Minutes from the Exiles Annual General Meeting 2024
Saturday, February 24th 2024.
Agenda:
1. Election of Chairman viz. § 9
2. Approval of minutes of last AGM - presented by Chairman
3. Reports from the Committee
4. Presentation of the Accounts for the preceding year and budget for the coming year.
5. Establish the number of votes
6. Annual subscriptions
7. Resolutions
None!
8. Election of Officers - Candidates:
1. President: Currently - Nick Morton
2. Club Captain: Currently - Jesper Heiselberg.
3. Secretary: Currently - Jon Vinther
4. Recruitment secretary: Currently - Ignasi Pons Romances
5. Social secretary: Currently - Stephanie Kluz
6. Communications secretary: Currently - Vanda Nováková
7. DTU Liaison: Currently - Empty!
8. Treasurer: Currently - Simon Mountford.
9. Head of Men: Currently - Zorn Cooperider
10. Head of Ladies: Currently - Signe Munch
9. Appointment of Auditor
10. Any Other Business
Before we start, President Nick thanked Charlie, the owner of Charlie Scott’s, for loaning us he place.
He then went on to suggest for Jon to chair the meeting.
Election of Chairman viz. § 9
Jon is elected as Chairman.
Approval of minutes of last AGM - presented by Chairman
No objections, so minutes from last year's AGM are approved.
Reports from the Committee
Head of Mens (Zorn):
I unfortunately messed up my calendar and can’t be at the AGM, as I am currently skiing in Austria.
2023 was a fairly good year for the Exiles Men and I am especially proud of the coaching team and all the work they've put into running and developing the team. I think we have a very strong team and I'm happy to see how well the Exiles are at receiving and integrating new players into the team.
DRU have introduced a new set up for games for 2024 which DRU believes will give all the teams in 1st division more games. Though I and the coaching team are not equally in agreement with the new structure, but since it has been decided we'll have to make the best of it.
Along with the official games from DRU, I have as usual been working adding friendly games in the gaps. This means we'll again this year start our season with a pre-season game against Erritsø, in Erritsø.
As Head of men and on behalf of the men's team, I also hope we can continue the cooperation with the ladies team to secure a strong and versatile club, with a high social level.
I have high expectations for 2024 and I believe the Exiles can be within the top 3 teams.
Head of Ladies (Signe):
The ladies had an amazing season.
We started well and continued to improve. Great recruitment work all around, and especially on retention. Ignasi did really well on focusing on that, and involving a lot of the players with that goal.
We ended with a medal for the first time in a while, only 2 points from getting the silver!
This season Lele is resigning as coach after 5 years.
Signe will also resign as Head of Ladies, and believes it makes good sense when the coach is also leaving. She feels secure and confident, as she is handing the position into competent hands.
Signe thanks the players and the club, for the experiences she’s had over her 7 years as head of ladies.
Recruitment (Ignasi):
I’m happy how last season went.
This winter we haven’t recruited many new players, but the good news is that a lot of the new players from last year have been retained, and a coming to trainings every week.
The men’s team have about 20 people for training, here in February.
Even if the structure with Families wasn’t followed entirely, it has worked to spread the responsibility of contacting people to more of our players.
The idea for this year is to standardise the idea of Families, and having everyone have the responsibility of retaining player.
Socials (Stephanie):
We drank a lot of beer last year, so I think it was pretty successful. Our team has high spirits, and we’ve kept decent relationships with our sponsors.
We’re maintaining our state as the most fun team!
Last year we had our 55th Anniversary which also went well, with only minor incidences this year.
Nick Morten jumps in to note that the 55th was brilliant, the old boys had a fantastic time!
DTU Liason (Jacob):
We’ve maintained a good relationship with DTU.
Thanks to great work in the team and committee, we’ve had recruitment stands at the intro weeks in both September and January, with the September one being most successful.
I’m not entirely sure when we will be able to use our own grass pitch, but I will keep contact with the grounds keeper, and hopefully we get access soon.
Last year we were also allocated some money for advertising from DRU, which we will keep using this season to launch some recruitment ad campaigns.
Communications Secretary (Vanda):
Vanda was unable to attend the AGM, and will be resigning from her position as Communications Secretary, due to lack of available time.
Branding (Alberto):
Last year I didn’t manage to help as much as I could, which is also why I’m stepping down.
I tried some new things for last year’s Merch – Democarcy. It went alright, but has certainly made it more difficult.
I’m waiting for the last messages back regarding the next merch run, but once I do I will launch another run of merch.
That should hopefully be soon!
Secretary (Jon):
Jon reports that the AstroTurf pitch that we are using at Lyngby Stadium, might not exist anymore, come next year. There are plans to turn it into a modern footballers AstroTurf field instead.
This would mean we’d have to compete with football clubs to get access to the pitch. We will learn more about this, as Lyngby reveals the details of the project, throughout this season.
We’ve spent a lot of time during the last few months, trying to set up a new club management system, called Holdsport.
This system will allow coaches to set up training and game events, and for players to sign up. Hopefully this should make it simpler to communicate and track attendance, while also making sure that players don’t have to have Facebook account or other social media.
Unfortunately there were some issues, when trying to also move our financial system to Holdsport from Klubmodul. Therefore we will stay at Klubmodul for the coming year.
At the end of the year, we will re-assess whether we should move to Holdsport for our club payments as well.
Active players will get invites to create their new users in the system, during the next week.
Treasurer (Simon):
It was a good year.
Please write what you’re buying, when you pay the club using MobilePay!
Club Captain (Jesper):
I haven’t been around much, which I why I’m stepping down.
Jesper thanks the team for sticking up with him for so long!
President (Nick):
We’re being modest, it was a fantastic season. We should be proud!
I am very proud of all of you.
The committee in particular is a thankless job. Thanks for doing all the things we have to do this season, you’ve done very well indeed.
Unfortunately several people at stepping down this season. Your work has been very appreciated. Especially Signe and Jesper, I have a little plan that we will get to under “any other business”.
Presentation of the Accounts for the preceding year and budget for the coming year.
Simon handed out prints of the account and budget, and went through for the attendees.
There were very few questions regarding the accounts, we made a profit this year.
Accounts approved unanimously.
Establish the number of votes
28 people present, however our Club Captain Jesper had managed not to pay his subs during the last year! Atrocious!
27 voters present.
Annual subscriptions
The AGM votes to keep the Subs the same as last year.
Resolutions
No resolutions were sent in this year!
Election of Officers - Candidates:
Several of our Committee members are leaving their position this year.
0. Banding Officer: Alberto Dal Corso – Resigning!
Since the Branding Officer is not an official position on the Committee, according to our Constitution, we will not re-elect a new Branding Officer now that Alberto is stepping down.
Many thanks go to Alberto for his years of service to the team!
1. President: Currently - Nick Morton
No other candidates, and Nick is re-elected unanimously.
2. Club Captain: Currently - Jesper Heiselberg - Resigning!
Nick puts forward Signe for the position.
Signe is elected unanimously.
3. Secretary: Currently - Jon Vinther
No other candidates, and Jon is re-elected unanimously.
4. Recruitment secretary: Currently - Ignasi Pons Romances
No other candidates, and Ignasi is re-elected unanimously.
5. Social secretary: Currently - Stephanie Kluz
No other candidates, and Stephanie is re-elected unanimously.
6. Communications secretary: Currently – Vanda Nováková - Resigning!
We had no one who was willing to take this position at the AGM.
The position will be left empty for now. The committee hopes someone will step up to fill it soon!
7. DTU Liaison: Currently - Jacob Stokkebye
No other candidates, and Jacob is re-elected unanimously.
8. Treasurer: Currently - Simon Mountford.
No other candidates, and Simon is re-elected unanimously.
9. Head of Men: Currently - Zorn Cooperider
No other candidates, and Zorn is re-elected unanimously.
10. Head of Ladies: Currently - Signe Munch - Resigning!
Signe puts forward Sofie Norgreen for the position.
Sofie is elected unanimously.
Appointment of Auditor
Riina who has been our auditor for many years, no longer wishes to do so.
Simon have taken an extensive look at the rules, and found that for a club like ours, it is not mandatory to have an accountant as an auditor.
Instead, it should be someone we trust, and also someone who is not on the committee.
Very practically, Jesper has now left the committee, and he already has access to our accounts. Simon therefore suggests we appoint Jesper as our auditor.
Jesper is elected unanimously.
Any Other Business
A. Nick - Secret plan
Nick invites Signe and Jesper to stand up, and asks whether they know the colours of the Danish flag. They do, red and white.
That is correct! Congratulations – here are some red and white shots to celebrate!
B. Ignasi – Bachelor recruitment
Ignasi: In terms of recruitment, one thing he wants to do is recruit more bachelor students.
He has worked hard to try to get into the bachelor intro week, but the organizers are not interested. So if anyone has any ideas of how to access them, please do so or share those ideas with Ignasi.
C. Philip – Place for sharing with team
Philip: Can we have a place or site, where we can post student jobs or other networking things like this. It will drown in the Socials Facebook group.
Most people think it’s a good idea, but no one has any concrete ideas on how to do it.
The committee will discuss this on their next committee meeting.
D: Yann – Shed storage at Lyngby Stadium
Yann: Would it be possible to get a room for a ball bag and maybe some pads? The footballers have shed space, but we haven’t been able to get any room so far.
Jon expands a bit more on the Lyngby Pitch update.
The AGM ends up suggesting talking directly to the coaches of the football teams. Those teams have many more players than us, and therefore have priority at Lyngby Stadium.
E: Aiden – Gentofte Harlequins
Aiden: Aiden is currently coaching their under 16 teams. A number of their committee members have expressed interest in more collaboration with Exiles.
They have 15-16 players under 16, but very few under 18s, only 3-5 or so. They would like to be able to have under 18s train with us!
They might also be interested in shared match days, where they would have some sort of training game, before one of our home games.
A discussion about our previous attempts at better working relationships with Gentofte happens. The AGM ends up deciding that it has a better chance this time, with Aiden bridging the gap, and that we are interested in collaboration.
Aiden is asked to continue the discussion with Gentofte, and coordinate with our committee.
It is also noted that we should make sure to get our coaches child attests, so that they are allowed to teach under 18’s.
F: Philip – Clubhouse
Philip mentions a clubhouse, and is immediately shot down.
Thanks for coming Philip.
G: Sebastian - Recruitment at gymnasiums
Sebastian suggests trying to recruit at local gymnasiums.
A discussion takes place where people note that it been tried before, but is hard.
Nick thinks we should focus on expats.
Anna also suggests talking with gym teachers, and offering to help teach rugby as part of class.
At the end it is suggested that maybe we should try at international schools.
The recruitment officer will consider next steps.
Jon calls the AGM to a close.
Thanks for coming everyone!