Minutes from the Exiles Annual General Meeting 2021 can be found below.
Saturday, February 7^th 2021
Location: Online

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 (suggestion from Committee for 2021).
7) Resolutions viz. §7.2

Incoming resolution from Simon Mountford - Change wording of 11.6 of the Constitution (change marked in red).

Current wording:
"11.6 The Club Captain, Club Secretary and Club Treasurer shall, as a quorum, have the power of attorney to administer the club's finances, appoint bankers and direct the opening of banking accounts for specific purposes and to transfer funds from one account to another, and to close any such account."

Proposed Change:
"11.6 The President, Club Captain, and Club Treasurer shall, as a quorum, act as the clubs authorized signatories, have the power of attorney to administer the club's finances, appoint bankers and direct the opening of banking accounts for specific purposes and to transfer funds from one account to another, and to close any such account."

Incoming resolution from Jon Vinther - Add a subpoint to 7.1 (change marked in red).

Current wording:
"7.1 A General Meeting of the Club shall be held each year before the end of February at a time and date fixed by the Committee. All members shall be advised by notice in writing, at least 21 days before the meeting.
7.2 Any member desirous of moving a resolution at the AGM shall ensure that such a resolution has been forwarded to the Committee at least 10 days before the meeting. Such resolutions shall appear on the agenda of the AGM under § 8, item 7.”

Proposed Change:
"7.1 A General Meeting of the Club shall be held each year before the end of February at a time and date fixed by the Committee. All members shall be advised by notice in writing, at least 21 days before the meeting.
7.1.1 If due to extraordinary circumstances it is not possible to meet in person, the Committee may decide to hold the meeting digitally. 
7.2 Any member desirous of moving a resolution at the AGM shall ensure that such a resolution has been forwarded to the Committee at least 10 days before the meeting. Such resolutions shall appear on the agenda of the AGM under § 8, item 7.”

Incoming resolution from Jesper Heiselberg - Add a subpoint to 9.2 (change marked in red)

Current wording:
"9.2 Every member present entitled to vote shall have one vote on every motion. No proxy votes are allowed."

Proposed wording:
"9.2 Any member present entitled to vote shall have one vote on every motion.
9.2.1 If the meeting is held digitally, the members may cast their vote through the selected media.
9.2.2 Proxy votes are not allowed."

8) Election of Officers - Candidates
   1) President - Currently: Nick Morton
   2) Club Captain - Currently: Jesper Heiselberg
   3) Club Secretary - Currently: Mette Reinholdt (Will not continue)
   4) Recruitment Secretary - Currently: Chris Voigt
   5) Social Secretary - Currently: Jon Vinther
   6) Communications Secretary - Currently: Becky Jensen
   7) DTU Liaison - Currently: Rene Kofler (Will not continue)
   8) Club Treasurer - Currently: Simon Mountford
   9) Head of Men's - Currently: Zorn Cooperider
   10) Head of Ladies - Currently: Signe Munch

9) Election of Auditor
10) Any Other Business

1.      Election of Chairman viz. §9
Jesper:
Firstly, just wanted to say welcome everyone, and thank you for joining. The first point of tonight’s agenda is to appoint a chairman.
Nick: I propose Jesper
Becky: I second that.
Jesper: Thanks, then I will chair this AGM.

2.      Approval of minutes of last AGM – Presented by Chairman.
Jesper: Next point on the agenda, is to approve the minutes from last year’s Annual General Meeting, which I am sure you have all read.
Becky: They were included in the email invitation that was sent out, and can also be found on the website.
Jesper: If there are no objections, then I will count those as approved.

Minutes from last year’s Annual General Meeting are approved.

3.     Reports from the Committee.
Jesper:  We will save Simon’s report until the end as we’ll tie that in with point 4 which is the accounts. We’ll start with the ladies

Signe (Head of Ladies)  
Not much to report, we had a fine year, and I think we came up with some good initiatives such as the online training and training in the spring when we were able to, although with limited contact.
Got some new players which was a surprise, and they’ve stayed with us so far, which is good. We are in a good position for the coming year and hoping for game time soon, so we can keep our players of course.

Zorn (Head of Men’s)
Pretty much the exact same as what Signe said – would say not enough games and contact, and we hope this year will be better. The grand plan is to win everything this year.

Question from Luna:
“Do both teams feel good about numbers going this coming season, or do we need to amp up the numbers and recruiting?”

Signe:
For the women’s team, if you look at this list, the number are OK, but we are all a bit nervous about who will actually show up when we start again. We have some people joining online things but not enough for a team, but we are hoping more players come back when we can play again. But we need to put an effort to get those players back. But we can always use more.

Zorn: Exactly what Signe said again – we can always use more players.

René (DTU Liaison)
Not that much from me, due to CVOIC but main thing was about when we could use the pitch due to covid, and got some money from DTU which was 6000kr for some netting around concrete light post, otherwise not that much I think.

Becky (Communications Secretary)
Yeah so it was quite a quiet year on my front – the majority of my time was spent on attending meetings from the DRU regarding COVID restrictions and facilitating meetings with the Committee, regarding those restrictions and how best to communicate and implement those in the club, ensuring everyone in the club was aware of the guidelines and so on.

Chris (Recruitment Secretary)
The start of the year went quite well, and we had a lot of new players who showed up, but then COVID restrictions really hit, so we have not had many opportunities to recruit this year. I attended the International Day with International House and created a video with them, which is on their website. I also attended a meeting with Knowledge City Lyngby (Vidensby Lyngby) and go in contact with a city planner who can help with getting us an article in the local paper when training is back on, as well as can get a space in the main square, with a booth and so on. So when COVID restrictions ease up a bit we can do that stuff. But yeah, we also had no rookie events.

Mette (Secretary): Not present, so brief update from Becky
Mette attended meetings with the DRU and with the Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality. The main meeting last year, was regarding our time and space for a pitch at Lyngby Stadium and securing that slot. Seeing as we were not able to utilize it due to COVID, not sure what the situation will be for the coming year, so will have to be aware of that.

Jon (Social Secretary)
Yeah this year we couldn’t do much due to COVID restrictions, however we did manage to arrange a bus trip to Hillerød. However shortly afterwards we went into lockdown again and have been like this mostly since then. The BBQ and Annual Dinner and Dance were called, so had an easy job this year. But it has also been difficult coming up with ideas on how to meaningfully interact. If anyone has ideas of what we can do, please share them with me. Otherwise I hope we can see each other in the summer again and do some events then.

On another note, Bootleggers being our sponsors, we would usually have a dialogue about receiving some funding from them (sponsorship money). We had a chat with Greg quite early on, that we wouldn’t require his money this year, as we weren’t going to have a proper season, so we felt that it would be best for him to keep his money this season.

Jesper (Club Captain).
I was elected into the DRU Board – had a few meetings with them but not much happened there, I was mainly just getting used to my role there. I will be up for election again this year, and will run again. If elected it will be for another 2 years.

Nick (President)
Very quickly and generally, it’s been a strange year for all of us, and it’s important to remember the club is not just about playing rugby although the most integral part, it is also about relationships and looking after each other, and in these sort of circumstances we could easily have folded, but we didn’t due to the efforts made to socialize and play whenever and however we could.
A big thanks to everybody who’s made an effort to take part, you’ve helped keep the club running. When this is all over we’re going to have a massive piss up!

I also want to extend a thanks to Harry and Lele for coaching through this year – to the whole committee for their efforts. Being on a committee is a thankless task, and you’ve made a tremendous effort. Thanks to Mette and René who are leaving us, you’ve done a tremendous job this year.

Yet again we had to say goodbye to one of our founder members, Dave Wright passed in September. Without Dave, we most likely wouldn’t be sitting here and have this wonderful club. We’ll miss you friend.

4) Presentation of the Accounts for the preceding year and budget for the coming year.
Simon presents the accounts for 2020 and budget for 2021.
The accounts have been approved and signed by our Auditor (Riina Kiiski)
--Simon then proceeds to go through each tab of the accounts--

Question from Nick regarding social activities for 12.000kr (What does cover as we are intended to give a free part).
Simon explains yes, that is still the plan, but hopefully we can also have more social activities during the summer and fall to bring this number in, we’ll see.

Question from Jon regarding the tab reserved for physio; Shouldn’t this also cover physio at training, and not just the women’s home round (especially coming back from such a long break, physio would be a good idea).
- Becky follow’s up and explains that it was intended to use last year’s sponsorship (had we taken it) on physio both for training and games, hence the tab appearing in the budget.

Simon agrees that the money for a physio should also cover physio at training and that we’ll the necessary funds for this.

Becky: I think it’s important to remember that it is extremely difficult to plan a budget for year such as the one we are facing, with so many unknowns. So take the budget with a grain of salt.

Simon: Things can easily change – right now things are looking good. We don’t want a fortune in the bank obviously but we also need to be ready for tough times. This year we’ll definitely be spending more money.

The accounts are approved.

5) Establish the number of votes.
20 votes are established as eligible to vote. This is necessary due to the incoming resolutions.

6) Annual Subscriptions (suggestion from Committee for 2021).

Simon: The suggestion from the committee is that this year, everyone pays a flat rate of 100kr, whether you are social, full time player etc. For 2021 only, we suggest a flat rate for all, and will also be looking to set up an option so that those who want to donate more or extra to the club can do so. Those two who have already paid subs for 2021, I will get in contact with them and ask them what they would like to do.

The subscriptions are set at 100kr for 2021.

7) Resolutions viz. §7.2

Jesper reads out the first resolution suggestion regarding 11.6. Simon explains this is simply to help the committee out, as often the entire committee is required to sign papers and show passports and other documentation due to GDPR. This will help the committee with admin.

No one is against the proposal, and the resolution is accepted to change the wording of the constitution in point 11.6.




Jesper reads out the second resolution which is incoming from Jon regarding adding a subpoint to point 7.1 in the constitution.

Jon: This one is very much connected to next one, so it’s just basically to ensure that are able to legally meet like this for a AGM, as it’s not been doen before. We want to make sure we don’t get caught in a situation where we can’t hold the meeting. It is only in the case of us not being able to meet physically, not instead of a physical meeting.

Jesper: we’ll take both proposals and vote on them together referring to the 3^rd incoming resolution regarding an addition to point 9.2, about allowing online voting.

Question from Anna: Who defines ‘special circumstances’

Jon:  As it’s says in the proposal ‘If due to extraordinary circumstances, the committee may decide.”

No one is against and the resolution is accepted to change the wording of both point 7.1 and 9.2 in the constitution.

8) Election of Officers – Candidates

Jesper: We have to elect our committee, we’ll start with the president.

President: Currently - Nick Morton
-No other candidates, and Nick is elected unanimously.

Club Captain: Currently – Jesper Heiselberg
-No other candidates and Jesper is elected unanimously.

Secretary: Currently – Mette Reinholdt
-Zorn nominates Jean Bendixen
-Becky seconds
-No other nominees – Jean is elected.

Recruitment Secretary: Currently – Chris Voigt
-No other candidates and Chris is elected unanimously.

Social Secretary: Currently – Jon Vinther
-No other candidates and Jon is elected unanimously.

Communication Secretary: Currently – Becky Jensen
-No other candidates and Becky is elected unanimously.

DTU Liaison: Currently – René Kofler
-René nominates Gaspard
-Gaspard accepts.
-No other candidates and Gaspard is elected unanimously.

Treasurer: Currently – Simon Mountford
-No other candidates and Simon is elected unanimously.

Head of Men’s: Currently – Zorn Cooperider
-No other candidates and Zorn is elected unanimously.

Head of Ladies: Currently – Signe Munch
-No other candidates and Signe is elected unanimously.

That completes the committee, and everyone has been elected for their positions for the year to come.

9) Election of Auditor
Simon: Riina is happy to continue unless there are any other nominations?
- No other candidates and Riina’s continuation for 2021 is approved.

10) Any Other Business

Luna: Did we skip the subs?
- We skipped point 6 by mistake during the meeting - for reference, they are added under point 6 for ease of reading.

Becky: Small announcement – Merchandise for 2021 is NOW LIVE. It is available directly on the website, so go get your merchandise ??

Jon: Also a small announcement here too, but we will be doing a clean up in the Exiles social group, as there are a growing number of members who rarely interact with the group or use the group. We will of course notify everyone multiple times, but the deal will be they will have to pay a social membership to stay in the Exiles Social Group from now on.

Jean-Marc: If you are planning on removing people from the Social Group who still want to stay part of the club, you know the older members, make sure they know where to go, so they can stay part of the club. Hopefully it brings more people to pay their subs – I’m sure people will want to help the club and it’s a good way to create attention.

Becky: There are multiple other groups, such as the 50^th group, the Old Boys Group and the Facebook page that they join.

Sophie: I think Jean-Marc’s point is quite relevant, but can I ask why we are cleaning up?

Jon: Mostly because it is a very uncontrolled group – say we get a new social secretary they have no idea who most of the members are and who actually belongs there. It’s also where we announce a lot of information and it’s also to create more of a feeling of safety and ensuring that those in the group actually have a stake and care in the Exiles.

Simon: There are currently 459 people in that group – Let them down gently Jon and make sure the announcement is made and do it gradually. And the Facebook page is open and public and anyone who wants to join socials can pay.

Jon: Multiple warnings will be given and people will also be contacted individually so they know what’s going on.

Alberto: I think this is also fair to those in the social group who actually made an effort to pay their social subs. Obviously not so much this year, but otherwise, I think it makes sense that every social members pays to be in that group, and get that type of information.

Becky: Anything else or can we conclude?

Jean-Marc: Please kick the butts of Speed next time you play them.

No further business, thank you all.