Nordic Light Rail Association

Call for NLRA-General Meeting on Sunday, 1^th October 2023 at 18:00 – that is the day before “Light Rail Day”

We hereby invite to all members to our General Meeting on Sunday, 1^th October 2023 at 18:00 – that is the day before “Light Rail Day”.  The meeting will take place in the First Hotel Grand, Jernbanegade 18, 5000 Odense C, Denmark. Those Members who are not able to attend in person will have the opportunity to join the Zoom meeting online. Please use the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83607872515?pwd=ZXBwQmJFY0VVaFhCWEY1T1dBN3FpZz09

Agenda:

1. Election of meeting leader (ordstyrer)
2. Election of voice counters
3. Election of referent
4. Board’s/Chairman's report
5. Approval of accounts. For accounts 2022 and Budget 2024, see attachments below.
6. Consideration of proposals

The Board suggest changes in the bylaws. The most important change is, that there will be no longer a difference between passive and active members. By adopting the suggested changes there will only be members. Supporting members like companies and personal members have one vote. If a member pays a higher membership, this member still has one vote like all others. The board used the opportunity to suggest other minor changes, like at which time the membership invoice should be sent, new address, and a more precise description of the rapport of the general meeting. Please note, that the Danish version of the Bylaws is the valued one and the English version serve only as a recommended feature. The Nordic Light Rail Association is an association governed exclusively by Danish law. During the general meeting, the Danish version of the statute is put to the vote. See attachment below.

7. Determination of membership fee
The board suggests changes to existing membership fees. We need better funding for our activities. Nothing changes for personal members. But companies and organizations can voluntarily pay a higher membership fee. This is the suggestion:

Personal member (individuals only)
Payment during the second half of the year also grants membership for personal members for the entire following year. This rule does not apply for Support members.
The membership fee is 500 DKK (ca. 68,- €) per year.
Personal member with reduced membership fee (individuals only) - 150 DKK (ca. 20 €)

Amount per year (Support Member)
Company, authority support member (companies, authorities and organisations only)
1500 DKK (ca. 200 €)/ year (≤ 5 employees) – minimum fee
3000 DKK (ca. 400 €) / year (6 – 20 employees) – minimum fee
5000 DKK (ca. 670 €) / year (>20 employees) – minimum fee
15.000 DKK (ca. 2.000 €) /year (voluntary support) -NEW
20.000 DKK (ca. 2.690 €) /year (voluntary support) - NEW

8. Election of members and alternative members to the Board.
Michael Borre (Aarhus Letbane), Peter Boje, Heidi Heikkilä, Thomas Lange and Thomas J. Potter stand to election for the board for 2 years. These candidates are ready to accept a place on the board.

9. Election of auditor and alternate auditor. Auditors do not have to be members of the association.

10. Optionally (Eventuelt).

Chairman’s Report
In 2023, the NLRA continued to develop, but there were also setbacks. For years, the members had wished for a study trip to France. This could be offered in 2023 with an attractive program. Our contacts in Paris and Lyon had prepared our arrival well. However, all the work was in vain because the trip had to be cancelled due to a lack of participants. It was the first time that a study trip did not take place. For 2024 we want to offer a study trip to Finland in the second half of the year after the INNOTRANS trade fair.

The association is now working for the second year with an economic system. The onboarding was hard work, but now the accounting tasks are getting easier. Our assistant Anastasiia is doing a good job. The workload for the chairman is still high and the association can only carry out further activities if we can pay for working hours. Among other things, we would like to establish the requested "predictive maintenance" working group. If you know someone who can do this job for us, we'd love to hear about it.

Anastasiia takes care about the NLRA-Webinars. She has a good success, but it also means a lot of working hours. It is not easy to go from a general willingness to a specific appointment for a lecture. Our next webinar program will be released in autumn and we need more lectures for 7.11.23 – December date not fixed jet – 18.1.24 – 20.2.24 and 14.3.24. Mark your calendar for these free events. Lectures about Light Rail simulation, new projects and mobility are already booked. But we still need more lectures. If you want to give a speech, please contact Anastasiia - ap(at)lightrailday.com

In our mentor program for young people, unfortunately, nobody applied for a scholarship in 2023.

In June 2023 the “Nordic Light Rail Association” held its first workshop  "Ice on overhead catenary and energy consumption" at Aarhus Letbane in Denmark. Promoting international cooperation between tramway owners and operators is one of the most important goals of the www.nlra.dk. 24 participants from 5 different countries and 10 different owners and operators had signed up for the workshop and many experiences have been exchanged. The next meeting will be in the start of December, where the NLRA will follow an invitation of the traffic company VGF in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. Travel day will be the 4^th of December, where we will start with a visit of Christmas market in Frankfurt in the evening. 5^th December will be the meeting and home travel later same day.  If you have interest in this group, please contact Anastasiia: ap(at)lightrailday.com.

The NLRA is pursuing a better cooperation with VDV in Cologne/Germany. The VDV gathers the traffic companies in Germany and other countries and is active on a European level. VDV has already supported the start of the first working group. We would like to extend this collaboration. But no specific appointments have been made yet.

The NLRA – Nordic Light Rail Association board has decided to honour Reinhold Schröter (Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen) with the Nordic Light Rail Prize in the second degree. Reinhold is awarded this prize for his generous and long-standing support of tram systems in the Nordic Countries. His personal commitment and enthusiasm have helped in the development of light rail systems throughout the Nordic countries. Tom Potter from Bergen will give the laudation during the “Light Rail Day” conference – the day after the general meeting.

Looking to 2024 we have following on the task list:

• Looking for a new scholar. If you know a student working on a tramway project in the Nordics, please contact us.
• Continue with our webinars.
• Offering a Study Trip to Finland.
• Outsourcing of some office work to increase our activity level.
• Try to convince more cities and traffic companies for more collaboration on an international Nordic level.
• Have our eyes open for a possible new receiver of the Nordic Light Rail Prize. That could also be organisation or company. 

Copenhagen, 14^th August 2023

Bernd Reuß, Chairman

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