The Baugenossenschaft Niederberg eG invites its members to this year’s general meeting next Tuesday, June 23 at 6.30 p.m. in the skyroom of the IMS Arena at the Velbert stadium.
Members are asked to bring a medical or FFP2 mask and to use it when entering and leaving the premises and, taking into account the current corona pandemic at the time of the meeting, to have their vaccination or test certificate ready as a precaution.
Only a few corona rules still apply in NRW. Access restrictions for people who are not vaccinated, recovered or tested (e.g. 3G or 2G+) have now been abolished.
Mask requirements and proof of vaccination and tests are only required for a few facilities or when entering from a risk area.
As part of the rental of the Skyroom at the Velbert stadium by the BGN, the BGN can exercise the domiciliary rights within a certain framework and thus determine the access requirements for the general meeting itself.
As a precaution, having proof of a test ready goes beyond the scope of proportionality, especially since there is no differentiation between self-test and PCR test and how old the test has to be.
An unnecessary hurdle that does not necessarily have to arise from the BGN’s duty of care towards its members, but rather acts as a deterrent.
A Corona precautionary measure that is much easier to implement is asking the members to use the option of granting power of attorney, as suggested by the Spar- und Bauverein eG in its invitation to the general meeting, only 4 days later in the Best Western Parkhotel. And participation there only requires an FFP2 or medical mask.
Each cooperative member can represent 2 other cooperative members in the Tuesday meeting. The power of attorney must be granted in writing. There are templates for this on the internet. Handwriting works too.
When all 17 employees of BGN, the 6 members of the supervisory board and the 3 members of the board of directors appear at the meeting, there are already 26 members with voting rights.
If nobody else comes, there will only be unanimous decisions and if fewer come, the 26 votes of the employees, supervisory board members and management board ensure the necessary majority.
This happened at the general meeting on June 25th, 2019.
There it was decided that the employees of the BGN be granted loans for the first purchase of housing and other general loans, as well as salary advances from the assets of the cooperative.
Furthermore, the minutes of the general meeting published in the cooperative register on August 15, 2019 revealed that there had long been guidelines approved by the board of directors and the supervisory board.
The discharge of the supervisory board and board of directors, which had previously taken place in this meeting, was done in ignorance of these events. Incidentally, the last time the Board of Directors was discharged under the chairmanship of Mr. Hoffmann. 5 days later Mr. Hoffmann retired.
Granting loans to employees for the first purchase of living space from the assets of the cooperative contradicts the purpose of the BGN statutes.
On July 7th, 2018, the current CEO Johannknecht made the following statement at a joint press conference with other housing cooperatives:
“One of the main statutory purposes of our cooperatives is to ensure that their members have housing by building new homes.”
That’s right, Mr. Johannknecht. And if there is anything left, the cooperative’s assets must be used to repair and modernize the existing cooperative housing.
Furthermore, the granting of credit from the assets of the cooperative to the employees, board of directors and members of the supervisory board violates the cooperative principle of equal treatment. And everyone who benefits from this resolution should not have voted on it at all.
At this general meeting, the maximum amount of advance payments to the BGN service providers involved in normal trading was also determined by resolution.
This affects, among others, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Kunze, who has placed his law firm at the service of the Management Board as an all-encompassing legal advisor and is acting like the Management Board’s outsourced legal department.
For his honorary work as Chairman of the Supervisory Board, he receives an expense allowance that is determined by the members.
His all-encompassing activities for the board of directors include drafting construction contracts for all new construction measures of BGN in recent years, legal activities in all property matters, as well as representing the board of directors in court and in court in all rental disputes between BGN and its tenants and other contractual partners. He is paid for this by the board of directors.
Members who have concluded a long-term usage contract for a cooperative apartment with the board of directors and who are to exercise their voting rights at the general meeting next Tuesday are not spared from this either.
At the same time, this is intended to express confidence in the Supervisory Board and Management Board for the future.
Obviously, the supervisory board and board of directors believe that announcements in the current “Wohnwert”, the BGN magazine, fulfill their information obligations towards the members.
Under “Henne takes a break” it is explained that the war in the Ukraine has led to delivery bottlenecks and price increases, making it difficult to plan and implement the new building project at Am Hahn/Henne in Langenberg.
In the 2020 annual report of the BGN, the construction volume of the new building is given as 11.3 million euros and shows the already leveled property.
If you want to know what is planned, you will only find it on the website of the architect Friedrich from Velbert.
If you want to know who is responsible for the new building for BGN as a construction company that can do everything from demolition to new construction, you can see an excavator from Crone, the company of the Supervisory Board member Crone, in the photo in “Wohnwert”.
It must be questioned whether a supervisory board, some of which maintains such close and extremely lucrative business relationships with the executive board, can still fulfill its function as a supervisory and control body.
This also applies to the acquisition of a new luxury-class company car (VW ID.4) to supplement the existing BGN vehicle fleet, which is proudly presented in the new “Wohnwert”. Nobody really believes that this vehicle is available to all BGN employees. The board of directors hopes “that those who do not know the BGN will find out just by looking at the advantages that cooperative housing offers”.
I can only see that it is of great advantage for the Chairman of the Board of Management, Johannknecht, to continue to work with the members of the Supervisory Board in a spirit of trust at all levels, because the salary and other benefits, such as a company car, which the Chairman of the Board of Management receives for his work negotiated with the board of directors.
Other members realize that they can wait a long time for charging stations for e-cars to be installed in the cooperative underground garages and parking lots.
But maybe they can use the charging station at the BGN office.
Katharina Schouren
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