Finland House Society
Finland House Society (FHS) is a charitable organization formed to act as an umbrella organization to help manage (together with other Scandinavian House Societies) the Scandinavian Community Centre.
The Centre serves as a place where Finnish culture and events can be showcased and is the home of both the Finland House Society and Vancouver Finlandia Club. Finland House Society (FHS) is an umbrella organization to which the Vancouver Finlandia club belongs.
According to the VFC History Book, VFC was approached by local Swedish and Norwegian groups to join them to purchase the centre from the Norwegian government. It was decided that the house entities needed to be charitable organizations. However, VFC was not willing to change its constitution. So, to make it work and aslo invite other local Finnish organizations to join VFC at the centre – The FHS was established in 1996 to serve as the link between the Scandinavian Centre and the Vancouver Finlandia Club. The FHS interacts with the Scandinavian Community Centre’s Board of Directors (which has representatives from each of Houses at the Centre) to manage and maintain the Scandinavian Community Centre.
Finland House Society (FHS) is a registered charitable organization, and awards scholarships and bursaries to students of Finnish descent, organizes the annual Itsenäisyyspäivä (Finnish Independence Day) dinner on December 6th, and represents Finland on the Scandinavian Midsummer Festival Committee to help organize the annual festival.
Finland house Society and Vancouver Finlandia Club work together to provide events, entertainment, and programming that the people of Greater Vancouver and further afield can enjoy.
FHS represents all its member organizations (not just VFC) on the Scandinavian Community Centre Society (SCCS) board and as such bears financial responsibility for any capital expenditures and repairs and maintenance of the Centre.