Articles of the association

Articles of Copenhagen Pride

§1 Name and domicile

Article 1. The name of the association is Copenhagen Pride.

Article 2. The association’s registered domicile is in the City of Copenhagen.

§2 Purpose

Article 1. The purpose of the association is to work to influence legislation and attitudes in society both nationally and globally to promote better conditions for sexual and gender minorities, including by organising Copenhagen Pride once a year and other events in accordance with the purpose of the association.

Article 2. The association must be a member of at least one international organisation for Pride organisers.

§3 Membership

Article 1. Any person who supports the purpose of the association can be accepted as a member of the association if they fulfil the conditions for membership fees in §5.

Article 2. The membership year follows the period 1 September to 31 August.

§4 Exclusion

Article 1. A member who does not respect these bylaws or decisions adopted by the general meeting may be excluded from the association by the board. To exclude a member, a majority of 2/3 of all board members is required.

Article 2. The exclusion can be requested at an extraordinary general meeting. A request to this effect must be received by the board within eight days from the time of notification of the exclusion.

§5 Membership fee

Article 1. The membership fee is determined by the annual general meeting.

Article 2. The membership fee must be paid to the association’s secretariat and applies to the current membership year, cf. §3, article 2.

Article 3. Anyone who has provided at least 24 hours of volunteer unpaid work for the association in the period 1 September to 31 August is a fee-free member of the association in the following membership year.

Article 4. It is the volunteer’s own responsibility to ensure that their hours are registered in a system designated by the board.

Article 5. It is the board’s responsibility to ensure that all volunteers are aware of this. The board or a person appointed by the board must supervise the system and ensure the accuracy of the volunteers’ registered hours in the system.

Article 6. Volunteer hours are calculated before the end of September and membership is granted to volunteers who fulfil the requirement in Article 3.

§6 General Assembly

Article 1. The general assembly is the highest authority of the association.

Article 2. The annual general meeting is held once a year in the period from 15 October to 30 November and is notified by email to all members of the association, to the email addresses most recently provided to the association, by posting on the association’s website and at least one social media with at least 14 days’ notice.

Article 3. The notice must as a minimum contain information about time, place and deadline for submission of proposals to be considered at the general meeting.

Article 4. Candidates for the board and proposals to be considered at the general meeting must be received by the secretariat or a representative no later than 10 days before the general meeting.

Article 5. The final notice with agenda as well as proposals and candidates for the board must be published on the association’s website no later than 7 days before the general meeting.

Article 6. Any member of the association, who may be accompanied by one advisor, and persons invited by the board have access to the general meeting.

Article 7. To obtain voting rights, membership fees must be paid no later than 6 weeks prior to the general meeting or the requirement for membership fee exemption cf. §5, article 3 must be met.

Article 8. A legally notified general meeting constitutes a quorum regardless of the number of attendees

Each member who has the right to vote, cf. Article 7, has one vote.
Members who are entitled to vote in accordance with Article 7 may bring one signed proxy from one member who is entitled to vote in accordance with Article 7.
All decisions at the general meeting shall be made by ordinary majority, with the exception of decisions on the purchase, sale and mortgaging of real estate and amendments to the bylaws, which require a 2/3 majority.
A written ballot shall take place when requested by a member and in the case of an election where there are more candidates than the number of positions up for election.

Article 9. The agenda for the annual general meeting must as a minimum include the following items:

  • Election of moderator
  • Election of rapporteur
  • Election of vote counters
  • The board’s report on the organisation’s activities in the past year
  • Approval of the accounts
  • The organisational supervisor’s report is presented for information
  • Determination of membership fees
  • Presentation of the budget
  • Proposals received
  • Election to the board
  • Election of organisational supervisor
  • Election of auditor
  • Any other business

Article 10. Minutes are kept of the general meeting as a record of decisions. The minutes are approved and signed by the moderator.

§7 Extraordinary general meeting

Article 1. An extraordinary general meeting shall be held if a majority of the board members so request, if at least 2/5 of the members submit a written request or if an excluded member has requested it, cf. §4, article 2.

Article 2. An extraordinary general meeting shall be held no later than five weeks after receiving the request. Notice of the meeting shall be sent to the email address most recently provided by the member to the association, via the association’s own website and via posting on at least one social media at least 14 days before the meeting. The notice must include the items to be discussed and a written motivation for these.

§8 Composition of the board

Article 1. The association is managed by a board of seven people; an organisational chairperson, a political chairperson, a treasurer and four ordinary board members.

Article 2. It is the task of the board to

  • Establish rules of procedure for the work of the board
  • Establish an executive committee
    formulating the responsibilities of the chairpersons

Article 3. The board shall be elected in such a way that three or four members are elected in turn at the annual general meeting for a period of two years.

Article 4. Any member of the association who has reached the age of 15 is eligible for election as a board member. Minors cannot financially represent the association.

Article 5. Any member of the association who has reached the age of 18 is eligible for election as chairperson and treasurer.

Article 6. The two chairpersons and the treasurer are elected first and separately so that the organisational chairperson is elected for a two-year period in even years and the political chairperson and the treasurer are elected in odd years for a two-year period.

Article 7. If a chairperson or treasurer resigns untimely, the board shall appoint a new chairperson or treasurer to serve until the next annual general meeting. If the position is not to be elected that year, cf. Article 3, a chairperson shall be elected for a one-year period.

Article 8. If one or more board members resign early, a corresponding number of candidates shall be elected at the annual general meeting for a period of one year. The one-year mandate is awarded on the basis of the lowest number of personal votes.

Article 9. The general meeting elects up to two alternates for one-year terms. If a member of the board resigns, the alternates shall take office in the chosen order until the next annual general meeting. If a board member chooses to take a leave of absence from the board for a given period, an alternate will be appointed for the period in question.

Article 10. If there is no alternate elected by the general meeting, the board is self-sufficient until the next annual general meeting, where the vacancy on the board must be filled with a mandate from the general meeting.

§ 9 The work of the board

Article 1. The board constitutes a quorum when more than half of the board is present, of which at least two must be members of the executive committee. Board decisions are adopted by simple majority. In the event of a tie, the chairpersons have the casting vote and their two votes count as three in the event of agreement between the chairpersons. If the chairpersons do not agree and there is still a tie, the proposal is dropped.

Article 2. An executive committee shall be established in accordance with Article 3 and 4.

(3). If the board has seven members, the executive committee consists of the two chairpersons and the treasurer.

Article 4. If the number of board members falls to 6, the executive committee is reduced to two persons, consisting of the organisational chairperson and the treasurer.

Article 5. It is the task of the executive committee to take care of the board’s work between board meetings.

Article 6. The board may establish ad-hoc committees for the purpose of solving a specific task described in a mandate in cooperation with the secretariat, just as the board may enter into cooperation with other associations or companies to solve the board’s tasks.

Article 7. The board may appoint and dismiss a head of secretariat. Other staff, with the exception of area managers, are hired and dismissed by the head of secretariat, if such a person is employed.

Article 8. The board establishes in an instruction to the head of the secretariat the detailed framework for the secretariat’s activities in addition to what has been established for the secretariat in the form of procuration regarding the association’s financial management in accordance with §11.

Article 9. The board may appoint and dismiss area managers.

Article 10. An area manager cannot be a member of the board or vice versa. If a member of the board is appointed as an area manager, that person shall resign from the board with immediate effect. If an area manager is elected to the board, their role as an area manager ceases with immediate effect.

Article 11. If the number of board members falls below 5, an extraordinary general meeting must be convened for the purpose of electing board members for the period until the annual general meeting.

Article 12. No board member may hold a paid position in the association.

Article 13. A board member may receive fees for lectures and other tasks that are in continuation of the association’s work, but which are not part of the work as a board member.

§10 Organisational supervisor

Article 1. The general meeting elects one organisational supervisor for a one-year period.

Article 2. Only a person who has experience from board work in the association or a comparable organisation can be elected as organisational supervisor.

Article 3. The role of the organisational supervisor is

  • to assist the board of directors with recommendations in connection with the review, development, updating, optimisation or implementation of administrative processes, organisational processes and business procedures and to supervise compliance with these.
  • supervise the association’s operations in relation to decisions and transactions that may have a major direct or indirect impact on the association’s finances.
    Assist the treasurer in supervising the association’s bookkeeping system and thus provide the association with increased financial security.

Article 4. At the general meeting, the organisational supervisor must present a report on their activities and assessment of the above tasks, which is subsequently noted by the general meeting.

§11 Authorisation rules

Article 1. The association is authorised by a chairperson and the treasurer jointly. One of these may be replaced by two other board members appointed and approved by a majority of the board.

Article 2. The board may grant procuration, which, however, can never be sole procuration.

Article 3. However, the board may authorise the issuance of debit cards to trusted volunteers and employees, where the person in question is personally liable in connection with the use of the card or failure to submit supporting documents in connection with withdrawals on the card in question.

§12 Finances

Article 1. The financial year is the calendar year.

Article 2. The association’s accounts are audited by an auditor elected at the general meeting.

Article 3. If the general meeting elects an auditor who is neither registered nor state-authorised, the general meeting shall also elect a deputy auditor.

Article 4. The accounts shall be presented for approval at the general meeting.

Article 5. The association is only liable for the association’s assets.

§13 Amendments to the Articles of Association

Article 1. Proposed amendments to the Articles of Association can only be adopted at a general meeting if at least 2/3 of those present and entitled to vote at the general meeting vote in favour of the amendments.

§14 Dissolution

Article 1. The association can only be dissolved if two consecutive general meetings decide to do so with a 2/3 majority.

Article 2. If the association is dissolved, its assets shall upon dissolution be made available to a humanitarian organisation or non-profit association domiciled in Denmark that supports purposes that are consistent with the association’s purpose as decided at the dissolving general meeting.

 


Adopted at Copenhagen Pride’s annual general meeting in November 2023.