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2020 AGM and EGM an online success

Thursday 26th November 2020, 4:39pm


Mountaineering Scotland’s first online AGM took place at the weekend.

The Annual General Meeting and an Extraordinary General Meeting to follow were held on Saturday afternoon using the Zoom platform, and attracted an attendance of 81 members – comparable to or slightly higher than the normal ‘in person’ attendance for previous AGMs – although many more proxy and club votes had been submitted in advance.

Mountaineering Scotland President Brian Shackleton and CEO Stuart Younie hosted the meetings, with introductory remarks before leading through the agenda. The retiring Treasurer, Jennifer Cardno, presented the accounts for the financial year 2019/2020 and answered members' questions.

Votes were managed smoothly via the Zoom polling facility, and members were able to type in questions both during the AGM/EGM and in a Q&A session afterwards.

Membership fees remain unchanged in accordance with the statement made at the 2019 AGM that they would remain fixed for 3 years.

During the meeting members approved the appointment of four new directors: Alistair Todd, as Director for Snowsports and Touring; Hazel Mehan as Director of Finance & Treasurer; Dominic Hall as Director Landscape and Planning, and Ilona Turnbull as Director for Governance, HR & Equalities.

In the EGM which followed it was agreed to reinstate the right of honorary members to speak and vote at meetings – a right which was inadvertently lost in the adoption of the revised Articles of Association in 2019.

The full draft minutes will be published in due course.

Although this was Mountaineering Scotland’s first experience of holding an online AGM, almost everyone was happy with how it went, with 40 out of 45 respondents to a post-meeting survey rating it as good or excellent.

After the meeting the President, Brian Shackleton, said: “In holding the 2020 AGM online, we hope we achieved the balance between running a smooth and efficient meeting whilst providing sufficient time for questions from members. 

“There have been some very helpful and supportive suggestions made by members after the meeting and we will consider these should we have further events in this format – although I have to say I look forward to more traditional AGMs where we can all meet and chat in person.”