The Committee is delighted to announce that the builders arrived this morning (March 6th) to begin work on the first-floor renovations. After such a long delay, progress is underway.

The Committee is delighted to bring you the news that the Swiss Club has received permission from the Council for the first-floor renovations to proceed, and last night (February 21st) the contract with the builder was signed. Work is expected to begin later this month.

This represents a major achievement, and is due principally to the hard work, diligence and patience of Patrick Rychner, who has overseen this process. 

On Thursday, November 23rd, the Swiss Club was privileged to have as a guest the Swiss Ambassador, Her Excellency Caroline Bichet-Anthamatten. The apéro was hosted by the Swiss Consul in Melbourne, Ms Manuela Erb. The Ambassador spoke of the diplomatic ties between Switzerland and Australia and how the two nations can work together on common objectives. Thanks are due to Ms Erb and family for organising a very pleasant evening, and also congratulations to her for being appointed as Honorary Consul in Melbourne for a further four years..

At the AGM of the Swiss Dance Group Alpenrose, the following members were elected to the Committee:

PRESIDENT              SYLVIA HOCHULI
and teacher

VICE PRESIDENT
and SECRETARY     SUE ROGGER

TREASURER           PAUL EISENEGGER

Congratulations to all, and best wishes for a successful 2024.

With the Swiss team being as well victorious in the 2023 AFI World Cup, defending the title and prolonging the winning streak, we have decided to be back in 2024, attempting another title defense.

The 2024 World Cup tournament will take place on 23 March 2024 in Box Hill (see flyer) and is again a 9-a-side, mixed, non-contact tournament, where we will be able to play with both men and women aged 15 years and over (https://aflinternational.com/world-cup/).

Additionally we are exploring to field as well a team for the full contact, 9-a-side tournament (World 9s) if we have enough players for it, announced for Saturday 3 February 2024, as well in Box Hill (https://aflinternational.com/world9s/).

For both tournaments, no previous AFL footy experience is required. Additionally the organiser is arranging regular training opportunities to build and extend your skills, starting in October.

If you are keen or know someone who would be interested, please reach out to matt@swissclubvic.com.au for more information and registration.

Swiss Companion Singers

We are a bunch of lovely Swiss living in Melbourne that come together every fourth Thursday of the month at the Swiss Club and love to sing songs in all 4 languages that are spoken in Switzerland.

We had the pleasure to do a sing along for our own member Koebi Fatzer in March. He is at Tabulam and unfortunately can’t attend our rehearsals anymore.  We had a very special occasion to come together and sing for Dora Higgins who celebrated her 100^th birthday in May this year! That was something very dear to our hearts and we really enjoyed bringing some home bound tunes to her special celebrations. We are also very grateful that we were asked to participate in the entertainment part at the Swiss National Picnic Day to celebrate our 1^st August that we enjoyed very much to bring some known tunes to the big audience at that event.

Singing brings happiness and joy to us as well as a connection to our homeland. The companionship under each of our members is something that we treasure among us dearly. After our rehearsals we stay together, have something to eat, and take time to chat with each other. Especially after COVID we found that we all really missed our get-togethers and now celebrate that part after rehearsals more consciously. We are busy rehearsing as we will be singing at the Kaffi Klatsch in Mid-September and at the Swiss Festival in November.

We meet every 4^th Thursday of the month at 4.45pm at the Swiss Club, anyone is welcome to join us!

Corinne Moor

Swiss Companion Singers

Convenor

0432 633 501