Date: Fri, 24 Feb 1995 23:41:59 +0100
From: berts@xs4all.nl (Bert Schuur)

Dutch Gay and Lesbian organisation holds annual congress

On Saturday 26 of november the National Dutch gay movement COC-N.V.I.H.
will hold its annual congress in the provincial town of Zwolle. During
the one-day congress some 140 representatives of local COC-chapters from
all over the country will mainly discuss subjects related to internal affairs
of the COC itself. Subjects covered are expected to be a possible reform of
the financial structure of the organisation, the question of whether the
partner of a member should get a discount on his or her (or their?)
membership fee and the (re-)election of several members of the national
board of the COC, among who will be chairman Cees van Wijk. Questions
are also expected concerning the conditions under which a loan of
DFL 50,000.- (US$ 28,000.-) was given to the (now bankrupt)
Europride-organisation.
Although next saturday's congress will mainly be dealing with internal
matters some discussion is expected around the fact that a number of
people feel the organisation does not promote itself actively enough in the
media and doesn't seem to be able to shake off the image of being bureaucratic
and somewhat stuffy. Next year's congress will be dealing with
policy-making again.


Bert Schuur