The Chairman’s year in review

It would be impossible to look back on 2022 without first strongly condemning Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine, praising the heroism of the Ukrainian people, and noting that the war has not only led Finland and Sweden to apply for NATO membership, but also resulted in increased crisis preparedness within SLS.

In addition to updating its action plan for the measures it will take in the event of a serious social crisis, the war accelerated the decision by SLS to digitalise the literary society’s most culturally and historically valuable archival material. Another notable event was the decision to lend a number of the rental housing units in Helsinki that the society has at its disposal to Ukrainian refugees. This was done on the initiative of our CEO Dag Wallgren.

In the spring of 2022, Wallgren announced his decision to resign from the position that he has held with great success since 2008. During Wallgren’s 14 years in charge, the society has undergone extensive modernisation. In part, this was prompted by the fact that SLS’s excellently handled asset management steadily increased the available resources and scope of the society’s activities and ventures. But a noticeable part of the organisational reforms and strategic decisions made by the society’s highest body was explicitly rooted in Wallgren’s ability to design, execute and complete complicated wholes.

The change of CEO involved an intensive hiring process including several rounds of interviews led by the society’s treasurer Johan Aalto, and resulted in the election of Björn Teir, M.Sc. in Political Science, who took up his new position on 1 November. As a former chairperson of the Board of the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland and a sitting member of SLS’s Financial Board, Teir is already well-versed in SLS’s asset management. However, it is important to point out that as soon as the preparation of the CEO election began within the Financial Board, he announced his interest in the position and completely recused himself from the entire process.

Another extremely important decision for the society’s development was made at the annual meeting in April 2022. At the meeting, the provision for the appointment of a Nominating Committee was introduced into the statutes. This committee is tasked with submitting proposals prior to each annual meeting for persons it deems appropriate to be elected as members of the society’s Scholarly and Financial Boards. Professor Emeritus Nils Erik Villstrand (Chair), former treasurer Ole Johansson, the society’s current treasurer Johan Aalto, and Ann-Catrin Östman, a member of the society’s Scholarly Board, were elected as members of the Nominating Committee until the annual meeting in 2023.

The purpose of this reform is to make the nomination process more systematic and transparent, as well as to ensure that SLS’s highest decision-making body maintains the right expertise, sufficient diversity, and capacity for renewal.

There are many reasons to hope that the reform will have the desired effect. Over the past 20 years, SLS has developed into both an influential funding body and initiator of humanities and social sciences research, both nationally and in the Nordic region at large. Our archival and publishing activities are widely lauded, and our systematic cooperation with other memorial organisations and cultural institutions has also increased noticeably. All this means that the SLS now shoulders such considerable scholarly and cultural responsibility that its highest decision-making body must be able to manage and improve the society as wisely and open-mindedly as possible.

Henrik Meinander