Looking Forward to a Good Year Ahead

On 20th September the Association held its Annual General Meeting 2023 at the offices of Ketelsen Enterprise in West Perth. The AGM was attended by the majority of WAGBA committee members and numerous members. In total 35% 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. A special welcome was also extended to the new Executive Assistant Karoline Tarzon, who has been introduced in her new role for the past few weeks by her predecessor Elke Kirsch. 

A most encouraging matter reported was the association’s membership base. The positive growth trajectory continued, which led to a membership increase of 10% for the second consecutive year. Overall the FY 2022/23 was minted by the recovery from COVID-19 effects and by the commitment of a second major international airline (i.e. Singapore Airlines) to join WAGBA as a premium member. 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. 
In regard to the association’s past events – WAGBA continues to receive steady support from members despite the continued challenges posed by COVID. Following the success of past events such as the Spring Lamb Dinner, Christmas Party, HSBC Economic Breakfast, the Maytoberfest, etc., the Association continues to witness a high level of commitment and support from members and friends. 

Strong financial results from the previous financial year allowes for the Association to continue its engagement in cultural sponsoring and to host high quality networking events, both aimed to strengthen ties between Western Australia and Germany. This includes WAGBA’s commitment in 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 Western Australia, driven by WAGBA. Note: more information regarding future WAGBA events is listed on the last page of “InTouch”.

 Looking forward, WAGBA will continue to focus of three major topics which form the core of its agenda:
• Cultural sponsoring (e.g. German language in WA, student and graduate exchange programs)
• Networking events (Formal and more casual formats)
• Marketing (Webpage, LinkedIn and ”InTouch” newsletter)

 Based on WAGBA member suggestions the following individuals were unanimously elected to represent and to lead the Association for the FY2023/24:

Office Bearers
President: Stephan W Kirsch                        (HPGR Solutions)
Secretary: Ian Laws                                       (Joest Australia)
Treasurer: Heiko Petschukat                         (Atomic Accounting)
Vice President (Members): Frank Vogel      (DB Schenker)
Vice President (Media): Gerrit Goedecke    (K + S Australia)
Vice President (Events): Martin Doyle         (TKElevator)

Committee Members
Torsten Ketelsen OAM              Ketelsen Enterprise
Clelio Tonelli                              Haver & Boecker Australia
Andreas Horn                            GMA Garnet
Bernd Schuler                           DB Schenker
Elke Kirsch                                 HPGR Solutions
Jurgen Baumhoff                      Meta Point
Michael Warneke                      Permarinus – Maritime Consulting
Pamela Millar                             Rhein Donau Club

Our sincerest congratulations to the newly elected Committee and Office Bearers and thank you to the previous incumbents for their contributions.