General Meeting of IAKS Switzerland on 10 April 2019

This year, IAKS Switzerland held its General Meeting in the Stockhorn Arena, the home stadium of FC Thun. Roger Gut, President of IAKS Switzerland, opened the General Meeting of 35 members with voting rights. As in previous years, he was able to deliver a positive annual report.

2019 April General Assembly IAKS Switzerland_audience

photo: Markus Buchser, IAKS Switzerland

The activities included:

  • The 2018 General Meeting took place at the Nüssli (Switzerland) AG in Hüttwilen in eastern Switzerland.
  • The information trip to Salzburg and Innsbruck attended by 15 participants from 7 to 10 June 2018 met with lively interest. In addition to visiting various sports facilities, cultural interests were also catered for.
  • Representatives of IAKS Germany, ÖISS, BASPO and IAKS Switzerland met again in Bern on 12 October. The following topics were addressed: ice hockey boards, sports hall lighting with LEDs, self-financed sports halls and the ÖISS sports facilities database.
  • Topics for future seminars were coordinated with BASPO.
  • 65 participants attended the seminar "Sportbauten – von der Idee bis zum Betrieb" (“Sports buildings – from the idea through to operation”) in Bern. Detailed reports are available on the IAKS Switzerland website.
  • The two Executive Board Meetings of IAKS International took place in Copenhagen and London.
  • Upcoming events in 2019:
    • IAKS Congress and FSB trade fair in Cologne from 5 to 8 November 2019
    • Seminar "Energy efficiency in sports facilities" on 21 November 2019
2019 April General Assembly IAKS Switzerland_speakers

photo: Markus Buchser, IAKS Switzerland

Section membership is currently 114. The annual accounts closed with a loss of CHF 7,389.30 and were unanimously approved. The 2019 budget and membership fees for 2020 were also approved.

The Executive Board stood for re-election for the next two years. One exception was Markus Buchser, who stepped down after 10 years on the board and was appointed an honorary member. Beat Wittwer from bfu was elected to the Executive Board as his successor.

In the subsequent information section, experts gave talks. The talks are available (in German) on the website at www.iaks.ch.

In an interesting talk, Keshab Zwahlen, head of the sports department of the Municipality of Thun, presented ideas for sports and exercise areas, sports infrastructure and current major projects, one of which being the modernisation of the lido.

Mathias Held, Frutiger AG Analysa, afforded insight into the state of the grass pitches of the municipality of Thun. A maintenance strategy was devised on the basis of on-site inspections (flatness, grain density, soil profiles) of the various grass pitches.

Erich Steiner, Steiner & Partner Landschaftsarchitekten spoke about how drones add an extra dimension and broaden the scope for sports turf maintenance. Drones can be used for spotting maintenance problems and documenting them at an early stage. Camera drones will be in ever growing demand in the construction industry.

After this, a snack was provided by IAKS members Frutiger AG ANALYSA and Steiner & Partner Landschaftsarchitekten. After lunch, which also offered plenty of opportunity for networking, Peter Burri and Jürg Täschler gave the participants a guided tour of the Stockhorn Arena and of the site of artificial turf pitches in the making.