MINUTES OF THE 123^rd ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
FEBRUARY 7, 2008
Caesar’s Restaurant, San Francisco, California

The meeting was called to order at 6:15 PM.

President’s Greeting

President Hermann Attinger cordially welcomed the members and special guests Consul General Jean-Francois Lichtenstern and Consul Hans Bachmann.

Out of 205 dues-paying members, 42 mailed in a proxy statement and 25 members attended the meeting, thereby establishing a quorum.

Minutes of the 2007 Annual General Meeting

Board Secretary Marianne Aubert read the minutes of the 2007 Annual Meeting, which were then approved unanimously. The minutes recorded the fact that it was Charles Gambony who had made a motion to close last year's meeting. Sadly, as Hermann Attinger noted, Charles passed away last year. Hermann tried to contact his widow, Madeleine, to invite her to the meeting but could not reach her.

Hermann reiterated the offer of the book, The Swiss Experience in San Francisco - 150 Years of Swiss Consulate Presence in San Francisco, to any member who contributed $50 and has not yet received a copy. The book is available through Linda Maillard.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Treasurer’s Report

According to Treasurer John Zeiter, the Society had an excellent year in 2007 ...

Treasurer’s Note: The General Fund account balance for year-end was adjusted to include the 2007 year-end donations of $2,275 (checks having December dates), which were received and/or deposited into the Schwab account in January 2008.

Auditors Report

Hans Surber read the report of the audit that he and Kurt Engel conducted. They reviewed the balance sheet of each fund as of December 31, 2007 and the related statements of operations for the period of January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007. 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. They ascertained that the scholarship awards were property authorized. They found that the books were kept in an orderly manner. Hans expressed his appreciation for the job that John Zeiter is doing; the Treasurer's job requires a lot of hard work because of increased complexity and the fact that we have five different funds.

Investment Committee Report

Andy Eggler presented the Investment Committee report. He noted that we have re-balanced our portfolio to better align it with our guidelines. We are now 14% in cash, 40% in bonds and 46% in equities. During the year we allowed our cash position to grow, which was the right thing to do. Our portfolio was up almost 4% for 2007 while the Dow Industrial index rose by 6% and the S&P500 by 3.5%, and both the Russell 200 and 3000 declined by 2%. We are facing the expected turbulence of the market in 2008 with a well structured and diversified endowment portfolio.

Welfare Committee Report

Melanie Facen reported that we continued our tradition of sending grocery store gift certificates to needy Swiss during the holidays. She works closely with Hans Bachmann, liaison for the Swiss Consulate. She is very appreciative of the cooperation she receives from Hans and his staff. She reiterated that we would like to hear of any Swiss who need our assistance. To that effect, she has prepared a form that people can fill out if they know of someone they would like to refer to our organization.

In Susy Lutsky's absence, Gus Strotz presented the committee's report by emphasizing that it is a very important thing we are doing for young people. We received a total of 35 scholarship applications and were able to award $33,000 to 24 qualified students.

Membership Report by Linda Maillard

Membership is now at 205 members. About 50% of donations still come from individuals. Linda devoted most of her time this past year to making improvements to our website.

Public Relations

Hermann Attinger gave special recognition to Bernhard Daniel (away on a business trip) for the great job he's doing contacting people and businesses. Whenever he sees a Swiss or attends a function, Bernhard puts in a plug for the SBS. In addition, he makes special presentations at every opportunity.

Fundraising Report

Esther Scott reminded the audience to keep us in mind when thinking about charitable donations. She mentioned that Comerica Bank will at some point offer CRAT services to organizations such as ours but for the time being they are not licensed to do so in California. It is expected that in 2008 this could become a reality. Esther mentioned that the 2007 Spring Party invitation included information about the opportunity to make donations from mandatory IRA distributions but it does not seem that people took notice or advantage of this time-limited opportunity. In June 2007 we created a committee composed of Robert Rieder, Gus Strotz and herself with the focus of soliciting businesses. In December, we sent a letter, accompanied by a cover letter from Mr. Lichtenstern, to Swiss businesses in the area. We are hoping for more positive results in 2008.

Special Events presented by Hermann Attinger

Shortly after coming on board, it became Robert Rieder's first priority to organize the 2007 Spring Party. A total of 140 guests attended the event, and for the first time in many years we were able to serve delicious Swiss specialties. Once again we had excellent raffle prizes. A thank-you again to our generous donors of raffle prizes.

President's Report

Whereas 2006 was a year of consolidation, 2007 turned out to be a year of remarkable changes and challenges: 35 scholarship applicants, compared with 15 the previous year! We were able to increase our grants to $33,000 from $20,500 and we should be able to budget a similar amount in 2008. Late in the year, for the first time, letters were sent to all scholarship recipients inviting them or their families to become members.

Hermann recognized that his fourth year as president had been challenging, but he is grateful for a very supportive board of directors and generous members.

Miscellaneous

Linda Maillard inquired whether members would be interested in accessing the website to make their donation payments or sign up for events. If there is sufficient interest we will consider making it available.

Election of the Board and Remarks by Consul General Jean-Francois Lichtenstern

Hermann introduced new board member candidate John Andrew of Sacramento, Executive Manager for Climate Change, and Chief of Special Planning Projects, for the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). Mr. Lichtenstern read John's biography.

He then proceeded with the reelection of Bernhard Daniel, Esther Scott, Melanie Facen and August Strotz (3-year term each), as well as Hans Surber and Kurt Engel (1-year term), and the election of John Andrew for a 3-year term.

Mr. Lichtenstern then complimented the Swiss Benevolent Society for their excellent work and expressed the appreciation of the Consulate for our flexibility in helping Swiss in need and our important scholarship activity for the younger generation.

Hermann Attinger thanked Mr. Lichtenstern and his staff for the steadfast support that they give us, and with whom it is truly a pleasure to work.

Other Business

Gus Strotz gave John Maillard a well-deserved accolade. Gus explained the archiving project that John Maillard volunteered to create, in addition to providing storage space in his building, for boxes of files that nobody had space for. Not only did John catalogue the records, but he went through all the papers from the Swiss Relief Society going back to 1906. (All previous records were destroyed during the 1906 earthquake). John created a transcript of the minutes of the Society from May 1906 to November 2002. The text is interspersed with photos of records, memorabilia and people. Congratulations on an incredible achievement!

Particularly challenging years were 1907 and 1908. The Swiss Relief Society disbursed its entire assets of $11,000 (equivalent to over $200,000 today) to help Swiss who had lost everything in the 1906 earthquake get back on their feet.

Gus would like to nominate John Maillard as Archivist of the SBS at the next board meeting.

Hermann commented that no one had ever done anything like John Maillard's archiving project. This is a milestone in our history. Thank you, John!

Gus Strotz made a motion to close the meeting, seconded by Esther Scott. The meeting was closed at 7:30 PM.

* * * * *

Upon closing of the meeting, John Maillard read excerpts from his transcripts before passing the document on to Marianne Aubert to keep in the SBS records. He noted that the first action of the directors two days after the 1906 earthquake was to purchase a ledger for the entry of their disbursements to Swiss people in need of assistance. He spoke at length about the origin of the Borel Fund and the intent of its grantor to build a "home" for the destitute Swiss living in San Francisco at the time. Such a house was never built but the funds were used to provide financial assistance to Swiss families in need of help, thereby achieving its ultimate goal.

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