DWARS is moving!

We are pleased to announce that in 2020 DWARS will move with GroenLinks to new premises. This new location, located at Sint Jacobsstraat 12 in Utrecht, is larger, more environmentally friendly and better accessible than our current premises.

The space that DWARS will use with our boardroom, however, will not be occupied until later in the year than GroenLinks's new office. As the current premises have now been sold, an interim solution is being sought for the first half of 2020. This will mean that the national board will rent temporary office space at an external location during this period. Committee meetings are likely to take place at GroenLinks's office. A plan for this temporary situation is currently still being worked on, so we hope to tell you more about this soon.

However, there is also a downside to the move. In recent years, DWARS paid GroenLinks an annual rent of €10,000. This amount is much lower than the actual costs GroenLinks incurs for us. In addition, GroenLinks currently provides several services to DWARS that are not passed on. These include things like membership administration, financial administration and ICT. With the move, GroenLinks wants to start charging a substantially higher rent, more in proportion to the costs they incur. They also want to charge for other services.

Initially, the contribution that GroenLinks requested from DWARS was much higher than we could pay. We entered into discussions with GroenLinks about the amount, and after several conversations we arrived at a figure of around €51,700 per year. This is still a lot of money, but as a board we believe this offer is the best option we have right now. Among other things, this location offers a lot of rooms for meetings, which we would not be able to get at an external party. Also, rent at another location would not be cheaper, and the additional property management would increase the board's workload. Besides, even with our own premises, we would still pay a contribution to GroenLinks for the other services.

The increase in our contribution to GroenLinks will mean a sharp rise in our expenses, which will mean a significant drain on our reserves in the coming years. There will also be cutbacks, which will mean less money available for certain activities. This will also limit the scope for new, expensive plans in the coming years.

All in all, many things will change in our organisation in 2020. We understand that there will be many questions following this post, and we would like to answer them as much as possible. However, at the moment there are some things that are not yet clear or not yet decided. At the winter conference, we hope to be able to tell you more in any case. There will then also be a separate account of the plans, and of the process leading up to them. We hope to see you all there!

Board DWARS 2019/2020
Wouter Ubbink
Lotte Meerhoff
Oscar Jansen
Ahmet Kargin
Miriam Shaw
Joëlle Canisius
Casey Disco