Annual general meeting in Southampton postponed

Due to ongoing coronavirus concerns and official social distancing restrictions, the IBMT Executive Committee has decided to postpone this year’s Annual General Meeting, which was scheduled to take place in Southampton on 10 October.

Instead, a shortened meeting will be held on 20 March next year, coinciding with the Trust’s annual Len Crome Memorial Conference in Edinburgh.

The postponement decision was reached late in August, with Trustees agreeing that members’ health and safety had to be prioritised. It was also felt that many people would be deterred from travelling and taking part in the AGM and associated events while fears about the virus persisted.

The IBMT constitution states that the AGM ‘shall be held in the month of October of each year or as near as practicable’.

The Executive Committee decided that a meeting this October would not be practicable, not least because it would likely be ‘inquorate’ – in other words with not enough members present to be able to take decisions. The IBMT’s constitution requires a quorum of one twenty-fifth of the membership – roughly 40 people.

As a consequence of the Executive Committee’s decision, elections for Executive Committee members have also been postponed, and the four members who were due to step down in October – Alex Gordon, Jonathan Havard, John Haywood and Tosh McDonald – will remain in office until the rescheduled AGM.

Meanwhile, the No Pasarán Raffle draw, which would have been part of the AGM’s weekend of events in Southampton, will still proceed on 10 October, but at a time and venue to be announced. The names of winners will be posted on the IBMT website.

Published on 28 August 2020.