On 20th October the Annual General Meeting 2022 was held at the offices of Ketelsen Enterprise in West Perth. The AGM was attended by the majority of the committee members and numerous members of WAGBA. In total 38% of the voting rights were represented. As per the constitution of WAGBA this well exceeded the required quorum.
The meeting was chaired by the President Stephan W Kirsch who expressed a warm welcome of to all attendees. As one of the key topics of the AGM the association’s financial reports for the FY2021/22 were presented by the Treasurer Heiko Petschukat. Despite the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic positive results were achieved again for 2021/22.
Another important matter to be reported was the association’s membership base. It is encouraging that the positive trend continued, which led to a membership increase of 10%. Whilst there has been some natural fluctuation amongst WAGBA members in the past the association’s agenda for future activities is designed to maintain current members and attract multiple new members in 2023 and beyond. Thereby the WAGBA President encouraged all members to interact at the numerous networking events and increase personal engagement with potential new members.
In regard to the association’s past events – many had to be cancelled in the FY2021/22 due to the volatile conditions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Few of the functions that were held included the successful 35th WAGBA Anniversary hosted at the WA Museum “Boola Bardip” and the WAGBA 2021 Christmas Party traditionally held at committee member Torsten and Mona Ketelsen’s gardens. Planning for the FY2022/23 shows the return to the regular WAGBA event calendar with some 10 networking functions such as the HSBC Economic Outlook Breakfast, Maytoberfest, various Business Forums, etc. all already in preparation (note: more information regarding future WAGBA events is listed on the last page of “InTouch”.
As part of the President’s annual report activities for sponsoring by WAGBA were outlined. WAGBA committed its support to existing recipients such as the student exchange with Germany (via SAGSE), the promotion of the German language (via TAGWA) and the Graduate Exchange Program which is a joint initiative with SAGSE and The University of WA, driven by WAGBA.
Looking forward WAGBA will continue to focus of three major topics:
• Member support
• Networking events (formal and more casual formats)
• Cultural sponsoring (e.g. German language in WA, student and graduate exchange programs)
In terms of initiatives for information and marketing the association remains active on its website and the social platform LinkedIn in order facilitate even closer connections to members and friends. The quarterly newsletter “InTouch”, which was launched in October 2022, aims as well to keep all members and friends of WAGBA informed. “InTouch” will be distributed pro-actively via email using the WAGBA mailing list.
Finally, and in according to the WAGBA constitution the Office Bearers and the committee for the FY2022/23 had to resign. President Stephan W Kirsch acknowledged the dedication and support of all individuals and thanked all of them for their efforts throughout the year.
As part of the preparation for the AGM all members were invited to suggest individuals for the new WAGBA committee for the FY2022/23. The following individuals were unanimously elected:
Committee Members
Torsten Ketelsen OAM | Ketelsen Enterprise
Clelio Tonelli | Haver & Boecker Australia
Andreas Horn | GMA Garnet
Gerrit Goedecke | K + S Australia
Steve Riley | Schaeffler Australia
Bernd Schuler | DB Schenker
Office Bearers
Secretary: Ian Laws (Joest Australia)
Treasurer: Heiko Petschukat (Atomic Accounting)
Vice President (Events): Martin Doyle (TKElevator)
Vice President (Members): Frank Vogel (DB Schenker)
President: Stephan W Kirsch (HPGR Solutions)
Our sincerest congratulations to the newly elected Committee and Office Bearers and our thanks to the previous incumbents for their contributions.