On Saturday 5 December, we held our annual general meeting (AGM). For the first time, this was entirely virtual, via Zoom! Everything went smoothly and our team behind the scenes did a fantastic job to make sure of that.
The session covered a review of the past year, and the results of voting on resolutions and Trustee elections. This year included regular items such as appointing our auditors and receiving the 2019 Annual Report and Accounts.
Membership offer
As previously communicated, members were voting on whether to adopt a new ‘Articles of Association’ (our constitution) as part of the legal changes to our membership model at this year’s AGM.
Success
We’re pleased to announce that members voted in favour of this special resolution. The resolution needed at least 75% of the votes cast to be in favour of it in order to be passed. We are pleased to say that out of all votes received, 94.66% supported the resolution.
We wanted to change the legal status of membership so Trustees and Council Members are the sole legal members. It means existing members will no longer be members of the charitable company under Company Law, but all members will still have the right to vote by being part of an electorate - where they can vote in elections for the majority of trustee positions.
The change gives the Board more flexibility in future years to address issues such as gaps in Trustee diversity or specific skills by co-opting people to join the Board. The new legal structure will also allow for more efficient governance of our organisation.
The overall aim of these changes is to ensure we’re reaching and engaging with our community on subjects that matter to them. It will help us to further grow our membership and reach many more people living with MS.
What does this mean for our members?
While members won’t have legal responsibility anymore those who are interested in our governance will still be able to elect new trustees as part of our electorate.
Under the new offer, membership will be free. But anyone that wants a printed edition of MS Matters can subscribe for £5. The magazine will still be free online.
They can enjoy a more tailored membership offer - it will include a new area of our main website where people can choose the information they receive about MS and the work of the organisation.
What does this mean for our local groups?
Currently, membership subscriptions go directly to our local groups and we have agreed to safeguard this source of income for the next three years. We’ll also explore ways to make it easier for people to donate directly to their local group via group pages on the website.
Group Coordinators were briefed on what the changes mean for them on a Zoom session before the AGM, and will be provided with a toolkit once the changes go live in January.
Trustees
The new model will also reduce the number of elected Trustees to eight, giving the Board the opportunity to co-opt up to three Trustees (as well as appointing the Chair and Treasurer). Enabling our Trustees to appoint a sufficient proportion of the Board will ensure they have the breadth and balance of skills, experience and diversity required to effectively govern a charity, which can’t always be achieved through elections.
Our new trustees
This year’s AGM also saw trustee elections take place. There were five vacant positions available this year. We’re pleased to announce that the following three candidates were newly elected to the Board:
- Ady Dike
- Anthony Upshall
- Shewly Choudhury
While two of our existing trustees were also re-elected for their second terms:
- Sarah Schol (who is also our Vice Chair)
- Marion King (who is also a member of our Audit, Risk and Finance Committee)
The elections have had a positive impact on the diversity of our Board, and you’ll hear more about our new trustees in the New Year once they have taken up their roles from 1 January.
What’s next?
Now the Articles of Association have been voted in favour, we’ll transition to the new model in January 2021.
