| BCCD-BIU Annual General Meeting |  Print |
Minutes of 2010 BCCD-BIU Annual General Meeting
held at 11.30 on Friday 21 May 2010 in the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Copenhagen
1. Election of a chairman of the General Meeting
Alf Duch-Pedersen (ADP) proposed that board member Kirstine Troldborg (KT) should chair the meeting. This was seconded by Mariano A Davies (MAD) and unanimously supported by all those present.
KT thanked the meeting and confirmed that the AGM had been called in accordance with the stipulations laid down by article 6 (notice sent 7th May, 14 days in advance) and was quorate, as there is no specific stipulation in our articles on the minimum which must be present. KT therefore declared the meeting lawfully called.
2. Approval of minutes of the 2009 AGM
These minutes had been made available on the website. KT explained that there was no requirement to approve the previous minutes in the articles, but it had been decided to do so anyway as a courtesy to members.
The minutes were unanimously approved as a true and correct record of the proceedings.
3. Chairman’s & President’s report on the financial year 2009
ADP presented his report to the meeting. A powerpoint presentation containing most of these points is attached as an annex to these minutes.
“We are now 2 years on from the merger between the BCCD and the BIU, and it is both my own, and the board’s impression that this merger has aided the dynamic forces in the organisation, which is now vibrant. There have never been so many people or so many events as we have now. There is also a good balance between cultural and business events, and we are rated as one of the best chambers by external onlookers (we are still chasing to be the best!) and I hope you as members agree.
We have also embarked on a course to make the chamber known outside of Denmark, for example as part of COBCOE and in Scandinavia, where we are represented by MAD.
As an organisation we are funded solely by members and sponsors and are entirely independent of government funding.
Penny Schmith (PS), supported by Gareth Garvey (GG) and MAD, put in many hours to make the Chamber run smoothly – Thank you to them!
The website is well used, and has substantially reduced the number of stamps required.
The finances will be covered later, but they are pretty good. The BIU pot is still intact, with a small surplus, so there are no short term problems.
On membership, we did lose some individual members, mostly BIU individual members, and I am sorry about that, but changes were needed, and perhaps some were made too fast, but I believe we are on the right track.
Sponsorship has remained ok, despite the general tough financial climate we have been through.
Ambassador Nick Archer remains our patron and he has been very supportive of our activities over the last year. Thank you for your considerable help, even opening your house to us.
Alan Pitts has stepped down as a member of the board due to his relocation to Australia. Vagn Thorup was co-opted to replace him on the board. I would like to thank MAD PS and GG as they do most of the daily work.
Last year’s scholarships were awarded to two girls now studying in the UK. There was some debate among the board about whether to also award some scholarships for UK students coming to study in Denmark, but it was decided to leave that for this year at least.
The board has several subcommittees. The Education committee has been created because we know it is not easy for families arriving in Denmark to settle their children into schools. SDL and TTA have looking into this and working on it. We are also arranging an International Schools Forum which MAD will talk about.
And finally as you will have seen from the notice for the meeting, I have decided to resign from the Board today. I think everyone will agree that 20 odd years is a fair innings and it’s time to make room for newcomers."
ADP then thanked MAD again and handed over to him for his report.
MAD then presented his report to the meeting using a visual powerpoint presentation attached as an annex to these minutes.
4. Submission of the audited accounts for the year ended 31 December 2009 (approved and signed by the Board) for approval
Torben von Lowzow (TVL), Finance Committee presented the key figures of the 2009 accounts.
There had been revenue of DKK 1.116.000 and internal expenditure had fallen from DKK 980.000 to DKK 740.000. This had resulted in an overall profit of DKK 213.000 in 2009. The existing capital was still in place with assets of DKK 8.399.000 and we are well financed going forward.
KT then stated the accounts had been signed by the board, and asked for approval from members.
Flemming Karberg asked whether the accounts had been sent out to members or if there was a copy available, because he had not seen any. KT answered that they were available on the BCCD website. A paper copy was then provided.
He then asked for some more information, for example how much sponsors pay per year, and how much corporate membership costs. MAD answered that there are three levels of sponsorship, with different levels of exposure offered.
- Gold: 50 000DKK
- Silver: 25 000DKK
- Bronze: 10 000DKK
The annual fee for Corporate membership is DKK 9 000 and DKK 3,500 for Small Business membership.
KT then checked that this had satisfactorily answered the question, and then asked again for approval of the accounts.
The meeting then unanimously approved the accounts as signed by the Board.
5. Fixing the annual fee for the coming financial year
KT said that last year it had been agreed to harmonise the fee structures of the BCCD and BIU organisations, and that this had been executed as planned so far. This would be continued by raising the BIU individual and corporate cost to DKK 600 by next year, subject to re-approval.
The proposal was re-approved unanimously by the meeting.
6. Any proposal from members
There had been none received.
7. Approval of appointment and Election of Board members
KT asked the meeting to approve the appointment of Vagn Thorup as a new board member, and re-elect the remaining board members: Thomas Thune Andersen, Mariano A. Davies , Gareth Garvey, Suzanne B. D. Lassen, Patrick Orr, Lene Skole, Kirstine Troldborg, Torben von Lowzow. KT informed the meeting that if the board members were all approved and re-elected, they would then constitute TTA as Chairman.
This proposal was unanimously adopted by the meeting.
8. Election of auditors
Ernst & Young were nominated by Torben von Lowzow, and seconded by Lene Skole
This proposal was unanimously adopted by the meeting.
9. Any other business
KT invited Steen Langebæk (SL) to come forward to thank ADP for his time as Chairman. SL gave a brief background on ADP’s role as part of the BIU, covering 20 years, including his time as chairman of the BIU, and then of the merged BCCD-BIU. SL said there was good reason to thank ADP for his efforts. He was then joined by MAD to present a gift on behalf of BCCD-BIU. ADP thanked the meeting.
There was no further business, so KT closed the meeting.
Signed by Chairman of AGM 2010
Signed copy of minutes available as pdf
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