The DCC Annual General Meeting was held at The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club on Thursday March 11, 2010.
Facilitator Mr. Anders Larsen commenced the meeting at 6:30pm and steadily made sure the meeting progressed smoothly and according to the Constitution.
First point of the agenda was the Chairman’s Report which of course was presented by the Chairman himself Mr. Jens-Erik Olsen.
Mr. Olsen announced that DCC at this point counts 54 Corporate Members, 32 Individual Members, 4 YDP Members and 9 Student Members.
2009 offered great variety in DCC events.
The Round Table format continues to be popular and the closed circuit shipping lunch became more professionally oriented in 2009. Our RT visitors included Editor-in-Chief and CEO Leif Beck Fallesen, Børsen and CEO Jørgen Lindegaard, ISS.
Last April the event with Christine Loh which was co-arranged with the Danish Consulate was a strong event. DCC will continue to be active with environment matters.
The IT business incubator network group “BING” gave some promise, however, due to the relocation of primus motor Thomas Jørgensen we need someone to take this place.
Lunch in October with HRH Prince Henrik was fun and a culinary delight with superb wines.
The large variety of professional InterCham events appear to be popular amongst our members.
Further on the Environment front we managed to revive the Business Coalition on the Environment with a post COP15 and pre C-40 event with 100 delegates and a strong panel including our own Glenn Frommer and C=40 CEO Simon Reddy.
The European Chamber had a turbulent year with the EUBIP funding creating some confusion regarding the true role of European Chamber of Commerce as a chamber of chambers. Now the ECC has found its true mission and we expect a strong and useful performance in 2010.
International Business Community also had difficulties in 2009, but now both the Chief Secretary, Henry Tang and the IBC members have re-declared their confidence in this useful forum.
DCC has invested in a new and more up to date website which is very attractive. Initiated by Gunilla and executed by Sameh it became active in February, 2010. Advertising on the web site is possible and SAS and Handelsbanken were the first to make use of this. Artistic design and the new logo were created by Gitte Johansen from International Design House.
The Christmas Ball was firmly orchestrated by Lisa Lindenskov and Christine Au saved the day by renegotiating terms with the Jockey Club.
The Chairman finished his Report by thanking the Committee for their work in 2009 as well as all the members for supporting DCC in 2009.
The Treasurer’s Report was kindly presented by Vice Chairman, Mr. Lars Gjoerup, as the DCC Treasurer Jahn Thorup was unable to attend the meeting due to travelling.
DCC entered into the year 2009 with cash and bank balances of HKD 433,743.00.
The result of the activities is a deficit of HKD 51,151.00 and the year ends with cash and bank balances of HKD 379,568.00.
During the year a number of own and co-hosted events of professional or social character was held. In total 12 social events and 22 professional events were held a number comparable to the previous year. The events included DCC’s activities in relation to the Global Warming conference in Copenhagen and the celebration of Queen Magrethe II ‘s birthsday and the DCC Christmas ball.
The financial crises impacted the DCC finances as the number of members declined and the traditional sponsorships requested and received was significantly reduced. The membership fees declined from HKD 153,900.00 in 2008 to HKD 140,200.00 in 2009. The sponsorships received declined from HKD 151,000 in 2008 to HKD 72,750 in 2009, a reduction of HKD 78,750.00.
The committee sought and found some cost reductions in the most expensive event for DCC, the Christmas ball where the Jockey Club turned out to be a good match for DCC as venue for the Ball.
The DCC spring and autumn “Global warming activities” had a net cost of HKD 16,100 for each of the two events.
The DCC web side was brought up to date in form of a reprogramming in a modern web-software by a software company. This cost of HKD 15,000.00 is fully expensed in the accounts.
In order to achieve a better balancing of income and expenses, the committee has decided to make use of the mandate given by to increase the membership fees for 2010 – The fee for 2009 was not increased.
Considering the Global warming activities and the reprogramming of the Web side is not recurring events, the result for the year, even being a deficit of HKD 51,151.00 is seen by the committee as acceptable for the financially turbulent 2009 year.
All members of last year’s Committee had prior to the meeting expressed desire to stand for re-election. The election was carried out in a group as a whole and the motion was carried unanimously. A vote of thanks to the Committee members!
Members of the Committee are;
Mr. Jens-Erik Olsen, Chairman
Mr. Lars Gjoerup, Vice-Chairman
Mr. Jahn Thorup, Treasurer
Mr. Frank Jensen, Secretary
Dr. Glenn Frommer
Mr. Joergen Moellegaard
Mr. Tavs Vagnby
Ms. Gunilla Rodstroem
Ms. Karina Trebbien
Mr. Ole Bjoern Kraft
Ms. Lisa Lindenskov
Mr. Martin Hein (YDP representative)
DCC would like to thank Mr. Anders Larsen and Mr. Lars Lykke Iversen for doing an excellent job on auditing the 2009 Accounts.
With no other Business tabled facilitator Mr. Anders Larsen declared the Annual General Meeting for completed at 7:05pm.
The atmosphere after the Meeting was delightful as was the canapés and wine.
