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“Creatives can be proud of their cooperative society SUISA”

“Creatives can be proud of their cooperative society SUISA”
Monika Kaelin signs the “Manifest of the SUISA members” during SUISA’s General Assembly 2012. Due to the restriction of the Board members’ period of office, Monika Kaelin retired from the SUISA Board in June 2015 after 16 years in office. During her farewell, she vowed to continue supporting copyright matters.
Photo: Günter Bolzern
Report from the Board by Dora Zeller and Manu Leuenberger
One day prior to the General Assembly 2015, the SUISA Board has held meetings in Fribourg. On the agenda were items such as auditors’ reports, changes to the distribution rules, business in relation to the FONDATION SUISA and details surrounding the General Assembly. The SUISA Board bade farewell to Monika Kaelin after her 16 years in office due to the restriction of the period of office.

The SUISA Board met on 18 June 2015 in Fribourg for an ordinary meeting. Prior to the meeting of the main Board, the Board Committee for Tariffs and Distribution as well as the Communications and Organisation Committee held their own discussions. The Board committees decide on motions or deliberate and ratify business on behalf of the Board. The most important topics for the meeting of the main Board were the auditors’ reports, changes to the distribution rules, business relating to the FONDATION SUISA and details with respect to the General Assembly which took place on the next day.

Auditors’ reports

In the course of their annual audit, the BDO AG presented three reports: The “report on the annual accounts 2014 for the attention of the General Assembly” (can be accessed in the annual report 2014, page 20) as well as the “explanatory report for the attention of the management and the Board”. The explanatory report must be created upon request by the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) and is passed on to the supervisory authority in the course of the annual audit of SUISA’s business activities. Based on the “exhaustive report on the annual accounts 2014 for the attention of the Board”, internal processes are optimised and improved. The Board members have taken note of all three reports.

Changes to the distribution rules

The Board discussed changes to the distribution rules in connection with tariffs CT 4 (private copying), PI (sound carriers, music videos), as well as international income. In relation to tariffs CT 4 and PI, the changes affected the structure of the tariffs: In the case of the common tariff for private copying, tariffs CT 4a, 4b and 4c were condensed. The old tariff VM was integrated into the new Tariff PI for sound carriers and music videos.

Such fundamental changes relating to tariff structures often entail changes to the distribution rules. The process for changing the distribution rules is the following: SUISA’s management checks the change and creates a specific proposal. After that, the members of the Distribution and Works Committee, followed by the members of the Board Committee for Tariffs and Distribution decide on the proposal. The change has to then be ratified by the main Board. It is subsequently submitted to the IPI and the supervisory authority of Liechtenstein and, once ratified by them, can enter into force. SUISA informs its members on ratified changes to the distribution rules via the SUISA website, the SUISAblog and SUISAinfo.

FONDATION SUISA

The SUISA Board has newly elected Kathrin Renggli into the foundation council of FONDATION SUISA as a replacement for Peter Schmidlin, who had passed away at the end of May. The Board members have also agreed to two changes in the foundation deed of the FONDATION SUISA.

Preparations for the GA and farewell

Furthermore, the last details for the General Assembly for Friday, 19 June 2015, were discussed. The minutes of the GA is now available for inspection at the SUISA offices in Zurich, Lausanne and Lugano, or can be accessed via the SUISA website (pdf, 54 kb).

After 16 years in office as a SUISA Board member, Monika Kaelin took part in the meeting for the last time in June 2015. Due to the restriction to the period of office she will retire from the Board and is given a heartfelt farewell and a big thank you. Monika Kaelin thinks that creatives should be proud of their cooperative society SUISA. She said that she took her farewell from the Board with quite some melancholy but that she would continue to support copyright issues.

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