Our 25th Annual General Assembly meeting took place on Saturday, March 18, 2023 at the Fort Myers Country Club.
Starting at 17.00 attendees had time for the apéro and socializing with fellow club members while on a big screen the top “25 destinations of Switzerland” video was highlighting beautiful tourist spots of our home country.
At 17.45 Joe Huber, our president, welcomed the 50 attendees, members and guests. A special welcome was extended to Rene Riedi, our Honorary Consul from Miami and his wife Olga, as well as Christophe Kuhn, a board member of the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce Miami chapter.
The meeting quickly moved to the business of the evening.
· Joe gave an overview over the meeting schedule of the board throughout the year and thanked all board members for their dedication and hard work. Also sent a special thank you those members making it possible that we can have some of our events in their club facilities.
· Vicki Burkhard, our secretary, then read the minutes of last year’s assembly.
· Gemma Huber, our treasurer, presented the treasurer report stating that in 2022 we had a small profit
· Hans Wenger, our vice president, presented the audit report and reported the accounting to be correct.
· Gemma Huber then continued with the membership report and stated that 2022 was a good year with a net increase of 7 members.
· This year was an election year and all current board members have agreed to serve another term of 2 years. All board members have been re-elected unanimously. Urs Pfister was elected as a new board member.
· Lily, our events director, talked about last year’s events and that we had 10 of them compared to 8 the previous year. Overall the participation has increased by 68%, which is a big success. She then continued with the new events that are planned for this year and encouraged members to attend as many as they can and take advantage of getting to know other members and have fun while doing so.
· Urs Bunner, our IT director, talked about the different social media channel we use to inform members and attract new members. Currently we host our own website, are on Facebook and just lately also started LinkedIn. Our e-mails are now going through MailChimp mail service.
· Joe Huber ended the meeting with mentioning that members should make sure to hit the submit button when registering for events online. A special note is given for our 25th Anniversary Gala event planned for December 9th at the Kensington Club, but depending on their renovation schedule our plan B will be The Strand in Naples on December 8th 2023. Firm date will be available by mid April.
· Rene Riedi, our honorary consul then addressed the attendees and talked about the commercial relationship between Switzerland and the USA.
· The meeting was adjourned at 18.37.
A buffet dinner with roast beef and marsala chicken was opened and the rest of the evening was enjoyed with food, drinks and good company. At this time on the big screen the photos of past events run in a loop and reminded of the good times we had at our events last year.
Text by Vicki Burkard and Photos by Vicki Burkhard
