„In the sign of the castle“ was the theme of the General Assembly held in Nuremberg this year where the German and the Swiss Alumni Associations celebrated together. The Board of Directors did not hesitate to make this theme becoming reality by wearing ancient clothes which knights might have used.

After 14 years I finally managed to join a General Assembly – ok, in Nuremberg I could combine it with family visits – and I must admit that it was real fun to connect with old friends, make new interesting acquaintanceships and enjoy the UWP spirit once again.

UWPSAA supports social projects
Alongside the official agenda points social projects have also been presented. An important aspect of the UWPSAA is to support interesting and smaller social projects around the world where one of the Alumni is personally involved. That’s why you can be sure that your money is being used well and efficiently. Three projects have been presented and at the end the audience voted to literally “flush the money down the toilet in Uganda”. A school with around 200 students with no toilet at all is in urgent need for one. The interesting story behind will be explained separately in chapter ?. All three projects are definitely worth a closer look and maybe you want to support one of them on your own.

Professional leisure programme in the afternoon
In the afternoon, we had free time and could choose from a variety of leisure events. I attended an interesting stroll through the old town where the focus was on the Nazi time in Nuremberg. At different stations the guide explained why Nuremberg is called the „deutscheste aller Städte“, why Hitler liked it so much and what an influence he had on the town.

Party time in the evening and many jubilees
It was quite a ride with a bus to reach the party location for the evening outside of Nuremberg. However, many lovely surprises were waiting for us during the evening. The Swiss Assembly celebrated their 25th jubilee this year and our German colleagues sang for us Swiss and gave each one of us a small „Gugelhupf“ cake with the message „luck may also be a small thing“. Thank you very much, that was literally so sweet!

But not only the Swiss alumni had a jubilee to celebrate, also the UWP survival band, the band which never plays, had their 20th anniversary. The German colleagues prepared therefore a slide show with pictures, a small performance and a song. The Munich team presented the great EAM movie 2015 and then everyone was ready to party with the band. They played all kinds of UWP songs where everybody could sing along. Hence, no surprise that UWP CEO Dale Penny and Keith Frohreich, from the UWPIAA, who came straight from L.A., have been touched and liked it very much too.

Thank you for that wonderful day!
Kind regards, Isabelle Gruchow, Cast A 2000