On June 25 th, the Twin Cities Swiss American Association celebrated its 50th year since incorporation. The event was located at the Theodore Wirth Chalet in Minneapolis, a place with a rich Swiss history. The creator of the park system was Theodore Wirth (1863–1949) who was a Swiss immigrant. As the center point of the park and golf course is the chalet inspired by the Swiss mountain chalets. We had a great turnout including special, including founding members, Juerg Oberschmied, Interim Consul General of Switzerland in Chicago, Eddie Moradian, Consul of Switzerland in Minneapolis, and Beth Zurbuchen, President of the Swiss Center in New Glarus as our official guests. During the social hour some of the attendees were able to see themselves in photos of the many display boards reflecting the story of the past 50 years. We also had a preview of the memory book we wrote about the past on display. The last chapter will be the anniversary event with a lot of photos. In the background we had an Alphorn Duo and a concertina player giving the event a musical note. Our caterer (Mintahoe) served us a delicious Swiss inspired meal Zuerich Geschnetzeltes and Cordon Bleu. Everybody enjoyed the lunch and was excited to get to the celebrations part. In addition to a speech delivered remotely by Philippe Lombardi, submitting good wishes in the name of name of the Organization of the Swiss Abroad (OSA). The two sponsors of our event Buehler and Filtrox took the opportunity to highlight their businesses and relationship to Switzerland. The highlight of the show was definitely Rene Steiner with his Swiss traditions such as Treicheln, Talerschwingen, Yodeling.In order to tell the history of the Treicheln (Cowbells) 3 guests volunteered to play them. The 3 different bells we had sounded different and when they were all together, they brought many memories back to us from Switzerland. The Talerschwingen has is a very special sound in Appenzell. Then when he started yodeling he included everyone in the audience and it was like a folklore choir as he was able the give some basics of yodeling to everyone. A break was taken after the celebrations of events before we started with the Annual General Meeting. The mandatory business such as the President’s Report, the Treasurer’s report and the elections of the board were done in a timely manner, there were no changes am the officers and we reduced the numbers of the associated directors. We also had to vote on a change to the Articles of Incorporation and the By Laws. During the archiving of our documents we realized when the TCSAA was founded in 1973 with the given name by the founding members was Twin City Swiss American Association. This name was registered with the Minnesota Secretary of State until today. In the Business Year 1987 – 1988 the now common name Twin Cities Swiss American Association was used, but never recorded by the Minnesota Secretary of State. Related to the name change, we also had to adjust the by law proposal we had also to adjust the By Laws, those articles were articles written also 50 years ago but never adjusted, so we took the opportunity to bring them up-to-date. Without opposition, the proposed modifications were adopted and we are now in the process of recording them with the Secretary of State to officially having the name of Twin Cities Swiss American Association. Thanks go out to everyone who contributed to this event, the organizations committee, the official guests, musicians and our sponsors. We are now looking forward to the next 50 years! Philippe Lombardi’s Gratulations to our 50 Year Anniversary

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