This was adopted in the Assembly of Representatives

18. July, 2023

By: Berit H. Nilsen - Photo: BCC

The notice and agenda were approved, with Berit Hustad Nilsen as chair of the meeting and Trond Eivind Johnsen as the recorder. Three participants were selected to sign the minutes.

The meeting took place at the Oslofjord Convention Center. Out of the 188 elected representatives, 163 were present. In addition, over 300 observers from various countries participated.

Here is a summary of the key resolutions made.

Agenda – ordinary meeting of the Assembly of Representatives 2023:

Item 01 Opening of the meeting, election of chairperson, approval of notice and agenda, appointment of representatives to sign the minutes
Item 02 Consolidated financial statements and annual report for the BCC Federation
Item 03 Appointment of auditor
Item 04 Revised budget for 2023
Item 05 Budget and business plan for the BCC Federation 2024
Item 06 Election of representatives outside Norway for the upcoming term
Item 07 Next phase in the donation model
Item 08 Establishment of IT committee
Item 09 Establishment of a new joint initiative and election of board
Item 10 Extension of the deadline for joining
Item 11 Election of board member
Item 12 Reports from the committees of the BCC Federation

Consolidated financial statements and annual report

The organizations within the BCC Federation are autonomous and submit their own financial statements, but the BCC Federation has prepared consolidated financial statements that document the comprehensive activities of the federation and joint initiatives.

This was presented at the meeting and approved along with the auditor’s report.

Read the annual report and consolidated financial statements here.

Revision of the budget for the current year

A revision of the budget for 2023 was made with several cost-reducing measures at an extraordinary meeting of the Assembly of Representatives in April. The Assembly of Representatives resolved at the regular meeting that the local churches are requested to contribute an extraordinary gift equivalent to 1% of their members’ gross income for the current year. This entails a budget increase of approximately 45 MNOK.

A significant portion of this was allocated by the Assembly of Representatives to increase the subsidy to BCC Event for the development of voluntary work in the current year.

The Assembly of Representatives resolved to grant a subsidy of 7 MNOK to Brunstad Youth Club for a content project on the history of Christianity in the context of Brunstad Christian Church.

Budget and business plan for 2024

The operations budget, budget notes, and business plan for the central organization were presented and supported by the Assembly of Representatives. Similarly, the corresponding documents were presented for most joint initiatives.

For the consolidated operations budget for 2024, the Assembly of Representatives adopted the following:

Total funds acquired for operations: approximately 392 MNOK
Operations surplus: approximately 40 MNOK
Net cash flow, positive: approximately 10.5 MNOK

For the BCC Federation, the central organization, the following budget was adopted:

Total funds acquired for operations: approximately 330 MNOK
Operations surplus: approximately 9 MNOK
General subsidies are granted to the following entities, based on the operational plan and budgets:
– BCC Media 33.6 MNOK
– BMS International 5.9 MNOK
– Skjulte Skatters Forlag 1 MNOK
– An allocation of approximately 197 MNOK is made for subsidies to other organizations. The final distribution and approval of subsidies for these will be made at a later meeting of the Assembly of Representatives.

Next phase in the donation model

At last year’s ordinary meeting of the Assembly of Representatives, a resolution was passed to introduce an ability-based donation model in the BCC Federation. This means that members over 26 years old give a percentage of their gross income as a donation to their local church. At the same time, it was resolved that the model would be further evaluated to make necessary and desired adjustments.

The Assembly of Representatives, local churches, the Board of Elders, the Finance Committee, and the task force for the donation model received the result of the evaluation for consultation in May 2023. A total of 26 responses were received. The most significant comments were reviewed during the meeting.

The Assembly of Representatives decided to continue with the ability-based donation model but made some adjustments for the upcoming year.

Selection of Auditor

After using the same auditing firm since 2014, this year, offers were obtained from several auditing firms. In the meeting, the Assembly of Representatives chose Revisorkonsult AS as the new auditor for the central association and joint ventures within the BCC Federation. PwC has been the auditor for BCC since 2014, and throughout this period, there has been a highly successful collaboration with their auditing team, resulting in consistently clean audit reports for BCC.

From the committees

The Assembly of Representatives has established several committees in which volunteers contribute in various areas of expertise. Each committee presented its report, plan, or provided information about their work.