Annual General Meeting (AGM)  Guidance for Regional Committees 

The guidance covers: 

• The requirements for your regional AGM 
• Planning your AGM 
• Nominations and elections for your regional committee 
• Conducting your regional AGM (online and offline) 

The following documents and templates are also available:  

• AGM notice (including agenda)  
• Nomination form 
• Proxy form 
• Planning checklist and timeline

What you must do  

Regional groups  must  hold an AGM between 1 October and 30 November each year.  The Regional Charter sets out that  a minimum of 28 clear days notice  of the AGM  must  be given to all members. No decisions  can  be  made at the meeting unless the meeting  is quorate. A quorum is five  members  Beyond this, you can run your AGM and your elections in whichever way suits you best. This guidance aims to make things easier for you should you choose to follow it.   

Planning for your AGM

The more you can plan ahead, the easier  the AGM will be.  Setting the date  and time  for your AGM as  early as possible  gives you more  time  to  communicate  it to your members and to share the tasks  of planning the event  between committee members.   

You will need to consider and organise the venue (if you’re holding the meeting offline), member communications, elections and nominations and presentations/speakers. For the meeting it’s a good idea to share the responsibility of any technical support and you will also need to appoint a minute taker. 

The AGM checklist and timeline has been developed to assist your planning process

Choosing a date,  time,  format and venue (if you’re holding the meeting offline) for the AGM should be your first decisions.   

Identify who will hold officer posts

Next, you need to know how many vacancies you will have on the committee before you invite nominations for elections, so you might want to do this at your last committee meeting before the summer break (if you have  a break).   

You also need to think about who will hold the officer posts in the year ahead.   

The Regional Charter specifies that you  must  have, as a minimum, the following officers:  

• Chair 
• Secretary 
• Treasurer 

It also states that regional committees should  endeavour  to appoint the following roles:  

• Press Officer  
• Membership Development Officer (MDO)
• YRes representative or, if there is no YRes committee in the region, a member with less than 10 years post-qualification experience.  
• Regional Liaison Officer  

Officers are usually  nominated  from amongst the regional committee members, although some regions choose to open up elections to these positions to all of their regional members. You might want to come to an agreement amongst you as to who will hold these officer roles before your AGM and then  elect  the postholders at your AGM.   

What to cover in your AGM

As a minimum, you should  replace any retiring committee members,  elect  in to  any vacant posts on  your  committee and report to your members  on your activities.   

The agenda  should include:  

• Minutes  from the previous AGM   
• The  Chair’s report  for the year  
• The  Treasurer’s report (template download) (your annual accounts)  
• Confirmation/election  of committee members  and officers  

The Treasurer’s  report also needs to be sent to Resolution’s Finance Director. There is no need to vote on  it or on the Chair’s report.  

You may also have resolutions you wish to put before the regional group.  This is unlikely to happen often, and it’s entirely up to you whether you do so or not. Here  is an example  of the kind of resolution you might want to ask members to vote on:  

That Resolution Anytown merge with Resolution  Othertown  to form Resolution  Anytown  and  Othertown  

The AGM Notice

The AGM notice,  including the agenda, and the details of the meeting and candidates standing for election,  can all be sent out by email. 

Template  notice of  the  AGM which includes a template agenda

Elections

The Regional Charter does not specify a maximum or minimum number for the committee, although it does specify which officer roles are  mandatory, which means that you cannot have a functioning committee without covering the three core officer roles: Chair, Treasurer and Secretary.  

The Regional Charter specifies that, at each AGM,  ‘one third of the non-officer members of the committee shall retire from office, and have the right to offer themselves for re-election’.  It makes sense for  the longest-standing  non-officer  members of the committee  to stand down first.  If you all joined at the same time,  you may need to think of another way of selecting your one third of  non-officer  members, this could be based on committee members volunteering or, if necessary, you can create your own guidance or process for this. 

 If any members have been co-opted  by  the regional committee since the last AGM  and  wish to remain on the committee, they  should stand for election.   

 There is no limit to how long a  non-officer  member can serve on the regional committee, but it is good practice to ensure new skills and knowledge are brought onto the committee, so new members should be encouraged to stand.  We recognise  it can be difficult to recruit new members to the committee, which is why there is an option for members who are standing down to offer themselves for re-election.    

Associate members can join regional committees through election  and  co-option.  Both members and associates  can vote at your AGM and take part in elections of committee members and officers.  

You only need to hold an election if there are contested places on your regional committee.   

 So, for example, if you have eight members on your committee, and one third of them stand down, and all want to stand again, you should still invite nominations from members. If  you then have only two nominations from new members, you may decide that having an additional two members on the committee would be desirable, and opt not to hold an election, but rather to confirm the two candidates in post. You can still do this at your AGM by asking people to vote by a show of hands as to whether they confirm the candidates in post.

The Secretary should supervise the elections and you can choose to use whatever election process suits you best.  Different types  of process are suggested below, but do bear in mind that you may not need to hold an election.     

Nominations

You should open up the opportunity to be a committee member to all the  Resolution  members  in your region.  You should give an indication of the expected time commitment  and what  the role involves, an easy way to do this is to share role descriptions.   

Anyone who wants to stand for election should complete a nomination form, and it’s  a good idea to ask members to get another member to nominate them for the regional committee. You should collect contact details on the nomination form  and  their Resolution membership number.  It might also be useful to  ask for a  short statement explaining why they want to stand for election and what they can bring to the role.   

Template nomination form 

There is no need for nominations to be sent in by post – you can receive them by email. If you have a website, you  can provide the nomination form  to download or use a completely online form.   

 Regional members  should  be given enough  time to consider the candidates before they are asked to place their votes, so  ask  candidates  to submit their nominations before the  date you plan to send  out the notification of the AGM. That way, you can send your members details of the candidates at the same time as the notice of the AGM.  It’s helpful to indicate which of the candidates are standing for the first time, and which are asking to be re-elected.  

 For example, if your AGM is on 30 October, you need to send your notice of  the meeting before 2 October, so you might want to give a deadline of 30 September for nominations, to give you time to collate the information ready to send out.   

  All this information can be sent by email.  

Voting

Regional committees can choose how they want to vote for their members.  

The traditional way to vote is to do so  by way of a show of hands  at the  AGM. You might want to give people a piece of paper to hold up to vote, simply because this makes it easier for you to count the number of votes.   

Proxy voting  

If  you do use the AGM for voting for your regional committee, you may want to give  members  who  are unable to attend the AGM but would like to vote,  the ability to  vote by proxy.  

You can choose how to take proxy votes and give members the option to submit their votes via post, email or online form. With any of these options you should make every effort to ensure there is only one vote per member. 

The Regional Secretary is normally appointed  as a proxy, but another committee member can be appointed as a proxy if the Secretary is absent. The proxy form must instruct the proxy how to act – the proxy cannot be given a free vote.   

 You should give a deadline by which proxy votes must be received – we suggest the day before the AGM. 

Proxy form template

Note that you don’t have to offer proxy voting – it’s perfectly  acceptable simply  to  allow  only  those members who attend your AGM  to vote.   

Attendance at your AGM

You only need  five  members  of your region  to attend the AGM for the meeting to be quorate. And we recognise that attracting people to your AGM can be a challenge. But the more people who attend, the more members are informed about what you’re doing  and  what you’re planning  to do.  This is also an opportunity to  hear from  your  members and  find out  what they need from you.   

 As AGM business  is not a universal draw in itself, it’s a good idea to include  the AGM within  a social, networking or training event.  

All committee members should attend, and take responsibility for encouraging the attendance of other members. If each committee member brings along a fellow member, you’ll  double  the attendance.  

Holding your AGM online

Our Articles of Association allow for virtual AGMs so it is possible to hold your AGM online. Your meeting can be entirely virtual or a hybrid meeting where a number of people attend in person with others given the ability to join via video conference. 

Holding an AGM online allows members to participate wherever they are. It offers flexibility in terms of access, attendees save on travel time and cost, and it is better for the environment. It also allows members to keep safe if meeting together is potentially risky. 

You can ensure compliance by completing the following actions:  

• Send out an AGM notice for the meeting advising which format the meeting will take (entirely online or hybrid) 
• Confirm that video conferencing facilities will be available and give access details for the video conference 
• Clarify how voting will take place 

Attendees can vote and participate online. Most video conference platforms allow for comments, Q&A, online voting and polls while the meeting takes place.  

For votes you can use a proxy form and inform members that votes will only be taken by proxy or you can use online voting as long as you can ensure that only Resolution members from your region are able to vote.  

If you do invite non–members to your AGM you must make it clear they cannot vote. On Zoom you can use the waiting room feature to verify who is in the room or take registration through Eventbrite or  Zoom using the webinar setting. 

Resolution’s central office uses Zoom for online meetings and can support you with your online event if you send in a query by email. For extensive guidance on using Zoom see their online resources.

Whatever method you choose, schedule a run-through of your presentation a few days before your AGM to make sure everything works as planned.  

With online meetings you can save the chat as a log, generate a list of attendees, report on votes and record the session to share with members who were unable to attend. 

Team Roles  

Just as with physical meetings online AGMs are a team effort. Here are some of the additional roles which can help the event run smoothly:

• Tech Support – to monitor the chat, to launch voting or polls, to launch a presentation and screenshare and answer any technical questions attendees have. You may need more than one person for this. 
• Document dropper – although documentation should be sent ahead of time it’s a good idea to make it available during the meeting. Additionally, if website links or other information are mentioned at the meeting these can also be shared instantly by the document dropper too. 

Communicating with members about your AGM

Use all channels available such as direct emails, social media and your website to let members know about your AGM and to keep them updated about the process of nominations and elections. Schedule reminders as the event gets closer you can even send a reminder the day before and on the day of the meeting. 

Along with the notice of the AGM do not forget to send your members key documents like your Annual Report and the minutes from last year. 

For online AGMs share information about technical aspects (how to connect to the meeting and what to do in case of technical problems). 

Conducting the meeting

The Secretary should call the meeting to order and the Chair can then work through the agenda. For online AGMs it’s a good idea to ensure before you start to explain to attendees how to write in chat, ask questions, get technical support and vote. If you are voting  for  officer or non-officer  members of the committee  at your AGM, you might want to  ask candidates to leave the room for this item – they can then be told the results immediately after the vote.   

 It’s good practice to leave some time at the end of the meeting to invite members to ask questions and make comments.   

After the meeting

The Secretary should make sure brief minutes are made of the meeting and that regional members are informed of the outcome of any elections and of any changes to the officers.  This is a good opportunity to let your members know what you do for them and to invite them once again to take part in the running of the region.   

 You should let Resolution’s membership services team know the names and contact details of  all members  of the Regional Committee following the AGM.   

 Finally, you need to induct any new members to your committee and make them feel welcome.   

 To update your committee details, forward your treasurer’s report, ask for support holding your meeting via Zoom or if you have any questions about conducting your AGM, or about your obligations more generally as a regional committee member, please contact:  info@resolution.org.uk. 

 Good luck!