Slides That Follow Your Voice: Danish Accent Cooperative Agm

Slide 1: Annual general meeting

0:17Good evening, and welcome to the annual general meeting of the Søndervang housing cooperative. I am Mette, I have been chair of the board for three years, and by the rules of our statutes I will remain chair until somebody else volunteers, which, looking at this room, is not tonight. [chuckles]

0:36We have two hundred and fourteen flats and I count about ninety of you, plus twenty-nine, no, thirty-one proxies, so we are comfortably quorate, thirty-three, Karsten says. Fine. Thirty-three proxies. and the people who are not here have agreed, by not being here, to whatever we decide, which is the oldest rule in housing and the one I enjoy most.

Slide 2: Comfortably quorate

1:03The agenda is on the sheet. I will go through it briefly, and then the treasurer will do the accounts, and then we will spend forty minutes on the bicycle shed, because we always do, and I have stopped pretending otherwise.

Slide 3: Tonight

1:18Item one, the year. The buildings are sixty-one years old this year, and they are, on the whole, in better shape than they were. We replaced the roof on block C in the spring, on budget, at two point four million kroner, and it has not uh, leaked, which I mention because the previous roof was replaced in twenty eleven and leaked in twenty twelve.

Slide 4: Item one: the year

1:43We changed the window contractor after block B, for reasons the treasurer will explain in the neutral language he has promised to use. He has written it down. He showed me the paragraph this afternoon. It says, performance below expectations, four times, and, regrettable, twice. It is the angriest thing he has ever written, and, as you know, he is not an angry man. Anyway. The trees.

2:13And the courtyard trees, which were planted when the buildings were, were checked in August, and fourteen of the sixteen are healthy, and the two that are not will be replaced in March with the same species, because the board received thirty-eight emails on that subject and thirty-seven of them agreed.

2:34Item two, heating. The district heating company has raised its price by nine percent, which is outside our control, and our consumption has fallen by six percent, which is not, and which is because one hundred and forty of you let us install the new thermostats.

Slide 5: Item two: heating

2:53For the seventy-four who did not, the thermostats are still available, they are free, the installer is a very polite man called Jonas, and I would simply note that the difference between the two groups is now visible on the shared bill, and that the people who said no are paying for the people who said yes, which is not what they intended, not what they intended.

Slide 6: The thermostats: 74

3:19Item four, no, three, the budget, item three. Item three, the budget, which the treasurer will present. All I will say is that the monthly contribution goes up two percent, under inflation, that the maintenance fund holds three point one million, and that the board recommends a yes, as boards do.

3:44Item four, the bicycle shed. The proposal is on page six. It is forty-eight square metres, it holds ninety bicycles, it costs four hundred and ten thousand kroner, and it has been discussed at four consecutive general meetings. I would like to settle it tonight. This year I have brought a timer. No? It is a timer. It is on the table. Okay.

Slide 7: Item four: the bicycle shed

4:11It is a kitchen timer, shaped like an egg. My daughter lent it to me on the condition that I return it. She is eleven and she was very clear. So when it rings, we vote. That is the whole rule. I was going to say something funnier about that and it has gone.

4:31Item five, elections. Two seats on the board are open. Karsten is standing again. The second seat has no candidate as of this afternoon, and I will say what I say every year, which is that the board meets once a month, there is cake, and the alternative is that the five of us keep making decisions about your heating with nobody to tell us we are wrong. [sighs]

Slide 8: Item five: elections

4:59Finally, item six, any other business, which is where somebody asks about the parking, and I say that parking is a matter for the municipality, and they say it anyway, and I listen, because that is what the chair is for. Last year it was Bent. Bent, I can see you. I know. The municipality. I will write again, they will not answer again, and we will have this conversation again, which is fine.

Slide 9: Item six: any other business

5:29Coffee is at the back, the treasurer is ready, and the timer, for the shed, is set to forty minutes. Let us begin.