The windmill held its annual meeting on January 30^th at the town hall. Shaun gave a presentation on the financial position of the organization followed by a review of 2023 and everything we accomplished last year. We’re hopeful we can build on the year we’ve had and enter a new era of prosperity for the windmill and community, but as attendees learned, we still have a lot of work to do. If you missed the annual meeting, it is available on our YouTube channel for viewing. We want to thank all of those who joined us in support for the evening. We also want to thank Chad Juelsgaard for his service to the Board of Directors. Finally, please join us in welcoming Nicole Butler onto the Board. She will assume the office of treasurer for 2024. If you wish to be considered for the Board of Directors in 2025, please get in touch with Bill Rollins or Joanne Greving.

A lot of information about the windmill was given at the annual meeting, including two big announcements that we are excited about this year. The first is our new digital Welcome Center station is ready. To supplement the Chromebook we obtained via grant for travelers last year, we have added a full desk with community brochures and literature in addition to a TV that displays local business hours, weather, upcoming events, and whatever else we want to put on it. Later this year we will add a “social media wall” which will allow visitors to upload photos they take of themselves or the windmill onto the TV using our hashtags. This is a trending business tool right now that will generate both exciting engagement and free advertising for our organization.

The second bit of news is even more thrilling. We’ve signed an agreement with Midwest Pano to produce a full virtual tour of our windmill. If you are familiar with Google street-view, the interface is very similar. Users will be able to explore the entire windmill, view everything inside in high-resolution detail, and even interact with digital engagement buttons we can customize the tour with. The tour will also include our outdoor exhibits, allowing far-flung visitors to take in our entire complex from the comfort of home. We believe this will be a monumental resource for us, not just as a membership benefit, but also as a means to draw additional tour revenue from people unlikely to visit us in person. Expect more announcements on this as we get closer to launch. We will be having the imaging done once the weather is nicer and our complex is green again.

A final piece of information that we would like to share regarding the annual meeting, is that we are actively encouraging people to attend. This event is held once a year, as required by our by-laws, and it is an easy opportunity to learn about what we’re up to and the help we need. We are doing everything we can to grow and keep everything running, but the challenges of outpacing our operating expenses are mounting. We need all the help we can get, and it doesn’t have to be just donations. We are inviting community members to explore our volunteering opportunities including giving tours, helping us digitize archival materials, and even running the windmill! Just contact us at the windmill to learn more or visit our volunteer page at danishwindmill.org.

In the meantime, we’re excited to be participating in a community hygge evening again. Come down to the windmill and see all of our sales. If you would like an annual report from the meeting, we have plenty of copies left at the windmill.

Click this link to view the annual meeting presentations. This was our first time doing this and Shaun ended up out of frame after we adjusted the camera, but we will keep recording these meetings going forward: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP-46-YOT-k