Minutes from the Exiles Annual General Meeting 2025
Sunday, February 23th 2025.
Agenda:
Election of Chairman viz. § 9
Approval of minutes of last AGM - presented by Chairman
Reports from the Committee
Men’s Tournament update
National player funding
Status of our pitch
New Branding Officer
Presentation of the Accounts for the preceding year and budget for the coming year.
Establish the number of votes
Annual subscriptions
Resolutions
No resolutions were sent in for this AGM
Election of Officers
Appointment of Auditor
Any Other Business
Before we started, President Nick thanked the committee for their work throughout this year, and then passed the word to Kim Henning Nielsen, a valued former player of our team.
Kim shared that he is a member of the board of trustees for a fund called IA Sprog, and have over the last half year been working with Nick and the rest of the committee, to write a good application for said fund.
The IA Sprog fund has the goal of improving the integration of foreigners into Danish society, which we all know is something Exiles do most excellently.
Kim was happy to announce that our application has recently been approved, and the Exiles club account has received 195.000kr, with the express goal of; recruiting more foreigners through recruitment and social events, building and equipping a development team, paying for coaches and training equipment, and overall furthering integration of our players.
After a stunned silence, the AGM erupted in applause.
It will now be on the committee to define initiatives, to make best use of these funds.
Election of Chairman viz. § 9
Jon is elected as Chairman.
Approval of minutes of last AGM - presented by Chairman
There are no objections to last year’s minutes, so they are approved.
Reports from the Committee
Head of Mens (Zorn):
Zorn keeps it short and sweet.
It’s going well internally for the team, as long as everyone keeps showing up for practice, it will go well again this year!
Head of Ladies (Sofie):
We also did super well this year, and ended in 3rd place. We have a lot of players on the team, which is amazing. We even have several on the national team!
Last year we got a new coach in Dylan, but he wasn’t able to stay on for this year.
Fortunately we have found a new coach, Sean, who has been a youth trainer at Gentofte for 8 years and has agreed to come train our women’s team.
Recruitment (Ignasi):
Ignasi is standing up for a speech.
Ignasi mentions that he has been thinking a lot about recruitment the last year.
During his first years in the committee he has worked hard at attending recruitment events and talking to people. He has also gathered an engaged group of people to help with attending those events.
This was quite successful, and many new members we recruited in this time.
Nowadays Ignasi is no longer attending DTU and has less time to spare to practically attend these events, so he will take a step back and act more managerial in these matters. This way he hopes to keep recruitment high, but also manage the loads so that he can still fill the Recruitment Officer role in years to come.
He will work at building a culture of recruitment within the team, both to gather new members, but also to make sure we pass on the culture of recruiting, to the next generation.
At the end he states that his goal is still to have two mens teams!
Socials (Stephanie):
We had another good year. We’ve been lucky that the club has continued to grow. A lot of new players are still being brought into the club, which is fantastic.
It’s important to make sure we have cultural stuff like the song book and our traditions. We really want to keep that culture going.
She was very happy to see that a surprising amount of the guys showed up to watch the ladies play in the playoffs this year, even though those games were before noon!
This received applause from the gathered members.
Stephanie says that we’re still drinking plenty of beers, and that she was happy the AD&D had no major injuries or accidents this year!
Stephanie also announces that she will not be continuing in her role as Social Secretary.
DTU Liaison (Jacob):
Jacob stands up and announces that he is still the DTU Liaison - thanks for the clarification Jacob.
Everything is going well with our relation with DTU.
He has attended some good workshops they offered. One of them was about inclusivity, and Jacob states our intent to work actively at making our club inclusive.
He’s also been communicating a lot with DTU recently, to make sure our pitch is available for the coming season.
Secretary (Jon):
Jon reports that as expected, the AstroTurf pitch that we are using at Lyngby Stadium, will be torn up from March and be turned into a modern footballers AstroTurf field instead.
This means we currently have no pitch for the winter season at the end of the year.
This is going to be a task the new committee will have to work on.
Working together with Gentofte could be a solution.
From this year, licenses with Rugby Denmark will have to be paid through Holdsport. They have not yet told us exactly how to do this, but they must share it with us soon, as it will need to be done before the start of the season.
According to what we know, each player will have to pay their own license directly to RD. We will see if this ends up being the solution.
Unfortunately DTU insists on having all clubs set up their members in Klubmodul, which would require us to remain on both platforms.
We will try to find the most streamlined solution for us as possible going forward.
Also, a new batch of rugby balls is on the way!
Treasurer (Simon):
Simon does his update while he presents the accounts.
Club Captain (Signe):
Signe has mostly been involved in communication with Rugby Denmark, with and with the new chairman Ulrikka. She put up quarterly goals for the union, which Signe appreciates. They’re also working at improving things, like a handbook for how to work within the RD organisation and the new license system.
The pitch at Lyngby and our own is a concern that will be a big focus for our committee this year. And the men's tournament structure is also a big talking point.
Because of those big tasks ahead of us, this coming year is important for the club. Signe thinks we need a good strong committee for this, and that we thankfully have a lot of experience in the group.
Unfortunately Signe herself no longer has the necessary time to dedicate to the task, and she is therefore stepping down from the position as Club Captain.
President (Nick):
Nick remarks that It has been a great season both on and off the pitch.
The women did fantastic by winning the bronze last season!
The men also played well, though the tournament has been strange with the new rules, with us playing in the “Challenger tournament”. He believes strongly that we are the 3rd best team in Denmark, and have the potential to get 2nd place. However last season we didn’t even get to play for bronze, due to our geographical location. This is laughable.
What Ignasi said is so important, recruitment is vital to the club.
The pitch situation is our biggest hurdle in the coming year, that we really need to make sure we have solutions to this year.
Nick also sends heartfelt thanks to Stephanie and Signe, for all the effort they’ve put into the club over the years.
Men’s Tournament update
Simon talks about the men’s tournament, and the plans the committee have made with regards to this subject.
There is an upcoming workshop by Rugby Denmark with this as the main subject, which we will attend and give voice to our opinions.
National player funding
Last year the club spent 14.000 kr on travel expenses to send some of our players to a national team event.
We all agree that having players on the national teams is great both for the individual, and also the club. However, to prevent the club from having more expenses than we have income, we must set certain limits to the money that can be spent.
We’ve not had rules on this subject before, but the committee proposes that going forward the club will sponsor 1000 kr for each player per national team trip.
This will also only include players who are part of the national team, and does not include players who are called up to make up for numbers in a specific game or tournament.
The committee opens the floor to debate, and the AGM ends up agreeing with the committee’s decision unanimously.
Status of our pitch
Jacob talks about the status of our pitch. Since DTU is building on the lot right next to the pitch, and have covered the football pitch there, our women have no place to warm up for tournaments. This means we will have to find a different pitch, or to give up hosting a home tournament this year.
Regarding playing games on the pitch – they moved the fence onto our pitch, but have moved it back off the pitch, after being prompted by us. Some grass in the end of the pitch has wilted due to being covered by metal plates. Hopefully the refs will still okay the pitch for playing games this season.
It is asked how long we can expect the dirt pile next to the pitch to remain, and Jacob responds that the pile will be there until 2027.
It is asked if they have plans to build on our pitch. Jacob responds that they have promised not to move onto our pitch at the moment, but we cannot be certain about their future plans.
It’s asked if DTU students can help. Jacob doesn’t see how it's possible to help for now, but will make sure to alert members if it becomes relevant.
Sandro offers his contact from his PHD. Strong flex Sandro.
New Branding Officer
It is announced that the Branding Officer position that Alberto had previous year, is being revived and assigned to Komnen.
This is not an official position in the committee, but is a person appointed by the committee to help out with finding sponsors, work on branding and do merch runs.
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.
The AGM approved the accounts unanimously.
Establish the number of votes
34 people are present for the AGM, and all of them have paid subs in the last season.
Annual subscriptions
Since Rugby Denmark have added license fees at 200 kr per player, for the national tournaments, the committee proposes to increase the subscriptions by the same amount. Last year we spent about 20.000kr on these new licenses.
The committee suggest increasing the subs as following:
Employed from 1.200 kr to 1.400 kr.
Employed half year, from 700 kr to 800 kr.
Students, from 600 kr to 800 kr.
Students half year, from 400 kr to 500 kr.
It is questioned whether students should be increased by less than employed. Several people mention that it’s already very cheap, and shouldn’t be a problem even for a student. It is also the easiest solution to the change.
The AGM votes unanimously to approve the new subscriptions.
Resolutions
No resolutions were sent in this year!
Election of Officers - Candidates:
Once again several of our Committee members are leaving their positions this year.
1. President: Currently - Nick Morton
No other candidates, and Nick is re-elected unanimously.
2. Club Captain: Currently - Signe Munch - Vacant!
Amanda Højberg is voted in as our new Club Captain.
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 - Vacant!
Sasha Mantel is voted in as our new Social Secretary.
6. Communications Secretary: Currently - Vacant!
Patricia Imaz is vores in as our new Communications Secretary.
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 - Sofie Norgreen
No other candidates, and Sofie is re-elected unanimously.
Appointment of Auditor
Jesper Heiselberg is once again appointed as our auditor.
Any Other Business
As per tradition, Philip mentions building a clubhouse. Always great to have you here Philip.
Nick arranges for Stephanie and Signe to drink the Danish flag.
Thanks for all you have contributed to our club you two!
Jon calls the AGM to a close.