The Annual General Meeting of the Welsh Norwegian Society was held at the Norwegian Church Arts Centre and Café in Cardiff on Sunday 24 September 2023. 18 members attended.
In the absence of an elected chair of the society, Torill Heavens took the chair for the meeting. She welcomed those attending and gave apologies from those unable to attend.
Minutes of the last AGM were circulated and agreed as accurate.
Committee members then reported on various areas of activity.
Membership – Johan Butenschøn Skre
Johan reported that there are currently 65 paid-up members. The number is fairly stable, albeit somewhat lower than during the days of active campaigning to return the church to community control.
There are 135 in a wider contact group who receive newsletters and other information.
Newsletters are read by 60 to 70 percent of those who receive them.
The society’s social activities and presence on social media are key to attracting to new members.
Finances – Kevin Burden
Kevin took over as treasurer mid-year. He described the difficulties experienced in trying to gain access to the bank account at Lloyds and the online account with PayPal. Part of this is because banks require several signatories from a membership body that is constantly changing. Many are making it more difficult for unincorporated societies (as WNS is) to maintain ‘treasurer’s accounts’ and some are actively closing such accounts. For this reason we have not attempted to move the account from Lloyds, as we had planned to do. However, Kevin has now been accepted as a signatory. We have access to online banking, which makes paying bills easier.
The Lloyds account holds £2,622, very close to the balance at the end of last year.
Despite submitting a request in January to authorise Kevin to access the PayPal (online bank) account, he had not been able to gain access by the time of the AGM. (However, following the meeting, Kevin and former account holders Thomas and Tyra managed to reset the authorisation protocol and regain control of the account. We confirmed that it holds £508.)
The society holds £111.50 in petty cash.
Kevin regretted that it had not been possible to present a full set of accounts in time for the meeting, due to the difficulties in gaining access to the bank accounts. These will be prepared as soon as possible and reported to the committee. The overall picture is, however, that receipts from subscriptions and ticket income from events is in line with spending on the events themselves and the cost of the Christmas tree.
Kevin told the meeting that using digital systems such as PayPal (used to manage subscriptions and one-off payments) and EventBrite (used to manage bookings for paid events such as the St Hans barbecue) significantly reduces the workload for committee members, albeit at a small cost, and makes communication with society members much easier. However the committee recognises the difficulty posed to members who do not use digital devices, and it was agreed that ways would always be found to accept cash or cheques where this is more convenient for members.
Tyra Oseng-Rees suggested the society should consider buying a contactless payment terminal, such as is used in the church café, which could accept payments at events. Kevin agreed to look into this.
Events – Anne Kirsti Rosnæs Kirby
Anne Kirsti recapped the social events that had been organised across the year, which have seen continually increasing attendances.
In October 2022, more than 20 members and guests gathered to hear tales of the high seas from Kjell Ebbesvik, a former captain in the Norwegian merchant navy.
In November, members met to decorate the Christmas tree.
In December we held the Festival of Light and Friendship in grimly inclement weather conditions. The Lord Mayor of Cardiff attended, as did visitors from Vestland. The Salvation Army band played.
In January, Thomas Alexander Husøy-Ciaccia talked about the project he has led to collate the history and heritage of the church and the Norwegian community in Wales.
In February, we marked Lent by decorating birch twigs and eating traditional Scandinavian Shrove buns called fastelavnsboller.
March: We had hoped to have a guest talk about learning Norwegian as a second language. Sadly, she had to withdraw due to illness but we nevertheless celebrated Norwegian waffle week with a variety of waffles made by Anne Kirsti, Torill and Tyra.
In April, members gathered for evening drinks before a concert in the church by James Kirby, half-Norwegian by virtue of being Anne Kirsti’s son!
We marked Norwegian Constitution Day on 17 May in much finer weather than last year. Around 130 people processed from the Millennium Centre to the church, including visitors from Norway. The church’s resident Bute Wind Quintet played. Rev Ingrid Ims of the Norwegian Seamen’s Church in London gave a moving speech.
In June, we celebrated the Scandinavian midsummer festival of St Hans at a member’s house on the Gower with a barbecue, music, singing, a quiz and games. It was warm, dry and sunny, but the extended dry period meant we weren’t able to light a bonfire due to the risk of fire. We were pleased to welcome several new members.
The committee aimed to mount a similar programme for the coming year. Suggestions for other activities were always welcome. Running events does place demands on the organisers, and help – even if it is for a single event – is always appreciated.
Heritage – Thomas Alexander Husøy-Ciaccia
During the year, Thomas was appointed by the Norwegian Church Cardiff Bay charity as its heritage officer, with a specific mission to collate information about the history and heritage of the Norwegian communities in south Wales. He visited archives in Glamorgan and the home of the Norwegian Seamen’s Mission in Bergen. He found hundreds of documents, many written by hand in hard-to-read script, telling the story of the establishment of Norwegian churches in Cardiff, Barry, Swansea and Newport – and one in Milford Haven that never saw the light of day. The search uncovered lots of new material as few of the documents had been digitised and many were not even indexed.
Glamorgan Archives had retained some historical documents relating to the church, but were planning to discard some items. Thomas was able to retrieve some, including a piece of embroidery and a Norwegian pennant.
Thomas collated many artefacts for a temporary exhibition in the gallery at the Norwegian Church in Cardiff. It ran for several weeks from May and attracted interest from visitors who provided additional information. Thomas thanked members who had contributed information and loaned items for display.
Much of the content of the exhibition has been loaded onto a touch screen display in the church. It is also accessible online.
His historical research revealed a large number of photographic negatives, but the people in them were unidentified. It was suggested that perhaps the pictures could be displayed at a society meeting or online and people invited to name those they recognised.
Throughout the year, Thomas met a number of individuals and held outreach days for members of local history societies.
Thomas is now coming to the end of his one-year contract. The trustees have submitted an application for further funding from the National Lottery.
Communications – Kevin Burden
Over the new year Kevin moved the society website and its contents to a new host which is both cheaper and easier to manage. He has been reorganising the historical content to make it easier to find, adding other material such as past newsletters and media reports, and adding new content: 14 articles so far this year.
The new site has been visited 1100 times since it was set up. Most of the visitors come from the UK, with smaller numbers from the US and Norway. Most people find the site through search engines such as Google, but other visitors come from Facebook and via press reports such as the article in the Nation. The most popular pages have been the home page, which explains what WNS does; the archives; and the programme for 17th May celebrations this year.
Despite its loss of popularity with younger people, our Facebook page remains active, mostly as a way of disseminating news quickly and publishing pictures and videos of our social events. It has 762 followers, split evenly between men and women. 60% are in the UK, almost all of them in South Wales. 12% are in Norway and 17% in the US and Canada! Posts typically reach 300-400 people, peaking around the major calendar events. We post more or less as often as other small societies, but our posts generate fewer responses. Attempts to generate discussion about learning the language, travel to Norway, or other talking points have not been successful – apart from a post about the cost of a gent’s haircut! Kevin filmed and uploaded videos from our social events such as the lighting of the Christmas tree, the 17th May procession, and the Salvation Army Band playing Norwegian tunes; but these have not proved popular: perhaps the audience who would appreciate them most are not finding them?
We have a Twitter/X account which has 364 followers. However, since the summer we have not been able to post updates as Mr Musk has introduced a subscription fee of £140 in order to access the software we use to create and schedule posts. It was agreed that we would stop activity on the platform.
The society has a YouTube channel with a handful of older videos. A video interview that Kevin carried out with Thomas about the history of Norwegians in Wales (and which was featured in a news article in the Nation) has been watched 200 times.
We aim to send out newsletters 8-10 times a year by email, and these are clearly an important source of information to those who are not active on social media. We are no longer sending printed newsletters, due to the cost and effort in producing, printing and posting them.
Media: Nation.Cymru carried an article on the exhibition and used the video interview Kevin made with Thomas.
Relationship with the Norwegian Church Cardiff Bay – Mike Parkinson
As well as being a member of the society, Mike is a trustee of the Norwegian Church Cardiff Bay (NCCB), the new charity set up to manage the church on a long lease from Cardiff Council. Mike recalled that the trustees had been handed the keys to the building only 18 months ago. The building was empty, the kitchen was not in a functional state, and other equipment was missing. The trustees found start-up capital from three charitable foundations which enabled them to recruit a general manager (Gareth Jones) and re-open the building to the public.
The initial aim was just to survive the very difficult trading conditions being experienced by all arts and hospitality venues post-pandemic. In fact, Gareth had been able to put on public music and comedy events once or twice weekly, and attract bookings to use the venue for weddings and private parties, corporate training and awaydays, Senedd meetings, exhibitions and even filming for TV. These events have helped the church to more than break even during its first year of independent operation. Over the Christmas period, a marquee will again be sited on the outdoor terrace, and will be offered for private parties.
However, the Norsk café operated at a loss. An external catering company was therefore invited to take over its running. The company now runs the kitchen, providing food both for the café and for home delivery services. A profit-sharing arrangement ensures money flows to the Norwegian Church. At the moment the menu is based around burgers, fries and innovative takes on Yorkshire puddings, and this has proved very popular. The caterers plan to introduce more Scandinavian-themed items as they settle in and understand customer demand. Torill suggested they look at the example of the Norwegian café in Harrogate, which offers a Norwegian version of bubble and squeak with sausages.
Now that the church is on a more secure footing, the trustees hope to increase the number of public events reflecting Norwegian and Scandinavian culture. Further funding is being sought from the National Lottery Heritage Fund which would secure the position of heritage officer and enable an education officer to be recruited. A decision is expected soon.
Martin Price informed the meeting that the church building was given Grade 2 listed status in March, even though the building has moved from its original site and been substantially altered. (Purists might take the view that the building really dates from 1991.) This means that Cardiff Council will have to preserve and maintain it.
On behalf of the society, Torill thanked the trustees and staff for all that they had achieved over the first 18 months of operation.
Anne Kirsti asked that the society be allowed to hang a promotional poster in the church so that visitors could learn of its existence.
Future events
On 21 October Thomas will give a presentation in the gallery on trolls. Those with troll models at home are invited to bring them.
On 26 November we will gather to decorate the Christmas tree inside. There will also be two new live trees outside, to replace the large tree which has died.
We will hold the Festival of Light and Friendship on 10 December. In the afternoon, Ingrid Ims from the Seamen’s Mission in London will lead a bilingual service in the church for the first time in a generation. Members with an interest in the arrangements agreed to meet soon to make plans.
We will take a break in January. There was a suggestion to hold a session on learning Norwegian, which might be suitable for February. Tyra mentioned that she has a collection of books in Norwegian. Unfortunately there is no space in the church to create a library but perhaps members would like to consider a book exchange.
Election of new committee
Nick Webb resigned from the committee during the year as he moved away from Wales. Anne Kirsti Rosnæs Kirby and Thomas Husøy-Ciaccia said they would not be standing for re-election, though remained willing to help with events.
Torill Heavens, Craig Williams and Kevin Burden volunteered to serve another year on the committee and were duly re-elected.
Bethan Winter, Shuna Lovering and Alex McDonald volunteered to join the committee and were elected unanimously.
The new committee will be invited to review the nominations that have been received for honorary membership.
Remembering Karen Allen
At the suggestion of the church trustees, the committee has asked our past chair, Tyra Oseng-Rees, a glass artist, to create a plaque to hang in the church to remember Karen Allen, the former manager of the church arts centre when it was in council control and a leading member of the society. Wording has been agreed in English, Welsh and Norwegian. Tyra brought some samples of the recycled glass tiles she makes for members to indicate their preferences.
Any other business
Mike Parkinson noted that the new intake of eight Norwegian students has arrived at Cardiff and the Vale College. They will be staying in halls rather than with families as in previous years. He proposed that the society might like to welcome them and make themselves available to them. His suggestion was warmly agreed.
All business having been completed, the meeting closed at 16:30.
Welsh Norwegian Society 