Can AGMs ever be useful and fun?

[Dave Watterson]

Thinking about the IAC AGM coming up soon I began to wonder ...

The IAC like most of its member clubs surrounds its AGM with events designed to attract people. The assumption is that the formal business of an AGM is boring. Accepting that we do need such additional "bribes" to make us attend, how can AGMs themselves be made more interesting?

In theory they are when we choose who will lead our organisation, thank officers if we approve of their work or complain if we don't. They are when we find out how the finances are going. They are our chance to demonstrate that we (the members) are the ultimate authority and power.

How could they be made interesting enough to keep us awake?

Dave

[Stephen]

Good thread Dave............. hope peeps are as vocal here as they are at some AGM's I've attended in the past !!

Unfortunatley AGM's must take place as it is a legal obligation with some organisations. All members must be given an invitation to attend and in good time prior to the meeting. But that said....oh dear...... some of the AGMs attended I have lost the will to live !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Personally I have found in the past that they tend to end up as a one-upmanship game for certain members (this is my experience outside of my own club!!!!) but I do feel that :

a. It is a way to communicate the performance of the members' club/group and a 2 way process to effect change.

b. not all members turn up (what message is that sending to the committee?) but those that don't turn up tend to complain throughout the year!!

b. Peeps that make a big fuss over something trivial usually end up not helping out or contributing directly to the running of club/group events

c. Personally I would do away with them, (the AGM ! not the members... ooeer hang on ...no I jest !)
the committee is elected as seen fit by the membership (as long the quorum rules are adhered to)

It all seems an antiquated method of dealing with the running of the club/group but unfortunately a necessary evil at present...

the quicker an AGM is dealt with the better...
a well chaired AGM can be less painfully mind numbing boring
so, keep it short ... which should leave enough time to have a few beers afterwards!

using the many new electronic forms of communication, keeping the members up to date in well run club/group which includes that good old TALKING to peeps face to face !!!!! should keep an AGM to its absolute minimum..

[Derek Mathieson]

Hi Dave & Stephen....don't forget we are a charity and as such our AGM is a statutory requirement. The last two I have been to were very simple affairs and over quickly. At least at Milton Keynes, we have the Techie guys there to keep us informed/entertained or maybe even amused.

[Brian Saberton]

In my experience the IAC AGM is a model of clarity and brevity and usually done and dusted in half an hour. After the AGM members voices is an excellent forum for members to raise constructive issues and concerns.

In SAM in recent years we usually get the formal bit of the AGM over very quickly, usually under the half hour, which leaves the rest of the afternoon free to present the awards and see again the winning films from the various competitions.

I think it tends to be at club level where the AGM's can get overlong and boring and I think this is sometimes due either to an inexperienced chair or the fact that they tend to be be allocated a whole evening so you can end up with a bit of a vacuuum that is often filled by the moaning minnies who like to stir things up just for the sake of it (and are usually hiding when there is work to be done).

When you think about it as long as you have a good committee and members are kept informed in what is being organised on their behalf all you really need to do at an AGM is approve the reports by the Chair and Secretary etc, approve the accounts, appoint office bearers and auditors and deal with any rule or constitution changes none of which needs to take all that long. I don't think there is really any way to make these things interesting and we just have to admit that, yes in the great scheme of things, AGM's are by definition boring but a good chair can get the business conducted in as short a time as possible and then move on to more interesting things.

[Dave Watterson]

Actually as IAC is both a limited company and a charity it is doubly required to have an AGM ... but my question was about how to make them less dull, how to involve people more.

Derek, you know finances like the rest of us know sandwiches. You, no doubt, make sense of the accounts presented and would also know how to phrase a question about them. The rest of us are baffled and intimidated. Yet it is OUR money that is being spent.

Officers present reports and usually invite questions ... how much better if the reports were published previously so that they could be considered and any questions could be planned?

Brian, Members' Voices IS a very useful extension of the event. The advantage is that it is not part of the formal meeting, it follows afterwards. That means people feel less nervous about speaking. It does allow the airing of ideas which may or may not be taken up by the newly elected officers.

A problem inevitable in our movement is that since committee members work as volunteers no one wants to offer any more than the faintest criticism. How often have you attended - say a club AGM - knowing that a group of members is fuming about something, only to find no one gives voice to it?

We are a visual movement, should we use slides, video, film to make presentations?

Should one officer or another be chosen each year for a "roasting" where we encourage people to criticise any aspect of their job great or small?

Should we randomly select a member of the audience to be co-opted to the committee for a year?

Ideas?

Dave

[Brian Saberton]

Sorry Dave but I don't think having a roasting of committee members will be very helpful. It's hard enough to get people to come onto committees as it is and something like that will just put people off. Criticism is all very fine and healthy as long as it is fair and constructive but all too often it is just ill-informed and negative, made by people who sit on the side-lines rather than getting involved in actually doing something to help. I once saw at first hand a hard working, honest and well intentioned office bearer brought to the point of resignation by the aggresive actions of one individual raising spurious and hostile criticisms at an AGM.

Using graphics to illustrate such things as how a clubs finances are doing is a good idea but a bit dependent on the treasurer being as good at doing presentations as book-keeping. It makes good sense to publish reports, accounts and minutes of the last AGM in advance and I think this should be standard practice in all clubs and organisations. Another thing that clubs could be better at, and something that can forestall potential distrust, is to make minutes of committee meetings available for all members to see as soon as they have been approved yet I wonder how many do this? I still don't think it's possible to make AGM's particularly exciting, they are, after all business meetings, but at least clubs can make sure that members are kept well informed and that everything is done in a transparent way.

[Dave Watterson]

I once saw at first hand a hard working, honest and well intentioned office bearer brought to the point of resignation by the aggresive actions of one individual raising spurious and hostile criticisms at an AGM.

A good point, Brian. I had in mind a light-hearted "roasting" in the American model ... but you are right it could go badly wrong.

-Dave