12/09/2017
Like every year, there was wide-spread anticipation and a certain nervousness before the General Meeting; for us employees, the new fiscal year begins after the meeting, and not with the start of the new calendar year. And so, we arrived on Friday afternoon at the charming Teufelhof in Basel. Here we were able to reserve the small auditorium for our meeting.
Just as the year before, we greeted some members whom we had only known through written communication; that’s why we’re especially excited about these visits!
We began with a fascinating talk entitled “The Nepalese Adventure” about Natalie Vögeli’s first climb up a 7000-meter mountain. It was an incredibly vivid and beautiful presentation, filled with interesting facts and breathtaking images. We were all fascinated and would have listened to Natalie for another hour. If anyone is interested in a presentation about Nepal, you can get in touch with Natalie (we’ll gladly provide her contact information).
At 4:00 pm we began with the agenda items and the various votes. The minutes from last year were unanimously approved, thank you. During the auditor’s report, a member drew our attention to the fact that some figures were confusing. After a break and a detailed recalculation, it turned out that the auditor’s report was correct. We very much appreciate the input from our members. In particular, we are happy to have attentive eyes and interested as well as sometimes critical voices.
We said goodbye to Werner Enz from the executive board, who provided great support for 12 years with his sharp mind. We’d like to thank Werner for his service to Soliswiss!
We’d also like to take the opportunity to honor our former President, Ulrich Pfister. Mr. Pfister passed away in June of this year. He served for 12 years on the Soliswiss executive board.
President Bernardo Brunschwiler read the Annual Report 2016. It clearly showed that the number of inquiries as well as membership growth increased sharply. As a cooperative, this is a very positive sign for us that all of our new offers – which in part were ushered in based on members’ suggestions – are in demand and resonating. It is sometimes a challenge to facilitate access to new solutions with our modest means. As a team, we are all the more pleased when our work has an effect. Like last year, we simplified many internal processes, initiated new offers, and rebuilt our member system together with an IT partner.
We were able to start with the refreshments before 5:00 pm; the appetizers were delicious, there were cheers all around, chats with friends old and new were interesting and all in all positive once again. For us as a team, the General Meeting proved to be another success and a boost for the coming year.
We’ll continue to stay on the ball, full of motivation, and advocate for you as a Swiss citizen abroad. Please let us know if you think something is missing from our offer or if you have an idea or suggestion. The next General Meeting is in 2018 in Valais and we’re happy to welcome you as a member or a guest in Visp.
Warm regards from us all
Soliswiss – we couldn’t do it without you