The annual general meeting of the SSS was held at The Sheraton Sukhumvit in Bangkok May 9th. After a brief confusion about whether to eat before or after the meeting, the Scandinavians took a quick decision and demanded to eat right away. The Thai personnel struggled to get the lids of the food heaters before the hungry Scandinavians emptied the trays.
The election strategy of staring
The meeting started at 8 pm as soon as the president of the board, Thomas Raldorf, had made it through the ever surprising Bangkok traffic to the Sheraton. Gregers Møller was elected chairman of the AGM and that turned out not to be his only election that evening.
The outgoing president did not stand for re-election. “It was my hope that I could be the president for a number of years in order to get continuity for the SSS, but I have to make more time for my family, and therefore I will only stand election as a board substitute”, Thomas Raldorf announced. As nobody else volunteered to become president, the chairman started a round of staring the members long and hard in the eyes, but as that strategy did not help, he suggested a brief break.
After the break, Peter Weber stood up and stared into the eyes of Gregers Møller who finally succumbed and was unanimously elected president of the SSS board for the year 2007/2008.
A member attacking the income statement
One of the decisions of the AGM was that the board must have a mandatory budget for the following year. This decision was made after a member, Peder Brandt, attacked the income statement of last year.
“In all my business life I have never seen anything like it”, he said waving the income statement.
“Apparently, no knowledgeable people have been involved in this work” he said with reference to the outgoing board’s work.
“How can one third of the expenses be unaccounted for and remain unexplained as ‘other expenses’”, the member asked Thomas Raldorf. The outgoing president then explained that the amount – 112,000 Thai baht – covers the SSS’s secretary’s salary.
The new board
The evening ended with the election of 67 board members; Kristian Bø, Joakim Persson, Per Kågeby, Lennart Söderberg, Sari Castren and Bente Sustman. The four substitutes will be: Åke from Norway, Eric Helander, Elina Koski and Thomas Raldorf. The hard task of being next term’s auditor is Gunnar Sjöbeck’s and his substitute is Erik Dahlström.
The new board will continue the work of marketing the society’s activities such as bicycle trips, parties and sports events.
