Den Danske Forening - The Danish Club in Brisbane, Australia

THE DANISH ASSOCIATION "HEIMDAL" INC.
MINUTES OF A SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING
Held at 36 Austin Street, Newstead, on Wednesday, 12 February, 2003.
PRESENT:
8 Committee members (Erik Andersen, Ole Andersen, Joan Christensen, Ann & Jorgen de Voss, Ann &
Erik Nielsen, Ulla Turner) and 22 other members.
MEETING OPENED:
The President, Ulla Turner, opened the meeting at 7.10pm, and welcomed members. The Agenda for the
meeting had been published in the Newsletter.
APPOINTMENT OF AUDITOR:
The meeting was reminded that an alternative to our current auditor had been sought, but that quotes
received indicated that this would provide no financial advantage. Mention was made of the $750 account
currently in dispute with our current auditor for work that had not been agreed to. The meeting was
reminded that at the last (continued) Annual General Meeting, the Club had voted that Cor Frederiks be
appointed as Auditor for 2002-03.
AGENDA ITEMS 2. FUTURE OF THE CLUB, 3. RENTAL OF PREMISES, AND 4. LIABILITY
INSURANCE.
As the discussions during the meeting tended to range over all of the listed Agenda
items, the following record provides a summary of the discussion under each heading,
rather than the actual sequence of the discussions that occurred. Another topic raised
frequently during the discussions was “Membership”, so those discussions have been
summarised under that as a separate heading.
LIABILITY INSURANCE:
It was pointed out that the Club had been very lucky to be able to obtain Insurance that included Liability
cover for $3300 which was not much less than we had expected to have to pay.
MEMBERSHIP:
During the discussions a number of comments/suggestions were made about membership. These are
summarised below:
Kurt Christensen queried the Application for Membership as published in the Newsletter. It states
that Ordinary Members must be of Danish descent. He felt that this discouraged those not of Danish
descent from joining. The Committee will look at the wording of the form.
It was stated that current membership was ageing, and that it was difficult to attract younger
members. Ann Power cited the Scots Club with its dancing attracting younger people; also the need
for specifically cultural attractions e.g. craft, dancing, language, customs. On the other hand, visitors
to the Club who didn’t speak Danish could be made to feel like outsiders
Henning suggested that those who come to the Club (e.g. more than three times) should be asked to
become members. Discussion about this raised the difficulty of importuning membership, however,
new people coming to the Club should be made to feel welcome and invited to become members.
Ulla spoke of the difficulty of thinking of functions that would attract members. She mentioned the
proposed Mini Ball – 12 April – with the same Band who had performed at the Scandinavian Ball.
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