MINUTES OF THE 120^th ANNUAL MEETING
FEBRUARY 10, 2005
Caesars Restaurant, San Francisco, California

The meeting was called to order at 8:45 PM. Consul General Roland Quillet welcomed all attendees and expressed his appreciation for the community spirit demonstrated by the Swiss Benevolent Society. He introduced Consul Peter Oberhaensli, head of the Chancellery, who has just arrived in San Francisco and will assume the role of liaison with the Society.

President’s Greeting

President Hermann Attinger welcomed members and guests. Out of 198 dues-paying members, 42 mailed in a proxy statement and 29 members attended the meeting, thereby establishing a quorum.

Minutes of the 2004 Annual General Meeting

The minutes of the last Annual Meeting were distributed. John Maillard made a motion to accept the minutes, seconded by Charles Gamboni.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Treasurer’s Report

John Zeiter presented the Profit and Loss Statement for 2004, as well as the Balance of our Endowment. While we incurred a small operating loss, our investments nevertheless increased in value because of favorable market conditions. ...

Auditors’ Report

Hans Surber and Kurt Engel conducted the audit of the Societyís books. They noted that expenses were properly authorized. They reviewed the balance sheet of each fund as of December 31, 2004 and the related statements of operations for the period of January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004. They examined, on a test basis, the evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures to obtain reasonable assurances that these statements are free of material misstatements.

Investment Committee Report

Pius Kampfen presented his report, noting that, along with the markets, our investments performed a little better than in 2003, rising by 5.87%.

Welfare Committee Report

Melanie Facen commented on several cases that the Society currently is working on, one of them which is particularly tragic. She mentioned that we are working closely with the Consulate on this case. She also mentioned the accident suffered by one of the 2004 scholarship recipients who was unable to begin the school year.

Scholarship Committee Report

Susy Lutzky reported that we received 27 completed applications and that we were able to provide 14 scholarships from the General Fund. Due to low interest income during the previous year and substantially higher welfare support, we had to lower the general scholarships to $1,000 each. We also awarded amounts ranging from $1,000 to $2,500 to three deserving students out of the Amstutz and Canonica scholarship funds.

Membership Report

John Maillard reported that we lost 11 members but gained 17 new members, bringing our membership to 194, out of a mailing list of 916 names. John thanked Mr. Quillet for providing us with names of newly registered individuals. As mentioned in previous years, corporate donors have declined but individual members have picked up the slack and responded with great generosity to our appeal of last fall.

President Hermann Attinger’s Report

The past year was a good but challenging year for the Swiss Benevolent Society.

We started from a very strong base: new, updated By-Laws, a sound financial Endowment, and a very capable and dedicated Board of Directors, many of who have years of experience. And most importantly, we can rely on a very loyal and supportive membership and donors.

In April, we had our traditional Spring Celebration and Birthday Party honoring our seniors at the SwissPark in Newark. This is a very popular event and again it was a big success with some 150 people attending. We had a very attractive raffle including two tickets to Switzerland sponsored by SWISS airlines as a first prize. By the way, it is hard work to collect enough attractive prizes to justify the raffle. The Board would appreciate any help members can give us in this endeavor. Talk to Beat Bossart if you have any ideas or leads.

Shortly after the Spring Party things become unexpectedly challenging for the Board. The need for aid increased dramatically, which forced us to cut back the budget for scholarships. At the same time, the applications for these scholarships increased over the previous year. To stay within budget we had no choice but to reduce the average amount per scholarship, as Susy already explained.

Given these circumstances, we sent out a special appeal to all members in November and thatís when the solidarity of the Swiss community really shined. Our donors and particularly our members really came to our rescue. The response was heartwarming. As John Maillard mentioned, member donations increased by 82% from the previous year and the average donation per member rose from $55 to $97! Thank you, thank you. This is magnificent and worth a round of applause!

Thanks to you we were able to perform our tasks and close the year in the strong financial condition as reported by our Treasurer, John Zeiter.

My first year as President was a challenging and rewarding one. I was privileged to have the unwavering support of an experienced and dedicated Board. I am sure that our new Vice President, Beat Bossart, would agree with me that this made our job so much easier. Thanks to all of you.

Before we proceed with the elections, is there any other business to be voted on? No.

Under the new By-Laws approved last year, the Directors are elected based on a system of rotation over a three-year period. One third of the Board comes up for election every year. This year Melanie Facen and Pius Kampfen will stand for reelection.

Unfortunately, John Maillard has resigned from the Board, but offered to still help with membership recordkeeping and on special occasions. We all owe John a great many thanks for all the work he has done for the Swiss Benevolent Society over the last 4 years. I have known John since the 1960s when we conducted the merger of the Club Romand and the Swiss Club of San Francisco to create the Golden Gate Swiss Club. I do not know anybody who is more familiar with the Swiss community in the Bay Area and its history. His knowledge of the Swiss clubs and of their people has been an invaluable asset to us.

We are very fortunate, however, to find an individual who will bring new and needed talent to our Board. Allow me to have Pius introduce Bernhard Daniel, a long-time banker and Board member of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce.

Now it is time to turn over the meeting to our Consul General, Roland Quillet, as head of the nominating Committee, who will conduct the elections.

Election of the Board and Remarks by Consul General Roland Quillet

Mr. Quillet is gratified to see the spirit of the individual members. He also acknowledged the service and dedication of the board members.

According to the newly established policy of staggered terms of one, two or three years, Melanie Facen accepted to serve for another three years; Bernhard Daniel accepted to serve for 3 years. Pius Kampfen has expressed the desire to step down but has kindly accepted a one-year term in order to give the board the opportunity to find a replacement.

Announcements, Questions and Comments

(1) Seniors Party - April 17, 2005

–Hermann Attinger indicated that the invitations would be mailed shortly.

There were no other comments, questions, or nominations. John Maillard made a motion, seconded by Charles Gamboni, to close the meeting.
Meeting adjourned at 9:25 PM.

(SBS members may request a written copy of the minutes by contacting the Secretary)