28/08/2023
In brilliant weather, we were able to hold our Soliswiss General Assembly 2023 on Thursday, 15th August 2023. We chose the Südland Cooperative on Effingerstrasse in Bern as the venue. The Südland Forum is centrally located between the Soliswiss office and Bern railway station. We have not regretted this choice, Südland offers a friendly atmosphere and everything we need for our AGM. Finally, it was important for us to choose a cooperative as the venue. Many thanks to the whole Südland team.
We had the pleasure of welcoming Bernardo P. Brunschwiler, President of the Soliswiss Cooperative, Dr Nicole Töpperwien, Managing Director, and our Executive Director Regina Buol as President of the day. As every year, some guests spontaneously dropped in, which made us particularly happy. We are always open to spontaneous visits. It was nice to meet new faces of people whom we had not met in person previously. With everyone else, we had the pleasure of celebrating our reunion.
We worked our way through the various agenda items, which were adopted unanimously by the majority, mentioned special points from the 2022 annual report, and were able to listen to the comments on the audit report by our auditor Manuel Mauerhofer from Engel Copera AG. He has the gift of presenting the report to us in a vivid, clear and understandable way. This is very valuable to us and we appreciate it, thank you very much.
The annual report was approved unanimously, the elections of the board and re-election of the auditors as well as the discharge of the management were adopted without any dissenting votes. Thank you for your trust. It was an eventful year for us, peppered with unexpected occurrences, full of exciting encounters, tricky questions, and with webinars on various topics. Those who would like to know more about the past financial year can find it in our Annual Report 2022.
We were able to conclude all agenda items in around 90 minutes and devote ourselves to a cozy aperitif and interesting conversations. It was nice to have you all with us – we were able to take away many stories and inputs and will try to implement wishes and suggestions. True to the motto ‘small but nice’, our General Assembly came to an end at 5:30 pm.
Shortly afterwards, on Thursday, we set off for St. Gallen for the 99th Congress of the Swiss Abroad. A highlight of the year for us and an excellent opportunity to meet so many Swiss abroad and Soliswiss members. Here you can feel the pulse of the ‘fifth Switzerland’, ask about their needs, present the cooperative, and exchange ideas. Thanks also to our stall neighbours and partners. It is a unique opportunity to maintain contacts on a personal level. We are pleased that so many interested people find their way to our stand every year. Of course, our Soliswiss almond bears were not to be missed, which sweetened many a conversation.
The plenary session on “Swiss culture – an export product?” was also very exciting for us, as was the congress theme “Swiss Abroad and Political Parties – Mutual Expectations”.
We would like to express our special thanks to the organisation of the Swiss abroad, Swisscommunity, and to all the staff in front of and behind the scenes for their organisation.
Now we will continue with our combined forces, strengthened and motivated – we extend our warmest greetings to you all and thank you for your participation!
Board and Office of the Soliswiss Cooperative
