It was with regret, sadness and great uncertainty that the board of the Friends of DR had to find a venue outside DR-Byen for the general meeting last year due to dramatic cost increases in DR. The venue was Svenska Gustavskyrkan at Østerport station.
The uncertainty centred on what it would mean for the support for the general meeting that it no longer took place in the Concert Hall on Amager. The fears were unfounded. There were more members than last year who supported the event. 175 signed up for the general meeting, music and Swedish ”kanelbullar”.
The association's chairman thanked for the support and the great turnout and continued:
- The large turnout today should also be seen in light of the fact that we have not reached the number of members we had before the Corona crisis - not at all. We recently had our systems cleaned out and realised that we even thought we were more members than we actually are. Today, we have around 1160 members - when we were at our peak, we were more than double that, and just before the Corona in 2019, we had 2100. At the last general meeting, I was able to announce that we had around 1200 members based on the available overviews, but that number may have been too high when there has not been a reduction of former members who have not paid the membership fee and thus do not continue.
However, it is my clear impression after recently receiving the audited figures for 21/22 that we have more members this year than last year, but it is also clear that we would like to get even more people on board. The vast majority of cultural institutions and associations can report a slow return to BEFORE, but it would be nice if we could put a little more turbo on," said chairman Mogens Rubinstein when presenting the board's report.
The financial result for the year, as shown in the accounts, showed a deficit, and there are several reasons for this, said the chairman:
- One is a result of the dispute we had with SKAT about whether we should pay VAT on your membership fees. Fortunately, we won, so you won't have to pay a 25 per cent increase in membership fees in the future, which would have gone directly to the state coffers. We had set aside money to have it if we had lost to the tax authorities, but since we didn't, the money must be recognised in our accounts as a loss - in this case 200,000. By an error from our accountant, it was not recognised in last year's accounts, but only in this year's. This means that last year's accounts - technically - looked better than they should have, while this year's accounts technically look worse than they should.
- Is the association in trouble. Not at all. We have the money we need to cover our expenses and also the fun part - supporting DR's choirs and orchestras - this year with twice as many grants as usual.
We wanted to mark the fact that we are now happily back to normal activities after the lockdowns during the Corona pandemic.
The truth is that we used to have too much money in our coffers compared to our expenses, which is stupid, especially when you had to pay negative interest for having money in the bank.
We have also chosen to keep our lean administration intact during the crisis instead of shutting down the organisation for a period.
But still: with fewer members, we have to try to do some things differently than before, and that will be a task for the board we elect today.
The Friends have organised access for members to 13 dress rehearsals or working rehearsals and sent out discount links to ten concerts of various kinds outside DR-Byen. On average, there are 2-3 events every month.
The President ended with a strong call for members to be ambassadors for the organisation and work to increase membership among family, friends and colleagues.
The latter two are newly elected
Mogens Rubinstein, Chairman
Ann Granum Vice Chairman/Treasurer
Carina Høedt
Ulla Knudsen
Hjørdis Jakobsen
Gerda Sonne
Stig Hother Hansen