‘Even though the headline for the day is “Koda's General Meeting 2021”, today is all about the year 2020. 2020 was a year with a lot of challenges for all of us due to the pandemic – not just in our personal lives, but also because large parts of our industry were severely hit. But now we see light ahead. Summer is here, and concerts are slowly re-emerging, so there is every reason to be hopeful’.
With this optimistic message, the chair of Koda’s board of directors, Niels Rønsholdt, opened the general meeting, which, like last year, had been postponed for a few months due to COVID-19 restrictions. The agenda included several important items, such as electing publisher members for Koda's board of directors as well as several proposals for amendments to the Articles of Association.
The first items on the agenda concerned the chair’s report on Koda’s activities in 2020 and the presentation and submission of Koda’s annual financial statement and annual transparency report for approval, as handled by Koda’s CEO. Both were approved by the assembled members.
The next item on the agenda was the election of two publisher members for Koda’s board of directors. Three candidates were up for election. After the candidates had each stated their reasons for running, it was time to vote. After a close election, the two sitting members, Loui Törnqvist and Søren Winding, were both re-elected for Koda’s board of directors. The third candidate, Mette Zähringer, was elected as an alternate.
At the same time, the composers’ associations DPA and DKF have both replaced their chairpersons, who join Koda’s board as replacements for these associations’ former chairs. Accordingly, Koda’s board of directors now comprises the following nine members:
At a board meeting held on 22 June, the board of directors constituted itself as follows:
The next four items concerned the board of directors’ recommendations on issues such as the general policy for deductions in rights income and on the general distribution policy. All recommendations were the same as those adopted last year, and they were all voted through by a significant majority.
The recommendations prompted some discussion concerning the administration and management of Koda’s cultural contributions, an area with which the Board has worked extensively in 2020. As part of the discussion, the Board announced that members will be extensively involved in an upcoming consultation process. The objective is quite simply to get as many funds as possible out into the music scenes to assist the creation of new music. Among other things, this process will involve a number of member meetings where these topics will be debated. More information about these meetings will follow.
Following this, it was time to discuss and vote on the four amendments to the Articles of Association proposed by the Board of Directors. Amendments to the Articles of Association require at least half of Koda’s voting members (approximately 3,250) to be present and also require the proposed amendments to be subsequently voted through again at an extraordinary general meeting. Less than half of Koda’s members turned up at this general meeting, which means that amendments to the Articles of Association must instead be adopted at two general meetings with a majority of at least two-thirds of the votes of those present.
Three of the proposals were adopted by more than two-thirds of the votes: the decision not to allow double mandates, which means that the five board members elected by the general meeting may not simultaneously sit on the board of one of the three composers' associations or of Musikforlæggerne, which, according to Koda’s Articles of Association, always have a seat on the board. A change to the frequency of elections was also voted through, meaning that both author and publisher members are elected each year. It was also decided to amend the phrasing of the Danish Articles of Association to use the gender-neutral ‘forperson’ (chair or chairperson) instead of the gendered ‘formand’ (chairman).
The final proposal concerned the possibility of electing an external member to the board. The proposal had previously been rejected, so for this year’s general meeting it had been amended on the basis of some of the criticism voiced in connection with the most recent vote in 2018. 57 per cent voted in favour of the proposal but given that 66.67 per cent of the votes were required, the proposal was not voted through.
An extraordinary general meeting will be held on 24 August, at which the three adopted proposals will be finally voted through.
