Finally a support organization for the Saab Car Museum is emerging. None of our team made it there but Tom from saabblog.net was there to fill the void. Many thanks to Tom for sharing it with us:
Last friday the first meeting to found a support organisation for the Saab Car Museum took place in Trollhättan. Generally it can be said that a lot of things have turned out very positive since our last visit. While two months ago the worries about a long term solution were all around, the future looks more bright now. 36 poeple showed up to join the meeting and enjoy coffee and sweet pastries.
Our small German delegation, consisiting of Mark, Hubert, Götz and myself grew to six persons as two Saab fans from Germany, who we met at the museum joined us. Hubert, who traveled all the way from Germany in his two-stroke Saab 96 served us as transator. As you enter the museum you come across the white 9-3 Griffin that was donated by many of you. This last Saab of an era is travelling to events in Sweden a lot – cars have to be driven, that’s what they are made for.
Margareta Hallin of Innovatum opened the meeting giving the first Infos. As she said, the Saab Car Museum is getting closer and closer to Saab AB. This is not that natural despite the common history of Saab Automobile and Saab AB. Over recent years the relationship between those two company was far from being well. Saab AB felt uncomfortable as the negative press about Saab Automobile rubbed off on them.
In the meantime this relationship got better. The museum was granted the use of the name “Saab”, so it can be called “Saab Bilmuseum” or “Saab Car Museum”. The cooperation is getting more intense. For example the car museum gets a training jet of the Swedish air force that will be hung under the roof. In return, Saabs from the warehouse of the museum are sent to the air force museum in Malmslätt. The circle is completed and one of the core messages of the meeting was “Saab is not dead”. Saab lives on, even if right now only planes are built.
The worldwide Saab community proves that the Saab spirit is very much alive. Peter Backström introduced us to the contenders as “…our German friends…”. We received a very warm welcome though our visit was more moral than factual support. The small donation from Germany we brought two months ago as well as the great support from SaabsUnited and the huge Saab community are not forgotten – they are very much appreciated by the Saab veterans and the Swedish Saab fans.
On the meeting acommittee was appointed to work out the structure of the association. Core issues besides the structure are the integration of sponsors from the industry and the fans. That prelimanary committee consists of representatives of the following organizations (I am not sure if this list is complete):
Saab veterans, Saab Club Schweden, Saab Turbo Club Schweden, IF Metal, Innovatum, SaabsUnited, Innovatum, Trollhättan Kommun.
In the next few weeks this committee has to agree on a structure of the assosiation, the use of incoming donations is also overseen by them. The next meeting, where a final board is to be elected so that the association can start their work.
Those who want to become a member of this association or want to support the museum in maintaining the historical cars still have to wait until fall.
Text & Photos by Tom, translated by till72
It’s good to hear that Saab AB cares about the Saab car Museum!
Yes it is indeed good to see that this museum will get a definitive support.
Also fine to see that relations with Saab AB is getting normalized again.
Very good to see this all coming together
Just for the record, the meeting was tuesday 19 june.
I know, because i was there.
And the best of all: they opened the museum for two days last week (in contrary to what was mentioned on their website)
due to a larger amount of requests from Saab fans who wanted to see the museum.
So I was there on Wednesday, 20th and I enjoyed it very much!
Thanks to the team!