WE celebrates its Annual General Meeting and Committee Meetings
April 18, 2012
This year the WE Annual General Meeting took place last 12th April in Düsseldorf. The WE Board was called to the meeting in the German city to discuss the budget —and everything related to it— as well as other relevant topics.
Close to 50 people —and 11 more from EXECO— attended the Annual General Meeting, including all the Chairpersons of the National Associations and all WE committee members. WE Chairman, Jeroen Peters, explained that the event welcomed several new employees from WE members in Dusseldorf, who immediately showed their commitment by volunteering to support the different committees. “Both the Technical and the Communication Committee have strengthened their working power,” added.
The WE Annual General Meeting focused above all on economic topics. To paraphrase the WE Chairman statements prior to the event, “it is vital that all National Associations understand the current financial situation since WE can only protect its members’ interests if it has sufficient financial funds”.
Communication to members and non-members, BPA development and focus areas for the different committees were the main topics discussed during the WE Annual General Meeting, although according to Peters many other issues were also addressed, “We have discussed many different topics during the committee meetings and it is clear that we are on a journey towards a more professional association with clear communication and clear focus areas. In general we have great ideas to move forward and we have allocated topics to the different committees to work on.”
However, time is never enough “In general we covered many topics and we had enough time to work on our networking. Although when flying home you always feel like there is still more to be done to keep adding value to our members” remarks Jeroen Peters.
When asked about the remarkable achievements, Peters said referring to the WE Website “Both the Execo and Board have approved our new communication platform based on the interest it has received from both the industry and interested audiences. We have experienced a growth in the number of visitors and we received positive feedback and suggestions how to increase the attractiveness of the news. We therefore kindly invite all our members to send their press releases or any news they spot to press@WatercoolersEurope.eu”
In addition to attending the important event in Düsseldorf, EXECO and WE members had the opportunity to stay an extra few days in the city and attend the GWCA Hygiene Training, where – thanks to the efforts of all involved – it was an opportunity to meet, have interesting discussions and strengthen the industry base.
WE is now looking forward to meet everybody in Istambul for its great Watercooler Event due October 11th and 12th 2012.