About us
Who we are
WLAS (World Leaders Autograph Society) is an independent, non-profit and non-political community of people from all over the world who share the common hobby - collecting of autographs of world leaders. This closed community has 28 members from 12 countries - Australia, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, the USA and the United Kingdom.
Our community members work in two sections - the first section works on Facebook as a closed group, the second section is a public group on this webpage. The webpage was created in order to promote our hobby and our cooperation and we want to show we are real people from different parts of the world, but with common interest. We believe that our cooperation can improve understanding among nations, we can promote our countries and we can make the relationships among countries better.
We all collect primarily the autographs of presidents and prime ministers from all countries and regions. Some of us collect also the autographs of royalties, governors, foreign ministers and other important politicians. The items signed can vary - pictures or photos, paper cards, signed letters or business cards, signed books or some specific items.
The history of WLAS
The first idea of the cooperation arose from Jan Syversten from Norway who advised to bring more collectors in one place and start to cooperate more professionally. The first group was founded by Jan Syversten from Norway and Michal Dominik from Slovakia on Facebook in 2012. We invited more people and we started to work together with big enthusiasm.
Later our member from Poland came with the idea to organize the common personal meetings with the aim of promoting the countries represented in the society.
The 1st meeting was organized in Krakow, Poland in 2013. The Polish friend hosted Jan Syversten and Rune Moe from Norway and Michal Dominik from Slovakia. WLAS was created and founded in Krakow by four participants.
Jan Syversten and Rune Moe organized the 2nd meeting in 2014 in Oslo, Norway. This meeting brought the cooperation with the German autograph collector club AdA (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Autographensammler e. V.) Thanks this cooperation WLAS can publish the articles about its activities in their magazine.
In November 2014 the Board of WLAS was established to organize the WLAS cooperation, which consists of the President of WLAS and 4 other members. The president and the members of the board are elected every 2 years. Jan Syversten from Norway became the first president of the society.
The German club AdA invited WLAS to be a part of their annual meeting. Our members met together with German collectors and at the same time organized the 3rd meeting in Leipzig, Germany in 2015. The WLAS member Jörg Wenk, Germany passed away on 17th July 2016 14 months after our personal meeting in Leipzig. May he rest in peace
The 4th meeting was organized in Žilina, Slovakia, where we gave up the idea of promoting the countries represented in the society and decided to promote our passion around the world. The idea of Jan Syversten to manage the meeting in the capital of Serbia was accepted.
Belgrade in Serbia was the host city for the 5th meeting. We invited some of the former Serbian leaders to participate in our meeting. It was our first attempt to meet personally the world leaders as a part of our annual meeting, which was unfortunately unsuccessful. The WLAS webpage was presented (its creation started in June 2017).
In Belgrade it was proposed for the future to select the next host cities according to the personal preferences of the participants in the form of a democratic election. The first elected city was the capital of Belarus.
The 6th meeting in August 2018 in Minsk, Belarus brought for the first time the meeting with the former world leader - Mr. Stanislav Shushkevich accepted the invitation of WLAS. The logo of WLAS was created and presented - blue backrounds, white letters and an umbrella on the top as a symbol of close friendship among collectors gathered in one common place.
The 7th meeting was realized in Sofia in August 2019, where the members of WLAS had the opportunity to meet 2 former prime ministers of Bulgaria - Mrs. Reneta Indzhova and Mr. Georgi Bliznashki. The meeting with Mr. Bliznashki was organized by the Slovak Embassy in Sofia, so this society starts to cooperate more with the diplomats and to promote more the society and this hobby. WLAS collected the autographs of the fmr. prime minister Ognyan Gerdzhikov during its stay in Sofia.
In 2020 we should visit Sarajevo and organize our annual meeting there. Because of the situation with coronavirus all over the world we needed to postpone the meeting one year later. In 2021 it was not possible again to realize our meeting in person, because the situation did not allow it. After 7 very nice meetings in various places around Europe we had the break in 2020 as well as in 2021.
In 2021 we realized the first virtual meeting. All participants were invited and we "met" also friends, which we did not see before. It was a good way how to know the members better, who are not able to participate on personal meetings.
It has finally been possible to realize the 8th meeting in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in August 2022. This meeting had a special spirit, because the WLAS-family met after 3 years. This meeting hosted 3 former leaders of the country - Mr. Edhem Bičakčić (former Prime Minister of the Federation of BIH), Mr. Prof Ivo Miro Jović (former Chairman of the Presidency) and Mr. Prof. Spasoje Tuševljak (former Chairman of the Council of Ministers). There was the interest to participate also from Mr. Haris Salijadžić and Mr. Ejup Ganić, but the objective reasons did not allow them to be a part of our meeting. Their supported our society with their autographs provided for the members.
We started to award the certificates of appreciation to the guests as our thank you for their willingness to participate on our meetings. This meeting was also an opportunity to remember our first distinguished guest Mr. Stanislav Shushkevich, who passed away on the 3rd of May 2022 at the age of 87 years. May he rest in peace.
In 2023 we were able to organize the 9th meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia and WLAS celebrated the 10th anniversary of its existence. The former prime minister Mr. Mamuka Bakhtadze accepted the invitation as a distinguished guest. The society had also the opportunity to receive the autographs for all 11 participants from the former prime minister Mr. Giorgi Gakharia as well as of the former president Mr. Giorgi Margvelashvili. We started with a new tradition to promote the autographs from the host country.
The 10th meeting was organized in August 2024 in Prishtina, Kosovo, where we enjoyed the participation of the former president of Kosovo Mr. Fatmir Sejdiu. We were pleased to receive also the autographs of the former prime minister Mr. Agim Çeku and former acting prime minister Mr. Adem Salihaj. WLAS awarded Michal Dominik, Slovakia with the honorary membership for his work to do the society more professional. The capital of Kosovo was visited by 11 participants including the new member from Australia.
After 6 months, exceptionally in the spring season, we organized the 11th meeting in Cyprus. Nicosia was visited by 9 participants and offered many of unforgottable experiences, stronger cooperation and friendship. We enjoyed the presence of the former leaders from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as distinguished guests - former prime ministers Mrs. Sibel Siber and Mr. Ferdi Sabit Soyer and former foreign minister Mr. Kutlay Erk. The highlight of the 11th WLAS-meeting was our visit of the former president of Cyprus Mr. Nicos Anastasiades in his office in Limassol on 7th of March 2025. This event was organized by the Slovak embassy in Cyprus and we were accompanied by the Slovak Ambassador Mr. Martin Bezák. WLAS as a very opened society has fulfilled its goal of listening to both sides of a divided island.
On 15th of March 2025 our member Lars Olav Karlsen passed away after a serious illness. He was an important member of the society also as a creator and administrator of the WLAS page on Facebook. May he rest in peace and protect our society. We miss him.
The philosophy of WLAS
The philosophy of the group is to bring under one umbrella the collectors from all over the world, who collect autographs of world leaders; who are fair and honest people, who collect the signatures only for their private collections and private use or for an exchange with other collectors within the group. Only people accepting the conditions and the philosophy of the group will be allowed by the board members to join. We are very strict against selling of the signatures and against the production of fakes and we are prepared to fight against it with all power we have.
Collecting of autographs is our hobby and we are living with this hobby. The cooperation is not the competition. We collect only original authentic signatures (no autopens, stamps or facsimiles etc.). We can get new signatures via postal request, in person or via exchange.
We would like to inform all visitors of our webpage that we are a serious community with honest people. We know, that nowadays many people are not real collectors just only businessmen, who collect for their own profit and not for fun. They are selling the signatures and some are willing to make fake signatures. We, the members of WLAS, dissociate from this kind of activities and we are strictly against it.
Conclusion
We would like to thank to all world leaders who provided their signatures for us and to all persons who helped us to get new signatures or who managed the signatures for us.
We would like to ask all world leaders from all countries and regions for their support and for their willingness to provide their autographs for us. We would like to ask the secretaries of the politicians, ambassadors and honorary consuls for their understanding and eventually for their help.
Thank you very much
Lars Olav Karlsen (in memoriam)
