Alrona2016annual General Meeting in Nashville, TN

ALRONA2016Annual General Meeting in Nashville, TN

Minutes of the Meeting - October 25, 2016

President Helga Levy opened the meeting at 9:00 AM. Approximately 120 people attended, 80 of whom were members of ALRONA, which constitutes a quorum.

The members of the Board were introduced, namely, Vice President Lutz Bier, Boris Seges, Treasurer, Linda Sotomayor, Secretary, and Hedy Frontschek, Membership Chair, as well as the appointed Travel Insurance Chair,Gabi Petsche.

The President introduced the chapter chairs present, namely Co-chair of the Florida West Chapter Vreni Gerber, Co-Chair of the Midwest Chapter Doris Suger, Texas Chapter Chair Marek Koch and the Canadian Chapter Chair, Horst Wizemann. Both Hans Steuck of Northern California and Izzy Haddow, the new New York Chair could not attend because of death or illness in the family. Dagmar Ohlsen, our long time Florida East Chapter Chair could not attend because of a planned knee replacement operation. A Get Well Card was passed around for members to sign and be sent to Dagmar.The President thanked all volunteers for the time spent and their diligent work on behalf of ALRONA and asked all present to consider volunteering in the future.

All attendees were asked to stand for a moment of silence in memory of the ALRONA members who passed away since our last meeting, namely Rita Hample, who passed away on May 15, 2015, Olga Southoff, who died October 29, 2015, Marina Schloesser, who died November 15, 2015, Helga Taussig, who passed away November 20, 2015, Helga Barkhuis, who died January 23, 2016, John Durkin, who died January 29, 2016, Hans Stalmach, who passed away March 6, , 2016, Sigrid Neicke, who passed away April 19, 2016, August Klemm, who died April 26, 2016, Hugo Fuchs, who died April 30, 2016 and Karl Vonnegut, who passed away June 28, 2016. They will always live in our memory.

Joe Herzig of the Credit Union spoke about the financial situation of the Credit Union and the country as a whole. He answered all questions by the membership with great expertise and knowledge.

The next speaker was Daniel Benz, Regional Sales, Products and Programs Manager, Interkont West from Lufthansa, who spoke on developments in the airline industry and at Lufthansa in particular. After his very informative and transparent presentation, ALRONA members got a chance to ask questions, which Mr. Benz answered in detail.

After a brief coffee break, ALRONA member Margaret Eaton spoke on the topic of “What to do when problems arise while travelling as an interliner”. This very complex topic affects all of our members, and many questions were presented and answered by Margaret Eaton. It is, however, an ever changing atmosphere in the travelling world, and one has to stay informed about current developments.

Vice President Lutz Bier and President Helga Levy elaborated on the timeline of this year’s meeting and the Board members gave a brief report on their individual area. President Helga Levy reported that the audit of last year’s financials was successfully concluded. She thanked Boris Seges and the auditors, Wolf Knoblauch and Irmgard Barth, for their diligent work. The annual dues remain unchanged at $35.

President Helga Levy then re-introduced Travel Insurance Chair Gabi Petsche who was appointed by the board in the beginning of 2016 following Marina Schloesser’s death. She has since reorganized her field and conducted a very successful travel insurance sign-up drive. The ALRONA members present confirmed and approved Gabi Petsche’s appointment unanimously.

Both Linda Sotomayor, our Secretary, and Hedwig Frontschek, our Membership Chair, agreed to re-run in their current positions on the board, and they were both unanimously re-elected for another two years.

The position of Vice President was also up for election. Lutz Bier advisedthat he was not be able to rerun because of health reasons. The President thanked him for his work done in the past. After a brief description of the position of Vice President, she then announced that Margaret Eaton agreed to run for Vice President. She asked for additional nominations from the floor. There were none. By a show of hands, Margaret Eaton was unanimously elected Vice President for two years.

Looking to the future, President Helga Levy gave a report on the GeLH worldwide meeting which took place in Hamburg this year. Only 6 ALRONA members attended. Next year, the meeting will take place in Seeheim again, and a preliminary program of that meeting was handed out. There was moderate interest, which will be communicated to the GeLH Board, as requested. As far as next year’s ALRONA meeting is concerned, Savannah is being considered and preliminary research was done successfully by President Helga Levy. New Vice President, Margaret Eaton will do further investigation into that location or Hilton Head Island, and we will let the membership know as soon as the research is concluded.

The meeting concluded at approximately 12:30 PM.

Respectfully Submitted -

Linda Sotomayor, Secretary and Helga Levy, President