I hope that people are now receiving their copies of the News which went to the Royal Mail depot in Leeds on Monday. If you have, you will see the announcements about alternative arrangements for the AGM which we had planned to hold at Narrow Gauge South in April.
The purpose of the Annual General Meeting is for Members to receive reports on what is happening and to be able to hold the committee to account for their actions and plans. The other side of the issue is that our Articles of Association require us to hold the AGM in the second quarter of each year. In the current circumstances we simply cannot do both these things, so a choice had to be made and we have chosen to go for a 'postal AGM' in the second quarter rather than postpone the AGM to a date we cannot currently foresee.
Members will receive the Committee reports and the Accounts with the June 009 News. There is also a voting slip which we ask you to return, either by post or by scanning and emailing to the Secretary by Saturday 20th June. Please do this (but only once!) even though there are no contested items on the agenda - we have a minimum number we have to exceed. Furthermore if you have any questions arising from the reports and/or accounts, please send them in by post or email (with your membership number). The committee will meet by telephone on 27th June to conduct the AGM's business and then report back to you.
In this way we believe we can fulfil the legal requirements of the AGM, or, at the very least, demonstrate our 'best endeavours' to do so under the prevailing circumstances. However, this doesn't fully give the membership the chance to question the committee, so we plan to hold an EGM for this purpose, as and when we are able to do so, attached to a recognised modelling event like a big open day or specialist show.
Some of you are perhaps wondering why we did not go for a virtual AGM using video conferencing. We thought about this option carefully, but felt it automatically disenfranchised too many members for whom electronic communication remains difficult or impossible. With the postal AGM every member is treated the same.
I hope the above gives a little more background to why we are doing what we are doing. In these unusual times, normal procedures become unworkable and we have to work in what we believe are the best interests of the Society.
Regards, Julian Evison
Chairman