma­tive short lec­tu­res on a variety of sec­tor-speci­fic topics, inclu­ding mac­hine lea­sing and insu­rance trai­ning for women in the fore­stry sec­tor, cur­rent pro­ject infor­ma­tion from the KwF — the Ger­man Board of Trus­tees for Fore­stry Work and Tech­no­logy (Kura­to­rium für Wal­dar­beit und Forst­tech­nik), issues regar­ding occu­pa­tio­nal safety, and of course Wahler’s in-house cus­to­mer software. During the int­ro­duc­tion round on one of these trips, an idea was pre­sen­ted to offer forwar­der trai­ning for women. The trai­ning ses­sions have been orga­ni­sed by Anne Wah­lers- Dreeke on a regu­lar basis since 2011 in coo­pe­ra­tion with the fore­stry trai­ning centre (Forst­lic­hen Bil­dungszent­rum) in Seesen/ Münchehof, near Göt­tin­gen in Lower Saxony, with the sup­port of the Einari Vidgren Foun­da­tion. At the request of a woman fores­ter, Wah­lers is cur­rently orga­ni­sing ini­tial trai­ning for women; the focus is on digi­ta­li­sa­tion and proces­sing of pro­duced mac­hine data in fore­stry ope­ra­tions, and is especially gea­red towards moti­va­ting the youn­ger gene­ra­tion to get into the busi­ness!

IN A FAMILY BUSI­NESS, THERE IS SOMET­HING FOR EVE­RY­ONE

The women of the family busi­ness have been invol­ved for gene­ra­tions in the company’s ope­ra­tions in one way or the other, and Anne and Monika do not deviate from here.

Monika trai­ned as a blacks­mith in her parents’ busi­ness, became the best in her guild and even ear­ned her master’s title in this pro­fes­sion and has been wor­king in the com­pany ever since. This was a rarity for a woman at that time. Anne also star­ted early in her parents’ busi­ness and took on office work.

Anne has now also been orga­ni­sing trai­ning cour­ses for women in fore­stry for over 20 years, whet­her for dri­vers, ent­repre­neurs, or those inte­res­ted in mac­hine tech­no­logy. The ”Wah­lers Ladies Lounge” con­nects these women with each other. To date, Anne Wah­lers- Dreeke has recei­ved two awards for this com­mit­ment, inclu­ding one from the Ger­man Fore­stry Council.