AGM 2020 Under Lockdown

This wasn’t your usual Ecology Building Society AGM and Members’ Meet-up. Normally our AGM is a highlight of our calendar and an opportunity for members to meet the Ecology team and hear how we’re building a sustainable future.

This year’s meeting was a very different, scaled down meeting so we could protect members and colleagues while adhering to the Government’s social distancing requirements.

As a result we didn’t open our doors to members on the day of the AGM and the meeting was held in our Silsden offices with just a handful of our eligible colleague members (who were due to be in the office to maintain our essential services) joining the meeting and most of our Board directors ‘attending’ by video conference. Members could still get involved by pre-submitting questions for the Board.

The Society’s Rules on the meeting quorum required us to adjourn the AGM in the morning and reconvene later that same day with those colleague members who were present in order to allow the AGM to proceed. Steve Round, Chair of Ecology, was unable to attend the meeting in person. Given this, the Directors present elected Paul Ellis, Chief Executive, to chair the meeting.

The AGM presentation is here with the results of the AGM voting below. You can also read the Chair’s opening and closing remarks. All the resolutions were passed based on the votes received by members online and by post including the election of Louise Pryor and Kerry Jean Mashford, who we welcomed to the Board as non-executive Directors, as well as the election of Amanda Chambers as Finance Director.

Thanks to all our members who recognised and respected our decision to hold the meeting in this way as well as taking the opportunity to vote and submit questions. The responses to the ‘Ask the Directors’ questions are detailed here.

Your AGM voting raised £550 for environmental charity Trees for Cities. We donate 50p for every vote cast online (20p for voting by post).

As a democratic ethical finance pioneer, we’re powered by our members. Our AGM usually provides an opportunity for members to shape the future of the Society. We welcome your feedback as well as hearing your ideas on how we can raise the bar on delivering our ecological mission. Given this we’re seeking other opportunities to enable members to engage with us in the coming months. If possible, we intend to hold a Members’ Meet-up later this year as well as considering how members can join us to celebrate our 40-year anniversary in 2021.

The voting results are as follows:

		For	For %	Against	Withheld
1	To receive the Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2019	1339	97.81%	10	20
2	To appoint BDO LLP as auditors	1301	95.03%	39	29
3	To approve the Directors' Remuneration Report	1239	90.50%	80	50
4(i)	To elect Amanda Louise Chambers	1306	95.40%	33	30
4(ii)	To elect Kerry Jean Mashford	1302	95.11%	38	29
4(iii)	To re-elect Timothy David Morgan	1278	93.35%	54	37
4(iv)	To re-elect Christopher Jon Newman	1293	94.45%	44	32
4(v)	To elect Louise Margaret Pryor	1298	94.81%	38	33